Another First! (Day of Fall)

Yesterday was the first day of Fall! It's hard to believe summer is officially over, especially when we have been having such lovely weather. We celebrated on the playground yesterday, with an impromptu leaf gathering before we came inside after second activity break. I wasn't sure how this would go, it being only our third day of Kindergarten and all, but the littles did great! I asked them to each collect five *fallen* leaves (some got five, some got twenty five, some got one, it was great!) and then we brought them inside. After overcoming the challenge of taking off our outdoor shoes while still holding our leaves ("No, Mrs. Chubey can't hold all your leaves"), we headed back to class.
My original plan was to have each student do their own individual leaf rubbings, but then I remembered that it was the third day of Kindergarten. Instead, I set up a centre and had the kidlets put all of their leaves in the middle of one table.

Leaf Rubbing Centre

I did one demonstration and told the students that during choice time, the leaf rubbing centre would be open for whomever would like to try. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the table was full or almost full for the entire length of choice time.

Student/Teacher joint effort demonstration

There was definitely some trial and error involved, but I was impressed with some of the perseverance that I saw. One student sat at that table for the full choice period. For the longest time, her paper looked as if she was just colouring the paper, with nothing underneath. Slowly but surely, she figured out the technique and near the end of the period, she came over to me, absolutely beaming. The picture below is the paper she was holding in her hands!  I was so excited and proud. 

The finished product!

The leaf rubbing centre was absolutely a hit! Integrating nature centres into our choice and centre time in Kindergarten will definitely be continued in the future, often.