Looking to integrate fall into your preschool homeschooling lessons? Using fall leaves makes even the most basic lessons fun. Get your preschooler tracing, cutting and counting with gorgeous fall foliage. Take a nature walk. Let them pick their own leaves. As you walk, talk about why autumn leaves turn colorful. Encourage them to pick all different shapes, colors and sizes of leaves. Make it a peaceful morning. One of the very best things about homeschooling is not having to rush through lessons.
Learning about color from autumn leaves is a natural. Once you get back home, begin talking about all the different colors on each leaf. Take out a box of crayons. Match the crayons to the colors on the leaves. Now put them back in the box. Challenge your preschooler to do the same. As they take each crayon out of the box, name the color and ask them to find it on one of the leaves. Have them repeat the color name. This homeschooling lesson uses repetition to help kids memorize and recognize colors.
Autumn leaves come in all different shapes. This preschool homeschooling lesson shows kids how to find shapes in nature. Cut out triangles, circles,ovals and squares from construction paper. Compare them with the shapes on the leaves. See how the maple leaf has pointed edges? Doesn’t that look a bit like a triangle shape? Now have your preschooler match the cut out shapes to the shape of the leaves. As they work, be sure to use the names of the shapes frequently.
Size comparison is another basic preschool lesson. Use fall leaves that are small, medium and large. Show kids the relationships between sizes. Bring this lesson to life. Start with three sizes of construction paper squares. Line them up from smallest to largest. Have kids place comparable sized leaves on each square. Once they understand the concept, have them find the smallest and biggest leaves in their pile. See how easy it is to teach the concepts of small, medium and large to preschoolers?
Now it’s time to learn sorting. This homeschooling lesson teaches preschoolers to categorize. It can also be used to reinforce colors, shapes and sizes. Work together at first. Sort the pile of leaves by color, then shape and then size. Now put everything back in the leaf pile. Have kids show you what they have learned by sorting each category just as you did. You may have to give them a reminder, by sorting the first few. This lesson is revealing for teachers too. Think about which category was easier for them to sort for a clue on how they learn best.
Counting is the predecessor to math. Once your preschooler has sorted all the leaves, put them in piles of five or less. Count each pile together. You do it first. Let’s see, we have one, two, three red leaves. We have one, two, three, four small leaves. Let’s count this pile together. As this homeschooling lesson sinks in, use more fall leaves in each pile. To make it easier, and teach your preschooler to recognize written numbers, use a marker to write consecutive numbers on the leaf piles.
Tracing, cutting and creating teach hand-eye coordination. Place fall leaves on white construction paper. Draw around the edges. Cut out the leaf shapes. Let kids repeat the process on their own using safety scissors and pencils. Have them color the cut outs to match the leaves. Get out a blank sheet of brown construction paper and a glue stick. Show them how to glue the real leaves and the leaf cut outs onto the paper to make a nice picture for the fridge. Talk about colors, shapes, and sizes, counting the leaves as you go. Now let them make their own picture. See how homeschooling using fall leaves really brings these basic preschool skills to life?
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