Here's a little glimpse into this past week...
Unit Theme Memory Verse:
Ecclesiastes 3:11 - He has made everything beautiful.
Leaves/Autumn books we read:
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| Autumn Leaves by Ken Robbins, Why Do Leaves Change Colors by Betsy Maestro, The Scarecrow and the Spider by Todd Smith, Animals in Fall by Martha Rustad, Autumblings by Douglas Florian, God's Oak Tree by Allia Zobel Nolan, Leaf Man by Lois Elhart, Clifford's 1st Autumn by Norman Bridwell, It's Fall by Jimmy Pickering |
Fall Songs/Fingerplays:
The Leaves
(Sung to: "The Wheels on the Bus")
(Sung to: "The Wheels on the Bus")
The leaves on the trees turn Orange and Red
Orange and Red, Orange and Red,
The leaves on the trees turn Orange and Red
All around the town.
The leaves on the trees turn Orange and Red
All around the town.
The leaves on the tree come tumbling down,
tumbling down, tumbling down,
The leaves on the trees come tumbling down,
All around the town.
The leaves on the trees come tumbling down,
All around the town.
The leaves on the trees go "swish, swish, swish,"
"swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish,"
The leaves of the trees go "swish, swish, swish"
All around the town.
The leaves of the trees go "swish, swish, swish"
All around the town.
We'll rake them in a pile and jump right in!
Jump right in, Jump right in!
We'll rake them in a pile and jump right in!
All around the town!
It is Autumn
(Sung to tune of "London Bridge")
(Sung to tune of "London Bridge")
All the leaves are falling down,
Falling down, falling down.
Falling, falling to the ground
It is Autumn!
As they fall they twirl around,
Twirl around, twirl around.
Twirling, swirling to the ground.
It is Autumn!
Lots of colors touch the ground,
Touch the ground, touch the ground,
Red and yellow, orange and brown.
It is Autumn!
Craft: Tissue/Contact Paper Leaves:
I actually had supplies for this craft leftover from our playgroup's Fall Frenzy 2 years ago, all in a Ziplock and ready to go....love when that happens!
How Leaves Change Color:
We used this book as our resource for the science behind color changes in leaves:
We talked about why leaves change from green to other colors during the Fall season, and the kids colored these simple leaves as a visual to go with that process.
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| Caleb's included text that reviewed (VERY simply) the color-changing process that we learned about. |
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| Meredith's just had color words. =) |
Writing: Introducing Similes:
Art: Q-Tip Painting:
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| Shane kept saying "dot, dot, dot, dot!" as he painted. |
Back to Homeschool Creations for some more printables. She has great Fall-themed printable packs (for preschool and for kinder). I just printed off a few pages to use.
Picture/Word Matching:
I cut her vocabulary cards in half, so that the word was on one piece and the picture on the other. I cut them in a puzzle-like manner, so that they physically match up when the right words/pictures are chosen.
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| I realize that Caleb and Meredith are quite blurry in this, but I just loved that Shane's head ended up in this picture. =) |
After they matched up the words with the correct pictures, they practiced some handwriting by writing out the words. Meredith traced dotted letters that were already on her page, and Caleb had to look to the words in the pocket chart for help with spelling (both templates are from the Homeschool Creations Fall pack).
We cut out their word strips to make little books for each of them.
Leaf Identification:
This book has nice (real-life) pictures of various leaves, tells the type of leaf that each one is, and then offers a couple brief facts about the leaves/their trees. It's a really great (and not overwhelming) option for a non-fiction text about leaves.
After we read it together, Caleb used it as a resource to label each leaf on his paper. We also talked about what "doing research" is, and how we can often use books to find helpful information.
While Caleb worked on his leaf identification, Meredith colored-by-number. The girl loves to color.
Craft: Falling Leaves
One day, the Lewis girls came over and the kiddos made these (link to Busy Bee Kids' Crafts)...they turned out really cute! I wish the pictures could show the leaves "falling".
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| Meredith's |
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| Caleb's |
Love, love, love this book.
After reading it, the kids made their own leaf men.
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| Meredith's |
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| Caleb's |
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| My leaf man blos (blows) away. My leaf man has is (eyes). He has leafs (leaves). |
Sensory Bin: Counting & Graphing
The kids had to count the different items in our Fall sensory bin (apples, leaves, acorns, pinecones and gourds). Caleb recorded the number for each group.
After all of the items were counted & recorded, the kids colored in graphs to show the numbers.
Acorn Craft:
We read this book...
...and did this craft:
Up next week is more fun and learning about Fall - we'll be taking a look at Fall crops, specifically pumpkins!
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| Shane loves the rice & beans bin! |
After all of the items were counted & recorded, the kids colored in graphs to show the numbers.
Acorn Craft:
We read this book...
...and did this craft:
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| Caleb's |
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| Meredith's |
