HS Fall Weather

Interest Area Changes to Environment

Leaves

Orange, Red, Yellow Paper, Paint, Markers, Crayons, Felt, etc.

Leaf Stamps

Leaf Cookie Cutters

Sticks

Rain Stick

Empty Seed Packets

Pictures of Fall Trees

Leaf File Folder Game

Overalls

Child Size Rake

Scarecrow

Teaching Concepts for Large Group

1.  What months are in the Fall?

2.  What is another word for Fall?

3.  What differences in the air do you feel? Discuss temperatures.

4.  What is different about the trees you see outside your school and outside of your house?

5.  What kind of clothes should we wear in the Fall?

6.  Why do leaves change colors?

​During the wet and warm days of Spring and Summer, a tree’s leaves are hard at work making food for the tree.  The leaf cells contain chlorophyll, a chemical that absorbs sunlight and converts it to energy necessary for the leaf to convert water and carbon dioxide into tree food – starch and sugars. Chlorophyll is green, giving the leaves the green color for the warm part of the year.

As Summer turns to Fall, the days get shorter and the nights get cooler, trees stop their food making process. The chlorophyll breaks down, and the leaves green color disappears with it. The yellows, oranges and browns you now see were actually always there, but hidden under the more vibrant green. As the Fall season continues, additional chemical changes may occur, producing more of the red and bright oranges you see in some trees.

Teaching Concepts for Small Group

1. Sort leaves by color

2. Leaf patterns

3. Sequencing- what does the tree look like in the fall, winter, spring, summer

4. Use nature walk materials to make a Fall Collage

5.  Use leaves and make leaf rubbings. Discuss what type of tree the leaf came from.

6. Rake leaves

7. What should I wear today

8. Match the leaves to the correct number

9. What are the different parts of leaves

Teaching Concepts for Music Movement Wellness IMIL

1. Leaves Are Dancing (tune: Are You Sleeping)

Leaves are dancing, leaves are dancing

All around, all around.

All the eaves are dancing,

All the leaves are dancing,

On the ground, on the ground.

2. Autumn Leaves Are Falling Down (tune: London Bridge)

Autumn leaves are falling down, falling down, falling down

Autumn leaves are falling down, Welcome Autumn.

Sweep the leaves and put them her, put them here, put them here,

Sweep the leaves and put them here, Welcome Autumn.

Jump right in and have some fun, have some fun, have some fun,

Jump right in and have some fun, Welcome Autumn.

3. I’m An Acorn

I’m an acorn, small and round (make a little o with hands)

Lying on the cold, cold ground. (fold hands and put beside head as if sleeping)

Everybody steps on me. (stomp foot)

That is why I’m cracked you see. (shrug)

I’m a nut. Cluck, cluck (make click noise with mouth and “knock” on head)

I’m a nut. Cluck, cluck

I’m an acorn nut. Cluck, cluck.

Teaching Concepts for Fingerplays

1. Five Little Leaves

Five little leaves hanging from a tree (hold up 5 fingers)

The first one said, “Very soon we’ll be free.”

The second one said, “I’m falling to the ground.”

The third one said, “I’ll sail to town.”

The fourth one said, “Let’s not wait.”

The fifth one said, “Fall sure is great!”

2. Taking A Walk

Taking a walk is so much fun.

We don’t hurry;

We don’t run. (move pointer finger back and forth)

We watch for birds, we watch for bees (make binoculars with hands)

We look for all the falling leaves. (flutter fingers)

Teaching Concepts for Outdoor Experiences

1.  Nature walk

2.  I Spy

3.  If possible rake leaves and have children take turns jumping in them

4.  Autumn leaves are falling down (like London Bridge is Falling Down, see above)

CLASS Concepts

Discuss the tradition of the scarecrow. To protect their corn crops Native American tribes throughout North America used bird scarers or scarecrows. Immigrants who moved to the United States during the 1800s brought with them a variety of ideas for making scarecrows.  In Pennsylvania, German farmers built human looking scarecrows called a bootzamon or bogeyman.  Provide paper sacks, newspapers, straw, felt, etc. for children to make a bootzamon or scarecrow. Encourage the children to tell you about their scarecrow.  Remember to ask many “how” and “why” questions.

Teaching Concepts for Distance Learning

Moving Like the Weather

Plan to go for a walk around your home, back and forth across a yard or park, or through your neighborhood. Play indoors by marching, dancing, or running in place instead of walking. Talk about different weather. Create a fun motion to go along with each type of weather. For example:

Sunny day: turn your body in a big circle and move slowly up and down

Windy day: reach your arms up high and wave them back and forth

Tornado: turn quickly in circles

Begin your walk, call out different types of weather. Stop, pretend and move. Continue your walk and repeat activity.