One of the most interesting concepts to share with young children and to incorporate into your home and classroom discussions is the changing of the seasons. Just as the school year begins, there is the change from Summer to Fall. The mornings and evenings become cooler, there is the beautiful change of colors in leaves and the sun sets sooner. Gone are the long hot days of summer exchanged for the busy days of fall. 

How do we as guides and directresses in a Montessori classroom make the changing of the seasons concrete for our young curious learners?

The answer is simple, it can begin with the gathering of fall leaves in various colors and placing them on a tray for color sorting.  If your school is in an urban area, then you could purchase silk fall leaves at a craft store and allow the children to sort them.  Another exercise is using leaves to make crayon rubbings which allows the child to examine the veins.  Older children may use your leaf cabinet and identify the leaf and label it. These simple works will bring the changing of leaves in the outdoor environment to the child’s nature observations increasing his attention to detail. 

Another favorite is creating an easy counting and numerical symbol association with the use of number cards and a bowl of acorns.  Children lay out the number cards 1 to 10 horizontally across the top of a floor mat and then count the correct number of acorns under each.  This is similar to the cards and counters or odd and even work. 

There are fall fruits such as apples and pumpkins that are fun to bring into your classroom as well.  Almost every September I purchase three different types of apples:  yellow, red and green.  I slice them and put them on the snack table, allowing the children to taste each and determine which is their favorite.  For older children you can graph the results of your little apple survey.  You can incorporate apple washing in your practical life and slicing with an apple slicer, allowing children to prepare their own snack.  Don’t forget the Life Cycle of an Apple nomenclature cards and planting apple seeds. Another favorite nomenclature card set is “From Seed to Plant.”  If you do not have these some good resources are Montessori for Everyone and Montessori in Print. 

In October, the fall fruit is the pumpkin. Try purchasing gourds and mini pumpkins to put on display in a bowl on your nature table. Children can wash them and weigh them!  We include the Life Cycle of the Pumpkin nomenclature cards, and then the day before Halloween we carve a classroom Jack-o-Lantern!  

One of our art lessons is the painting of a fall tree. Once the lesson is given then the work is placed on a tray for the children to choose to do on their own during work time.  For lunch I have had the children use construction paper and sponge paint fall leaves and then we laminate them to create fall placemats to use for snack and lunch.   The second fall painting lesson is a pumpkin, and a great resource for learning how to present children an art lesson in pumpkin painting is Art for Kids Hub, How to Paint a Pumpkin.

Of course don’t forget your Change of Seasons mat that is used for the celebration of Life!  Another great work to highlight during the first change of season in your school year.

Make use of your library and check out some wonderful books to introduce each new season.  There are so many to choose from!  I hope you enjoy a seasons study with the children in your life.

“Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own…..”Charles Dickens