Fall is nature's time to get ready for winter. We talked about how trees and plants are getting ready for the weather to turn cold, just like in the book, Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert.
One of our sensory bins was filled with fall leaves, acorns and pine cones and a little squirrel.
At our math/manipulative table, there were trees with bare branches for us to fill with lots of colorful leaves.
We used child-sized rakes to take turns raking up leaves that had "blown" to the ground.
As we 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!
We're Going on a Leaf Hunt...
We read the book
and then went on a hunt through the neighborhood for leaves that fell from trees. We found a lot of them! Different shapes, sizes, textures and colors of leaves were added to a bag to take back to school for leaf printing and investigating. What gorgeous fall weather we had for our excursion.
When we got back to school, we used our "finds" to make nature collages.
We painted the backs of our leaves with chosen fall colors, placed them on our art paper, covered them with another piece of paper and then used a brayer to roll over the top in order to "print" our leaf onto our papers. They are simple, yet so beautiful.
To the tune, "Colors of the Wind", we used colorful scarves to dance and move like leaves blowing in the wind...
When the music was over, we gently fell to the ground.
Not only trees are getting ready for winter, but animals are getting ready too.
Nuts to You! by Lois Ehlert is one of our favorite books here at school. 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 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.
Cracked it open,
Cracked it open, just now.
Just now, I cracked it open,
Cracked it open, just now!
Fall is in the air!
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