The weather has been increasingly gloomy here recently, but the fall foliage has been its saving grace!
Appropriately, this week’s unit is on leaves. We have fun crafts and sensory activities planned for this week, and I’m excited to try them out!
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Leaves Weekly Lesson Plan
This week, I have quite a few free printables included in this download. You will not want to miss these!
Activities
Day 1
Leaf Hunt
One of the books we will be reading this week is We’re Going on a Leaf Hunt by Steve Metzger. After you read this book, you can go on a leaf hunt with your kiddo!
Take a bag with you and collect a variety of leaves. Make sure to collect enough leaves to do our next activity!
Leaves Cutting Sensory Bin
Place the leaves you collected in a large bin and let your child cut them up. I used to be so scared to allow my son to use scissors, but I think it’s an important skill to have! I always keep a close eye on him as he cuts and help him with hand placement.
We use these scissors but I think these scissors would probably be better for beginners.
Letter “C” Song
These songs from Have Fun Teaching are so catchy! If you follow me on Instagram, you know that we had a dance party last week listening/watching the Letter B Song.
It’s such a fun and easy way to get kids to learn the sounds of letters. Even my 20 month old was going around saying “B! buh buh buh!”
Day 2
Leaf Sun Catcher (Mess-Free Paint)
As much as I love sensory activities, they can get a bit messy, so I thought this activity would be a great break between all the other messier activities we normally do.
I found this activity on Kids Craft Room. So you can head over there to see the details, but I have a free leaves template printable included in my lesson plan download!
Leaf Sun Catcher (Tissue Paper)
Using the same free leaves template in my lesson plan download, we will make another sun catcher.
Step 1
Print the leaves template onto construction paper and cut out the leaves.
Step 2
Place a rectangular piece of contact paper on the back of the construction paper. Peel and tape on securely.
Step 3
Cut up some tissue paper and let kids stick them onto the contact paper.
Done!
You will be left with a beautiful leaf-shaped sun catcher! Here’s how ours turned out!
Day 3
Leaves Sensory Bag
This is another activity I saw on Kids Crafts Room.
You could do this with real leaves, but we will be using some of our leftover faux leaves from last week’s Fall wreath activity.
Step 1
In a ziploc bag put in some cooking/vegetable oil. And place in your leaves.
Step 2
Mix some water with whatever desired color of liquid watercolor. About a tablespoon of water for each color. I plan on using some fall colors so red, orange, yellow, and green. And pour water into the bag slowly. Stopping and pouring to create smaller colorful water globs.
Step 3
Add in other things as desired. For example some glitter or sequins.
Step 4: Optional
This step is optional, but I plan on re-sealing the ziploc by using some clear packing tape to make sure that it is properly sealed. And I will get my boys to play with the bag in our large sensory bin, just in case the bag leaks.
Another option
I think another option would be to use a clear bottle and create a sensory bottle instead of a bag. Similar to the rainbow sensory bottles we made a couple weeks ago.
I will probably make both and report back to you on which I would recommend. So stay tuned!
Letter C Practice
These worksheets are included in the lesson plan download!
Day 4
Leaves Puzzle
These puzzles are also included in the lesson plan download for free! If you have a colored printer, you could just print these out, cut them up and your child can match the pieces.
If you’re like me and don’t have a colored printer, I plan on involving my son in the whole prepping process. So print it out, and use it like a coloring page first. After we color them in, we will cut them out together and then do the puzzle.
It’s even better if you have a laminator, because you can easily re-use the leaves!
We ended up gluing ours to black construction paper.
Day 5
Yarn Wrapped Leaf
This is yet another activity from Kids Craft Room! She has such great ideas! You can head over to her website for the steps. I do have a template included in the lesson plan as well!
Update: We ended up using washi tape instead of yarn for this activity. I think it turned out beautifully!
Books
We’re Going on a Leaf Hunt by Steve Metzger
A fun take on We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. The repetitive nature of the book makes it easy for kiddos to follow along. It features several different common trees and their leaves, so it’s fun to read and spot the same trees outside.
Fall is Not Easy by Marty Kelley
A cute book about all the seasons being easy for a tree, except for fall.
Fletcher and the Falling Leaves by Julia Rawlinson
The books in the Fletcher series are all super cute, and this is no exception. Fletcher the fox is worried about his tree losing all its leaves and does his best to help.
Leaves by David Ezra Stein
A bear enjoys his first fall, winter’s sleep, and wakes up to find spring to greet him.
Leaves! Leaves! Leaves! by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace
Buddy Bear and his Mom goes on leaf walks every season and observes the changes in the leaves.
Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert
Lois Ehlert’s books are always so beautiful and this one is no exception. Definitely a classic fall book!
There’s additional information toward the end of the book and instructions on how to make a bird treat.
Leaves by Carol Lawrence
A Tree For All Seasons by Robin Bernard
Bible Verse
Leaves Weekly Lesson Plan
If you haven’t done so already, here is the lesson plan for this next week. Just put in your info and all the printables will be sent to your email for instant download!
Thank You!
Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog! I really do appreciate each and every one of you <3 I hope you found some ideas that you can try out with your kids this week!
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The tissue leaf sun catcher is especially interesting to me. Thanks for these great suggestions of crafts and books
Fall is such a fun and colorful theme. I too take my toddler on a leaf hunt. We haven’t tried leaf cutting yet but would love to give it a shot as it is an important fine motor skill. Thanks for these amazing ideas, saving the post for later.
I never knew there were so many cute books about leaves. What a fun lesson plan idea.
These are great activities! We were going to send our little one to preschool this year but decided against it, so I’m happy for any suggestions.
Thanks for reading, Jennifer!
We also signed our son up for preschool and decided to keep him home as well 🙁
Hope you find these ideas helpful!
Exploring leaves is so much fun! One of my favorite things to do with my kids is collect leaves and then make imprints of them by rubbing crayons over them on a piece of paper!
That’s such a great idea, Kristen!
I’ll definitely have to try that out!