1. A CROSS-CURRICULAR PROJECT:
AUTUMN
This project will address the autumn from a point of
view "experiential", in which the child is an active
participant of the same, creating chances and living
activities for the autumn: experiencing, creating and
manipulating

2. CONTEXT
A PRESCHOOL CLASS
KRTEK/MOLE IS THE “TRAVEL BUDDY”
SQUIRREL, MOUSE, HEDGEHOG AND RABBIT
ARE KRTECK’S FRIENDS

3. TIME
October & November
Key dates:
Halloween: 31st October
“Magosta”: 9th November (in Spain)
Day “with less cars”: 30 noviembre (walking around
the neighbourhood with a podometre: sum up the
metres we all walk)

4. OBJECTIVES:
 Sing various songs related to autumn
 Learn and recite poems.
 Feel the rhythm and rhyme to enjoy poetry
 Understand the meaning of the vocabulary of the poem and the
subject in general
 Understand the meaning of some words contained in the poem
and related to the autumn, well enough to play and follow
instructions
 Expand vocabulary referring to autumn.
 Follow simple instructions.
 Express likes and dislikes
 Understand changes in Nature
 Collect things related to the forest to tell the class about them
 Be able to express likes and dislikes

5. OBJECTIVES
 Recognize climate changes differentiating between overcast days,
sunny, hot or mild.
 Describe, using images, the climatic autumn landscape.
 Know the proper clothing for this season.
 Recognize typical autumn fruits and their characteristics.
 Select and classify the different fruits making groups.
 Differentiate sounds, silence and noise produced by objects or natural
phenomena (leaves, wind, rain, nuts ...)
 Experiment with different techniques to produce works of art.
 Know and identify fall colors: yellow, brown and orange.
 Experiment with colors by mixing

6. CONTENTS
 Identification of environmental characteristics.
 Recognition and differentiation of autumn fruits.
 Vocabulary of rainwear.
 Understanding of changes in Nature
 Description of climate and landscape in autumn.
 Identification and recognition of images, drawings and photographs.
 Identification of autumn colors: yellow, brown and orange.
 Experimentation with the autumn colors.
 Development of a mural of autumn.
 Using different materials in artistic productions.
 Sound sources: recognition of noise and environmental sounds.
 The Magosta.
 Autumn riddles.

7. POEM: SQUIRREL (You can choose any poem
in mother tongue related to AUTUMN)
CONTENTS:
TASK: TEACHING A POEM
Vocabulary & grammar:
 words related to the forest in autumn: tree, ground, feather,
nutshell, squirrel, tail
 Actions: I like ....-ing
 Prepositions: up, down, round, out
 The weather
Rhyme: identify it in a poem
Rhythm: follow it

8. Pre-teaching activities
Warm-up (CIRCLE TIME): checking previous
knowledge about the topic (using mother tongue)
while sharing some nuts
Introducing vocabulary:
 Flash cards
 interactive whiteboard game
Presenting the book in which the poem is written:
what can you see, guess what is this book about, can
you tell a colour that appears on the cover…

9. ACTIVITIES
 Recognition of natural phenomena: during the
assembly we talk about the weather (cold, rain,
wind ...) and the clothes we need in each case.
 We take dry leaves falling from trees and observe
their colours, shapes and textures.
 We play with autumn leaves, we tread on them to
see how they sound, what happens, how they fly ...

10. ACTIVITIES
 Make a mural with different art techniques: paint with wax sheets,
autumn colours, and glue them together on a big paper. Chop in black
cardboard trees, fruits and autumn leaves and paste it on the wall.
 Make an autumn mobile using branches, leaves and autumn fruits to
decorate the classroom.
 We see the fruits of autumn, we compare, we taste them.
 We sort autumn fruits to do different classifications.
 We learn Autumn poems and songs.
 We make an ornament for the head to wear the day of Magosta.
 Celebrate “La Magosta" with the whole school, eat chestnuts, sang songs
and danced (Spain)

11. Follow-up activities
 Go on a walk to the forest to collect fruits, leaves, pebbles...
 Make an “autumn box” and tell about it: touch something in
the box and guess what it is without seeing.
 Art and craft work:
 give the squirrel a nice furry-curly tail and draw its footprints
around the tree with finger paint (have the photocopies ready
beforehand)
 Build a walnut shell boat
 Make a musical instrument to play when singing the song (the day
before the children should be asked to bring plastic bottle caps to
class)
 Make a poster using autumn fruits and leaves

13. Cooking a recipe: a chocolate and
nuts “black pudding” or “salami”
INGREDIENTS: biscuits, butter or margarine, cocoa powder, nuts, raisins, sugar (optional),
foil to wrap the “salami”
PROCEDURE:
•Grind the biscuits to powder (put them in a plastic bag and let the children reduce them to
crumbs)
•Melt the butter or margarine and add to the biscuits crumbs
•Add the cocoa powder and the nuts (in small bits), the raisins and some sugar (if necessary).
•Put the mixture in foil, wrap it formimg fat “sausages”
•Keep the “salamis” in the fridge
•Take them out, cut in slices and
•Enjoy!

14. Tasting autumn fruits
Bring to class typical autumn fruits: apples, oranges,
chestnuts, walnuts, pumpking…
Cut, squeeze, crack, grind…: see how everything
changes
Taste the fruits and clasify: sweet/acid…
Cut apples into shapes to stamp on a piece of paper
(a traffic light or traffic signs would be a great
subject)

15. Rain, rain, go away…
Whatever the weather, come out and play!
 Road safety
 Show Krtek an outdoor game
 Picking leaves, fruits and nuts
 Making cider / juice
 Roasting chestnuts
 Planting bulbs for the spring

16. Tell us about autumn where you live
Which months are autumn where you live?
Do you like the autumn?
What's the weather like in autumn?
What can you collect in the countryside at autumn
time where you live?
What do you like doing in autumn?
Next time you are in the countryside why not collect
some of the things you find on the ground in a
special 'autumn box'? Then tell us all about your
autumn box collection.

17. ASSESSMENT
Participation
Collaboration
Vocabulary: animals and fruits in the forest in
autumn (I CAN NAME… I CAN RECOGNIZE)
Oral interaction: I LIKE --------ING
Art work
TPR
Self-assessment
Class evaluation

18. ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
•Children are able to
•Recognize autumn typical fruits and their characteristics
•Recognize climate changes.
•Difference between a cloudy day, sunny, warm or temperate.
•Know the proper clothing for this season.
•Expand its vocabulary referring to autumn.
•Sing different songs themselves fall.
•Describe, using images, the climatic and autumn landscape.
•Correctly classify the various fruits of autumn.
•Difference sounds, silence and noise produced by objects or natural
phenomena (leaves, wind, rain, nuts ...)
•Meet and identifies fall colors: yellow, brown and orange.
•Correctly use different art techniques.
•Enjoy the mix of colors.

19. Resources
Story:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/laac/story/pencil/so
und.shtml
Book: “Jabberwocky and other poems”
Toy squirrel, feathers, nuts, nutshells...
Paper and cardboard, crayons, glue, finger paint
Photocopies:
 a squirrel’s body –without tail- on a tree
IWB

22. Teaching the poem (example)
Show a poster of a tree and the toy squirrel
Read it and mime actions and words
Ask the children in mother tongue about the content
of the poem
Ask the children to imitate your gestures
In turns the children take the squirrel up and down
the tree while you are reading the poem

23. Sing the poem to the tune of “Twinkle, twinkle little
star” (karaoke version)
Ask them to repeat verse by verse, then stanza by
stanza
TPR: Ask the children to sing along and do the
actions

24. NUT TREE POEM

27. FLASHCARDS

28. GIVE THE SQUIRREL A FURRY TAIL
Collect feathers and leaves in the garden/forest/park
and stick them on the tail

30. INTERESTING LINKS
Music: Twinkle, twinkle, little star:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZCSQbGeTo8
Game: BC games for ELT:
http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/fun-
with-english/nut-hunt
Story: The Gruffalo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=XzMa_dJGpJ4&feature=related
Nutcrackers: http://nutstocrack.blogspot.com
La Ardilla Cotilla http://ardillacotilla.blogspot.com