Fall is Here! September 19-23

HAPPY FALL!

We had great fun playing in fall leaves. Our sensory tub was filled with the colors of fall- red, yellow, orange and green, just like in the book, Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert.

There were acorns and pinecones hidden amongst the leaves. We had rakes just our size to practice raking them up.  

Another sensory tub was filled with seeds for us to scoop, measure, pour and of course, spill...

Glittery leaves with sticky backs were used to fill up some bare trees with bursts of fall colors.  

Painting our hands in fall colors and printing them on tree trunks made beautiful autumn trees.

We used child-sized rakes to take turns raking up leaves that had "blown" to the ground.
As we picked raked them up we sang to the tune of London Bridges:
Autumn leaves are falling down, falling down, falling down.
Autumn leaves are falling down.
To the ground.
Use a rake to pick them up,
Pick them up, pick them up.
Use a rake to pick them up,
From the ground.

Just like in the book, The Biggest Leaf Pile by Steve Metzger,

 we jumped into our pile of leaves and they went flying everywhere!

Yellow and orange mixtures of scented playdough were used for pressing leaves. Beautiful imprints of leaves were left in the dough.

We collected leaves from outside and painted them with fall colors- red, yellow, orange and brown and used a paint brayer to print them on paper for a beautiful display of fall colors.

What beautiful displays of color!

We pretended to be fall leaves whirling and swirling and then drifting to the ground. We used scarves to help us with our dramatization to music.

Nuts to You! by Lois Ehlert became one of our favorite books this week. It's about a sneaky squirrel who digs in window pots, steals seeds from the birds, and begs for a treat at an apartment window. Through a tear in the screen, the rascal sneaks inside for a look around. The narrator leaves a trail of peanuts and the words,  "nuts to you" to lure it out of the house.

We used our counting skills to feed the squirrels. Each squirrel was labeled with a number. We had to count out the matching number of peanuts to feed each squirrel.

We read The Chipmunk Song by Joanne Ryder and Frederick by Leo Leonni. The little creatures in these books (well, all but Frederick- he was busy collecting other things) scampered about in the fall leaves, collecting food and getting ready for winter.

 We collected peanuts outside and put them in a bag (because we don't have little pouches in our cheeks!), just as squirrels and chipmunks collect food like berries and nuts in the fall and put it in their burrows or nests, to get ready for the long winter ahead. As we searched we sang, "Found a Peanut".

Found a peanut,

Found a peanut,

Found a peanut, just now.

Just now I found a peanut,

Found a peanut, just now.

We shelled the peanuts to make our own peanut butter.
We sang,
Cracked it open,
Cracked it open,
Cracked it open, just now.
Just now, I cracked it open,
Cracked it open, just now!

We put the peanuts in a blender. Surprisingly enough, we had enough peanuts- there were some peanut snatchers among us!



Caught in the act!

Next, we added some canola oil and blended the mixture until it was of peanut butter consistency. We sang, "Peanut, Peanut Butter, Jelly."
Peanut, peanut butter, jelly
Peanut, peanut butter, jelly

First you take the peanuts and you crunch 'em, you crunch 'em.

First you take the peanuts and you crunch 'em, you crunch 'em.

For your,

Peanut, peanut butter, jelly

Peanut, peanut butter, jelly

Then you take the grapes and you squish 'em, you squish 'em...

Then you take the grapes and you squish 'em, you squish 'em...

For your,

Peanut, peanut butter, jelly

Peanut, peanut butter, jelly

Then you take the bread and you spread it, you spread it...

For your,

Peanut, peanut butter, jelly

Peanut, peanut butter, jelly

Then you take the sandwich and you eat it, you eat it..

For you,

Peanut, peanut butter, jelly

Peanut, peanut butter, jelly.

We spread our peanut butter on bread; some of us added jelly. YUM!

After about our third peanut hunt, we left some of our peanuts on the front porch while we went inside to play. It wasn't long before a sneaky squirrel crept up on the porch to steal some of our peanuts.

When he saw us watching him, he scurried up into the tree. We retaliated with a resounding,

"NUTS TO YOU!" 





Here's the culprit!

Fall is definitely in the air!