This space is to share fun preschool ideas and activities. I am also passionate about children exploring their outdoor surroundings. Thanks for stopping by to see the latest Adventure with the Kerr's!
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Showing posts with label fall. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fall. Show all posts

Friday, November 12

Leaves are falling

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There was a storm earlier this week and the first half of leaves fell from the walnut tree meaning time to PLAY in the LEAVES!!



My husband was home for about 30 mins of preschool so he was able to be the leaf thrower for a few minutes. I love what each adventurer is doing here...jumping, arms wide open wanting more leaves, shrieking, and ducking away. Such a great captured moment!




Then is was time to dig, scoop, scoop, dig.




And fall down into the pile!


I was reminded of a great lesson...kids just want to play outside. So go play outside with your favorite child today!

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We read Mouse's First Fall by Lauren Thompson which was perfect because we also wanted to jump and hide in the leaves just like Mouse and Minka!



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One of my favorite little leaf songs goes like this..
 (Tune:Where is Thumpkin)

Leaves are falling, leaves are falling
To the ground, to the ground.
Red, yellow, brown, red, yellow brown
Look around, Look around.



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Wednesday, October 27

First snow of fall

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This morning we had a nice blanket of snow, the first snow of fall. When we went outside to play around 11:30am there wasn't too much left and you could hear all the water falling down from the trees.


 Rue stood in that spot for a few minutes before deciding to play in the snow.






 At this point she is thinking...hmm maybe it will be ok to touch the snow.





 River loved tramping through the wet snow with his rain boots!







 "Look at this snowball Mom!"





 Nothing like some fresh snow...yum, yum.






 After River ate some little Rue decided that it might be a good idea to have some too!





 Maple leaf







 I love the contrasting colors in this photo.







 In the driveway there was a really long, fat worm. Probably one of the longest fattest worms I have seen in a long time. It took River a few attempts to scoop up the worm.





This chicken sure enjoyed it!



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Monday, October 18

It's fall...TIME to go OUTSIDE

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On Thursday we took a field trip to pick apples from a neighbor's tree. It was such perfect weather! We had a great time together exploring our neighborhood together. As parents/educators we can become trapped into thinking that children need to always be engaged in highly educational activities, reading only Caldecott Medal and honor books, or tinkering with the latest "Melissa and Doug" toys when really all they need is to PLAY OUTSIDE! 

By playing outside we were able to work on large motor skills (jumping, hopping, climbing), science (talking about how an apple becomes an apple tree, and why leaves change colors), math (we counted our apples, the chickens), verbal/linguistic (we sang songs and talked about everything we saw), and well you get the idea.



The adventurers all held onto the rope as we walked around. 






 Red, yummy apples!





Finding apples on the tree. 







We must have all watched this digger for about 20-30 mins picking up asphalt in the scoop and dumping it into the pile.
I was just as enthralled as the kids!






The girls wanted to show us this cool spot... A spot right next to the train tracks where they were doing more construction! 






 Everyone was waving to the steamroller operator. I felt like 
I was a part of one of my childhood favorite books 
"Busy Day Busy People".





This is one of my favorite pages from the whole book... the people looking through the holes to see the construction workers busily building. I felt like I was one of those kids popping my head into the hole to watch all the construction workers work!






Everyone decided we should just eat our apple right here,
so we did.






River and Miss M went roaming about still holding onto their bags filled with apples and found chickens. 






Not everyone finished their apples so when one child threw their apple to the chickens so did everyone else!  As the chickens began pecking on the apples a turkey came staggering out! Not what we were expecting to see.


As we walked back to our little classroom I was so happy to spend time on this wonderful fall day appreciating all the  things we were able to see just 2 blocks away from us. I think I am falling in love with this neighborhood we live in and it's only been 5 months! There are not many places where we can see horses, steers, chickens, a turkey, construction workers, and be able to ride our bike to the library, grocery store, 2 parks, costco, target and all the other strip mall stores.


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Tuesday, October 12

Family traditions

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Family traditions counter alienation and confusion. They help us define who we are; they provide something steady, reliable and safe in a confusing world.
SUSAN LIEBERMAN, New Traditions

When the blossoms on trees turn into large, delicious apples we begin searching for trees in our neighborhood that will make this year's cider party worth coming to. We move often (we haven't lived anywhere longer than 16 months) which makes the hunt for apples really enjoyable since we have never picked apples from the same tree two years in a row. 

We began our Sunday search party with 2 strollers filled with children, a step stool, and plenty of bags to put the apples into.




 As we find apples that are worth picking, I begin rehearsing my approach line. "Hi, we were just walking by and noticed you had some apples falling down into that empty lot and wondered if we could pick some apples from your tree." Usually folks are pretty happy to let us pick the apples they had no intention of using, that means a few less rotten apples spoiling on the ground for them, and yummy cider for us!




Picking apples can become a greedy and dangerous endeavor. You begin to wonder if you can reach that beautiful, big, non-worm hole, perfect apple hanging just four inches out of your reach. Once you are able to snatch that one off the branch, your eyes spy an even bigger, more beautiful, non-marked apple and you begin devising the plan of how you can get that one off the tree without it falling into the rotten, mushy mess of apples below you.






This is our 4th year we have picked apples from neighborhood trees and have juiced them using the heirloom turquoise Champion juicer my Grandma passed on to me. My son River has always been apart of the process of picking, sorting, and juicing. It was so precious to see him explaining to his younger sister who is 16 months, which apples are good and which ones are bad.




I believe that good traditions, traditions that you want to keep as a family just happen. When we first picked apples four years ago we never thought that this would be a way to gather our friends and family together to celebrate fall, we simply just picked apples. I feel so grateful that we have lived in area that has allowed us to walk in our neighborhood to pick apples from neighbor's trees. As a child I remember reading books about the whole community coming together to harvest apples. I remember the colorful pictures of Papas on ladders picking the apples and Mamas in the kitchen making cider and baking pies. Having a tradition that celebrates the Fall harvest is a way for us to not only feel connected to each other but also to feel connected in the changes of the earth. Traditions bind together Mamas, Papas, Sisters, Brothers, and friends to feel united in purpose and united to each other.


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Friday, October 1

Fall Celebration

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 During School Time I had the adventurers gather leaves to put on their crown for the Fall Celebration. I told them a story about 2 of the 4 sisters of Mother Earth, Summer and Autumn.




I wanted them to notice that all the leaves are still green but soon we will see leaves of many colors. We danced around with our Fall Crowns welcoming in the change singing...

Remember September, October, November
The wonderful months of Fall.
 Remember September, October, November
My favorite months of All.
 The days turn short. The nights turn cool. 
The leaves turn gold and down they swirl. 
We jump in the leaves and twirl, and twirl. 
Remember September, October, November
The wonderful months of Fall.





 In the evening we met up with some of our extended family to have a mini retreat for 4 days. The place we stayed is the perfect Huck Finn backyard! All the children loved being outside finding large grasshoppers to fish with, playing in the mud by the stream, paddling the canoes around the pond, the only thing missing... fresh berries.






They found a mini forest with some kind of giant bear they didn't want to wake...







The adventurers noticed that there were
yellow leaves with the green leaves. 
(Since we were at a higher elevation it was a real treat to drive through the canyon and see the beautiful aspens and maples turning shades of yellow, orange and red.)





This area were we spotted the horse was so magical with the red rocks in the background!


We had a wonderful day welcoming in Autumn!

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Wednesday, September 29

Autumn sensory tub

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This past week the theme was, 
"Yell Yippee for the senses that make me!"

This sensory tub had an added element....the smell of soup!

We used a 5 pound food storage container of 
dry soup blend:
green lentils, brown lentils, mini alphabet letters, rice, dry onion pieces and seasonings.

At first the smell of onions was a little overwhelming!


The treasures to find were:
acorn tops
acorn nuts
plastic acorns: orange, yellow, auburn
glitter foam leaves: red, orange, yellow, and gray





The adventurers enjoyed sorting everything out! 
(The plastic acorns and foam leaves 
I found at the Dollar Tree.)


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