Catch A Leaf!

Fall is in full swing here at Irvine! Pumpkins are popping up, our morning meetings are getting chillier, and leaves of all colors are falling in the forest! For the Forest Dreamers, it is a particularly exciting time because the forest and meadow that we have gotten acclimated to is changing right before our eyes!

One of our opening activities this week , was a  leaf hunt where we observed beautiful leaves with multiple colors. We made up a code for the leaves we found based on how many colors it had. Each color equaled one point with the exception of red leaves that were worth five points! For instance, a red and yellow leaf would be six points (5+1). Pretty neat, huh? We also learned pattern concepts with musical notes. Miss Paula showed us what quarter notes and eighth notes looked like, and we practiced clapping and drumming to the beat!

Our story this week was Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert.  The story’s illustrations were really creative as they were all made from leaves! We created our own leaf ‘creatures’ in our journals and some of us even gave our creatures names and characteristics!

Miss Sophie brought along some alphabet cards and we decided that we knew the names of so many different leaves, plants and objects, that we should assign an object we know  to each letter of the alphabet. Once we gather an item for each letter, we can spell things in secret code that only Forest Dreamers will know! We made good progress in our collection of Irvine’s natural objects. We hope to be familiar with them all one day!

There was lots of creative collaboration amongst the class this week. Forest friends worked together to create a soup while others smashed pokeweed berries into our own pretty pink ink!In the forest, we observed decomposing trees and fallen branches, down by the barn, we used our senses to play Bat and Moth which is a game that heightened our spatial awareness (while blindfolded!).

We are truly enjoying this crisp air and seeing the forest and meadow change. We look forward to the other things that fall brings in the coming weeks. I wonder what experiences lie ahead… 🙂

Float and Flutter, Forest Friends!