Happy Fall, Y'all!

I just LOVE fall - the weather, the foods (hooray for pumpkin spice!), the cozy clothes, the football games, the holidays (including hubby and I’s anniversary)!  And even more, I love how teaching little ones makes the season and holidays much more exciting!  Our first grade curriculum naturally lends itself to some seriously fun fall activities that may just be my favorite part of the year.  

Our school has a Fall Festival, where the kids dress in western attire and perform square dances that they learn in music class.  This takes the place of a Halloween celebration, which I consider part bummer and part blessing.  After all, as cute as my kiddos would be in their Halloween costumes, getting 20 of them in and out of those costumes would probably be pretty crazy!  So, we do the dancing thing and spend the rest of the day with fall-themed read alouds, crafts, movies, and treats.  Works for me! :)

Another fall favorite coming up is our field trip to the Pumpkin Farm.  The kiddos get to take home a pumpkin from the patch and learn about other fall crops.  To prepare them for the trip, our October science lessons are centered around the life cycle of a pumpkin.  In  math, our school curriculum features lessons with apples, using them to learn about counting, addition, graphing and the fraction one-half.  It's all just so festive! :)

 

We kicked off our fall activities this past week with a few fun apple lessons, including this awesome applesauce tasting activity from Melissa at Mrsfreshwatersclass.com.  Thanks for a great freebie, Melissa!  My kids (of course) loved it!

Applesauce tasting.  What a hard day's work. ;)

Choosing their favorite!

Our graph.  Cinnamon was the clear winner!

Stay tuned for more fun fall favorites!