If you’re lucky enough, you have childhood memories of digging through fallen leaves, twigs, and dirt to find treasure troves of bugs and creepy crawlies. Hopefully the children you love and teach get the same opportunity! Here’s a way to extend that fun into a sensory table activity.
Book Activity: Leaf Man
Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert is one of my favorite fall books. I love Lois Ehlert’s unique brand of art. Generally, she uses collages to illustrate her books, which gives them an appealing texture and points of interest as children find familiar items used in new ways. In Leaf Man, Ehlert’s illustrations are done completely from leaves and other items from trees (seeds, acorns, etc.). The pictures show a man, cows, chickens, fields, everything created from leaves. (Ehlert collected the leaves, then photocopied them and created the collages using those photocopies.) These pictures are fascinating, and really open up the creative eyes of the children as they read it!
After reading the story, I like to have the children create their own leaf pictures. Some will create a leaf man, others will create a more abstract design, while still others simply create a place for as many leaves as they possibly can! You may want to provide the leaves for an inside activity, or make the activity more hands-on and meaningful by letting the children collect the leaves themselves- out in your playground, on a walk, or on a trip to the canyon.
See How We've Grown!
Young children love to talk about, and hear about, when they were “little”. Here’s a series of activities I like to do with young ones to talk about how they’ve grown.
See How We’ve Grown!
Young children love to talk about, and hear about, when they were “little”. Here’s a series of activities I like to do with young ones to talk about how they’ve grown.
Pom-Pom Grab
My posts have been very wordy and heavy lately, so I thought I’d break it up a bit with an activity post. A while back I mentioned these fine motor activities, and I wanted to show one of my own adaptations here. I’m all about saving money, so instead of buying the cool ice cube tray, I used an empty Ferrero Rocher container I had on hand. You know, those delicious hazelnut chocolates. Their container is just the right size for medium sized pom-poms. Go ahead and buy yourself some. Do it for the children. If you’re morally opposed to self-indulgence, you could also use an egg carton, ice cube tray, or mini muffin tin. Just try to match the container as closely to your pom-pom size as possible.
Shape Scoop
Kids love to scoop! It’s great for their hand-eye coordination and both large and small motor skills. Cut shapes from craft foam (or find pre-cut ones, non adhesive of course) and set them floating in your sensory table or bathtub. Give the kiddos fish nets to scoop with (you can find them very inexpensively in almost any pet store or pet supply aisle of a grocery store or Wal-Mart). As a bonus, when the foam is wet, it will stick to smooth surfaces, so your children can create pictures as well! Talk to them about the shapes and colors they’re using to increase their awareness of shape and color names and characteristics. (“Wow! You made that house by putting the red triangle on top of the yellow square!) Happy scooping!
For more Welcome Weeks activities, click here!
Easy Fruit Dip for Those Who Like to Eat, Eat, Eat, Apples and Bananas
I love simple recipes that children can help with at snack time. Here’s another favorite to add to that stash: Fruit Dip!
Here are the players:
Make a Texture Collage for Pictures They Can Feel!
Many young children aren’t trying to make something when they do an art project. They are trying to experience something. They enjoy being in control of their project, making the choices about what to use and how to use it. They enjoy the process of manipulating materials and watching their “canvas” change. A texture collage is a great activity for those experiential artists, because it adds a tactile aspect to the activity. Provide a wide array of materials with a variety of textures. I usually just cut them in random, geometrical shapes, and provide scissors in case the children want to alter them. Some favorite materials: sandpaper (cutting it actually sharpens your scissors!), feathers, fuzzy fleece, tulle, corrugated cardboard (with one side peeled off, exposing the bumpy ridges), foil, tissue paper, silky fabrics, ribbons, acetate (overhead paper). As the children glue the pieces on to their papers, you can ask them about which textures they like, and how they feel, exposing them to new vocabulary like rough, smooth, silky, bumpy, ridges, wrinkly, and more! In addition to language skills, this activity promotes creativity, small motor skills, and sensory awareness.
Story-Acting with the Sneetches
It’s no secret, I love Dr.Seuss. From a young age, I became enamoured with his silliness and his rollicking rhymes. As I studied education and child development, I fell in love again as I realized how beneficial his playful prose were for building young readers (learn more about phonological awareness here). I would say Dr. Seuss is the Shakespeare of childhood. Any well-read (or well-read-to) child should be familiar with him!
Book Activity: Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes
I really enjoy Kevin Henkes’ books, and I know the children do too. His clever, relatable storylines revolve around quirky, lovable characters, who often have their own hilarious comic-strip-style comments in addition to the regular text. Chrysanthemum is the story of a girl (or more accurately, a mouse) aptly named Chrysanthemum. She really loves her name, until she goes to school. There, she is teased about it, until the other girls make a discovery that makes them wish they were named after flowers as well. It’s a great book for talking about social skills, not teasing in particular, but also fantastic for talking about our individual names.
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