Fall is upon us!  And with fall comes the splendor of fall color as the leaves change (at least here in New England!).   This is a great time to get your students talking about leaves – their shapes, sizes, and colors are starting points for art, literacy, and science activities.    If your afterschool site is in a wooded area or has trees nearby, have the students predict how many different colors they will see in the trees outside your school or center.  You can even record their responses on a large sheet of paper and make it into a math activity by tallying or graphing the predictions.  If you have access to a camera, take photos of nearby trees every day for a few weeks and then look back at the changes with your students. 

For a fun craft activity, gather brightly colored fall leaves and then use pieces of them in our Paper Making activity.  This activity is a great way to talk about recycling and the origins of paper, and a good way to “honor” the trees, too!  And the bits of autumn leaves will add seasonal flashes of color to your students’ handicrafts.  And why not write poems about fall on the paper once it’s dry?