Though the weather here in Saxapahaw can't seem to figure out what season we are in, the cues of mother nature speak loud and clear. We look out across the playground and watch as the trees by the river begin to transform. Slowly at first ("Look Mrs. Cruz! I see one yellow leaf!") and then all at once. We are engulfed in a sea of color as nature's paint brush adds strokes of crimson, marigold, burnt sienna. The season change is familiar and expected, but the excitement and awe that it brings is always new.
We began our investigation of Fall outside through observations. As the children began to notice subtle changes in the woods around us we began bringing more activities outdoors to nurture those discoveries.
"I'm painting the beautiful colors of the leaves!"
"A lot of the leaves are still green!"
"Let's save all the green ones! I like green the best!"
As those magical leaves finally began to Fall (after much anticipation), we brought them inside for further investigation.
"I think it was green first, then yellow, then brown!"
"When will mine be all brown?"
"They will all be all brown soon!"
"Oh look! I can see the leaf! The crayon makes the lines show! I like using the green one!"
"I see the stem! .... Wait, it has lots of stems! Look at all of them!"
"Stripes! The leaf has stripes!"
The colors of the leaves were so deep and so rich that the children very quickly realized that our paints, markers, and crayons didn't come close to expressing the beauty we were experiencing. So we set out on a journey to gain a better understanding of the colors of Fall.
"Look Mrs. Cruz! I made brown! Orange and green made brown! .... But this time it made a light brown. Why is it different?"
"This yellow is not right. Fall leaves are much brighter!"
"Then how do we make yellow brighter?"
Once we decided as a whole that we had thoroughly examined the leaves, we began to wonder what
other amazing things Fall had to offer. The only way to answer that question was to head back outside!
