…I wanted to get a post in here about ALuv’s fall/leaf reading and writing activities. The rain we had over the weekend knocked quite a bit of leaves to the ground, but boy-the colors have been beautiful. I never ceased to be amazed at our God. He’s awesome.
If you missed one of our first leaf activities, you can view it here. This activity occurred before most of the leaves had fallen.
LEAF WRITING
He picked one leaf that was his favorite, taped it down to some writing paper (to avoid the drama that entails when I ask him to draw a picture), and wrote about it. “I like my leaf because it is smol (small).” Some days you just have to keep it simple!
After reading a simple book by Scholastic called Autumn Leaves are Falling, ALuv picked one activity he liked to do in the Fall and completed this sentence, “In the Fall, I like to…” Here is his writing (and drawing):
“In the Fall I like to jup (jump) in leaves.”
LEAF MAN
We had our homeschool group over and read Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert. First they looked at the pictures, which are amazing, and named the things they saw made from leaves.
Here is everyone listening, even the little ones!
Soon the little ones lost interest and decided to read their own books. Love it!!
After reading, we set them free outside to collect & created their own leaf art. ALuv had a hard time with this at first, claiming he just couldn’t do it. But once he caught on, he couldn’t stop. He even roped the next door neighbor (a 5th grader) into creating more art together that afternoon.
Here he is making his leaf giraffe!
Once their creations were glued down, each boy (none of our K girls could make it to this event) completed the sentence, “This is my…” I absolutely love the creativity of Kindergartners when it comes to their writing!
“This is my Lef man.”
“This is my DoG. it Borcs (barks) A Lot.”
“This is my lef man it is pidy (pretty).”
We examined leaves from our backyard and found their parts. What a great excuse to use a magnifying glass! 🙂 By the way, 2 Teaching Mommies has a great printable (called Leaf Parts) you can download in their leaf unit to go with this activity.
Craft: LEAF PLACE MATS
We also did one of ALuv’s favorite leaf crafts-making leaf mats for our kitchen table. As soon as the leaves began to change color, ALuv was asking when we were going to do this. Last year, I used wax paper.
This year, we used two pieces of contact paper and I was very pleased with the results. Much easier than hauling out the ironing board.
To integrate some literacy, he labeled each mat as he placed them at our table. I’ve already decided that next year, I’m going to have him research the leaves that are in each mat and write the name of each leaf on the contact paper.
So, there you have it…our leaf/fall literacy fun! I’ll be posting about NJoy’s activities with L is for Leaves later this week. In it you’ll find some leaf activities for younger learners.
Thank you for joining This Reading Mama on a literacy journey!
~Becky
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