Fall Leaf Math Activities

Inspired by collecting leaves in our neighbourhood, we decided to make some activities for our little friends.  These math activities are great for children in Preschool/ Pre-K, Kindergarten and or Grade 1.  You can use the printable leaves, wooden leaves (from the craft or dollar store), play dough and/or small leaves you have collected.  

Materials

• Printable Trees and Leaves leaves on tree
• Printable Math Challenges stack leaves
• Scissors
• Optional:  Wooden leaves (you can purchase these at craft or dollar stores), play dough and/or small collected leaves.
• Optional: Page protectors
• 2 dice, pencil/eraser or dry-erase marker/eraser.

We always find these items useful too:

Directions

• Print the leaves and cut them out carefully, using scissors or have an adult cut them with a paper cutter.

• If you like for durability, place your activity prompts into page protectors.

• If you use wooden leaves we painted ours with liquid watercolours, but you could try any type of paint or food colouring.  For ease you can put the paint into a small container and swirl the leaves around.  Once they were covered in paint we placed them on a drying rack.  This method was quick and easy!  (Use the remaining paint to create a fall picture).

Counting 

• Add the number of leaves to the TEN FRAME CHART as specified in the box.  You can first put them on the tree and then move them to the ten frame or place them directly in the ten frame.  As you place each leaf in the chart, count the number as you place it down.  This will help you with ONE-TO-ONE correspondence (that each numeral spoken corresponds to a physical object).  Ten frames help children visually organize and identify numbers.

Patterning 

• Create a pattern.  You could look varying the attributes of size, shape, the number of items etc.  You could create a repeating pattern, a growing pattern etc.  This is a great time to identify the core (the main part of the pattern that repeats) and think about the different types of patterns (ABAB, or ABCABC or ABABCABCD etc.).

Sorting by Colour 

• Sort your leaves according to their colours.

Sorting by Shape 

• Sort your leaves according to their shapes or types.

Sorting by Size 

• Sort your leaves into their size (e.g. small, medium and large)

Roll and Count 

• Using two dice (if you don’t have these, you could use an app), roll your first die and then add that number of leaves to your ten frames, counting as you go.  Roll the next die and then add those leaves, counting from the previous group of leaves.  Write the total if you like using a dry erase marker.  This is a fun collaborative activity!  (Of course be sure to follow your community’s social distancing protocols during the pandemic, so for example in our video partnerships are with our siblings).

Tic Tac Toe 

• Pick two different types of leaves (you will need 5 each) and play with a partner trying to get 3 leaves in a row (horizontal, diagonal, vertical).  This is a simple introduction to game play- taking turns, developing beginning strategies, encouraging your partner etc.

Stack your Leaves

• Stack your leaves into a pile (this is a great fine motor activity) trying to balance them and see how high you can get.  Now try to blow over your pile!

Practising skills repeatedly in different formats allows the children to more fully integrate the knowledge.  You could use the printable leaves one day, then try them another day with play dough or go on a nature walk and collect leaves to try using an additional day.

Pin this idea

Purpose

• Working with different math concepts in a hands-on manner.

Safety Notes

• Use scissors with care and direct, adult supervision.
• We suggest that you use a tray and a smock to protect your clothing and surfaces if you are using play dough.
• Small items such as the wooden leaves can be a choking hazard, therefore be sure to keep them out of the reach of children ages 0-3 years of age or those that tend to put things into their mouths.