Fussy Rainbow-Eaters

 

Leaves choose mostly orange-red

then bands of blue

to violet.

 

Using light to make a meal

of carbohydrate’s

sweet appeal

 

their chloroplasts feed on the Sun.

But only parts of

light’s spectrum.

 

Leaves don’t use all sunshine’s beams.

It seems they rarely

eat their greens!

 

First published in Double Helix (October 2015)

Reproduced with permission of CSIRO

www.doublehelix.csiro.au

 

 

 

Teacher Notes

Sunshine is made up of all the colours of the rainbow. It’s warming, illuminating, and essential for life.  And plants mostly reflect the colour they don’t absorb – GREEN!

Notes by Jeanie Axton

Below is a template for an Australian Eucalyptus leaf. Print and get the students, after brainstorming, to write a shape poem around the shape of the leaf. They could all be cut out and attached to a Eucalyptus Poem Tree.