Portland, Maine – Nothing like combining reading and writing with a great big adventure! The falling leaves give us a great opportunity to find lots of words in the woods. Here’s what we are using to capture them!
A DECOMPOSITION BOOK – I’m so glad we stumbled upon this decomposition book. It’s the perfect field journal for C to write down his observations and some of the new woodsy words we discover.
IN OUR BACKPACK, We also have a Tree Fandex. It’s the world’s coolest tree identification guide.
But the best part is, the sturdy pages are leaf-shaped for easy matching.
As soon as I pulled the guide out, the boys immediately started matching leaves on the ground to the leaves in the guide. I found this at an online Montessori store. You are going to love it.
We brought some of our adventure back home! Using the boys’ beautiful fall leaf collection along with a piece of birch bark, we matched the leafs to the correct label. Then we laminated them. If you don’t have a lamination machine (at lot less expensive then I ever imagined), you can press them between wax paper. Then, simply staple them into your journal.
No more leaves on your trees? Try this craft using crayons to recreate them.
TwoTeachingMommies offers free leaf themed printable activities. This pack includes an activity which teaches preschoolers the different parts of leaves.
We found another fun freebie at TeachersPayTeachers (I could go on and on about that website.)
It’s a sentence scramble. Perfect for preschoolers who are trying their hand at writing and recognizing sight words. The fall theme includes scarecrows, pumpkins, leaves, etc.
TeachersPayTeachers is full of creative resources developed by educators. And no one is paying me to say that.
Back in the woods, all of that leaf identification and running around can make you hungry. So while siting and eating our snack, we had a little story time. It was tremendous fun to bring our stories into the woods. It has a way of connecting the story to the environment around us. Two of our favorite fall books are Ol’ Mama Squirrel by David Ezra Stein and A Camping Spree With Mr. Magee by Chris Van Dusen.
Wherever your fall exploration takes you, Enjoy!
Anna
Toddler Take-Aways
- Good ol’ fashioned exercise
- Fine motor skills
- Gross motor skills
- Problem Solving
- Science and Nature Fun
- Vocabulary building
Love, Love, Love this! perfect combo of hands on learning and fun! Thanks!