FALL!
apples, leaves & pumpkins
APPLES!
Virtual Field Trip to the Apple Orchard
Or, see if one of these local orchards is open for visitors!
Apple Taste Test
You can use this coloring sheet to track which apples you taste and how you like them.
Apple Tasting Visual.pdfMake Apple Prints
Have fun learning about and making art with apples!
A Book List for Reading at Home
Let it Fall by Maryann Cocca-Leffler
Leaf Man by Lois Elhert
Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Elhert
Leaf Jumpers by Carole Gerber
The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall
Fall Leaves Fall by Zoe Hall
Ten Red Apples by Pat Hutchins
Thanks for Thanksgiving by Julie Markes
When the Leaf Blew In by Steve Metzger
Fall Leaves: Colorful and Crunchy by Martha E. H. Rustad
Mouse’s First Fall by Laura Thompson
How Do Apples Grow?
A Song about Apple Picking
A Song about Eating Apples
Way Up High in the Apple Tree - A classic fingerplay!
LEAVES
Fall Nature Walk Treasure Hunt
Spend some time going on a nature walk with your child. This doesn't have to be far -- I went on a walk in my own backyard. When you're out and about, spend some time examining your surroundings. Follow your child's lead, and talk about their interests. Describing what you see is a great language-rich activity. Here are some ideas for language to use:
Color, shape, and size
Same and different
Locations (prepositions): on, under, above, behind, next to, between, around, in
Quantities (amounts): some, none, all, one, one more, more
What you can see: clean/dirty, dark/bright, shiny, colorful, beautiful, round, pointy
What you can hear: loud/quiet, buzzing, chirping, knocking
What you can feel: warm/cold, soft/hard, fuzzy, smooth, rough, bumpy, flat
Make a leaf rubbing
Put the leaf under a piece of paper use a crayon to color over it. The outline of the leaf and the veins in the leaf will show up on your paper.
10 IDEAS TO GET YOU AND YOUR CHILD EXPLORING OUTDOORS
By Donna J. Satterlee, EdD
From the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
https://www.naeyc.org/our-work/families/ideas-exploring-outdoors
1. Go for a nature scavenger hunt.
Find something that:
Is a certain color
Is dry, wet, shiny, or pretty
Is tiny or huge
The wind blows
Crawls
Has no legs, four legs, or six legs
Or make up your own ideas!
2. Put a twist on your scavenger hunt:
Find three flowers that are different. Smell the flowers. Close your eyes and see if you can identify the flowers by smell.
Find a fuzzy leaf. Find a leaf that releases an aroma when crushed, such as sage.
Try finding things in categories, such as items with bark, items that are high, or items with branches.
3. Observe and sketch.
Examine items carefully and draw what you see. For example, find flowers of different colors and point out the petals and other parts. Or find a variety of leaves and observe the different shapes, colors, textures, and veins. You and your child can imagine you are scientists, observing and documenting what you see.
4. Follow an ant trail.
Look up and look down, look all around, and feel free to crawl on the ground. Place a small piece of food nearby and watch what happens.
5. Observe a tree throughout the seasons.
Watch for leaf and flower buds bursting in the spring, insects buzzing in the summer, and leaves changing colors in the fall. During all seasons, watch for visitors to the tree—birds and small animals looking for food or a resting place.
6. Find nature in surprising places.
Look for places to explore near where you live. Nature can hide in the cracks of a sidewalk, under the stairs, in abandoned lots, or on the edges of manicured lawns. Don’t worry if you don’t live near an open field, a forest, a desert, or a seashore.
7. Press flowers and leaves.
Find flowers and let them dry, pressed between the pages of a heavy book. Once they are dry, use them to make crafts. For example, put clear contact paper over the flowers to make a placemat. In the fall, try the same activity with leaves. Find orange, yellow, purple, red, or brown leaves. Find a dry leaf and crunch it!
8. Explore holes and mud.
In an out-of-the-way corner, dig a hole and pour water in it to see what happens. Ask your child where she thinks the water goes. Play with the mud, squish it between your toes, and jump over or in the hole. When you are done, fill the hole with dirt again, and check it later to see what’s growing there.
9. Explore seeds.
Find some weeds! How are their seeds dispersed? Do the seeds cling to your clothes, are they carried by the wind, or are they flung when the seedpods are touched? Ask your child what he discovered during this investigation.
10. Collect conservatively.
Discuss collecting with your child. If the ground is carpeted with acorns or flowers, it’s probably okay to take one unless it’s on a refuge where collecting is prohibited. Examine something for a few hours and then let it go again. Keep fireflies in a jar and release them the next morning. Transfer fish, turtles, or frogs to an aquarium for a night. Some fish will survive in an aquarium if you transfer them with the same water from where you found them.
Songs and Fingerplays
Autumn Leaves are Falling Down
Orange, Yellow, Red and Brown
Leaves on the Trees
Counting & Color Leaf Song
Pumpkins
Decorating a Pumpkin
Carving a pumpkin is an October tradition, but, as most families with young children know, it is a tradition in which parents mostly do and kids mostly watch. Here are some simple ideas on how to get your kids actively involved in the process.
Have your child draw shapes on the pumpkin for you to cut out
Encourage your child to help scoop out the insides
Instead of carving a pumpkin, have your child:
Paint a pumpkin
Use tacky glue to glue things onto a pumpkin
Cover a pumpkin with glitter
Draw on a pumpkin with markers
Hammer pegs into a pumpkin
Sensory Issues with Pumpkins
Is your child resistant to touching the insides of the pumpkin? That’s okay! Here are some ideas to help:
Give your child a spoon to use instead of her hands
Let your child wear gloves
Put some of the insides on a tray for your child to explore; let her poke it with a spoon
Have a damp washcloth nearby so your child can wipe her hands off
Model enjoyment
Don’t push it – some kids just need to watch more before they are ready to try
Roasting Pumpkin Seeds
If you carve a pumpkin, or if you eat any kind of winter squash, you can save and roast the seeds. This can be a fun and simple recipe to do with your child.
Remember to talk to them about safety in the kitchen! The oven is HOT, so you might talk about rules like wearing oven mitts, or only grown-ups are allowed to touch the oven.
You can talk about what you see (colors, shapes), hear (any popping seeds as they roast?), smell (toasty and yummy!), taste (salt? paprika? curry powder? try a few different flavors and do a taste test!), and touch (slimy and wet before they go in, dry and hot when they come out).
Have fun!
Body Boogie
Get up and dance! Have fun moving your body!
Five Little Pumpkins
Enjoy this song, which touches on counting, actions, and emotions.
Pumpkin books
Do you have a library card? You can go online to reserve books. Easily search by key word to find fall books about pumpkins, autumn, Halloween, etc. Then pick them up near the entry of the library.
Librarians can also help you find books about specific topics, don't be afraid to ask!
Pumpkin Seed Activities
After you scoop out the insides of the pumpkin, save your seeds for roasting – we’ve shared a recipe below – or use your seeds for counting and sorting!
Count: Preschoolers are expected to count small amounts; three year olds should count 1 – 4 objects while four year olds should count 5 – 10 objects. Some children are not counting this many objects and that’s okay. Start where your child is at, help her be successful, and slowly move up as she demonstrates proficiency.
Match the dots: Gather some bowls or muffin tins and paper. On the paper, draw dots representing amounts (3 dots for three, etc.) and/or numerals. Put those papers in the bowls. Have your child place the correct number of seeds in each bowl. See the link for an example and cute pumpkin template: https://www.preschool-play.com/pumpkin-seed-counting-activity/
Make a simple counting book of pumpkin seeds! Cut paper into halves or fourths for the book. An adult can title each page (“1 pumpkin seed”, “2 pumpkin seeds”, “3 pumpkin seeds”, etc.) and have their child glue on the correct amount of seeds. If your child struggles with one-to-one correspondence, make a little x for the child to glue on the seeds correctly. Staple the pages when the glue has dried and read your book together! For a pre-made book, go to this URL: http://www.earlylearningactivities.com/PDF/pscb.pdf Remember, there is no need to do all the pages.
Play a family game with pumpkin seeds and dice! Set a timer for five minutes. Have a pile of pumpkin seeds in the middle. Each person can take a turn rolling the dice and selecting the corresponding amount of seeds. Whoever has the biggest pile of seeds at the end of the five minutes wins!
Give your child a pile of seeds and let her count to her heart’s content.
Fill a bowl with seeds, have an empty bowl beside, and give your child a small scoop, such as a ¼ measuring cup. Count how many scoops it takes to fill the empty bowl.
Have fun! If your child is tiring of the activity, do one more step and then end on a successful note. If your child counts incorrectly, provide gentle support to help her be successful.
Remember to build in wait time for your child to respond. If you give an instruction, count silently in your head for five to ten seconds before prompting your child. This will allow your child time to process and think while avoiding over-prompting or feelings of inadequacy.
Go on a Five Senses Scavenger Hunt
Try going on a scavenger hunt around your house or outside, looking for things that you can experience with all five senses. The kitchen is a great place to do this, as it has many things your child can safely taste!
Talk about how we use our eyes to see. We can see something’s shape, color, and size. We can also see where it comes from. Challenge your child to tell you what they can see. Emphasize how you’re using your eyes to look at an item.
Next, talk about how we use our ears to hear. Make sure to point to your ears and have your child touch their own ears. You can do experiments with covering ears and trying to listen for a noise. If you’re comparing toys, for instance, this would be a good opportunity to compare and contrast what you hear from each toy. You can also talk about what you like to hear, such as a favorite song or a sound from nature, or things you don’t like to hear. Talk about loud and quiet.
We use our nose to smell. You can have your child smell some fragrant items to understand the difference in smells. You can try things like spices, plants, or other things you have at home (vanilla extract comes to mind). Some things don’t smell like much. Some people like certain smells, while others don’t. Things smell different to different people!
Talk about using our fingers to touch or feel an item. This is where you can talk about textures and whether things feel smooth, rough, bumpy, soft, fuzzy, etc. Have your child feel something with their fingertips, then with another part of their body – toes, arm, etc. – to see the difference. Our fingers are very sensitive and good at touching, but our arms aren’t as sensitive.
Finally, we use our tongue to taste. Make sure you’re only using non-toxic items for this part. You can talk about things that taste salty, sweet, bitter, or sour. Ask your child what they like to taste and why.