Leaves!

Today, we continued our Fall themed activities with Leaves!

BOOKS WE READ
Leaves, Leaves, Leaves! by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace
Leaves by David Ezra Stein
Why Do Leaves Change Color? by Marian B. Jacobs, Ph.D.
It Could Still Be a Leaf by Allan Fowler
Autumn Story by Jill Barklem

Daddy Reading Autumn Story

MATCHING GAMES
Ella worked on a leaf color matching game.

Then, she worked on a leaf matching game. 

Did I ever mention how much she LOVES matching games?

COUNTING BY FIVES
A few days ago, we used paint swatches for a color matching game.  Today, I repurposed those paint swatches.  I dipped a leaf cookie cutter into black paint and stamped it on each of the swatches.  Once the paint was dry, I wrote the numbers (counting by fives) 5-60 on the swatches.  Arin then put these in order.  She is getting much better at counting by fives, but she still needs some help recognizing the larger numbers.

EVEN OR ODD

Next, Arin had her first introduction to even and odd numbers.  I printed out this file folder game.  First, Arin put all of the numbers in order.  Then, I explained to her the difference between even and odd.  Since all the numbers were all ready in order, it was very easy for her to take every other one and put it in its correct spot on the folder.

LEAF COLORING

Arin worked on a leaf coloring worksheet.

CONSONANT-VOWEL-CONSONANT WORDS
A couple of days ago, the girls played a paint swatch/clothespin color matching game. Today, I repurposed it by writing one CVC word on each color of the paint swatches.  I wrote the same words on each of the clothespins, but I did not write the same word on the same color of clothespin as paint swatch.  I know that Arin can match colors, but I wanted to make sure that she was actually reading the words.  We used words that had an "o" as the vowel.  The first time we played, I kept all of the clothespins and gave Arin the paint swatches.  She would read a word, then I would hand the correct clothespin to Ella (she loves to be included), who would then hand it to Arin and she would clip it to the swatch.  The second time, Arin played by herself (which is why I did not want the colors to match).

LEAF RUBBING
Arin had her first introduction to leaf rubbing today. We used the leaves that the girls collected on their nature walk.   Fresh leaves might have worked a little better.  When I did the first leaf rubbing, Arin's eyes lit up in amazement, like I had performed a magic trick!  She also took a turn at this activity.

PAINTING TREES
I painted Ella's arm and hand brown, which she pressed down on a piece of cardstock.  This was the trunk of her tree.  Then, I gave her red, orange, and yellow paint, which she pressed her thumb into and then onto her tree trunk.  The thumbprints represented leaves on her tree.

Arin did a bit of a different tree.  I still painted her arm and hand as the tree trunk, but then she glued real leaves (collected on our nature walk) on her tree.

COUNTDOWN TO THANKSGIVING
We love Thanksgiving.  We are especially looking forward to spending a lot of time with family this year.  My brother and Andrew's sister are married to each other, so this year most of both of our families will be together for Thanksgiving.  Arin is very anxious to spend the time with her cousins.  To help her understand how many more days until the party, we made leaf garland.  I pressed a leaf cookie cutter into craft foam sheets.  The cookie cutter dipped in paint and stamped onto cardstock would also work, but I prefered the foam.  Once I pressed the cookie cutter into the foam, an indention was made and I was able to cut out the leaf.  Arin chose the color order and Ella helped me lace them on the ribbon.  Each day, I ask Arin one thing that she is thankful for (and why) and then I write it on the leaf.  Once the leaves have all been written on, it'll be Thanksgiving.  So far, Arin has filled up four leaves.  The first she was thankful for "Aunt Candace because she does sweet things for me", the next "snuggling with mama", the next "My DS because I love winning Mario games" (she has her priorities!) the last so far, "Phones because I love talking on them and taking pictures with them".

FOOD
With dinner tonight, I surprised the girls with grilled cheese sandwiches cut with a cookie cutter into a leaf shape.  Arin thought this was great!

Click on the links below to see leaf activities that we have done in the past.

Leaf Collage

Leaf Cookies

Maple Leaf Cookies, Play-Doh Leaf Patterns, Play-Doh Leaf Necklace

Trees