Fall Into Leaf Learning
Fall is my favorite season of the year, the cooler temperatures, the tasty flavors, and the vibrant changing colors. Fall leaves lend themselves to hands on learning in so many ways that can be differentiated to any child’s age and ability easily:
- Sort the leaves by color (see printable),
- Sort the leaves by leaf margins (see printable),
- Sort the leaves by type of veins (see printable).
To delve a little deeper, a fall leaf scrapbook is a perfect activity to engage in during autumn. As usual, I love to tie a little technology into my activities, so Leaf Snap is a very useful app for this project. Leaf Snap is so simple to use, and it is free! It has beautiful pictures of leaves, flowers, seeds, and bark. The app also includes detailed information such as scientific names, habitat, etc. After downloading the app, set out to collect a variety of fall leaves. Bring them inside and place each leaf on a piece of white paper, open the app, and click the “snap it” button. The app will proceed to give results of which type of tree each leaf fell from. After selecting the tree, and looking at the pictures, next click on the small book icon in the upper right hand corner, to open up further information. You can record the information about each leaf on the printable chart and then you are ready to make your scrapbook.
This is where the project can get creative and be differentiated. Record and use as much information as appropriate for your child on the chart, and use a variety of paper, markers, and other accents to make your scrapbook personal and unique. Simply glue each leaf to its own piece of paper, and then write information about the leaf on that page. Finally, staple all your pages together to make a scrapbook. If you are looking to make your leaves last longer, try placing them in contact paper, or laminating them before you place them in the scrapbook. This is a fun way to get outside and learn on a beautiful fall day.
For extending your knowledge on autumn leaves, try these titles for a little book love:
- My Leaf Book by Monica Wellington – new this year!
- Autumn Leaves by Ken Robbins
- Awesome Autumn by Bruce Goldstone
