Autumn Adventure

Lead students on a walk through a wooded area, schoolyard, local park, or neighborhood sidewalk to look for signs of fall.

• Watch for leaves beginning to change color, and try to match fallen leaves to the leaves still on the trees. 
• Remind students not to pick anything up; they are to be quietly observing at this time only.

Encourage critical thinking by asking:

What do you observe about the leaves in the tree? 

What do you notice about the ground we are sitting on under the tree?

Dig in the leaf litter under the tree as a group. Try to find evidence of last year’s leaves. You might find very small bits of leaves, leaf stems, or leaf skeletons. Talk about how leaves break down into smaller and smaller pieces until they become part of the soil. 

Have the children lie under a tree and watch leaves falling.

• How many different ways can leaves fall?
• How does the wind change the way they fall?

Visit the Project Learning Tree website for a printable card you can share with parents to extend learning at home with family and friends.

Art Activities

Create dried leaf art

Materials: glue; tagboard; crushed or dried leaves; glitter; sand; soil; mixing bowls

Invite the children to crumble the leaves and mix them with the other items. Show them how to paint designs with glue on heavy tagboard and sprinkle the designs with the dried leaf mixtures.

Experiment with leaf stencil

Provide leaf stencils for splatter painting, stenciling, or tracing. Offer paints in the basic fall colors – encourage mixing and blending to create the subtle shades of color that make autumn beautiful.