Up here in the Rocky Mountains as August rolls into September the aspen trees are turning colors, the mornings are getting crisp and sweaters are starting to make an appearance. I would not be surprised if we get our first dusting of snow before the end of the month. Labor Day weekend is truly the end of summer up here and the perfect time for us to start school.
Fall 2025
September 8th is our official start to our preschool year. My daughter is turning 3 ½ soon and is eager to start “big kid school.” She likes to pretend some of her picture books are math books and will count random pictures in them. Imaginative play and messy play are her favorites. She also wants all of her siblings, i.e. an ever changing variety of dolls and stuffed animals, to join in for school.
Week One – The Work for a Turnip
This first week we will start with reading The Turnip (pg. 25) from our Preschool Play: Seasons of Wonder Coursebook | Oak Meadow. Considering this is right after Labor Day, I like the juxtaposition of the difficulty in getting a turnip out of the ground and the celebration of working people.
We will then sing the song The Turnip Man (pg. 27) and read the verse Mr. Finney (pg. 26). Neither have motions, so I am adding in some motions for us. My daughter loves stories, but she also has a strong need to move her body.
The Turnip Man
Put your hands out like a question
Pretend to pull a turnip x3
Put your hands out like a question
Pretend to pull a turnip
Point both thumbs at yourself
Give yourself a hug
Make a T with hands x3
Give yourself a hug
Make a T with hands
Point both thumbs at yourself
Repeat both verses
Second verse use your child’s first letter
Try to make it with your hands
Or draw it in the air
Mr. Finney
Pretend to pull a turnip
Show it growing between your hands x2
Point behind you
Hold out questioning hands & shake your head
Use your hands to show something growing x2
Put one hand up flat towards to ceiling for taller
Pretend to pull up a turnip
Put it aside
Gesture to the pretend turnip x2
Hold your nose
Pretend to wash the turnip
Pretend to put it in a pot
Shake the pot x2
Nod your head
Pretend to pick up the pot
Put it on a pretend table
Pretend to sit at a table
Pretend to eat x2
Hands out like a question
To finish up our first circle time we will be taking Oats, Peas, Beans & Barley (pg. 26) and turn it into a simple game. We will hold hands and turn around in a circle, reverse direction for two lines, then back the original way before falling to the floor.
For our first game day, we will be sorting veggies (pg. 31) then playing Animal Sounds (pr. 28). For veggies, I always have carrots, celery & lettuce in the fridge. I think I will see if I can find some purple cauliflower, leeks, turnips, beets & dinosaur kale. We will use all of my daughter’s play animals for the Animal Sounds game and have them make their sounds before putting them into her barn. There is also a Turnip, Turnip, Beet game in Preschool Play: Seasons of Wonder Coursebook | Oak Meadow, but it needs 3 or more people to play it.
For our second circle time, I will spend possibly hours cutting out the felt characters from The Turnip so we can bring the story to life on my daughter’s felt board. I will also ask her if she wants to tell the story after me using the felt pieces. We will repeat the song, verse and game from our first circle time, then I will let her continue to play with the felt pieces. They may or may not survive this play time, but hopefully I manage to wash some dishes while she is occupied.
For art, we will be doing Apple Star Prints (pg. 39) with very washable paint. Paint smocks and an easily cleaned floor are also necessary. We will sacrifice 2 apples with four paint colors. Their instructions make it sound like a very organized paint project with pretty prints of stars from apples. I plan to just let my daughter explore and paint how she wants to with complete abandon and possibly a large mess to clean up. It is much more fun this way. We will be using a large sheet of brown packing material paper to be used once dry in week three to make a kite with.
To supplement our main curriculum, we will be making Turnip Soup with Sourdough Bread one night as well as using all the vegetables in a variety of other recipes.
Week Two – Bringing in the Apples
For our second week, we will be reading the book Apple Farmer Annie (as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases) from our local library. We will follow this up with the song Way Up High in the Apple Tree (pg. 34) and The Farmer Plants the Seeds (pg. 27). Once again, I will be adding motions to engage my energetic three-year-old.
Way Up High in the Apple Tree
Stand up tall with my arms up high
Put my hands together to make an apple
Pretend to climb a tree
Pretend to listen & motion an apple falling
Put hands together to make an apple
Motion falling to the ground
(Repeat all motions)
The Farmer Plants the Seeds
Some motions provided
Third line – roll hands around each other & throw them up in the air
Repeat for each versus
For game day, we will play the Apple Game (pg. 38) and dance an apple dance. We will sing All Around the Apple Tree to the tune All Around the Mulberry Bush from the website myprekbox.com. We will be creating our own funny apple dance to sing to this song as we act out the motions.
For our second circle time, we will be reading Apple Farmer Annie (as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases) and sorting all the play food in my daughter’s kitchen just as Farmer Annie sorts her apples. Bonus is that the play kitchen will be getting a clean and reorganization out of this. Then we will finish up with the same songs, possibly while still sorting and cleaning.
Our activity for the week will be backing sourdough apple muffins. Preschool Play: Seasons of Wonder Coursebook | Oak Meadow has a recipe for Applesauce Muffins (pg. 46) and Apple Farmer Annie (as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases) has a recipe for Apple Muffins in the back of the book, but I adapted it for sourdough. Here is the recipe I will use:
Sourdough Apple Muffins
½ cup sourdough starter
2 cups flour
1 cup milk
2 eggs
4 tablespoons melted butter
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon allspice
½ teaspoon nutmeg
1 ½ cups peeled, chopped apple
I will feed my starter the evening before.
In the morning, we will mix the starter, flour and milk together until it forms a ball. I will leave it covered with saran wrap secured with a rubber band in a warm spot for at least 8 hours, though 6 hours would work. We live in a dry climate, so securing the bowl is important for it not to dry out.
After preparing our apples, we will add the eggs, butter and spices to the bowl. My daughter will help with stirring and adding ingredients. It might take a while for the original dough ball to relax and be incorporated into the other ingredients. We will add our apple last. I think we will use a sweeter apple for this recipe, like Pink Lady, since there will be no other sweeteners.
Then we will spoon our dough into our muffin tin and bake the muffins at 350℉ for about 25 minutes till the tops are golden brown.
To round out this week, we will take a field trip to the Farmer’s Market just in time before the end of the Farmer’s Market season in our area.
Week Three – Welcome in Fall
Fall is officially here this week and we will spend time putting out our fall decorations. In our home, we focus on the celebration of harvest rather than anything spooky, so our decorations are primarily pumpkins, scarecrows and apples.
This week we will be reading the book When Fall Comes: Connecting with Nature as the Days Grow Shorter from our local library. We will then do the verse Golden in the Garden (pg. 34) and Like a Leaf or a Feather (pg. 34). We will finish circle time with the verse Climbing Up the Apple Tree from myprekbox.com.
This week we will be doing our activity first because we will be making a kite. I used the book The Kids Nature Book: 365 Indoor/Outdoor Activities & Experiences for inspiration.
Instructions to Make a Kite
To make the kite, we will use an 18” square sheet of paper from some packing material that was decorated with apples the first week of circle, a 14” by 1½” strip of thin cardboard from our recycling and we will find a stick of roughly ⅛” diameter and cut it to be 18” long. We will also need scissors, tape, glue a strip of fabric, string and a second smaller stick to wrap the string around.
Fold the paper in half and measure the kite to be 18” long and 7” wide (14” with both halves) with the center being about a third of the way down between the two halves. Cut away the extra paper. Place the cardboard across the shorter side length, glue down and cut the edges to match the paper. Cut two 1” long holes on either side of the cardboard right in the middle.
Place the stick (or dowel) down the center of the cut and pass it through the two holes so the paper is under the stick and the cardboard passes over it. Glue and tape the stick down. Place tape along the edges of the kite to reinforce the paper. Cut the fabric into 3 to 5 small pieces to make bows for the tail.
Place a small hole at the end of the kite. Reinforce around it with tape. Tie an 8” piece of string to the end of the kite and knot each fabric piece along the length securely so they look like bows down the back. Tie a string to the piece of stick visible on the underside of the paper. Allow a decent amount of string for a kite and tie the end of the string to a smaller, and preferably thicker, stick. Wind the string around the stick and allow everything to dry.
For our second circle time, we will read our book again and say our verses. Then we too will get ready for winter. We will pack up my daughter’s summer shorts, shirts & dresses, then bring out the tub of 4T winter clothes I have saved up for her. Although she is three years old, she is on the tall side and already moving into 4T. She will help me change over her wardrobe just as the animals change their fur and get ready for winter.
For game day, we will play Find the Nut (pg. 37) in our backyard and then take our kite flying. Where we live we get lots of wind, so here is hoping this will be a windy day for our kite. For the game with nuts, I bought Diamond of California Mixed Nuts in the Shell 16oz . We also had a fun time looking at what each of the nuts looked like in their shell and we will use these for decorations.
Week Four – Let’s Get Ready for Fall with the Pumpkins
Now that fall is here, all the animals are very busy getting ready for a long winter ahead. Here in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado at nearly 9,000 feet elevation we often get our first dusting of snow in September and our last in May, possibly even June, but I refuse to acknowledge this as a possibility. Last winter we barely got any snow, but I’m predicting a very snowy winter this year with feet and feet of snow. Or at least I’m hoping for such.
First Snow Last Year October 13th
Circle time will start with reading the book Pumpkin Circle from our local library. Then we will act out the verse Two Little Hands (pg. 34) and sing Five Little Ducks (pg. 36). Sometimes our circle time will have counting songs out of order from our math curriculum and these songs will be approached in a playful manner rather than expecting my daughter to count backwards along with the song. We will finish up with Falling Apples to the tune of London Bridges from myprekbox.com.
For our game day, we will be doing a Discovery Scavenger Hunt (pg. 39) at our local park. Our park has a lovely hill next to it with pine trees and a small gazebo at the top, as well as an open field that is supposed to be a baseball field, but I’ve never seen it used as such. I will make a scavenger hunt for my three-year-old to find 10 nature items using a sheet with drawings on it. I will share it once it is created. We will also be collecting large flat rocks to bring home. They don’t particularly want rocks on the baseball field anyway.
Our second circle time we will reread our book and sing our songs. Then we will be planting daffodil bulbs in front of our house and talking about the cycle with bulbs growing. We will have to wait patiently to see if any of the daffodils grow and bloom in the spring.
For our activity, we will be painting rocks to go around our patch of daffodil bulbs. Preschool Art explains how to do rock painting on page 39. We don’t have tempera paints, much less clear acrylic craft paint, so we will just use our washable fingerpaints and our rocks will wash clean over time around our daffodils. This just means we will be able to paint them again next year, maybe this time using the correct paint.
This is everything I have planned for our main block of preschool for the month of September. I will update this as we go through everything and see if everything turns out. I will also show on instagram our many projects and their outcomes.
Happy planning!
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