The wind has picked up this week. Colors you usually find in flowers
are getting cozy on the leaves. I love this time of year, especially
with preschoolers. It is such a great time to help kids (and adults)
open their eyes to the amazing variety of color in our natural world.

In
our pre-k classrooms we often try to incorporate all of those Autumn
leaves into our classroom activities. The first activity is usually to
collect, sort, and classify leaves. This is a great activity but it can
be so much more. 

I had a mentor once who taught her students
how to use a hot plate and wax paper to create amazingly subtle leaves
for display on a classroom tree. One year I used dried leaves for
rubbings that we turned into a book about the Fall. Even in the South 
you can see the golden tint of autumn start to creep onto the tips of
the reeds and the palms.

When we are integrating math into
activities sometimes we forget to incorporate its beautiful cousin,
art. If we think about the many linkages between art and math from a
preschooler's perspective we might just learn something about the world
around us.

Take this idea for instance. Lois Elhert is one of the all-time great children's book author/illustrators who uses collage in their work.
The great thing about Lois Elhert's work is she uses everyday objects
that you can collect in the nature and in your classroom. My son
recently read The Leaf Man in
his kindergarten class. As a follow up activity the class collected
leaves and then, instead of classifying and quitting, they used them to
make a picture. This is my son's picture. I couldn't believe the detail
but then I remembered, if you give kids a chance they will often amaze
us.
How do you incorporate the seasonal changes into your classroom?

Image: Leaf Man by Lois Elhert, http://www.wwml.org/kids/SR09/images/leafman_cover.jpg
Image: my son.