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We were so lucky to be learning about Fall, and at the same time- ACTUALLY see and feel the change of weather outdoors!
(In California, we are often challenged as to how we can truly allow the children to experience this wonder of Hashem!)
Arriving at Gan on Monday morning- we were greeted by HUGE piles of LEAVES, beautifully blown up against the gates by the Santa Ana winds! Although it was warm at the beginning of the week, the next few days became more like Fall weather, cool enough to pull out a sweater...and maybe even boots! That smug feeling of a refreshing change of weather and wardrobe supported our curriculum for this week!
The new season was felt in all corners of our classroom. For the next couple of weeks we will be having fun exploring the weather and what is being blown around outdoors.
We focused this week on trees, their beautiful colors and the leaves all over the ground!
The Torah Tots bulletin board was created by their own artwork!
If you look carefully you can see how we used the children's artwork (and lots of sensory fun too) to create this exciting fall decor!
Our BLOCK AREA turned into a FALL LEARNING CENTER!
Pattern of leaves stuck to the floor the children had to match their leaves on the pattern.
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| We replaced the block area rug with some fake grass to get the outdoor feel! |
Leaf color recognition
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| This activity was a little trickier than the usual matching, since the colors were very similar! |
Tree felt board
Categorizing different kinds of leaves
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| Rochel was showing her brother Levi how to play. |
With all the wind outside, we found a way to bring it in our classroom too!
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Illani putting a handful of leaves near the "wind"and seeing
where it will land! |
One of the great gifts we can give children through their frequent interactions with nature is a sense that they are connected to something larger than themselves. Learning outdoors is something we often do, but for this unit, we thought we'd add a different dimension- bring the outdoors IN! (both with the wind, and with the tree stump! see below)
We may not notice many things that are simply "part of natures backdrop" as we walk in the street, but when its brought into a different backdrop (inside our classroom) we can appreciate it on a whole new level!
Nature table
Thank you to Noach's Ima (Keren Reese) for bringing in a
REAL TREE STUMP!
What an amazing experience to bring in a tree stump and watch the children take a closer look! The first day we had it on our nature table, where the children could view it, touch and feel.
There were little tiny "poky" things in the tree and Ilani and Jacob spent
a lot of time taking it out with their stick!
He needed a closer look :)
The tree stump started off on the table to help the children get a good look at the bark which we learned about. Mid week we took it down for it to be on their level and the children flocked around it.
Shua discovering he could climb on it!
Levi and Shua decided to put leaves on it so it looked like a real tree!
The tree was 'giving rides' :)
Fall in the Block Center!
Even our blocks turned into a fall experience. We took different parts of the tree and taped it to different size pieces of blocks for the children to create their own kinds of trees using their imagination.
Shua found a long block with green paint on it....came in handy for tree building!
Circle Time:
Why have circle time inside when we are talking about trees?? :)
Under a big beautiful tree we looked way up and saw many branches of leaves -like the ones we were talking about!
We showed the children a TINY seed, and explained that this is how tree's start off!
After each child touched a seed and realized how amazing it is, that this BIG tree was once a TINY seed- we pretended our bodies were trees! Crouching like little seeds and slowly growing spreading our arms like the big branches!
To help the children imagine they were like trees, we taped some leaves that the children made to their 'branches' (arms.)
We then came closer to the tree, to get a good feel and a close up look!
Starting off the week with our circle times outside it was hard to stay inside ;)
Nature Hunt!
Each child had their own paper bag with their name on it and had to find any nature objects that they found interesting. We saved the items to bring in to the classroom for later use in an art project as well as to describe to their friends what it looks like/feels like/might be able to use for...
Levi found a round plant that opened and had soft inside that he found really fascinating.
Ellah found an unusual bark outside.
Tree art..
Using corks as imprints to create the leaves on their trees!
Nature inspired art using a mirror to give a different dimension to the child's eye.
Sensory Play
Green play dough with real sticks.
Look what we found by clean up time! One of the children discovered that a little piece of play dough can be used to make two stick into one long one!
Levi looking at fall books in the library of children playing in the leaves! It reminded him of.....
When we did it too!
sliding in a pool full of crunchy leaves!
With the help of the fall center color recognition buckets, Yitzi knew what color each leaf was! It is truly amazing to watch the children connect the information they are learning and apply it to other areas in different contexts!
Relaxing with Rochels baby brother, Dovi!
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