In my roles as both mom and therapist, I like to keep the prep-work of my lessons and activities easy and accessible to all families. Therefore, I highly embrace the changing seasons, and use what’s naturally around us for materials and inspiration. The falling leaves are one of my favorite manipulatives to get creative with. Whether from a stroll into the backyard or a hike in the woods, a collection of leaves can lend itself to many activities that enrich children’s language skills.
While doing these activities with your child you can be building upon their abilities to describe, compare and contrast, classify, follow directions, answer questions, and use action words.
- Make a leaf collage - glue leaves onto paper or cardboard. Sort through your leaves to make a collage that’s of just red leaves, or make a collage that just includes Maple leaves.
- Make a “leaf person” - arrange the leaves into the shape of a person. Identify which body parts will be needed.
- Leaf rubbings - place a leaf under a piece of paper, use the side of a crayon to rub over the leaf. Compare shapes of leaves, talk about color choices for the crayons.
- Sensory bin - fill a shallow box or tupperware with leaves. Give your child trucks, containers, and/or kitchen tools to explore with in the leaves.
- Learn short rhymes or songs about leaves - a quick Google, Pinterest, or YouTube search for “Leaf finger plays” will give you an assortment of songs that you can act out/sing with your leaf collection as props (5 Little Leaves, and Leaves Are Falling are two of my favorites.
- Jump & twirl, toss some leaves around - embrace the chore of raking and use that large pile of leaves as the perfect sensory and movement break for your child. Add in language by racing your child into the pile (1-2-3, go!), calling out actions to try or to follow, hide objects in the pile and give clues about what’s hidden.
Follow it up with a book: It’s Fall! By Linda Glaser
