Inspired by the recent visit from our Mindfulness mentors, I tried an activity in which children took a moment to notice something we often take for granted, autumn leaves. First I collected several leaves of the same type, size and color. I spread them out on the carpet and let each child choose one that they thought was special. I had them examine the leaf closely and told them to notice as much about it as they could. We shared what we noted about our leaves, things like texture, symmetry and size. Next, we collected the leaves and then spread them out again. Amazingly, almost all the students could easily pick out the same leaf again! Talk about being observant!