As I look at the changing aspen leaves around me and breathe in the cold morning air, I am reminded that another year is coming to a close. The time from September to the end of December always seems to go so very fast like a stone gaining speed going down a slope. In another week or two right as October starts, the aspens will be glorious sights of golden wonder. But by Halloween, the trees will be bare like skeletons reaching for the sky with a blanket of brown leaves and snow on the ground. Our October preschool will be a celebration of the change of seasons, but also a reminder of the closing of the year.
As we have been going through my September preschool plan, I am getting a better feel for what works and what doesn’t work. Having a separate game day does not seem to work as well, so I am putting more games into our circle time for October preschool and creating more of an activity day.
For our October preschool, the focus will be on the changing of the seasons, how animals around us are preparing for winter and our own winter preparations. We will be working on making our home cozy and warm for the winter, while welcoming in Halloween.
We focus on the aspects of Halloween that embrace the harvest and change of the seasons, rather than anything spooky. Since we are already no-screen at home, there is very little exposure to the spookier aspects of the holidays and that seems best for such a young age.
Week 1: Preparing for Winter
First Circle Time
We will start our first full week of October preschool with reading the story Striped Chipmunk’s Special Surprise (pg. 51) from our Preschool Play: Seasons of Wonder Coursebook | Oak Meadow. We will follow this with the verse Chipmunk, Chipmunk (pg. 53), which I will provide motions for. I will show my child once, then we will do it together. Then we will act out the verse Chipmunk Play (pg. 53), where we will add some counting while putting small “jewels” into my chipmunk hole before ending by pretending to fall asleep on the floor. I will invite my child to be the chipmunk counting her nuts after me.
Chipmunk, Chipmunk motions
Stand up and put your hands up like tiny paws at armpit height
Rush over to stand by the window
Look into one hand pretending to hold an acorn
Put your hands up like tiny paws at armpit height
Dash around the room
Put your hands up in a questioning manner
Put your hands up like tiny paws at armpit height
Rush over to the couchPut your hands up like tiny paws at armpit height
Rush over to your child to tickle them.
We will end our time with playing the Imitation Game (pg. 60) to work out all of our wiggles. We will be adding “jumping like a frog” and “hopping like a bunny.”
Second Circle Time
The following day, we will have our second circle time. I think it will work better to have our two circle times next to each other to really sink into the stories we read. This time we will be using our felt board (pg. 55 with templates in the back of the book) to act out the story from the day before. I will tell it first, then I will encourage my daughter to tell the story with the felt pieces.
I will encourage my daughter to do both verses from the day before with me. We will most likely do each verse just one time, unless she wants more.
We will end with playing the game Ring Around the Acorn (adapted from Ring Around the Rosie). We will put the felt acorns on the floor and hold hands while going around them and singing.
Ring Around the Acorns
Ring around the acorns
A pocket full of leaves
Golden, golden
We all fall down!
We will play this game as many times as my daughter wants, well maybe cutting her off after about a dozen times, before allowing her to play with the felt pieces as she chooses.
Activity Day
For our activity day for October preschool, we will be going on a nature walk where there are many aspen trees. In our area, these are really the only deciduous trees. We will collect bright aspen leaves and pinecones to fill a basket for the center of our table. We will add the felt pieces from our story and anything else autumn themed my daughter wants to add to create a centerpiece.
In Preschool Play: Seasons of Wonder Coursebook | Oak Meadow there are suggestions for Jumping in Leaves and Sorting Leaves that would be a great idea for other families, but in our area, neither activity is feasible.
Art Day
For our art day, we will be Painting Leaves (pg. 61). We will use our finger paints for more vivid colors rather than water colors. We will hang our finished leaves above our doorway on string and tape them to the corners off our front windows for decoration.
Week 2: The Leaves Are Falling
First Circle Time
We will start circle time for our October preschool by reading We’re Going on a Leaf Hunt (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.). This will be followed with the verse Autumn Winds (pg. 58) and Down, Down, Yellow and Brown (pg. 58) using a yellow scarf. We will end with the song Five Little Leaves So Bright and Gay (pg. 59).
Second Circle Time
For our second circle time, we will be going to another area up in our Rocky Mountains that has aspen trees. We will sing the song We’re Going on a Leaf Hunt from the book while collecting leaves. Then repeat the verses and song from our first circle time outside. We will use actual leaves for the final song and count them as they fall off the tree.
Art Day
The following day we will switch up our activity and art day to have our art day first as we will be doing Leaf Prints (pg. 62). We don’t have any ferns for fern prints and we will be using regular crayons on their sides rather than block crayons.
Activity Day
On the last day we will be making Harvest Soup (pg. 67) to celebrate our October preschool. My daughter will practice chopping using her child’s knife. It does not work well on harder vegetables, like carrots, or slippery vegetables, like onions, but it will work great on celery and peppers if I cut them long first. We won’t be using the exact recipe suggested, rather we will be using this recipe:
Chicken Harvest Soup
2 tablespoons butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
6 poblano peppers, chopped
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
4 cups chicken broth or bone broth
1 pound chicken, pre-cooked and chopped
1 cup cream
2 cups mild cheddar cheese, grated
In a large pot, melt the butter and sauté the garlic, onion, celery and poblano peppers for 15 minutes until fragrant and soft.
Add the salt, pepper and broth. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes.
Add the cooked chicken, cream and cheese. Cook for 5 more minutes until melted.
Serve.
Optional Field Trip
This week we will also be going to a local pumpkin patch for our October preschool with some friends of ours. We will be getting at least 5 pumpkins for next week. Pumpkin patches are perfect for celebrating the harvest season with petting farms, corn stalk mazes, hay bales, sack slides and all the pumpkins.
Week Three: Learning About Pumpkins
First Circle Time
For our circle time we will be reading Every Autumn Comes the Bear (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.). As we say goodnight for the winter to our bears in the woods, who also like our trashcans, this is a perfect book. We will follow this with the verse Apples Hanging on the Trees (pg. 53) and go through all the tree fruit of autumn. Then we will sing Oh, How Lovely is the Evening (pg. 59) together and Skidamarink (pg. 53) with these added motions.
Skidamarink motions
Slide to the right
Slide to the left
Hug yourself and point at your child!
Wave your hands above your head
Wave your hands down low
Pretend to sleep
Look up with your hands making a large circle
Slide to the right
Slide to the left
Grab your child and swing them in a circle!
Second Circle Time
We will read our book Every Autumn Comes the Bear again and use my daughter’s play tent to make a cave for our teddy bears to sleep all winter long. It will be up to her to make them all cozy with blankets and pillows to sleep the whole winter long. We will follow this up with our verse and songs.
Activity Day
Today is pumpkin carving day. I have a pumpkin carving kit from past Halloweens that I will bring out. I’m excited to have my daughter able to participate more than last year. She will work on scooping out the innards and we may bake the pumpkin seeds. I will do the cutting, but she will pick out the design. Then we will see how our pumpkins glow.
Art Day
For our October preschool art day, we will be using wet chalk on black construction paper. The wet chalk makes such vivid colors and shows up beautifully on the black paper. We will use colored and white chalk with a jar of water to dip them in. These should make some beautiful art for our walls.
Week Four: Pumpkin Time
First Circle Time
For this Halloween preschool week, we will be reading the book Pick a Pumpkin (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases). We will follow this with the verse Golden in the Garden (pg. 59) with added motions.
Golden in the Garden
Look out the window with hand over the eyes looking
Look the other direction with your other hand over your eyes to look
Wave your hands in front of you like leaves fluttering on a branch
Give yourself, or your child, a bug hug
Point and look out the window
Point and look at the sky
Flutter fingers like falling leaves
Point your thumb over your shoulder
Then we will do the fun verse Five Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate (pg. 58). This is such a sweet poem and we will use our jack-o-lantern and 4 other pumpkins for the poem. We will do this poem with the hand motions provided and then do it again with the pumpkins. I will light a candle for the jack-o-lantern and we will have the ‘wind’ blow it out.
Second Circle Time
We will start our circle time by lighting the candle in our jack-o-lantern and reading Pick a Pumpkin (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases) again. Then we will repeat the verses Golden in the Garden (pg. 59) with motions and act out Five Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate (pg. 58) with our pumpkins. Just some simple repetition to welcome in Halloween at the end of this week.
Activity Day
We will spend our activity day perfecting my daughter’s Halloween costume. She wants to be a fairy princess this year, so we have a princess dress, wings and a wand. We will make sure they are all clean and ready for Halloween. We will check the weather for Halloween and talk about appropriate clothing. Then pick out the layers for her costume that we will need. Everything will be set aside to stay safe for Halloween.
We will also be making her a crown for her costume. I have shiny gold and silver tissue paper that we are going to cut into stars. I will do the tracing and cutting. My daughter will then glue each shiny star to a cardboard star, and we will glue all of them to a felt headband for a star crown.
Art Day
For our art day, we will be painting mini pumpkins. We will be using washable paints since this can be a bit messy and I anticipate painted hands. This will be a fun final pumpkin project before Halloween.
All of this will be so fun for us to do together to celebrate October and the changing of the seasons. I can’t wait till we get to do all of these stories and activities, but right now we are still busy enjoying our September preschool plan.
Happy October.
Our September Preschool Plan – Apples & Fall Delight – hummingbirdhomelife.com
Preschool Essentials: Stories and Activities Overview – hummingbirdhomelife.com
Free September Preschool Math Curriculum – hummingbirdhomelife.com
Join Us for a Free Preschool Math Curriculum – hummingbirdhomelife.com
How I am gently teaching my preschooler German – hummingbirdhomelife.com
Building Executive Functioning Skills in My Preschooler – hummingbirdhomelife.com
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