5 Simple Leaf Activities at Afterschool Express

Confession... I adore Autumn! 

For years and years, I've had my Mom send me the Fall Leaves from Virginia when they start to change so that my children and students could experience it.  She was so sweet to even include Acorn, Walnuts, Pecans and Dried Corn into the package too.  We create sensory trays with the things that we receive from up North and compare it to the things we discover in the South.  Even though we live in the south I really want my children to know that there are seasons of change all over the world.  Plus as you saw last week we do have changes in the south, you just have to look for them and print out your Fall Journal & Observation Sheet to keep track. 

This week after school we had lots of fun with Leaves indoors and exploring outdoors.  I found a few packets of pretend leaves at the Dollar Tree and we discovered many activities to do with them.  Yes I know it would be much better to be able to play outdoors with the real ones, I'm totally jealous if that's your house like on Mamasmiles but with weather close to 90 degrees you don't find too many trees changing. So we came up with few fun things on our own to explore at home after school.   

Leaf Activities for After School Fun

 

• Create Fall Trays for Fall Sensory Exploration

Using leaves that you've collected or received in the mail explore the leaves.  Compare and Contrast.  We even have a few acorns there too.  We make a special Leaf Puppet to use with our Puppet Stage. 

• Leaf Wind Exploration

We had hours of fun literally using the leaves  My daughter discovered that if she piled them up onto the tray she could make them fly all over and then try to catch them on the tray as they fell down. 

It was great to see how she also figured out that if she used the try for wind the leaves would stay up longer but the ceiling fan ended the game much quicker.  Wind and Motion were the lessons of the afternoons with leaves.  What I loved the most was watching them work together and pick the leaves up again and again and again without one single complaint! . 

• Leaf Stringing and Patterning

Using the leaves we whole punched small holes into each of them and both of my girls enjoyed stringing them onto pipecleaners to make fall necklaces and garlands. 

• Math Fact Family Trees

We're working on memorizing our math facts this year in First Grade so we need all the hands on ways we can learn them. We used the leaves to created Fact Families Leaves that belong with each tree.  We just simple picked a number and then found the other two number that could make up that number and then practiced forming number sentences to match.  Some examples to start with are {2, 3, 5}  or {4, 5, 9} or {1, 6, 7}.  I created a free printable for you to make your own Fact Trees at home too. 

Click HERE to Print

 

• Leaf Prints

Using our Leaf stamps we had fun creating Fall Scenery and Patterns.  My daughter made a few fall cards for our family too.  Of course the good old fashion way of rubbing them or stamping painted leaves is tons of fun too.  Here's how our Prints turned out in Tot School.    

 

Favorite from Last Week's After School Link Up!

Halloween Stones by Kara's Classroom

I can imagine having tons of fun creating these Halloween stones at home with my daughter.  Plus you could have your own puppetr show with them or have them use them as story prompts for Halloween Stories.  Or if you're doing a non candy Halloween these are a great alternative and fun to make!  Thanks Kara for sharing. 

Cohosted by:

The Educators' Spin On It

Just Playing Around
Little Wonders' Days
Mama Smiles
Mouse Grow, Mouse Learns
What Do We Do All Day

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