Ah, autumn. There's nothing quite comparable to a beautiful autumn in Michigan. Crisp air, breathtaking colors transforming the trees in the season's last smile. The crunch, crunch, crunch of nature's paper underfoot. Fall has always been my favorite season, and experiencing it with my kids adds to the beauty ten-fold.
"Why do the Leaves Change Color" by Betsy Maestro is one of our favorites. It's an informative, Lets Read and Find out science series that I highly recommend. Another fun book for this time of year is "Fall Leaves Fall" by Zoe Hall. It is great because it describes all the things my kids love to do with leaves anyway. Raking them up, jumping in them, crunching them and finding all the different colors.
Finding dad in the leaf pile...
My daughter realizing leaves were getting stuck in her hair...
We did leaf rubbings recently at our homeschool co-op during craft time. Another leaf craft we did later at home was to collect leaves from outside and glue them down on paper after drawing the trunk and branches of a tree.
Young kids will delight in learning the impressive word, "photosynthesis." Even if they can't fully define it, it is still fun to say and learn about. Betsy Maestro's book breaks down definitions very clearly.
For a list of free lesson plans, worksheets and more sites about fall than you could use in one season, check out this fantastic link at Teacher Planet.
Fall is my favorite season also. We are going up north this week to visit grandma and do a colors tour. I plan to have the kids do paintings of Fall and collect more treasures while there. "Why Do Leaves Change Colors" is my favorite Fall read, I took it off the shelf today!
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome, Elastigirl. I was actually hoping to take the kids up for a color tour airplane ride that we did a few years back, but I was sad to discover this month that both the local airports that were doing them in years past have ceased to do so this season.
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