Why do Leaves Change Colors?

It was a busy Monday!  This morning I read the book Over in the Forest: Come and Take a Peek and we learned about different animals that we might find in a forest.  We learned that "kit" is the name for many baby animals such as beavers, squirrels, and raccoons.  In Math we worked on making different combinations of 3 and at stations to count and identify numbers 1-12.

This afternoon I read the book Why Do Leaves Change Colors? and we talked about how as the days get colder and have less sunlight trees need to start prepare to rest during the winter.  With less light the leaves will lose their green color (chlorophyll) and we start to see the colors that are "hiding" inside the leaves like red, orange and gold.  When it gets colder the leaves eventually fall off except for evergreens like pine trees.