Leaves for Learning

Welcome Fellow Cooks to the Academic Kitchen,

Fall is nearly upon us!  We want to help you prepare for it by dishing up seasonal cuisine to delight your taste buds and soothe your cravings. 


Today, we’re sharing (and adding our own flavoring to) an idea from Mary McMillan in her book, Classroom Starters for Any Occasion.

McMillan suggests making a leaf necklace to review capitalization rules.  After making a list of all the capitalization rules, littles choose a word to showcase each rule and write each word or phrase on its own leaf.  Challenge your littles by proposing specific topics such as fall, a book of their choice, a topic of study, etc.   Here’s my sample.  Feel free to use it as a model in class.

Capitalization Rules	Fall Examples
First Word of a Sentence	Fall is my favorite season!
Names	Christopher Columbus
Other Proper Nouns	Tom Thumb Pumpkin Patch
Days	Monday (first day of fall in 2019)
Months	September
Holidays	Thanksgiving
Most Words in Titles	Too Many Pumpkins
Cities	Forestville
Countries	Canada
Nationalities	American
Languages	English
Time Periods	21st Century
Events	Harvest on the Harbor (or choose a local festival)

Capitalization not on your current objective menu?  This idea lends itself to versatility.  Stew on some of these ideas.

Grade Level	Suggestions
K	Numbers (represent numbers differently per leaf – ten frames, tallies, etc) Names (write one letter of their name per leaf) Beginning Sounds (hunt through magazines to find items that start with a focus sound, then paste them on the leaf)
1	Sight Words (write one sight word of focus per leaf) Partners of 10 (each leaf displays a different way to get to 10) Days of the Week (record each day per leaf and string them in order)
2-3	Character Traits (choose a favorite character and write one unique trait per leaf) Math Facts (one fact family per leaf) Spelling Words (one word per leaf)
4-5	Native Americans (one tribe per leaf OR a unique characteristic of a specific tribe per leaf) Story Elements (Each leaf is a different story element. Write details to describe each element.) Math Facts (one fact family per leaf)
6-8	Order of Operations (Each leaf represents a different process, string in order) Scientific Method (Each leaf represents a different step, string in order) Prewriting (One leaf represents main idea, remaining leaves each represent a supporting point)

So, your littles aren’t into necklaces?   Mix it up, chefs.  Consider some of the ideas on this menu:

Where does that “leaf” us?  Oh yes, with the need to collect leaves.  And you can!  Consider taking a nature walk and collecting leaves to use for this project.  I mean, no better way to get in the fall spirit than jumping right in.  But, if this just does not work for you and yours, we’ve cooked up a template for your consideration.  In the download, you'll also find a page full of all the easier-to-cut-out leaves for your little learners.

Download this template along with printable activity ideas by clicking here.

Here’s to hoping you fall in love with fall this season!

With Love from Our Kitchen,

Interested in even more educational resources?  Then stop by our Learning Lab.  It's here where we store all the educational resources we've cooked up to date.