Tot School: Fall

It is finally starting to feel like fall here in Wisconsin which means lots of fun traditions like apple picking, hay rides, and pumpkin patches.  This was the perfect week to do fall themed tot school activities and talk about the changing weather.

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Here were our plans for Fall Week:

And here are the details of each activity:

Here are the books that we used to begin each day:

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves! by Lucille Colandro I See Fall by Charles Ghinga

Let It Fall by Maryann Cocca-Leffler

Leaf Season (Clifford the Big Red Dog) by Quinlan Lee

Pooh’s Fall Harvest (Winnie the Pooh First Readers) by Isabel Gaines

Fall Sticker Pictures:

You can never go wrong with stickers, and they are great for fine motor practice too, especially the foam ones with the peel off backing.  These fall leaf glitter foam stickers were so pretty I gave them to Madelynn with some crayons and scissors and let her create whatever her little heart desired.

Dot Painting Fall Tree:

Painting with a q-tip takes lots of concentration and patience, both of which are great skills for Madelynn to practice.  I started by painting Madelynn’s arm with brown tempera paint and stamping it for the tree. Then she used q-tips and red, yellow and orange tempera paint to dot stamp leaves on the tree.  She got a little wild and started painting all over on the side of the page when her patience for dipping and dotting ran out, so we decided that was a leaf pile. 😉

Tear Paper Fall Tree:

  For this project I printed a pretty black and white tree and let Madelynn tear fall colored construction paper into tiny “leaves” then glue them onto the tree. I find it is easier for her to tear the paper if I first cut it into smaller strips. If she is still frustrated then I make small tears for her as a guide then she usually does a great job pulling them apart.

Blowing Leaf Prewriting:

  Madelynn is getting more and more precise with her coloring these days and actually tries to stay within the lines a bit so I decided it was time to try some prewriting tracers with her to get ready for writing letters. I laminated some cards and got her started with some dry erase markers. She did ask for me to help her a lot so I did hand over hand writing a few times to help build up her confidence to try it herself.

Yarn Wrap Tree:

  I found this gorgeous wooden tree cut out in the dollar spot at Target (I’ve also seen similar ones at Hobby Lobby and Michaels) and knew I had to find something to do with it this week. I picked up some fall colored yarn and had Madelynn wrap the tree for a fun fall look. It was actually really challenging to help her figure out how to hold the yarn tightly while wrapping the tree.

ABC Leaf Hunt:

Madelynn was a big fan of our number apple hunt a few weeks ago, so I thought we’d give it a try with letters. I printed leaves with all of the letters A-Z and hid them around the house. She used the recording sheet and a clipboard to color each letter as she found them.  She searched for about 20 minutes and even found almost all of the letters before she was tired of the game and moved on to something else.

Indoor Leaf Raking:

  The leaves haven’t quite started to fall here yet, so we had to practice some leaf raking indoors. I scattered silk leaves around the living room and gave Madelynn her plastic rake. This kept her VERY busy! I only wish we had enough silk leaves to make a fun pile to jump in 🙂

Leaf Toss & Pick Up:

Using the same silk leaves again we had a little fun tossing and picking up the leaves as well. I gave Madelynn a small basket to collect the leaves which she thought was perfect for dumping over her head too.

 Leaf Balance Transfer:

Using those silk leaves again I set up 2 baskets on either side of a washi tape “balance beam.” Madelynn’s job was to get all the leaves from one basket to the other by balancing them on her head.  She tried walking fast, slow, and even tiptoeing on the line.

 Leaf Catch:

  Using the silk leaves one more time, we played catch. I tossed handfuls of leaves in the air and Madelynn tried to catch as many as she could. We counted how many she caught and tried to beat her number each time.

Fall Theme Snacks:

Fall Krispy Treats – First follow the classic Rice Krispy Treat recipe. Add fall colored sprinkles and use leaf and acorn cookie cutters to make fun shapes.

Fall Tree Snack –  Use large pretzel rods and small pretzel sticks laid out on a plate to make a tree.  Add Apple Jacks cereal for fall colored leaves to the top of the tree.  

Fall Muddy Buddies – Follow the regular Muddy Buddy recipe you find on the Chex box and then add fall colored goodies to sweeten it up even more.  I used Reese’s pieces, mini Reese’s cups, and peanut butter chips, because you can never have too much peanut butter!   Fall Snack Mix – In this mix we used Cheerios, Kix cereal, dried cranberries, peanuts, cashews, and Reese’s pieces.

Fall Krispy Treats – First follow the classic Rice Krispy Treat recipe. Add fall colored sprinkles and use leaf and acorn cookie cutters to make fun shapes.
Fall Tree Snack –  Use large pretzel rods and small pretzel sticks laid out on a plate to make a tree.  Add Apple Jacks cereal for fall colored leaves to the top of the tree.  

Fall Muddy Buddies – Follow the regular Muddy Buddy recipe you find on the Chex box and then add fall colored goodies to sweeten it up even more.  I used Reese’s pieces, mini Reese’s cups, and peanut butter chips, because you can never have too much peanut butter!  

Fall Snack Mix – In this mix we used Cheerios, Kix cereal, dried cranberries, peanuts, cashews, and Reese’s pieces.

Fall Colors Sensory Bin:

  In this bin: pine cones, small red, orange, and yellow toys, and color sorting mat

Fall Button Trees:

In this sensory bin: fall colored buttons, and pipe cleaner trees

Fall Slime:

Making slime is so much fun, if you’ve never tried it you are missing out! Here is the recipe I use to make our slime: First, dissolve 1 tsp of borax powder into 1 cup of water. Next in another bowl measure out about 1/2 cup of clear glue and mix with 1/2 cup of water until well mixed. Then pour the glue/water mixture into borax/water mixture. (If you are adding color add it to the water borax mixture before combining the two) Last, get messy! That’s right use your hand to mix it all together It will start out clumpy but will come together as you mix. There will be water left over that you can toss.  Let the slime sit for a few minutes in a clean bowl and it will be even more fun to play with. For our fall slime I gave Madelynn Fall Acrylic Leaf Table Scatter and let her push the pieces into the slime as well, but you could add it in before mixing or do without. Enjoy!

Fall Pom Pom Bin:

In this bin: fall colored pom poms, mini silk leaves, scoops, gator grabbers and bowls

Want all of this week’s Fall activities for preschool?  You can grab them here:
On my site : Fall Plans & Printables On TpT: Fall Plans & Printables

Or you can grab our entire year of themes and plans:
On my site here: Preschool Bundle On TpT here: Preschool Bundle

Then check out the rest of our 45+ themes on the Preschool Curriculum Main Page.