As Summer Gently Turns to Fall

As our mealworm friends remain inside their pupae, quietly experiencing the process of transformation, we turn our attention to the leaves outdoors. While the mealworms are changing within their protective pupal cases, the leaves also remind us that transformation is a natural and ongoing part of life. Observing these changes encourages us to slow down, notice what is happening around us, and appreciate the different stages of growth taking place in nature.

When asked what we think is happening to the leaves outdoors, Luka immediately connects their changing appearance to the changing season. He simply observes, "It is changing from summer to fall." His response shows how he is making connections between the changes he notices in nature and the seasonal cycle. As we observe the leaves changing colour and beginning to fall, we are reminded that, just like our mealworm friends inside their pupae, nature is constantly undergoing processes of change and transformation.

In Leo Lionni's The Alphabet Tree, the little letters live happily on the leaves of an alphabet tree until a fierce wind threatens to blow them away. At first, the letters are frightened because each one is alone and too weak to resist the wind. A wise word-bug teaches them that they can become stronger by joining together to form words. Later, they learn to join their words together to create sentences and discover that their message can be even stronger.

Rebecca illustrates this important idea by connecting her hands together. Her gesture represents the letters bonding with one another and becoming stronger as a group. Just as individual letters become meaningful when they form words and sentences, people can also accomplish more when they cooperate and support one another. The connected hands therefore symbolize unity, cooperation, and strength through togetherness. This reflects the main message of Lionni's story: when we stand together, our voice can become powerful enough to overcome even when the strongest challenges.

As we are pretending to be wise word-bugs like from the book, we help leaves to join together to form words. Luka chooses a first letter U by his choice and we think what word we can form with other alphabets. We find a word 'bug' in the book. ​

Luka understands which alphabets he needs to help and picks G and B one after another. Then he checks the order of the word in the book and lines the alphabets on our pretended tree. As Rebecca is more interested in creating her own word, she picks three alphabets by her choice. She thinks how to put them together to make a form word. Her way of helping leaves is creative as it makes  unique sound. Anthony finds A and T saying "I found my A and T." which he tries to express his name has these letters. We ask him what letter helps A and T to form a word, and his answer is "I don't know." So we check the book again and find a word 'cat'. He helps the leaves with missing letter C by using a different material since a leaf with C is already placed. 

Through our everyday learning experiences, we have opportunities to explore numbers and quantity alongside developing their literacy awareness. As we engage in stories, songs, conversations, mark-making, and play, we may begin to notice connections between letters, words, numbers, and quantities.

For example, while exploring number names, we may recognize familiar letters within words such as one, two, or three. We may count objects, match quantities to numerals, notice the order of numbers, and explore the letters and sounds that make up number words. These experiences allow us to move naturally between mathematical and literacy concepts.

Rather than learning literacy and numeracy as separate areas, we can experience them as interconnected parts of their learning. Through playful exploration, we develop an awareness that symbols, words, numbers, and quantities can communicate meaning in different ways. Our questions, observations, and discoveries provide opportunities to deepen both our mathematical thinking our emerging literacy skills.

At the same time, Leanna and Fia set off on an exciting outdoor adventure. Each girl carries a little handbag, ready to collect the interesting treasures they discover along the way. 

Leanna reaches out to the evergreen branches, smiling as the soft, prickly leaves gently brush against her hands. She loves exploring their different textures with her fingers. She also takes a deep breath and enjoys the fresh, earthy scent of the evergreen trees, filling the air around her,

Beside her, Fia discovers a path covered with cemented pebbles. Curious, she kneels down and gently touches them with the tips of her fingers, noticing how hard, bumpy, and rough they feel.

Together, the girls continue exploring, using their sense of touch and smell to discover the little wonders hidden all around them.

Aarohi watches with curiosity as the water flows gently through the clear hose. Mesmerized by its movement, she follows the stream with her eyes, fascinated by how the water twists and turns inside the transparent tube. Her sense of wonder grows as she observes the simple yet captivating flow.

Leanna, on the other hand, is more intrigued by the movement of an object floating on the water. She watches closely as it drifts and moves with the gentle flow, showing curiosity about how the water carries the object from one place to another.

When we engage with water through everyday hands-on experiences, our understanding of its properties, movement, and possibilities becomes increasingly deeper and more meaningful. As Aarohi observes the flow of water through the clear hose and Leanna watches an object float and move across the water, they are developing curiosity, making observations, and beginning to form theories about how and why things happen.

Through these meaningful, everyday experiences, we are not only exploring water, we are developing the language, concepts, and ways of thinking that will continue to support our learning across literacy and numeracy in the future.

Kindest,
Children & Friends.