Wonderwhy And Knowall--Fall Color

Wonderwhy’s school has started. She is in first grade now. Big change for her. She has adjusted very well in her new class, new teachers, new kids.
All her good friends are in different classes now, they get to meet during lunch time. Wonderwhy plays with them during recesses. She is still in the process of adjusting to change from kindergarten to first grade.
She responded to her wake up time change very well, during vacation she was waking up so late, but when her school started she woke up early and was able to catch her bus.
One more big change for her, Wonderwhy’s one of the tooth is getting loose, she is getting ready for her tooth loss.

Recently Wonderwhy had her b’day party on turning six years old. She enjoyed it with all relatives and friends.

Well kids you must be thinking Wonderwhy is wondering about what today?

One day during late September Wonderwhy was playing tag during recesses time with her friends in her school playground. She has a wonderful playground surrounded by trees. It was breezy weather with very nice temperature.

Recesses time was over and it was time to go to class again. Wonderwhy waved bye to her friends and on her way back to her class she saw so many colorful leaves on ground.

As it was breezy leaves from trees were all around. Wonderwhy noticed something unique about these leaves; they were not green in color. They had different colors mostly orange, red, and yellow. They were looking beautiful.

On the way to her class Wonderwhy was thinking, why these trees shed their leaves during this month of year and they continue till fall gets over and why are these leaves so colorful?

Now kids tell me what happened when a question popped into her mind? Right, fairy Knowall appeared.

“fairy friend I need to go to my class and I have to concentrate on what my teacher is teaching. I have to be very attentive. I am sorry I cannot give you time in my class” Wonderwhy said.

Fairy Knowall appreciated Wonderwhy for this and fairy Knowall said:”Wonderwhy I am very happy to know that you understands your responsibilities and you know what you should do where, I will not disturb you in your class, we will talk after you come back from school”.

Wonderwhy agreed on that and she gave full attention to her teacher in her class.

After coming back to school she finished her work fast as she had an appointment with fairy Knowall.
“jooooo….joommmm……juuuuu….joouukk….fairy Knowall is here with her answer”

“Welcome fairy Knowall, nice to see you. It was a wonderful and beautiful day today.” Wonderwhy greeted her fairy friend.

“Thank you Wonderwhy, nice to know that you had a wonderful day today” fairy friend said and she continued to tell Wonderwhy about fall leave color.

She started : “Wonderwhy do you know leaves are factories for trees, plants take water from ground through their roots and carbon –di oxide from air and by using sunlight they turn water and gas into glucose. Glucose is a kind of sugar. Plants use glucose as food for energy and as a building block for growing. This process of making food by leaves is know as photosynthesis. In this whole process a chemical called chlorophyll plays a very important part. This chemical helps photosynthesis to happen. Chlorophyll is what gives plants their green color.”

From September end i.e when summer ends and autumn comes, days are shorter, and trees comes to know that they have to get ready for winter.

As winter comes there is less water and sunlight, trees don’t get enough of them to run their factory properly, they begin to shut down their food-making factories. Trees will rest and they will use their food they have stored during summer.
The green chlorophyll disappears from the leaves. As the bright green fades away, we begin to see yellow and orange colors. Small amounts of these colors have been in the leaves all along. We just can't see them in the summer, because they are covered up by the green chlorophyll.

The bright reds and purples we see in leaves are made mostly in the fall. In some trees, like maples, glucose is trapped in the leaves after photosynthesis stops. Sunlight and the cool nights of autumn cause the leaves turn this glucose into a red color. The brown color of trees like oaks is made from wastes left in the leaves.
It is the combination of all these things that make the beautiful colors we enjoy in the fall. “

After answering Wonderwhy’s question fairy Knowall asked her. “Wonderwhy you understood well what I told you?”
Wonderwhy said:”Yes fairy friend I got my answer and I am very happy”.

Wonderwhy waved good-bye to fairy friend and went to bed to get up early next day as she has to get ready for school.