The Tidwells: Going on a leaf hunt

Today was a really great day for preschool. I had planned an outdoor leaf hunt and the weather was perfect. The boys had a blast and already Owen is soaking up what we're learning like a sponge. That's the beauty of this age!

We began our day with our usual movement and music exercise. "The Wheels on the Bus" is a total hit around here.

We did our "Warm-Up" activity and introduced another word of the week, letter of the week, shape of the week, color of the week and number of the week. You can see what they are in this picture but if you want to know more about how I use this board to learn, click here.

Owen used his finger to write the letter "L" in the air as well as our new word "the." Just another fun way to learn letters and words.

Our main book for the day was called "Leaves." Before reading we talked about the seasons and why leaves fall off the trees.

After we searched for our new word "the" within the text of this book.

Next we headed outside to enjoy the amazing weather and went on a leaf hunt. We searched for leaves that had fallen off the trees and were still intact for an art project. It was so fun to go searching for these leaves and both the boys loved it.

"Craft Time"

We took our bags home and found the biggest leaves that weren't too crunchy. We then made some "leaf prints" on a white piece of paper using darker colored crayons. I helped Owen a bunch with this but his reaction to what "magically" appeared was too cute.

Our art time didn't stop there. We used the erasers on some extra pencils I had lying around (having been a first grade teacher comes in handy with things like this!) and some small stamps I used to use in my classroom, to stamp leaves on the trunk of a tree. This was super easy to do and loads of fun for Owen. It also took up more time then I thought. Throughout these activities we are constantly reviewing the letter "L" and it's sound. :)

"Handwriting Time"

I teach Owen how to write each letter properly and we practice a few times in a row. The joys of having dry erase pages! You'll also notice that we reviewed the letter "F" from last week.

"Game Time"

For our "game" this week, I decided to work on number sense. Number sense is knowing the numbers, not just memorizing them. To help Owen understand what each number "looks like" we used some manipulatives. In this case, I pulled out some colorful bears I used in my classroom. You could use ANYTHING: rocks, marbles, pennies, game pieces, food, etc. I also have a bunch of magnetic tins from the dollar store (such a great purchase!) for him to display his bears on. I referred back to our "Leaves" book which is about a bear who goes into hibernation for the winter time. I explained to him that the tin was the bears' hibernating place just to make it more fun. I would then place a number card down and make up a story about x number of bears needing to find a place to hibernate. He would then have to quickly count out that number and walk them over to the hibernating place. Last he would count the number of bears on the tin out loud. This may seem super simple but as you get to the upper digits, like 8 or 10, it becomes a bit more difficult for them to keep track of just how many bears are on the tin. He loved it!