Acorn Learning Activities

There are so many fun objects that can be used as inspiration for learning activities in the fall. We’ve covered apples and pumpkins; another favorite is acorns. The squirrels in our neighborhood have been super busy so it must be time to talk about acorn learning activities.

Match uppercase and lower case letters on acorn halves with this cute printable from Playdough to Plato. You can do more letter recognition by feeding the squirrel the acorn letters from ABCs of Literacy. You could also use these letters for spelling sight words, in a sensory box or in lots of other ways.

Mrs. Merry has a super cute printable acorn creature you can print out for kids to build. Great cutting and pasting practice, too. Or make a more natural looking acorn with torn or cut construction paper and the printable from The Holly Dog Blog.

Seam Whisperer has super cute squirrel and acorn printable lacing cards, which are a great way to practice fine motor skills. (You’ll want to laminate them and/or print on cardstock to make them more stable for little hands.)

Check out this list of kids books about acorns from Homeschool Preschool.

Want to do activities with actual acorns? Head to the yard or the playground and gather up all you can find, then you can count them (Happy Toddler Playtime), paint them (Learn with Play at Home), stack acorn caps on top of an acorn (also Learn with Play at Home), make a wreath (Craftulate) and sort and observe your acorns at the science table (Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds).

Or you can make a whole sensory bin with acorns as the base, like this one from Learning and Exploring Through Play. Add wooden blocks or tree slices, little animals, real or fake leaves. So much fun to play with!

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Fall-Themed Literacy Activities

If you want to teach kids the basics of Hanukkah in the classroom or at home, the picture book Hanukkah by Lesléa Newman and illustrated by Rotem Teplow is a nice place to start.

The book explores the Jewish holiday through the eyes of Lior, a boy whose name means “my light” in Hebrew, which is appropriate for talking about the Festival of Lights.

The book goes through all the preparations the family does, including cleaning, setting the table and cleaning the menorah. It talks about what the menorah symbolizes and the Hanukkah story of the oil in the Holy Temple of Jerusalem lasting for eight days when it should have only been a one-day supply.

The meaning of the letters on the dreidel are also explored, in that when you are in Israel they have a different fourth word (the letters symbolize the Hebrew letters for “a great miracle happened there” or, in Israel, “a great miracle happened here”).

Because the story of Hanukkah involves oil, a lot of the foods that are eaten during the celebration are fried in oil, such as latkes (potato pancakes) and sufganiyot (fried jelly doughnuts). Other foods mentioned include challah, noodle kugel and sour cream and applesauce, which are served with the latkes. Family and friends drop by to share their food, light their menorahs together and play dreidel (the game is explained in the story). It also talks about how the candles are lit through the eight days and what happens at the end of Hanukkah.

The book includes Hanukkah blessings in English and Hebrew and talks about the lunar cycle of the Hebrew calendar, which is why Hanukkah is sometimes celebrated in November and sometimes in December. It also talks about why Jewish holidays are celebrated beginning at sunset rather than in the morning.

Other topics covered include Hanukkah greetings; how to spell Hanukkah; how to make an edible menorah and an tzedakah box (to collect money for charity); recipes for latkes and applesauce; and a more detailed story of Hanukkah than is included within the story of the book. There’s also a quiz to see how well you were paying attention.

This sweet little book is a quick read and a cute overview of the basics of Hanukkah and what the symbols, foods and games mean. It’s a great book for classrooms or at home for sharing basic knowledge.

About the book: 48 pages, hardcover. Published 2024 by words & pictures, suggested retail price $14.99.

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