As October had come to an end, we reflected on a wonderful month filled with new friendships, exciting discoveries, and meaningful learning experiences! With the arrival of autumn, the children became increasingly curious about the changes happening all 
around them. Throughout the month, we embraced these special changes by exploring nature, investigating fall colors, engaging in hands-on activities, and celebrating the beginning of new friendships within the classroom as the children settled into the new environment!
One of our favourite experiences this month was exploring the beautiful autumn leaves! As the leaves began changing colours and falling from the trees, we noticed. During our circle time in the morning we talked about the season of ‘fall’, and how the leaves all change colours to signify the changing of seasons. We watched outside our big window and observed these changes, with the children asking questions like, “why do the leaves change colour?” and “Why are they all different colours?” This led us to begin collecting the leaves from outside, the children worked together to collect the biggest, brightest, or crunchiest of leaves! This activity sparked us to make a game out of sorting the leaves by colour and by size. Alex and Iris worked mainly on sorting them by colour, where Anni and Liv loved collecting “big mommy and daddy leaves”, and sorting them by size. These experiences encouraged early mathematical thinking, as the children practiced recognizing patterns, comparing sizes, identifying colours, and developing their sorting and classification skills.
Our exploration of leaves continued through different creative experiences, including some leaf cutting activities. As the children practised using scissors to cut the leaves, they strengthened their fine-motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and concentration. Outdoors, the children also had so much fun gathering all the leaves with our tiny rakes, and making big, humongous, piles! They got to all jump inside of them, and work together, to make the biggest piles they could. Brooks, Lily and Viren were huge helpers, helping lead the other children to keep raking. These silly moments encourage communication, teamwork, and a growing sense of belonging within our classroom.
Throughout October, we watched as the children became more confident, curious, and connected with their surroundings. What began as simple experiences such as noticing the leaves changing outside, became meaningful opportunities to develop mathematical thinking, fine and gross motor skills, communication, creativity, and friendships. As we continue into the school year, we look forward to learning more about the different seasons, and are excited to build off of the curiosity it brings with it!
