Honestly? I wasn’t ready to dive into all things fall just yet, but when we returned home from our Seattle and Vancouver trip to freezing cold weather (we’re talking zero overnight and 4 degrees by the time we were heading off to school), I decided we’d better get on it in case we skip fall altogether this year and transition straight into winter {fingers crossed that DOES. NOT. HAPPEN.} So today, while Sam and I were out on our morning walk / scoot, we kept our eyes peeled for beautiful fall leaves and collected them in a little bag along the way. Once we got home, we rinsed them off, dried them, and put them to work in all kinds of really fun, really simple activities, one of which was this fall leaf colour sort.
Here’s what we found… There wasn’t ton of colourful leaves on the ground just yet, but we still managed to find several leaves in browns, reds, oranges, yellows, and greens which was good enough for us!
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Now just for fun, we decided to do this little activity in our beloved Ikea sensory table… When we were down in Vancouver, I picked up 4 of the smallest TROFAST bins with sorting activities just like this in mind (previously we just had the 2 larger bins) and they worked perfectly. I folded pieces of brown, red, orange, and yellow card stock in half, pressed them down into the base of the bins, and our fall leaf colour sorting game was ready to go!
That being said, you certainly don’t need a fancy sensory play table for this activity… You can just as easily tape 4 pieces of card stock or construction paper to the table or floor or use a set of 4 bowls or containers. Work with what you have on hand!
Next up, I set the leaves around the edges of the table and invited Sam to come and take a look.
Given that he’s 3 {soon turning 4} and we’ve done plenty of sorting activities (our car and truck colour sorting was one of his faves), this leaf colour sort was a total breeze for him even though I wondered if a few of the leaves might be a little tricky….
They weren’t (hah!) He basically moved at this speed until every last leaf was in the bin of the corresponding colour.
Sorting is such an important skill and building block for other future skills that I absolutely would not consider something like this – something that’s really “easy” for him – a waste of time. Reinforcement is super important for kiddos and “easy” activities are excellent for building confidence, so go on and do those too easy activities anyways!
See that yellow and read leaf over the edge of the table? When activities are fairly easy for your little one, it’s a great opportunity to guide the learning a little further, really discuss what’s happening, and model new language. When Sam decided that that leaf should go in the yellow bin (I would have done the same), I said, “Oh interesting. How did you decide to put that leaf in the yellow container?” We then went onto to talk about how it’s MOSTLY yellow, more yellow than red, even though the TIP is red, etc. and it was the perfect chance to reflect on his choice and use some comparison language in our conversation.
Here’s a peek at the other two fun little things we used our leaves for…
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This simple leaf matching game from Little Pine Learners…
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And our super simple fall leaf crown from years past. {Isn’t he darling?? I just want to smush on him!}
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{aqua car makes a reappearance}
