A few years ago I did my first post on experience books. I have always loved the way my seed book came out and I knew I wanted to do another one. With that came the idea of a Fall experience book. To say this went well is an understatement. The kids had a ball!
First we talked about Fall and listened to a book on Epic(if you haven't checked out this book site, you need to right after you finish reading this post). We talked about different things we might find outside in the Fall. Then I showed the kids the book I made with items I found. The original plan was to go on a scavenger hunt on the playground and little open space next to our playground, but nature had other plans, rain. So to combat this we "planted" fall items on the front porch and the kids had to find them. We made a list before we started of all of the things they were supposed to look for: leaves, acorns, pumpkin, gourd, and sticks. The kids each had a bag and they put their items in it as the hunted.
After we finished, we went inside and got to work on putting our books together. I talked the kids through making their bags by all of us putting things in a bag at the same time. For instance, I gave all of the kids a new bag and told them to put their acorns in it. We did the same with all of the other stuff. Just in case you are wondering I used fake gourds that I picked up at the Dollar Tree and die cuts of pumpkins for the kids. The leaves, acorns, and sticks were real though.
Next we made a cover. The kids each had to write their name in the author's space (yes, we always talk about what an author does) which was a way for me to sneak some name practice in there. That page then went into a bag.
Finally we put all of the bags together to make the book. (You can find detailed directions on how to put together an experience book by going to this blog post) I picked up some fall themed duct tape at the Dollar Tree and I also pulled out some green that I had. The kids chose which tape they wanted to use for their book.Then as the kids went to free play we called them over one at a time to label the pages. We wrote what ever they told us was in each page and the kids put the label on the book.
The next day each student took a turn reading their book to the class (I think that was my favorite part). Overall, this was a huge hit and I am already trying to figure out how I can fit this activity in more often. It provided such an opportunity to add in new vocabulary and for discussion.
