The student teacher observed that the preschool-aged children at Muppets Children's Centre were interested in leaves. To further explore this topic, the student planned a leaf fishing experience where the children would use magnets attached to strings to "fish" for paper-clipped leaves in a sand table. The experience was intended to support the children's cognitive, language, physical, and social-emotional development through sorting leaves by attributes and asking open-ended questions. The student teacher reflected that the children seemed engaged in catching leaves and comparing them, indicating the leaf exploration was a successful experience and inquiry process.

1. Centennial College Early Childhood Education
Student Name: Sayeda sultana
Agency: Muppets Children’s Centre
Age range of children: 3 years - 3 years and a half
Centre Focus: Emergent Curriculum
ANECDOTAL OBSERVATION POSSIBLE CUES
On September 25, 2012 at 3:30 pm, the Developmental cues:
student teacher went with ECE teacher and Sort objects logically on the basis of one
the children for a community walk. The dimension, such as colour, shape, or size.
children were then asking questions about
the leaves. We answered their questions. In Understand basic size, shape comparisons.
addition we said to them, “How does the Able to classify by colours and types.
colour of the leaves change at the time of
Understand simple questions appropriately.
season change.”Most of them collected
leaves and said, “Fall is coming, all leaves Develop animism crediting inanimate
are in the ground, and we will jump, objects with life and lifelike properties such
crunch, and crunch.” Also, most of the as “Leaves are bored, they don’t like one
parents said, “Children are very interested colour.”
about leaves. They collect leaves from the
playground, the park, and whenever they Interest Cues:
find leaves they start collecting leaves.” Interested in nature.
The children brought leaves to class and
started comparing the leaves with one Collecting leaves and comparing.
another. They also exchanged their leaves Stories of how leaves fall.
and mentioned the colours while
exchanging. As the children started
playing, they developed more clear
understanding of leaves and their nature.
Their conversations included:
”Does the leaves walk?”
– “No leaves fly. Fairies wind blow and
leaves fall down.”
“Why do you think these leaves change
colour?”
– “They are bored, they don’t like one
colour.

2. Possible Interests Web:

3. Small group experience (circle) to confirm interest in the topic: (describe all parts of
your circle)
In the circle time, I put a bamboo basket of leaves different in size, colour, shape and
texture. I asked the children to help me sort the leaves by colour, shape, size and texture.
Then I hid them in various places around the class, and asked the children to tell me
something interesting about the leaves. We discussed about when leaves change colour, and
then we began an interesting discussion. “N” knows when fall begins leaves start to change
their colour. “K” said, “I think leaves are bored, so they change the colour.” Then we started
exploring on a large paper what we know about the leaves and created a web. After finishing
the web, I said to the children, “Find the hidden leaves.”
Procedure:
• Bamboo Basket,
• Different colours of Leaves
• Floor space and use of circle time to discuss and explore the leaves.
Consider the following and fully describe how you INTEND to explore your chosen
experience with preschoolers
 How will you introduce the experience?
According to the book titled Development profiles, Pre-Birth Through twelve, three-
year Children sort objects logically on the basis of one dimension, such as colour, shape, or
size, answer simple questions appropriately and ask increasing numbers of questions,
particularly about location and identity of objects and people. (Allen, K. & Marotz, L., p.134,
135). During free play time, some time I will place before the children some leaves of
different colours and tell them to sort by colour. Some time I will read various types of books
about leaves such as “Blue’s fall day, Fall Leaf Project.” I will provoke them to hide the
leaves and find them from different place in the classroom. I will ask them some open ended
question like “Where do leaves come from?”, When do leaves change colour?” etc. I will also
give to the children different types of leaves to touch, feel, and explore.” According to Piaget,
children learn through exploration and using all their senses. Vgotsky agrees with Piaget that
children learn by doing and emphasize the role of adults. Adults need to ‘scaffold’ children’s
learning by asking questions, giving hints. (Bullard, J., 2010, p.11, 12). Children are
interested about the leaves; now, the role of an adult is to scaffold their learning and provide
them material and environment to get more experience about leaves.

4.  What lures might you use to attract the children?
The lures I will use are to bring leaves of different colour, shape and size and decorate
the bamboo basket with the leaves to attract the children. Also, I will use sentences, such as
“How many leaves we have?”, We will hide them many different place in our classroom.”
“Who want to sort and hide leaves?” Then I will start singing “leaves, leaves, falling down,
falling on the ground, red and orange, yellow and brown falling on the ground.”
 Preschoolers require support and guidance to fully explore an experience. How
will you guide and support their interactions with the materials and each other
and with you? COLLABORATION
I will guide and support their interactions in the following way:
In the free play time, I will make a circle with children. I will first make a set up of the
experience that involves leaves. I will ask them open ended questions to provoke each other
to initiate conversation between them. The questions could be “Where do leaves come from?”
“Which season leaves change colour?” Also, I will ask the children how they feel when they
touch leaves. Then I will said to them,
“Who want to play with leaves?”
“Who like leaves to sort and hide?”
“Which colour do you want?”
Then I will give them clue how they will hide the leaves at different places in the class room.
I will then ask, “Who want to seek the leaves?”
“Let’s go to find the leaves.”
“How do you feel when you find your leaves?”
 Closure is important in any planned experience. How will you end the experience
with the children? What guidance strategies would be helpful to use?
At the end, I will repeat the conversation about the leaves. I will help children to find
the leaves. I will also give cues by telling them, “We found out our leaves, we know lots of

5. things about the leaves, and we are going to finish our activity.” I will also ask help from the
children for wrapping up the set up. I hope they will be enjoying while helping me.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN YOUR 6 EXPERIENCES IN THE PROJECT, COMPLETE
THIS GROUP (CIRCLE) TO BE SURE OF THE CHILDREN’S INTEREST IN THE
TOPIC
Arrange a date and time to implement your chosen experience using the elements you
defined in your procedure.
I observed in my placement center that children are very curious about the natural
things such as leaves. Based on my observation, I have planned that on October 22, the
children will play leaf fishing game in the circle time. I have arranged various kinds of
leaves. I will tie 3 feet of string to a wooden spoon and attach a magnet to the end of the
string, and attach a paper clip to each leaf. Then I spread the leaves in the sand table and let
the children try to catch the leaves.
Materials needed: various kinds of leaves, 1feet string, wooden spoon, attach paper clip, and
a magnet.
Name of the experience: Leaf fishing game (cognitive and fine motor activity).
Explanation of the experience:
During free play, I will make a circle with children. I will set all the materials
mentioned above in the sand table. I will start to communicate to the children about the
leaves, by asking different questions about the colour, shape and size of the leaves. Then, I
will provocate them by asking open ended questions such as “Who want to catch red one?”,
“Who want to catch green one?”, “How many leaves do you have to catch?”, “Who have
found three big leaves?” I will also give them clue saying, “Under the sand there are lots of
leaves, if you want you can search, and find some yellow one.” Also, I will read a book about
leaves. I will them why leaves fall down and where they come from. I will give them visual
knowledge by showing leaves’ pictures of four different seasons and explain them how they
change colour from time to time. I will sing a song about leaves like “Fall is here, fall is here,
yes it is, yes it is. We can see the leaves change. Then they fall on the ground. Blow away,
blow away.” The children will also be singing with me. According to the book titled
Children, Gardener (1993, 1995) believes that schools should foster all intelligences, not just
the traditional linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligences. Teachers should capitalize on
the strongest intelligences of children. Some students may best understand unfamiliar

6. cultures, for example, by studying their dance, while other students may understand these
cultures by studying their music. (Kail, R. & Zolner, T., p. 341).
Appropriate Developmental Goals:
This experience will support the fine motor skills by holding wooden spoon and
catching leaves. It will also enhance their cognitive development by identifying different
colours and sorting objects logically on the basis of one dimension, such as colour, shape or
size (Allen, K. & Marotz, L., p.133, 134). Moreover, it will provide an opportunity of a
sensory experience of hard and soft feelings. This experience will enhance the language skills
by using the words like hard, red, yellow, and also by asking questions. It will provide social
and emotional development through collaborative performance. It will also provide the
development in physical (fine motor), cognitive, social, emotional and language domains and
support the development of a whole child.
Evaluation and Reflection:
NOW THAT YOU HAVE COMPLETED THIS GROUP EXPERIENCE (CIRCLE):
HOW DID IT GO? ARE THE CHILDREN STILL INTERESTED IN THE TOPIC?
It was really a great experience. The children seemed very enthusiastic and interested in future
exploration of leaves. They were very excited in catching leaves from the sand table. They
caught leaves by colour, shape, and size. Then they compared the number of leaves with one
another. The experience was really a success.
WILL THE INQUIRY PROCESS WORK WITH THIS TOPIC? WHY OR WHY
NOT?
This will work for several reasons:
• Fall is the best time to pick leaves as they change colour. Moreover, it is
the best time to teach the children about the leaves.
• Lots of leaves are easily available.
• Leaf is natural and safe.
• We have enough time, space and scientific equipment to explore the leaves.
• My second web provides lots of opportunity to explore in several
curriculums.

7. Rationale:
Dear parents,
My name is Sayeda. I am a doing my placement in Muppets Children’s Centre. In
couple of weeks I am going to implement six planned activities based on my observation, and
children’s cues and interests. My selected topic is related to children’s everyday experiences

8. with leaves. After observing the children and speaking with them at circle time, I have
discovered that they are so much interested in leaves. Most of the children enjoy playing with
leaves, and most of the time they are talking about the leaves, and they enjoy encounters with
different leaves. Moreover, leaves are available all around the place. We can integrate leaves
in the curriculum to utilize as tools in order to enhance their development of all domains.
According to Vygotsky, the difference between what a children can do without the support of
a more experienced caregiver and what the children can do with that support (Kail, R. &
Zolner, T., p. 248). Preschoolers are naturally curious and they will have many opportunities
over several weeks to explore leaves, and they will be benefited in all developmental
domains. For example, they will feel texture; they will count leaves and define different types
of leaves. It is an open ended experience which they can extend more. The children will learn
how many colours the leaves change, and when leaves change colour, so they will learn about
the seasons. Therefore, these experience and environment will work for children as a third
teacher. This experience is beneficial for preschooler children because they are now at
preoperational stage, and they will learn how to use symbols, such as words and numbers,
colour and texture.
During this time, the children will:
• Sort, classify, and categorize leaves.
• Explore and crunch leaves
• Compare and contrast the similarities and differences
• Make leaves of different colour with play dough
• Goop with leaves, using leaves as paint brushes and draw leaves
• Collect leaves and pretend that children are squirrels and getting ready for
winter
• Make head gear and waist gear with leaves and wear them and dance with
leave songs.
We will be posting evidence and samples of our work. Please check in often and share
this experience with your children!
Thanks for your cooperation,

9. Sayeda Sultana, Student of Centennial College.
KWHL Chart
K (Know) W (What do we want to know) H (How will we learn it) L
When do leaves change Make leaves of different
Fall, winter, spring colour? colour with play dough.
How many times do leaves Different colour. Goop
Green, yellow, red, change colour? with leaves, using leaves
brown as paint brushes and
colour leaves.
Red, yellow, big, How are leaves different? Collect many leaves of
small, round, different size, shape, and
square colour and sort them.
In winter all the What happens to the leaves in Collect leaves and pretend
leaves fall down. the winter? that children are squirrels
What happen to the squirrels? and getting ready for
winter.
Smooth, rough, How we feel when you touch a Place leaves in the water
rough, and dry. leaf? and sand table to explore
and crunch.
Make happy sound, How do leaf sound when wind Make head gear and waist
crying, laughing. blows? gear with leaves and wear
them and dance with leaf
songs.

10. Bibliography:
Kail, Robert V, and Zolner, Theresa. Children A Chronological Approach. Toronto:Pearson,
2012. Print.
Allen, K. Eileen and Marotz, Lynn R. Developmental Profiles. USA: Thomson, 2007. Print.
Bullard, Julie. Creating Environment for Learning. New Jersey, USA: Pearson Education,
Inc., 2010. Print.