Tiny Hands Big Ideas

Below I have included some simple activities that we have been doing to go along with our Fall Themed Story Time. Hope you enjoy!

Let It Fall by Maryann Cocca-Leffler

This book is all about different Fall activities and is a great way to introduce what Fall is all about. We like to visit the pumpkin patch and cider mill every year and we read this book before we go. One of the activities we do at home is collecting some different colored leaves before they get raked up. 🙂 We call this our Fall Sensory Bucket. Hang onto those leave because we will be using them for an art project later. Being outside collecting leaves give us the chance to talk about the different colors, the wind and how it blows leaves off the trees. We try to go out on a windy day so Babs can actually see this happen. We also talk about what it feels like outside in the fall. It sounds simple but she had a blast talking and collecting different colored leaves.

Materials Needed

Book: Let It Fall by Maryann Cocca-Leffler

Clear container with lid

A place to collect leaves (backyard or park)

The Leaves are Falling One by One by Steven Metzger Illustrated by Miriam Sagasti

We sing this book to the tune of The Ants Go Marching. You can find it on YouTube if you are unsure of the tune. 🙂 I cut out 10 leaves from Fall colored construction paper. As we sing the book/song I have her put one more leaf in a bucket and I dump them on her during the “leaves are falling” part. We also created our own motions for the words; falling, flying, and hurrah. This helps get Babs involved because it is a long book.

Materials Needed

Book: The Leaves are Falling One by One by Steven Metzger Illustrated by Miriam Sagasti

Construction paper leaves (made ahead of time)

small bucket or container

One Windy Day by Tammi Salzano Illustrated by Hannah Wood

This book is not specifically about Fall (but there are some pretty fall leaves in the book). It is a simple book that works on language concepts that are often difficult for toddlers to understand such as; over, under, near, far, high, low, etc. It is about a mailman and how the wind blows all the mail in different directions. When we read this book I give Babs and envelope and she moves the envelope in the different directions as we read it. When we first started I also imitated the actions with an envelope so she could learn and understand them. I also turned one of our box fans on to mimic the wind in the book. She loves the wind in her face and thinks this part if extremely funny!

Materials Needed

Book: One Windy Day by Tammi Salzano Illustrated by Hannah Wood

envelope

box fan (optional)

The clothes pin pinch is an activity that work on fine motor skills. I happened to have some clothes pins around the house. You could use the colored plastic ones to add some more learning opportunities to the activity. Babs has always been a kid who loves to figure out how things work so she really enjoyed this activity. She still uses both hands to pinch the clothes pin but that’s okay! It all about practicing and having fun! I keep showing her how to do it with one hand and she tries for a while. 🙂 We used one of my kitchen mixing bowls that has a lid so we can keep it out for a few weeks and work on it. The key to this activity is let your child explore the clothes pin before you try to show them how to do the activity. If this is something they have never seen before they will be curious about the clothes pin… I know Babs was. It was useless trying to get her attention while she was figuring out what this thing I keep calling a clothes pin was…lol! You want to work on them pinching the clothes pin and clipping it to the edge of the bowl. When they have finished they can unclip them and put them inside of the bowl.

Materials Needed

Bowl

clothes pins