Book of the week
The Leaf Thief by Alice Hemming and Nicola Slater.
Synopsis
Squirrel is so cross. Yesterday there were loads of beautiful leaves on his tree, but today? Today some are missing and Squirrel is convinced that someone has stolen them... there's a leaf thief on the loose!
Join Squirrel on a mission to find the culprit, and meet so many fun animals on the way, while you find out how the world takes on different colours as the months pass by.
Weekly Activities
Now that Autumn is upon us and the weather is starting to change, we wanted to embrace the windy days by making wind chimes and decorations. The children achieved this in a few different ways:-
Paper plates. The children cut out the middle of a paper plate and used sticky backed plastic to stick brightly coloured leaves and the small round dots from a hole punch in the middle of the plate. They punched more holes in the bottom of the plate and hung some leaves on string that would blow in the wind.
Sticks and string. The children started by helping to design their wind chimes on a piece of paper. Once happy with the design we asked them to find a medium length stick. We used some coloured string and tied it to the top of the stick leaving the remainder to hang down. The children used the hole punch to make a couple of holes in some brightly coloured leaves and then threaded the hanging string through the 2 holes. We helped them to tie a knot at the end to prevent the leaf from falling off. Some children also used stones or small pieces of wood as well as leaves. We then helped the children tie another length of string to each end of their stick to hang the wind chime from.
Conkers, leaves and string. The children drilled holes in some conkers, used a hole punch to make holes in some leaves and then threaded them onto a piece of string. They also attached a small stick to the top so they could hang it.
Aims and Objectives
Explore natural materials
Explore and respond to different natural phenomena in their setting
Develop hand-eye co-ordination
Develop manipulation and control
Home Activity
Why not make the most of the falling autumn leaves by making a leaf mobile?
Collect some brightly coloured, different size leaves (try to collect fairly fresh leaves that aren't too brittle) and a thin stick. Let your child push the leaves onto the stick one at a time (this exercise is great for improving fine motor skills). Help tie some wool or string to one end and there you have it - a really simple but effective leaf mobile you child can hang up and watch blow in the autumn wind.
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