Play School: Leaves

M taught one of the funnest topics this week in Play School--leaves!

Concepts: Since 3-year-olds are quite up to learning about why leaves change colors (and because neither of us really know), the lesson focused mostly on exploring different kinds of leaves.

Activity: M took the kids on a leaf hunt and they filled up a big bucket of different kinds of leaves, which they used to make leaf rubbings. They also made leaf collages--M had them layer torn pieces of orange, red and yellow construction paper between clear contact paper cut into the shape of a maple leaf.

Books: I usually check out a whole stack of library books that go along with our topic (even when I am not teaching), but this week I didn't get a chance to. But here are some books about leaves that I should have checked out! The Little Yellow Leaf by Carin Berger; We're Going on a Leaf Hunt by Steve Metzger; Ruby's Falling Leaves by Rosemary Wells; Leaf Manby Lois Ehlert; and Leaves! Leaves! Leaves! by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace.

Songs: Leaves are falling all around--on my head and on the ground!

Snack: M was brave and whipped up a batch of sugar cookie dough. She helped the kids use fall cookie cutters to cut out shapes, and then after the cookies were done, they frosted them and decorated them with leaf sprinkles.

Field Trip: I've been looking forward to this family field trip for weeks! A few weeks before Jason and I got engaged in October of 2004, we spent a Saturday afternoon driving the Alpine Loop from Provo Canyon to American Fork Canyon. The leaves were beautiful and I knew it would be the perfect field trip to go along with this week's lesson.

We started out having a fall picnic at Bridal Veil Falls with my brother Tyler, complete with apple cider and caramel apple pie. After our picnic, Tyler went back to Provo to prepare for a night of revelry, and we continued up towards Sundance, the Timp trailhead (incidentally, this is where Jason proposed to me!), and the Alpine Loop.

Tempe fell asleep a few minutes into the drive, so she missed most of the scenery, but man was it beautiful! I think Provo Canyon is the most beautiful part of Utah.

Here are some pictures from our picnic!