Leaves Unit {Expanded}

Check out our new and expanded “Leaves” unit!  We’ve added a few new printables, which you can download. 

Just click the image above to download a single zip file of all the printables. (Can’t unzip it. Try Hamster Free Zip Archiver approved by Amber’s husband. Remember to download carefully.)

You will need to be able to view pop-ups to download the unit, as it will appear in a pop up window from our site!

Here are the printables included in this unit:

• L is for Leaf
• Leaf Observations
• Leaf Parts
• Patterns (ABAB and AABB)
• Leaf Shadows
• Spin & Graph
• Count & Clip 
• Spelling Page
• Which is Different? 
• Writing Maze
• Beginning Writing/Cutting Practice
• Size Sort
• Leaves Spelling Page
• “L” for Leaves Letter Craft
• Fall Leaves Counting Mat (You’ll need our counting cards.)
• Number Order Puzzle (1-10 and 11-20)  

Tot Pack

Looking for some ideas for a younger tot?  Check out our Fall Tot Pack. (Tot Packs inspired by 1+1+1=1.) Here are the printables included in this pack:

• Leaf Match
• Fall Puzzle 
• Fall Colors (mini book)
• Pumpkin Size Sort
• Shape Leaves
• How Many?
• Pumpkin Match & Clip

Products We Use with Our Units

Looking for more ideas?

• Devotional & Memory Verse
• Learning Center Ideas
• Outdoor Fun- Nature Walk and Leaf Collecting
• Recommended Books
• Craft- Leaf Person
• Family Theme Night Ideas- Leaves 
• Last Year's Post

There are also more  ideas, units, printables and crafts available on this theme.  Check out our Pinterest Board for some of our favorites!

We hope you enjoy these printables and please let us know if you have any issues with downloading or using the items provided. 

We’re linking up to: Preschool Corner.

Please do not sell or host these files anywhere else. You MAY link people here. When leading others to these printables, please link to THIS page, not to the file page.  Thanks! (See TOU)

Memory Verse Helps: Hosea 2:23

Here are some extras to help your kiddos memorize this weeks verse, Hosea 2:23. 
You can download all of the printables, including the devotional, HERE.
Here is what is included in the download:
Memory Verse Card: Use this card daily during your calendar time to work on memorization. 

Memory Verse Puzzle and Cutting Practice:  This puzzle fits together to form this weeks memory verse. 

Memory Verse Color Order and Cutting Practice: Using color order arrange the verse.

Memory Verse Writing Practice: With this you can practice parts of the whole verse, or just work on starting a single letter.     

You may also re-visit this verses devotional from last year.  We hope you enjoy them!

Heading Outdoors

I don’t know how many of you out there love fall, but it is without a doubt my favorite time of year.  Fall brings cool nights by a campfire, caramel apples, chili, and of course, leaves burning in their true color.  I love the fact that E and I will soon be able to head out on hikes through the woods and see all of the trees putting on their best show. 

It can all seem idyllic, but lets be honest.  Its hard to keep kids entertained on a nature walk.  :)  So, for those times when your kiddos need a little something extra to do you can download this Nature Observation Sheet and a set of Leaf Bingo cards! 

           

Hopefully they will help with any outdoor plans you may have this lovely fall season!

Leaf Centers

This week we are expanding our Leaf theme printables.

To get you started, I’ve found some fabulous resources that can be use in independent centers or even as additional supplements to our printables.

Art

Another great idea from Making Learning Fun.  Provide your kiddo with a coffee filter and the fall colors from a Do-A-Dot Rainbow Art Set.  Once they finish adding colors to the filter, spray it with a little water and let dry.  Finish this project with them later or even the next day.

Picture taken from Making Learning Fun

Play-Dough

Go on a leaf hunt and collect a variety of leaves to create leaf prints.  You won’t need much to keep the kiddo entertain for awhile.  Now pull out some play-dough and let them press the leaves into it.  To make it even more fun create your own scented play-dough.  Special thanks to NatureStore for the idea. (If you don’t have play-dough just make some leaf rubbings.)

Picture taken from NatureStore.

Pretend Play

Sensory bins are a great way to keep kiddos entertain and work on fine motor skills.  Here are a couple of examples I found around the world wide web.  Just follow the links below to find out what was put into each of them.

From 1+1+1=1

From Counting Coconuts

Hope these ideas are helpful.

Tots in Action-Leaves

Here are some pictures of what we did this week with our leaves unit, and the grab and gather list.  Remember, you should check out your local library and also grab some fall books to read with your kiddos!  Have fun!

Fall Leaves

This unit has been expanded. So, make sure and check out the additional printables here.

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Here is what we’ve been doing this week. Let us know what you think.  We hope by providing these materials to you free of charge, it will make your life easier! 

Lesson Plan: The lesson plan includes all the lessons for the week, as well as optional ideas. Items following the lesson plan are just the printables or links to websites we used to teach these plans.  (Please note: On top of our lesson plan we are reading books daily that relate to our theme throughout the week.)

Memory Verse: This memory card is for daily use during our calendar time.  You can learn more about calendar time at 1+1+1=1 or Homeschool Creations.  Our weekly devotional is an object lesson that will help your child apply the meaning of the verse to them.

Day 1:

L is for Leaves- Teaches your child how letters are linked to sounds to form letter-sound correspondence.

Leaf Shadows Match Up- This activity was designed to be used with a file folder, but it is not necessary.

Day 2:

L is for Leaf Magnet- Teaches your child how letters are linked to sounds to form letter-sound correspondence.

 

Leaf Patterns- This activity will help your child begin to recognize, describe and extend patterns.

Day 3:

Fall Spelling- Helps your child begin to recognize that when letters are combined they form words.  We used letter tilesfor this activity, but scrabble pieces work well too.

Roll A Fall Tree- This activity will help your child begin to read whole numbers 1-6. We found this at Play To Learn Printables.

   

We hope you enjoy these lesson plans and please let us know if you have any issues with downloading or using the items provided. 

Questions?  Post questions or comments on our Facebook Page.  You may have the same question as someone else.  If you don’t have a Facebook account, feel free to email us.

Leaf Person

For our craft this week we were inspired by the story Leaf Man.

We decided to go on a leaf hunt to gather leaves to create our very own Leaf Person. (Or use the leaves you gathered for the weekly devotion.)

I think it turn out so cute!

Materials:

• an assortment of leaves
• construction paper to glue leaves onto
• glue or tape
• optional- googly eyes

Directions:
Please note- We did this craft as a family activity.

• Based on your leaves determine what you and your child could create.  (person or animal) For example, you could create a butterfly, bird, bear…what ever you can imagine.
• Once you have your vision in mind, have your child help you to create it. For example, we asked Lil’man to find leaves that looked like the hands, feet, head and body.  Then we had him help us glue the leaves in the right spots.

Have fun making your very own leaf creations!

Questions?  Post questions or comments on our Facebook Page.  You may have the same question as someone else.  If you don’t have a Facebook account, feel free to email us.

God’s People

Memory verses on Leaves, our theme this week, are in short supply.  Our verse this week will instead use leaves as part of the illustration.  Our verse for the week is Hosea 2:23

“You are my people” and they will say, “You are my God”

 

Materials:

• Several different types of leaves, and keep no two alike (Heads up: keep them on hand for some of our lessons!)
• Some pictures of children from different ethnicities (you could also just use a storybook with pictures of children in it)

Directions

• Ask your child to look at each of the leaves.  See if they can point out some different things about them. 
• Have your child look at the different children, and then themselves in the mirror.  Ask them if they look different. 
• Allow your child to point out the differences in people.  (It will all come together, promise!)
• Talk about the devotional with your child.
• Pray with your child

Talk about the following:

Each of these leaves looks really different don’t they?  Some are round, others have pointy edges, and some are even different colors.  Its kind of easy to see how they are different, isn’t it?  When we looked at the pictures of all the different boys and girls, they didn’t really look like us, did they?  Some had skin that was a different color, and others had hair that looked different.  Did you know that some of their voices sound different too?  Sometimes its really easy to see how things are different.  Did you know that really though, we are all the same to God?  You see, these leaves go on different trees, don’t they?  People though, they all belong to the same God.  We all belong to Him, and He loves all of us very much.  He loves us so much that He sent Jesus to us, so that when we believe in Jesus we can be with God forever in Heaven.  We are all God’s people, and God is our God, just like our verse today says.  Will you pray with me and thank God for making us all different, but loving all of us the same?

Prayer:

Dear God, we thank you for all of the people in the world.  Thank you for loving us and sending Jesus to us.  In His name we pray, Amen. 

Questions to Ask:

• Does God love all people the same? Yes
• Who did God send to us because He loved us? Jesus

Additional Resources:

• You might sing “Jesus loves the little Children” with your child
• Go over last weeks questions with your tot.

Family Night-Leaves!

It finally feels like fall!  This is by far my favorite time of the year, and tonight, at least in our neck of the woods, it looked like fall!  Our unit this week is all about leaves, so for family night we did some activities that focused on our theme.  I know what you’re thinking.  How do you do a theme on LEAVES???  Well, that is where we come into help! 

We made some sugar cookies and cut them out in the shape of leaves.  E loved using the cookie cutters.  We used store bought dough because I am all about saving some time.  Family night is not about the work, its about the FAMILY!  That made this fun, quick, and cheap! 

I had some pumpkin cookie cutters also, so we went ahead and made a couple of them for variety!

While our cookies were baking we learned some songs about leaves that I found on the internet.  Here are couple of them:

To the Tune of  “Are you Sleeping, Brother John” from Suite 101

Leaves are Falling, Leaves are Falling
To the Ground, To the Ground
Autumn Days are coming, Autumn Days are coming
All around, All around

• You can use Red Leaves Falling, Orange Leaves Falling, and Brown Leaves Falling for other verses

To the tune of “The Wheels on the Bus” from Preschool Rainbow

The leaves on the trees come tumbling down,
Tumbling down, tumbling down.
The leaves on the trees come tumbling down,
All over town.

The leaves on the trees are red red red,
Red red red, red red red,
The leaves on the trees are red red red,
All over town.

• Repeat for orange, yellow, and brown leaves to complete other verses

We used our hands to signify leaves falling to the ground, and E liked singing the songs, for the most part anyway.  She was really anxious to get to the cookies.  They turned out great and were really yummy!  Thanks Pillsbury for making such poppin’ fresh awsomeness!

When the cookies were done we all settled in together to watch the “Fall” episode of Blue’s Clues from season 3.  Its on Net Flix if you’d like to check it out for your kiddo. 

When our cookies were done we read some our favorite fall books.  E loves these two right now. 

So that was our family night!  Hope you all have a good one also! 

 

Questions?  Post questions or comments on our Facebook Page.  You may have the same question as someone else.  If you don’t have a Facebook account, feel free to email us.

Must Read- Leaves

We are continuing our focus on Fall, which is absolutely perfect today because we actually have fall weather!!! I am so excited!! The cooler days have been missed. This week will be talking all about leaves.  Below are a couple of our favorites books that we have read, so far:

  Fall, Leaves, Fall! This is a fun picture book about fall. In this story 2 brothers watch the leaves turn color from green to red, yellow, orange and brown. They enjoy fall activities including cookies shaped like leaves, creative leaf art and collecting and identifying leaves. They also, play with and in the leaves.The last page of the book has information on how leaves grow through the year.  It is has simple text with only a line per page.  The illustrations are very vibrant and are bound to keep your kiddos attention.

Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf tells about a child’s tree and how it came to be. This is a great book about nature, life cycle of a seed, and the seasons. The pictures in this story are great for all kids to enjoy. They include a combination of real pictures and drawings. In the back of this story, you’ll find descriptions that match the vocabulary words that are included within the text of the story.

 

Here are a few other suggestions.

What are your favorite Fall or leaf books?