Fall Craft, part 2: Electric Boogaloo

I was going through all my program photos on Facebook, when I found more of my fall crafts (most of these from last year). I don't know when the ones I showed you before were from.  Doesn't really matter.  Anywho, part 2.

Apples. We gave the kids paint (which is always scary) and loofahs to do the leafy parts of the trees.  Then we gave then toilet paper/paper towel tubes and those were the rings for the apples.  Anything else they wanted in the picture, we gave them crayons to draw in, and encouraged them to do that BEFORE painting.

Leaves. This was a totally crazy idea when I thought of it. Did I see it somewhere or did I modify something? I don't know.  We decided to give the kids different kinds of popcorn to glue to the trees to represent leaves. We tried getting the puffed corn pieces rather than popcorn, thinking it would stick better. It didn't. We used cheddar, regular, and caramel, so we'd have yellow, orange, and brown. It didn't turn out too badly.

Fall. This was a fall craft I did AGES ago. I have this small picture-frame die-cut, and I used to use it ALL. THE. TIME. I've calmed down a bit since then. I had made tamales with my friend recently, I think, so I knew they sold the corn husks at the grocery store.  I think the other things are Corn Nuts, and then there's scrapbooking paper that's popcorn print. The corn husks REALLY did not want to be glued down. And gluing the Corn Nuts on top? Not my best plan.  But this looks kinda cute, right?

Owls. Another paper towel/toilet paper roll craft! You just wrap it in paper (which you glue on, of course) and fold in the head.  We gave them stickers to make the eyes and let them draw in pupils. Glue on a beak and some feathers for wings, and you're done!

Pumpkins. This next craft was SO easy and it looks SO good. All you have to so is cut out the pumpkin shape in the paper, and then cut strips of scrapbook paper in whatever colors you want. We stuck with golds/oranges because duh, pumpkins. The kids may have been a bit confused as to which way the strips had to be facing, but it just took a second to show them and they got it. (Or they had a parent helping them).

Halloween/Bats. I can't remember which this was for last year. Could have been either. We've done some iteration of this craft many times. For polar animals, for Christmas, and now for Halloween. Pretty much you take your bat cut-out, color it with chalk, then place it on the paper, and smudge the chalk off the cutout and onto the paper, so you wind up with the outline.  Or you can do like this girl and take your cutout and make and outline around it, and then smudge that.  Either works. Coloring your cutout means that you don't have any hard lines.

Fall Leaves

You can't do fall story times without talking about the fall leaves.  Here's a selection of the books that are our favorites:

Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert. This book has fantastic illustrations made using real leaves, and encourages children to use their imaginations to see the different animals in the pictures.  Sometimes they have a hard time telling what they are, but for the most part, they're spot-on and they love it.

I Know It's Autumn by Eileen Spinelli. This book covers all the things that make fall special besides the leaves changing color.  I like to read it to my Florida children because they don't have these experiences, since autumn doesn't exist in FL.

Fall Leaves Fall! by Zoe Hall.  A good simple book about the changing of the seasons.  My favorite part is that it shows the leaves of different trees

Footballs and Falling Leaves: A Fall Counting Book by Rebecca Fjelland Davis. The book counts fall items, up to ten, and has a rhyme on each page.  The back has a section that shows different clusters of the items and the children have to count them.  A lot of times, they remember the number from earlier in the book and just shout that out, and then we count it together.

Oliver Finds His Way by Phyllis Root. A little bear gets lost in the woods while chasing a leaf. This book can lose a younger child's attention at times, but I always get them back when I have them roar with me.  Also - I cry when Oliver does and that quiets them down in a hurry.