Young & Lively Kindergarten: Falling in love with Sight Words ~freebie~

Fall is officially here! I absolutely love the fall! However, after moving to Florida I have a whole new appreciation for the beautiful fall colors in the mountains of Tennessee that I often took for granted. Sure we have some leaves that change colors here but nothing beats driving through the hills and mountains and being totally surrounded by the beautiful colors. With that being said, I couldn't wait to get some fall leaves worked into my classroom this week!

My little ones are struggling with some of the basic sight words so this "spur of the moment lesson" helped us work on some sight words while getting some fall writing and bulletin board décor squeezed in.

There are so many colorful books to read about to introduce fall and point out some of the changing leaf colors. These are just 2 of my favorites.

After post reading discussion, I gave the students 2 leaf patterns and art tissue paper squares (the kind that "bleeds") and had them lay the tissue pieces flat onto the leaves. It was hard to convince them to overlap the tissue paper AND to not worry about staying in the lines! I encouraged them to choose only 2 colors per leaf to begin with.

I am missing the photo of the dry tissue covering the leaves but hopefully you can get a mental picture. We I lightly sprayed the tissue paper with a water bottle (warning: tissue paper will blow away if sprayed too hard). After the first spray, they could add more tissue paper to cover the white spaces. Then a final spray included enough water to soak through the tissue. Don't forget to lay newspapers on the table or have a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser on hand because it will bleed through the papers.

Once they are dry (it really doesn't take long...an hour or two), just shake the tissue paper off into the trash can & this is the resulting product ...

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fall-Leaves-Art-Project-2114889

We mounted them on black paper and then added our sight word writing. After each child shared and read their leaf writing to 3 friends (I read yours/you read mine), they are ready to hang in the hallway!

They enjoyed this so much that we made lots more leaves so I can add them to a tree on our bulletin board. Completed bulletin board pictures to come soon...