Four Seasons (Autumn and Fall Leaves focus) in Discovery

 

After welcoming Autumn in late September, we discussed the four seasons - Fall, Winter, Spring, and Fall (or Autumn!) - and focused on the season of fall and discussed the changing leaves, weather, and light.  For the older classes, our Words of the Week were BIG this time:  CHLOROPHYLL (the green color in plants) and DECIDUOUS (a tree or bush that loses its leaves each year).  Even though they are large vocabulary words, it's important to expose the children to these words early on and repeat them each opportunity we have.  They are sponges and tend to surprise us with their ability to absorb impressive details!  

 

Some of our centers involved making their own fall trees (using beads and pipe cleaners - and their eye-hand coordination!); a leaf matching game (for helping identify trees and their leaves); creating their own paper fall tree (for our artistic scientists); a color-and-scratch leaf test (that demonstrated how chlorophyll - green pigment - actually masks the true colors of the leaves - which are yellow, red, orange, brown, and shades in between); a four seasons matching game; and more!  

 

 

  

 

 

 

Our Toddlers and 2's had a wonderful time talking about Fall!  Our Word of the Week was AUTUMN (or Fall) and why we call this season "Fall" (leaves fall to the ground).  We looked at how a tree changes from season to season - when leaves grow, what color they are, and when they change and fall.  We even pretended we were trees and allowed our beautiful, colorful, fall leaves to drop and float down to the ground.  We talked about seeing squirrels scurry around, gathering acorns and other nuts, and burying their treasures for the winter.  We learned they will dig the food back up and enjoy it throughout the winter when no more acorns are falling.  We decided this was quite clever!  We discussed how oak trees can grow from the buried acorns the squirrels forget!  We again pretended to be squirrels burying our nuts for winter. :)  We talked about the importance of the leaves falling on the ground and covering the earth, and how many animals burrow  below the earth and leaves for the winter and stay warmer from the autumn blanket.  We discussed what colors we see in the fall, what changes we see happening, and how fall is different from the other seasons.  We learned that trees are still very much alive even though they lose all their leaves, as they wait for sunnier days.  My youngest scientists are always so intrigued, happy, and clever!

  

  

 

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