Happy Friday! Please forgive our brief hiatus--we were busy getting back to school! We're certainly enjoying the warmer temperatures, even if it's been a little misty. Here are some ideas to keep you entertained over the three day weekend:
- Engage the senses: There are so many wonderful things that set fall apart: brisk mornings, football, apple cider, and of course, those crunchy leaves! Take a walk around your neighborhood, and count how many of the trees have leaves that are changing. Pick up a few and look at how their colors vary. Do they smell different? Find a good place to listen to them crunch beneath your feet. Listen to how the sound changes when you move your feet in different ways.
- Enlighten the mind: "Crunch" and "swish" are both words that describe the sound you make when you walk through fallen leaves. They are also both a kind of word called onomatopoeia, which is a fancy way of saying "a kind of word that sounds like a sound." One of the best parts of onomatopoeia is that is can sound however you want! What are some other sounds/words that you would use to describe walking through leaves? How about raking or leaf blowing?
- For bonus points: See if you can sound out the word you're using to describe leaves crunching and write it down. How did you get to that spelling? Does is look like something else you know? Can you use onomatopoeia to create a poem?
- Nurture the Spirit: There are many stories with trees in the Bible--many might even be "hiding"! You can watch the illustrations from one of our favorite versions of The Three Trees here (you can have a grown-up help you think of the words to the story if you'd like). How do you think the trees felt when they were cut down? How do you think they felt once they discovered God's plan for them?
Enjoy the long weekend--we'll see you on Tuesday!
