Fall for Preschoolers

Believe it or not fall is almost here and as such, this past week, we have been preparing for it by doing fall themed activities. I had a bit of trouble sorting through the list of potential trays to put out for the week though. Normally, it wouldn't be difficult but since I am planning a week for fall, one for apples and one for leaves, I think I spread myself a tad bit thin as these could all be incorporated into the autumn theme. :) Anyhow, here is a sample of what we did on the first few days of the week.

Math - Sorting fall items

In our basket, real acorn caps Adrian picked last year, fall colored pompoms, mini foam apples from Michael's and small glittery fall leaves also found at Michael's. Adrian couldn't help but sort the apples by color and pompoms by color as well after the fall items had been put into their individual dish.

Fall Bingo

Freshly printed from Boggles World ESL. Little fall colored gems found at Michael's were used as chips.

Fall Sensory Tub

Sensory tubs always make Adrian happy. Mine was inspiredfrom Counting Coconuts'. Real pinecones, acorn caps, yellow split peas and red kidney beans were used as well as foam apples and some silk leaves. I also provided small plastic tubs and fondue spoons for spooning items. This activity alone lasted 15 minutes. Spooning, sorting, counting, so many things to do with sensory tubs!

Math - Patterning with Fall Items

I cannot remember where I found this grid sheet but it's simply several circles printed in a row. I used colored mini pompoms and gems for this one although only pompoms are pictured here. I would start a colorful pattern (e.g. red, dark green, red, dark green, red...and Adrian would add a dark green pompom to complete the pattern) and ask Adrian to complete it and at the end, to simply reproduce the pattern I made (as seen in this picture).

Roll a Fall Tree Game

Roll a fall tree, as seen on My Montessori Journey, was a big hit. I cut the tree and leaves from felt. I believe the patterns for these are still on MMJ. With the die, Adrian would see what color of leaf to add on the tree (the die number corresponds to the leaf color to add per the instructions found on MMJ). Adrian's favorite number to roll is 6 as it means all the leaves must fall from the tree!

Have fun and don't forget that Fall is coming up September 22!