Basking in Fall

10/2/2025

“Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.”
-Lauren DeStefano

Children love this time of the year for all its transformation. The leaves are turning, every color bursts forward, and, of course, Halloween itself approaches. Giving us all a chance to connect with the cycle of hunkering down for slowness, and extending into play and imagination.

Fall is also the most common time of year for ancestor celebrations; the light is waning, plants are returning into the ground and lore says "the veil between the worlds is thin."

All the children have been building an ancestor altar for our annual Ancestor's Feast and Lantern Walk!

Using a big map, we learned about where on the earth we live, and where our families and ancestors come from! We even got to learn about the animals that live in different lands.

We checked it out on an actual globe, too! Hearing more about continents, the oceans, and how our families originally came from far away. Once child said "My ancestor's come from all over the planet!!".

Hammerhead Helping Us Learn Conflict Resolution

Each month we work with a different Slumberkin, a social/emotional learning buddy that focuses on different qualities and skills. Whether that's gratitude, embracing how we're each unique, or learning to sit with our feelings, we read their book during the month and practice skills related to the topic.

Hammerhead is all about recognizing when we might start feeling angry or upset and using breathing and space to calm down rather than hurting somebody else. And that even if something does happen, we can apologize and take responsibility for our behavior.

We colored and created Hammerhead crowns!

October's Herb Ally: Pine

Our plant friend for October was pine, inspiring white pine tea, art, pinecone projects, and more!

Some still-life drawing of white pine branches! Feeling pine needles, smelling the sap in their branches, and fostering hand-eye coordination and observational skills.

Some Pinus strobus (the scientific name for white pine) coloring sheets!

White Pine Tea Party!

After our leaf study, we were easily able to identify the White Pines on the land and collected some branches.

Then we picked off the needles, talking about how they're the leaves of pine trees, and counting how many needles are in each bundle! We discovered the white pine has 5.

Steeped in hot water for 10-15 minutes, with a little stevia, it's perfect for an autumn tea party.

The tea was a hit!

As we we poured we sang together "White Pine tree, thank you for our tea!".

Reciprocity is one of our vocabulary words this month! To express more gratitude for White Pine we made bird feeders with pinecones, nut butter, and seeds to hang in her branches.

Ooblek

A funny substance, ooblek is both a liquid AND a solid! Made of just cornstarch and water, it's a sensory enigma.

Ooblek Zombies!

Volcano in the Sandbox!

Using just baking soda, soap, a little food coloring, and vinegar the kids get to see an amazing chemical reaction first-hand! Safe enough to do in our sandbox, everyone got to take turns "erupting" the volcano.

Science in Secret

We built a fort together--the perfect place for studying stars and birds!

All About Spiders

Using a papier-mache-like clay, we learned about spiders! That they all have 8 legs, unlike insects which have 6. They're hunter bugs, eating other critters and helping us all out.

We also got hands-on with spiders through beads and pipe cleaners! These creatures are easy to see and find in all the falling foliage, and are important to build a positive relationship with. They also have a bit of Halloween fun!

We got creative and water-colored some spiderwebs! Learning about habitat and where they come from.

We love listening to Anansi stories! Anansi is a clever and mischievous spider trickster from West African and Caribbean folklore.

Crafting Pumpkin Monsters

Felting Acorns

Animal Memory Game

Great for cognitive development and building recall!

Xylophone Freeze Dance

Love Bug Creations

Using paint, glue, pom poms, sequins, and googly eyes everyone made their own unique rock friend

Glittery Letters

We love this mermaid cloth, glittery and multicolored! A great sensory tool, which is grounding and helpful for brain development, we practiced the letters of our names. This worked our letter recognition and fine-motor skills.

Pumpkin Literacy

A super fun pumpkin game where we pick different action words out of a jack o lantern and then do the action around the pumpkin. They were all so inspired to put the letters together to figure out what action to do next!

Time Spent A'Tinkering

Everybody loves the tinkering shed. It's a special place where we get to work with tools, talk about safety, and have extra special crafts!

Fixing the wood into place

We especially love to empower the girls in using their bodies and feeling strong

So good to practice hammering! It builds hand-eye coordination, and is extremely satisfying and empowering to see the nails and screws go into the pumpkin.

Hammered Cookies

Do your kids have a lot of energy? Give them a hammer and a bag of nuts to smash! When we keep both hands on the handle we can't hurt our fingers :)

To make these at home simply mix together 1.5 cups nut & seed flour with 1 cup coconut sugar, 1 cup stevia sweetened chocolate chips, 1 egg, 1/2 cup coconut oil, 1 tsp vanilla, and 1/2 cup hammered nuts.

Dollop onto a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper and bake at 350 for 10 to 15 minutes.

Animal Yoga!

We took turns choosing yoga cards

And then everyone did that pose together

Heavy Work

Physical activités that involve pushing, pulling, or lifting provide proprioceptive input which helps support body awareness, focus, and self regulation.