Autumn

Why do leaves change colour in Autumn?

Plants make their own food.  They take water from the ground through their roots.  They take a gas called carbon dioxide from the air.  They turn water and carbon dioxide into food and oxygen.  
Plants use sunlight to make their food, this gives leaves a green colour.  

Some leaves turn red, brown and yellow.  

Do you think that green leaves could have all these colours inside the leaf?  

We did an experiment to find out?

 Step 1:
Collect 2 different green leaves and 2 different leaves that have started to change colour.

 Step 2:
Chop them up into small piece and put them in separate small jars.  Cover them with Isopropyl liquid and put a lid on.  (You must get and adult to help you with the Isopropyl liquid)

 Step 3:
Place the jars in a shallow tray containing 3 cm of hot water. Leave for 30 minutes.

Step 4:

Remove jars from water and uncover.  Place a strip of filter paper into each jar so that one end is in the liquid.  Leave for 1 hour.

What colours do you think will be on the filter paper?

Try our experiment and send us a comment 

telling us what you found!