L is for Leaf

 

This week we did L is for Leaf and a general Fall theme.  For more Tot School ideas be sure the check out the Gathering at 1+1+1=1.  Patrick is 3 1/2.  We did a lot of the activities from 1+1+1=1's tot school printables and Fall printables.  One activity that he did great with was a shape patch with scarecrows.  I was really impressed since he's still learning some of the more complicated shapes.  It was the first time he was able to correctly identify a octagon.

Another activity was the cutting leafs.  We're still really working on scissor skills so it was nice to have a simple cutting activity.  He struggled with it but persevered and managed to cut all the leafs by himself.  I was pretty proud.  We also did all the normal tot school pack items.  He has a lot of those activities down very well.  He even decided that he wanted to cut out the tot schools shapes.  We did some letter L tracing and he did pretty well with that as well.  Also although no picture exists he drew a circle with sidewalk chalk for the first time!  Overall it was a very good week. 

We went for a walk outside this week and gathered leafs to create a nature collage.  Patrick really enjoyed gathering the leaves and putting on the glue but in the end he only glued down one leaf.  I also had him sort some paper leafs by color and shape.  He struggled with the shape sorting.  We tried to make patterns with the leaves and that failed miserably. 

 We talked a lot about Fall and what fun things we want to do this Fall.  Patrick still remembers some things from last year and is very excited about a trip to a farm. 
We visited local nature center one day.  It gave us lots of fun playing outside and exploring nature.  However one activity that Patrick just loved was leaf sorting.  It fit perfectly with this week's theme and he was very good at sorting the leaves into the right holes.  We talked a lot about the types of leaves and how different leaves come from different trees.  The nature center had a lot of other awesome things and we saw a turtle, looked at the lines on a tree trunk along with the leaf sorting.  Since you can't see in this picture the leaves are really thick wooden pieces that can get placed into the right holes then fall through so it's a never ending game.  
 Our final activity this week was that we got out our Fall sensory bin.  It's just beans with leaves and a rake.  Oh and a few plastic squashes.  It had pumpkins but those got misplaced with our Halloween items.  It was a hit with both kids.  And oh my is cleaning up beans easier then cleaning up colored rice!