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!

Next Plan Idea:

Fall-Themed Literacy Activities

The celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is important throughout Mexico and other parts of the world. Her feast day is Dec. 12, and the celebrations honoring her appearance to Juan Diego in 1531 begin a few days before that.

Whether you celebrate yourself or just want to share about the celebration at home or in your classroom, Las Mañanitas: The Beautiful Celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a good place to start. The book, by Ernesto Joel Vega Rosales and Jeanette Gonzalez Seneviratne, with illustrations by Dana Sanmar, tells the story of a family’s celebration of the feast day in both English and Spanish.

They prepare with a novena, which is nine days of prayers and preparations. The children, Lucia and Pablo, are given special outfits made by their grandmother that look like what Juan Diego might have worn when he saw Our Lady. The book describes the prayers that are made each day, such as a prayer for respect for life, for families and for the indigenous people of the Americas, to name a few.

As told in the book, Juan Diego was a native Mexican born near modern day Mexico City. His given name was Cuaauhtlatoatzin, which means “He who speaks like an eagle.” When he converted to Christianity his name was changed to Juan Diego, and as he walked to church he passed a hill called Tepeyac. One day he heard the birds singing especially beautifully and a voice called him to go to the top of the hill.

There he saw Our Lady of Guadalupe, who asked him to tell the bishop she wanted a chapel built in her name at the foot of the hill. The bishop asked for a sign that Juan Diego really saw her, and later she had him collect flowers that she blessed and take them to the bishop. When Juan Diego dropped the flowers, an image of Our Lady could be seen on his cloak, which is still on display in her basilica to this day.

The feast day is celebrated as mañanitas, which includes singing, indigenous music and dancing, and children presenting flowers to Our Lady. Juan Diego is remembered today as being humble, brave and faithful, and was the first indigenous American made a saint.

The book is colorful and tells the story in a clear way, and it’s fun to have it both in English and Spanish if you teach Spanish or speak Spanish at home or in the classroom. It’s a great way to learn the basics of the celebration and the story of Juan Diego and why he is still remembered today.

About the book: 40 pages, paperback, published 2024 by Loyola Press. Suggested retail price $14.99.

Next Plan Idea:

Have you read?

Leave a Reply