Happy Tuesday, folks!

This week, we begin our exploration of the letter F!  Yesterday, we collaged very large cardboard “turkey feathers” using a variety of red materials.  We’ll create feathers in yellow, orange, and green later this week.  Today we investigated those silly things that keep falling off the trees: Leaves!

The Tugboats examined a collection of dried leaves and practiced describing their colors and shapes.  Our first task was to sort the leaves by color.  Many of the leaves were more than one color, while others were completely different colors on one side than on the other.  What a challenge!  After we had sorted the leaves, we investigated them as a group, counting each group, and determined that some leaves could simply be counted in multiple groups.

Once we had mastered color-sorting and counting, the group began sorting by shape.  Each bin was labeled with the traced outline of the 4 different types of leaves in the pile.  The children selected leaves, then held them up to the 4 outlines, testing to see which leaves fit in which bins.

These sorting activities help the children develop fine motor skills as they carefully pick up the leaves without crushing or breaking them, often by the tiny little stem.  They also foster pre-math skills like categorization.  They begin to understand that while the entire group is one large category of leaves, they also fall into smaller categories by color, shape, and size.  Changing the category changes how they are sorted, but does not change the fact that they are leaves.  In addition, it’s super fun!