Homeschool: Fall Leaves (Week 5)
We just completed our fourth week of homeschool. You can view our daily schedule (including which curriculum we use for math and reading) by clicking the link. Below you'll find the art and science activities we did this week - focusing on The Fall Harvest.
- Book: Leaf Jumpers by Carole Gerber or Autumn Leaves by Ken Robbins
- Activity: Make a Leaf Rubbing Book
- Supplies: Leaf Rubbing Book PDF, Leaves, White Print Paper & Crayons
- Focus: Parts of a leaf (stem, veins)
After reading our books, we went on a leaf hunt outside. We looked for different shapes, sizes and colors of leaves and placed our favorites in a brown paper sack. Once we got home, I showed my boys how to make leaf rubbings. Flip a leaf over and place it underneath thin printer paper (I used half sheets of paper, so we could staple the finished leaf rubbing together to make a book). Rub the side of a crayon over the leaf to make a print as shown below.
TUESDAY:
- Book: Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert (optional: Look What I Did with a Leaf by Mortezi E Sohi)
- Activity: "Look what I did with a leaf.."
- Supplies: Leaf PDF, leaves, glue (optional: acorns, sticks or pinecones)
After reading our books, we went outside and found leaves in our backyard. They boys got ideas from the books we read and both wanted to make turtles out of the leaves they found. Even though they both made turtles, they turned out so differently. I glued my leaves into a lion.
WEDNESDAY:
- Book: Why Do Leaves Change Color? by Betsy Maestro
- Activity: Leave Chromatography
- Supplies: Cups, Rubbing Alcohol, Leaves, Coffee Filters
From our book, we learned that leaves already have shades of yellow or red in them, they are just hidden from all the green chlorophyll. We wanted to prove this. We found a different few leaves outside, cut them up and placed them in rubbing alcohol. Then, we place a coffee filter in the cup as shown below.
After a day, the coffee filters looked like this.. You can see the shades of yellow and brown.
After a day, the coffee filters looked like this.. You can see the shades of yellow and brown.
THURSDAY:
- Book: Leaves by Ezra David Stein
- Activity: Fall Tree Craft
- Supplies: White Printer Paper, Construction Paper (green, brown, yellow), Tissue Paper (yellow, red and/or orange), Glue, Scissors, Cotton Balls
After reading our book, we made a fall tree craft. I traced my boy's arm and hand to make the tree trunk and then they cut it out. Then we added the grass (also cut by the boys), sun, and clouds. Next, we added the tissue paper leaves. Again, everyone's turned out differently. My four didn't want any leaves. My five drew a squirrel in his tree.
FRIDAY:
- Book: Hello Autumn by Shelley Rotner
- Activity: Fall Leaf Slime
- Supplies: 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup glue, glitter or food coloring (optional), saline solution (must contain boric acid and/or sodium borate), 1/2 tsp baking soda, acrylic leaves
After reading our book, we made fall leaf slime. Here's what to do:
- Mix 1/2 cup water + 1/2 cup glue + food coloring (optional) + glitter (optional) in a bowl until well combined.
- Mix 1/2 tsp. baking soda.
- Add in saline solution (this is the one we used). You basically add this in a little at a time and knead the slime together until it thickens and is no longer sticky. The recipe we used called for 1 Tablespoon, but I bet we ended up using a 1/4 cup or possibly more. It depends on which saline solution/contact solution brand.
This kids helped me make the slime and we had a lot of fun. This is one of those activities that took 5-10 minutes to put together, but we played for over an hour. Our favorite thing to do was add straws to make slime bubbles. You can see the slime is really stretchy, not sticky, and gets those creativity gears moving. I loved my fours "monster" he mad (see below).
Other Ideas: The Magic School Bus Gets Planted (photosynthesis)
