Leaves are the big interest in our house right now because we are at the height of leaves falling to the ground. The girls are fascinated by all the colors and finding "perfect" leaves.
We go for leaf walks to look for leaves, identify colors and see which ones are still hanging on to the trees.
I love making connections between our outdoor play and indoor activities. So as we are in love with leaves outside we are also reading about leaves inside!
Here are two Lois Eblert books that we are really enjoying right now. The information is fun and simple and Sam loves to try and find leaves the same colors and shapes as in these books when we are outside on our leaf walk.
But one of my favorite leaf walk books is Leaves, Leaves, Leaves by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace.
A mom and her son go on a leaf walk each season and talk about what the leaves are doing. The information is great and the story is very cute. I like to talk to Sam about the differences that you can see in the story between the seasons, and not just the differences in the trees/leaves but also throughout the rest of the pictures too.
Combining books and outdoor play really helps to enhance the learning that happens when we are playing outside!
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The Nitty Gritty!
There are lots of ways to expand on a leaf walk with children. Collecting a few leaves while you are on your walk could be used for crafts or up close examination.
We have made simple leaf presses before that help to preserve the leaves color and ability to be used for crafting and projects later on.
You can search on this blog or even just on Google for TONS of crafting ideas that involve leaves; I don't have the energy tonight to do the searching for you...sorry!
But for teachers I really think a whole week could be spent in the early years learning all about leaves, trees and the changing of the seasons. Using books, crafts and hands-on activities both indoors and outdoors could fill the week with learning and play!
It gives Awesome look.Specially i like the Red and Yellow coloured combination of leaf.It looks very attractive.Nice sharing.
Posted by: kitchen doors scotland | 10/11/2011 at 02:23 AM