MINDANAO MISSION ACADEMY

The School that Offers Something Better

VIRTUAL CAMPUS
BEYOND THE CLASSROOM

FALLING LEAVES
ACTION SCRIPT
VIDEO (Take a video of the host catching some falling leaves of mahogany or talisay leaves)

Have you wonder why leaves are falling? Why do leaves change color before they fall? Why do trees shed
leaves during Autumn Season?

Let’s find out (here, you can play with the falling leaves, throw it up in the air and chase them?

A leaf’s job is to turn sunlight into food for the tree. To do this, the leaf needs water. If there isn’t
enough water, the leaf can be damaged and stop working. The tree doesn’t want to waste all the
good things in the leaf, so it takes the nutrients from the leaf back into the stems and roots. This
way, they can be recycled. When the leaf is empty, the tree stops holding onto it and it falls to the
ground, or blows away in a gust of wind.
VIDEO Simply, trees actively shed their leaves because there’s no use for them anymore. Doing this also
ensures the tree’s long-term survival. If it didn’t do it every year, the water in the cells of the
leaves would freeze, and this would rupture them, as water expands as it turns to ice.

(You can pick up some dried leaves and twigs after talking)
When the tree is leafless, it can’t make food. But it doesn’t get hungry. Instead, it rests. Just like a bear goes
into hibernation and snoozes all through winter, trees have a long sleep until the water in the pipes starts
moving again. This can be in spring, or when it starts to rain again. Then, they wake up and put out new
leaves, so they can start making food again.
VIDEO Every autumn we marvel in the beauty of the fall colors. The mixture of red, purple, orange and yellow is
the result of chemical processes that take place in the tree as the seasons change from summer to winter.  

Because of changes in the length of daylight and changes in temperature, the leaves stop their food-making
process. The chlorophyll breaks down, the green color disappears, and the yellow to orange colors become
visible and give the leaves part of their fall splendor. As the fall colors appear, other changes are taking
place. At the point where the stem of the leaf is attached to the tree, a special layer of cells develops and
gradually severs the tissues that support the leaf. At the same time, the tree seals the cut, so that when the
leaf is finally blown off by the wind or falls from its own weight, it leaves behind a leaf scar.

VIDEO As they witnessed in drooping flower and falling leaf the first signs of decay, Adam and his
companion mourned more deeply than men now mourn over their dead. The death of the frail,
delicate flowers was indeed a cause of sorrow; but when the goodly trees cast off their leaves, the
scene brought vividly to mind the stern fact that death is the portion of every living thing
(Patriarch & Prophets, Chapter 3).
May these falling leaves remind us of our fallen nature. That all of us were once a fallen but are
redeemed by Jesus Christ to bloom once again bearing much fruit in the spring of life.

This is Timmy Jane Talose Abejo, encouraging you to learn beyond the classroom.