Autumn Hedgehogs

 

"When It's Autumn" Song

"When It's Autumn" Song
(Tune: "My Darling Clementine)

There are brown leaves, there are orange leaves
There are yellow, green, and red
When it's Autumn, when it's Autumn,
They keep falling on my head!

"Leaves Are Falling" Song

Leaves Are Falling
(Tune: Jingle Bells)

Leaves are falling, leaves are falling,
Falling on my nose!
Leaves are falling, leaves are falling,
Falling on my toes!
On my head! On my ears! 
Even my el-bows!
Leaves are falling, leaves are falling
When the brisk wind blows - Whoosh!

The Rhyming Tree

This is a very simple language arts/art activity. Basically, you take the leaf outlines below and give one sheet to each child. (Click on the picture to get a full size 8.5x11 in. picture you can save and print.)

For beginners, have the students put two rhyming words on 2 leaves. (See examples below.)

Then have them color each set of rhyming words the same color. You can limit the number of rhyming pairs by telling them which colors they can use (red, orange, yellow, green, brown). 

Then, have them trace their arm and open hand onto a sheet of drawing or construction paper to resemble a tree. (See my pathetic example below. :)

Cut out the leaves and glue onto The Rhyming Tree.

Now this is where you can get creative. You can also make this an Opposites Tree. Or anything where you would get a pair of different colored fall leaves to place on the tree.

You're only restricted by your imagination!

Science + Math + Fall = Fun!

 

We're working on composing and decomposing numbers up to 5 in math. Since it was such a beautiful day, we went outside and collected leaves and acorns, and brought them inside. Next we took a sheet of plain manila drawing paper, and I asked them to draw 5 circles. Then they were to glue a leaf or acorn inside the circle. (This made the project a multi-step activity, which I could observe and grade.) Right off the bat, I could tell which students had one-to-one correspondence skills, and which didn't.

Autumn Leaves Are Falling Down!

 

Fall leaves, autumn leaves. Quick and easy. I gave each child a sheet of red, orange, yellow, brown, or green construction paper (this sheet is standard 9x12, but it looks larger because her arms and hands are so tiny.) With a crayon, they traced their hands, then cut them out on the outline. I hung the "leaves" in the room, and whenever the AC kicks on, they "flutter" nicely.

This activity also gave me the chance to check and grade their cutting skills. This early in the year, their use of scissors is very crude, but it does get better with practice.

Fall Trees

Painting with their fingerprints with watercolors.