Leafie, the Leaf Pixie
This is a story I wrote to bring alive leaves (and the idea of photosynthesis) for my Grade One for the Nature Block. We also did a leaf art activity with the children so they could engage more deeply with the world of leaves.
This is a story of a place deep inside a dense forest — shrubs and bushes growing everywhere, creeping plants climbing up trees, grasses and weeds wildly. Nobody came so far into the forest. So, the fairies and gnomes were able to do their work peacefully without any grownups coming their way. You see, if a grownup happens to see a fairy, they will turn away, and say — `Bah! Fairies are not real! Gnomes and pixies don’t exist!’ And, the fairies and gnomes would become sombre and sad. They would not be able to do their work well, making their magic very weak.
And so, in this particular corner of the forest, the fairies and gnomes could do their work very well. Their magic powers worked very well, and they were always busy at work in the forest. Flower fairies caring for the flowers, gnomes digging and nourishing the mud and earth, dwarves who lived in trees making sure they grew well. And of course, all these wonderful, magical creatures were also helped by Mother Earth, Father Sun, Sister Rain and Brother Wind.
Today, we are going to look at one very hard-working little pixie, the Leaf Pixie. He had a lot of work to do with the leaves — there are so many of them, aren’t there? So many leaves on every tree and every plant — even on weeds and creepers — that he and his other Leaf pixie friends were kept very busy indeed!
Each plant and tree had such different leaves too, and each leaf needed different care. There were long slippery leaves with a smooth surface that raindrops would slide off, like a big, giant raindrop slide; there were large furry ones that dew drops could get caught in. There were long prickly ones, there were large flimsy ones, tiny little ones, long ones, ones with grooves that tickled and touched, so, so many kinds of leaves.
It was the job of the countless leaf pixies to keep the leaves green, and they worked along with Father Sun to do this. Father Sun would shine his bright rays on all the leaves on the trees and plants, and as soon as they did so, the leaf pixies would get to work. But, how did they work? How could they make the leaves green only with the light of the sun?
We all know that the rays of the sun are quite magical. Inside the light, there are hidden all the colours we can imagine — red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet and all the colours in between. So of course, there is the green colour in the sunlight, and the leaf pixies, when they see the sunlight, they can pick out the green colour very well and gather it for the leaves. And, for this, they need a wondrous magic dust as well, which they carefully sprinkle on each leaf.
With the magic dust that the leaf pixies were sprinkling, the leaves were able to help the tree grow taller. The leaves were like the little fingers of the plants and trees — so many fingers! — that reached up towards the sky, higher and higher, reaching for the shining sun. So, if a tree was tall, the leaf pixies had to climb very high indeed to reach the topmost leaves.
So, you can imagine the leaf pixies were a very busy lot, and during summer they had a lot of work to do. Among these leaf pixies, there was one particular pixie who was new — Leafie. He had just started doing this work, and he wanted very much to do it well, but he was also quite nervous about it. He knew that it was in summer time that they had to work the hardest, because Father Sun shone the strongest and brightest.
Leafie was sure he would be up before the sun rose, so he didn’t miss a moment of sunlight to capture the green for the leaves. He was the first to arrive, so by the time the others arrived, our little Leafie had dozed off. The poor dear. He had woken up so early because he wanted to do his very best.
His friends came and nudged him awake. “C’mon, it’s time to go!” And, Leafie quickly got up, tramping along with the rest of the leaf pixies. They all got to work, singing along as they did.
The first thing that Leafie had to learn to do was to make little lines on every leaf. All leaves have lines — some lines are bigger than others, and some go deeper into the leaves, but all leaves have lines. The Pixies got busy making these lines, and as they did so, they also dropped some magic dust in the leaves, so that Father Sun’s rays could go deeper in, making the leaves green.
Little Leafie started his work on the branches closest to the ground. He was still so very little, so he wasn’t sure of climbing so high up on a tree. And, he wanted to do his work very well, so his friends showed him the work, and stayed close by him in case he needed any help. He was always careful to ask a friend if he was not able to make the lines properly, or if the dust wouldn’t sprinkle evenly across the leaf. He knew how important his work was, and he wanted to do it well. And do it well, he did!
The trees were so happy to have such an earnest and good leaf pixie on their branches. They always made sure he was well shaded while working through the long summer days. They would part their branches and allow a cool breeze to blow through, when he was taking a break from work. And, there were always little seeds and fruits that they offered little Leafie.
All the birds who lived in the trees were also delighted to have the leaf pixies working so hard on the trees, their lilting song intermingling with the happy chirping.
One day, as Leafie was working, he noticed something odd. One of the leaves he was working on was starting to turn yellow.
Oh! How did that happen? Was there something wrong with his magic dust? Were the sun-rays not reaching that little leaf?
He was worried indeed, and he didn’t want to tell any of his friends. What if they scolded him for what he had done wrong? He would get some extra special dust the next day and make sure the leaf becomes green again. But, try as he would, he was not able to make the leaf green again. What was he doing wrong?! He was so worried. As he looked around the tree, he saw that there were more leaves on the trees starting to turn a different colour. Some were red, some were yellow, some were brown. He could see fewer and fewer green leaves. Leafie was very sad and very worried. He had finally been given a tree to work on all by himself, and now the leaves of this tree were not green anymore. He had failed at the work he was supposed to. Poor Leafie! He started sobbing.
Just as he was crying, another little leaf pixie, Fernie, was scurrying by. He stopped when he heard the sobbing sound and looked around. Where was this sound coming from? Who was crying? Little Leafie was huddled into the branch of the tree, hoping nobody would notice his tree with its yellow and brown leaves!
Fernie knew that the sound was coming from this tree. He knew this was the tree Leafie was working on, and started calling out to Leafie way up in the branches above him.
“Leafie! Leafie! Are you up there?”
Leafie was too scared to come out. He had done something terribly wrong. He tried to stop crying so he wouldn’t make any sound. But, Fernie could still hear him sniffling.
“Oh, c’mon Leafie! I can hear you up there. What’s the matter? Why are you crying?”
Finally, Leafie called out to the pixie down below.
“Oh, I’ve done something terrible! I can’t imagine what went wrong, and why this has happened. I did exactly what all of you taught me to do, but there’s been some terrible mistake. And, I don’t even know what mistake it is, so I can’t even fix it!” And, he started sobbing all over again.
“Oh, dear. Come down, Leafie. Tell me what happened.”
And Leafie told Fernie about how the leaves on his tree were going yellow and brown and red, and try as he might, they didn’t stay green anymore.
Fernie smiled. What a good little, sincere leaf pixie Leafie was!
“Dear, dear Leafie. It’s your first time being a leaf pixie, isn’t it? I suppose you didn’t know that our hardest work is through the summer. And, summer is almost over, so our work is done, Leafie”
“But.. how can my work be done if the leaves are not green anymore! I have failed miserably, Fernie. Oh, please don’t tell anyone!”
“That’s just it, Leafie! You’ve done wonderful work through the summer, and now it’s time for the leaves to make food with all the sunshine and magic dust you had sprinkled. And, of course, the leaves need a fire to cook, and so they turn yellow and red and brown, till finally they fall to the ground, once they have made food for the tree.”
Leafie looked at Fernie with his big brown eyes, blinking away his tears.
“Really?! So, I haven’t done anything wrong?”
“Dear, dear Leafie. Look around you. Don’t you see that all the leaves in the forest have started to turn red and yellow and brown? It’s time for all of us to rest now.”
For the first time, Leafie looked around at the other trees in the forest and saw how all the leaves on the other trees as well were turning red and yellow and brown. He smiled.
Fernie hugged him tight, and then held his hand.
“Come on, Leafie. Let’s go where all the other leaf pixies are celebrating. It’s the end of summer, and now we can rest for some time.”
And, so Leafie and Fernie skipped away into the forest to meet the other pixies. They would spend the evening singing songs and sharing stories after the long summer when they had worked so hard.
Here’s an activity we did with the children after the story.
Here is a Youtube link of the story narration (not exactly as written here): https://youtu.be/N36bxfSSchk
