leaf mouth breath branch shell
open dress blanket wrapped wear
close breeze brought Jack Frost
i
1. I am a leaf. My home is in a great tree. All winter I was wrapped close and warm in a blanket. I was in a little brown cradle rocked by the breeze.
2. Would you like to see a leaf cradle? Next autumn break off a branch of a tree, and see if you cannot find a leaf bud.
3. Break it open and you will see in it some soft white down. That is the blanket. The little leaf is wrapped warn and close in it. The brown shell that you break is the cradle.
Leaf buds
4. I was rocked all winter in my cradle on the bough. Then spring came with its warm sunshine and soft rains.
5. I threw off my blanket, got up out of my cradle, and put on my pretty green dress. I was no longer a baby leaf.
A leaf bud cut open
ii
6. Then I wanted food. How do you think I got it?
7. The roots of the tree found some for me. The stems and branches and boughs brought it up to me. Some of my food I get for myself from the air.
Breathing pores of a leaf
8. I have many mouths. They are so little that you cannot see them. But I could not do without them. Could you do without your one big mouth?
9. I take in food through my little mouths, and I breathe through them, too. Like you, I must breathe as well as eat if I am to live and grow.
10. I had on my pretty green dress all summer. Now it is autumn, and Jack Frost has dressed me in other colors. I shall not wear these colors very long.
A horse chestnut leaf
11. I must go down to the ground and put on my brown winter dress. My work up here will be ended, but I shall have work to do down there.
12. Did you think that all I had to do was to dance in the wind and play in the sunshine? I work all the year round. See if you can find out some of the work that I do.
Copy these sentences and fill in the missing words:
In the leaf is in the little leaf cradle.
In the warm sunshine and rain make the leaf grow.
In the leaf wears a green dress.
In the leaf is dressed in yellow.
Use these words in sentences:
leaf blanket dress mouth
bring
think
buy
bringing brought
thinking thought
buying bought