fall learning activity

Today, I had a good idea. We were outside (Praise God, the rain has finally let up and it is beautiful here today), playing in the leaves when we started collecting some pretty ones to use in upcoming projects. Emerson helped me find some interesting ones, and we brought them inside. My plan is to make a turkey using leaves for the tail feathers, as well as use some in a texture collage. But, it occurred to me that I didn't need to wait to do crafts to benefit from our haul. We did a color sort using the leaves! Sorting is a great activity for toddlers, as it stimulates their mathematical thinking (see, that's the teacher in me coming out). Plus, it reinforced her concept of colors with real-world examples that are not always as clear-cut as a box of Crayolas. Translation: she had to actually think about where to put some of them. She loved it! Here's the proof...