Fall Curriculum, Day Three

Today, you will use the leaves that you gathered from the playground again. If they have gotten “depleted” from play, science, and art activities, you may want to gather more on the playground. Have each child choose a few leaves and tape them to a sheet of paper of his or her choice. Once the leaves have been taped down, allow the children to choose one or two colors of paint (use your “I want” boards and Boardmaker color symbols for nonverbal students). Once the students have received their paint, give everyone brushes, rollers, or sponges and allow them to paint over their leaves. You will want to take the leaves off of the paper pretty quickly so that they don’t dry to the paper; voila! You have a leaf “resist” painting.

For a fine motor activity today, give each student a tree trunk, either precut or traced on a sheet of brown paper so that they can cut it out. Have the students glue the tree trunk to a background (e.g. a blue sheet of construction paper) and then have them tear or cut construction paper in fall colors into small bits and glue on and around the tree trunk to look like a tree that has lost its leaves.

For a “social studies” activity, you could practice raking leaves, either on the playground with real leaves, or in the classroom with fake leaves. Talk about the fact that there are people who do that as part of their job, but that most people rake their own leaves. Let each child have a turn; students who are not able to manipulate the rake independently can have physical assistance. I would recommend using a toy rake or a child-sized rake with a non-wooden handle to avoid splinters.

Please note that while some fine motor activities could also be considered “art”, fine motor activities are focused on specific skills using the small muscles of the hand, such as cutting, squeezing glue, and using a pincer grasp. Of course, art also addresses these skills, but fine motor activities tend to be more rigid with less choice involved in the finished product; art activities allow for more freedom and creative expression.

Also-this weekend I am planning to post some pictures of visuals that I use, such as a first/then board and an “I want” board to give a concrete example behind my suggestions!