Fall Printables

Fall is a good time to be a teacher. There are so so many things you can do that are theme related in every subject. The colors are bright and vibrant making all the children's pages look fun! In my homeschool I use a lot of printables off the computer. If a child needs a practice sheet on a certain subject I can print one off with a theme or season picture on it. Today I thought I'd share a few of those resources with you.

I'm not big on the Halloween themed printables but I do use the fall and Thanksgiving ones. In so doing the Halloween ones pop up on the same pages. If a link leads you to one of those pages just know that I am not advocating the use of goblins and witches. The link is there to take you to the autumn pages. This first one leads to a teachers website with all sorts of themed worksheets. I think you will find it fun and well worth a peek. Free themed worksheets for the seasons

Here is a book on the life cycle of a pumpkin. We are including this in our Pumpkin Lapbook, put together by the 5 to 8 year olds. How a pumpkin Grows This is another cute one on the seasons that will be included in the lapbook. Months of Fall When I actually post the lapbook pics these will be repeated.

Here at Kidzone are all sorts of autumn themed pages on subjects for all grades. Another great site is found here. I think some of the worksheets on this site you might need a subscription to print properly. And do not miss these wonderful, colored autumn worksheets at Kidsnetwork. They are far the younger set and they have everything from handwriting worksheets, to Math, to finding the difference. Its an adorable set of worksheets all with acorns and pumpkins and leaves.

Sometimes the workbooks get long and tedious and computer games just never are as fun to do as a real worksheet. I'm getting more and more disillusioned with the computer as a source for online learning games. By the time you find the game and set the child up and explain how it is done they could have completed half the work on paper in most cases.

Lately it seems like everywhere I turn I hear someone say that they just need to find a great online game for their child who is struggling in some area. No you don't. Use tangible sensory things that they can touch and feel and use time after time. Use things from nature like counting real acorns and pebbles, and drawing leaves by tracing ones you have gathered. And when all else fails don't forget the wonderful sense of accomplishment that can be achieved through a nicely colored, themed worksheet... a worksheet that a child can take pride in.

Pumpkins Everywhere

Today my K-2nd graders started their pumpkin lapbooks. They are simple ones but, oh so reminiscent of fall and everything it meant to us "back when". We also made Calendars for the month of October and each child wrote the dates in their own calender made from card stock. We worked with the letter P for pumpkin and illustrated mini pumpkin books for the lapbook. We studied chipmunks with the use of a picture I had taken from the kids, Backyard magazine and mounted on card stock.

We learned that a chipmunk can carry 4 acorns in each cheek pouch and one in his teeth. That little nugget gave us not only a Science lesson but a Math lesson as well. The kids figured the acorns in the chipmunks mouth much quicker than they would have if the problem were written on a paper.

I love this time of year. It makes it so easy to plan lessons. I will post pics and links to our pumpkin lapbook when it's done. I love lapbooking especially at the younger ages! So stay tuned here for an update.