Taking a Science Walk in the Fall

  Have you heard the expression, “Young children are like sponges?” Research concludes this is really true for children between two and eight years old. Taking walks, collecting, and sorting give your young children a chance to appreciate the outdoors while improving fitness, building language, and absorbing science facts.

Materials:

  A bag, several paper plates, and glue

What to do:

  Take a walk outside.  Collect a variety of colorful leaves and put them in a bag.  As children collect leaves, talk about the different colors and shapes.  Some are rounded.  Some have points.  Conversations with adults are the keys to learning.

  At home sort out  similar colored leaves into piles.  Show how you glue a red leaf on one plate and a brown leaf on another.  Older children can work with three to five colors, so you may add orange, dark brown, and yellow, depending on the types of trees you see.

  Then pick a leaf out of the bag and decide together which plate has a matching leaf—red or brown.  Gently help as necessary to place and glue all matching leaves on the correct plate. All other leaves can go into a “no match” bag.

  Talk about the colors of all these leaves on each plate.  If children are working mostly alone to sort the leaves, check over the plates before gluing.   Stop when children lose interest or become tired.

How will this help my child?

  Matching and sorting are important pre-math skills.  Color recognition and naming the colors are expected in kindergarten. Gluing, like all other art related activities, builds small muscle skills in the fingers, as well as, eye-hand coordination.

What else can I do?

  Play a matching game with clothes.  For example, “Which color plate has leaves the same colors as an object in the room?”  Count the color plates you have completed while touching each one.  At the library, ask for books about leaves, fall or colors. There are many early science books that explain why leaves change color and fall. 
Illustration by Mark Nowicki.

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For more fall activities to help your children succeed in school and have a life time of learning see the authors’ book Learning Through the Seasons in museums, bookstores, and in E-book form atSmashwords.com.
Listen to this activity online at the WNMU Podcasts