Autumn is a season of many changes as the world begins to rest. With help from parents and caregivers, preschoolers will be able to learn many thing and develop new skills during the changing autumn months. This is a complete preschool unit study based on the Fall season and holidays for math, science, art, music, language skills, food, outdoor activities and more.
Fall Math Idea for Toddlers
Early math skills for toddlers are a lot of manipulatives and learning basic skills, so using fall-themed items for math lessons will keep the season in the mind of preschoolers. Try collecting acorns and use them for simple addition and subtraction skills. See a sample math lesson that is easily adapted to using fall berries, acorns or other fall items.
Another simple math concept preschoolers must grasp is size and measurements. Show your toddlers several pumpkins, some small and miniature in size and gradually getting larger. Let the children arrange them by size and show them how to measure the pumpkins with tape measures.
Autumn Music Idea for Toddlers
Toddlers always seem fascinated by the colorful leaves autumn brings so celebrate that in song by singing the “Autumn Leaves” song to the tune of “Are you Sleeping Brother John?”
“Leaves are falling – Leaves are falling On the ground – On the ground Autumn days are coming – Autumn days are coming All around – All around. Verses: Red leaves falling (repeat each line)On the ground
Autumn days are coming
All around”
Use different colors to add more verses so your preschoolers can all take turns singing.
Fall Science Idea for Preschoolers
Talk with the preschoolers about how leaves change colors. A balmy autumn day is perfect for collecting leaves and letting the kids glue a leaf collection together. Try collecting other fall nature items like berries, seeds, seedpods, acorns, nuts and leaves.
Autumn Art Lesson for Toddlers
Toddlers can cut out colorful leaf shapes in various shades of construction to create their own mosaic leaf pile. Let them learn how to glue each leaf onto their paper until they’ve created a nice, autumn leaf pile!
Fall Food Idea for Preschoolers
Fall is the time of apple harvest and it would be fun for preschoolers to learn that apples come in different colors and that different apples have different tastes. Try cutting up several types of apples and letting the toddlers try the different kinds of apples.
Outdoor Autumn Activities for Toddlers
One of the classic sights of autumn for many people is seeing geese fly south in large “V” shaped columns in the sky. Explain about bird migration to your toddlers and let them play “Follow the Leader” goose style – have a “lead” bird and then two lines of preschoolers behind in a V shape. Most young children already know the rules of follow the leader – whatever the leader does, the other children mimic.
Fall Themed Indoor Games
As autumn days get colder some fun indoor activities might be easier for your toddlers. Try some free-movement exercise while reciting the “Leaf Dance” poem:
• “Leaves are floating softly down,
• They make a carpet on the ground.
• Then ‘Swish!’, the wind comes sweeping by
• And sends them dancing to the sky.”
See more Preschool Season Unit Studies.
