Tot School: Fall Theme - Day 2

We went to the library to see if we could pick up some more Fall-themed books, but alas, our attempt failed. All of them were still checked out! So, we'll have to settle for the three that we have - but, they are so cute, it's okay. And, since they're a bit more advanced than what we usually read, it's a little tougher keeping Emma's attention.

Especially today. She was not feeling tot school at all! She didn't want to listen to the Fall song, she didn't want to sit still for the three books, and wanted to play with her toys instead. I read the books aloud anyway while she played, so I hope that she was secretly listening and got something out of the stories. Then we moved on to the first activity, which was giving the pumpkin we picked recently at Apple Hill (a local apple orchard that also has a pumpkin patch) a bath. I saw this activity everywhere on the tot school blogs I research, so I figured why not?

Well, she really liked the bubbles and splashing the water in the sink, but it was really difficult getting her to focus on actually washing the pumpkin, even when I showed her how to do it. At least I got one good picture from it!

Afterwards, we went outside and went for a nature walk, where I explained what happens to the leaves during autumn; how they turn red, yellow, and orange, fall to the ground, then dry up and turn crunchy. We had a really fun time collecting pretty leaves that I didn't take very vivid pictures of our walk, but I got a couple!

And, for the leaves that were dry and crunchy, I put them in a little pile for Emma to step on and crunch. She really enjoyed doing that.

After our walk, we went back inside and glued all of our leaves that we collected (well, most of them) to a bare tree printable. Again, Emma was feeling the activity. She wanted to just play with the glue stick again. I distracted her by giving her sliced apples (which is really a perfect snack to go along with this theme) and put the glue stick safely away while she wasn't looking.

So, while Emma's attitude and attention span weren't on point today, I still think she learned a lot (I hope so, anyway). I thought the lesson, in general, was interesting and enjoyable! One more lesson left for our Fall tot school week!