Counting Our Blessings

Thanksgiving is a holiday that helps us reflect upon all the many blessings we've been given and to show thanks and express our gratitude for all the things that enrich our lives.

Talk with child about what is means to be thankful. For my 3-year-old, I explained to him that being thankful means saying "thank-you" for things that are important to us or that we are grateful for/love. I started to list some of the things I'm thankful for {family, home, clothes, food, etc.} Then, I asked him to tell me some of the things he's thankful for. When that didn't really produce too many answers, I asked him to tell me all the things he really likes. Once we started a pretty good list, I started writing down his answers of some "leaves" I cut out of construction paper and left over fall painting craft projects.

Some of my favorite answers: Santa Claus, hugs, ice cream cones, chocolate, hawks, toys, rainbows.



We then used the leaves to make a thankful swag. I used some of the fall leaves and berries we collected on our nature walk, some floral wire, and the thankful leaves and paper clipped them onto the wire. I made a swag because we'd already made a wreath and because I don't have a mantel, but if I did, I would probably turn this same idea into a fall mantel decoration.


It would be cool to start with just a few and add one each day until Thanksgiving or for the whole month of November. I may even keep a few from this year, label them with 2010 on the back, and pull them out each year to remember some of Kyle's unique answers from year to year!

Thanksgiving Cards

Around Thanksgiving, it's important to show our love and gratitude for family members and other special people in our lives.

We decided to make some "love turkeys" and send them for our annual Thanksgiving Day cards.

Materials:
construction paper
paint
crayons
glue
cardstock (or blank Christmas cards)

Instructions:
Using paint, make a print of child{ren}'s hand{s}. Let dry and cut out.
Meanwhile, cut out various sizes of hearts out of fall-ish colored paper.
Glue down hearts, which will become the turkey's feathers, onto the front/inside of cards.
Glue down hand prints on top; draw in eyes, feet, beak/wattle.
Let child decorate card with crayons. Insert personal message.
We used, "Happy Thanksgiving. With LOVE, from 2 little turkeys!"



We addressed the cards and took a field trip to the post office to mail them. It's a fun Thanksgiving Day tradition and the grandparents, aunts/uncles, and cousins look forward to receiving these!

Fall Leaves

One of the most easily recognizable signs of autumn is changing/falling leaves. Whenever this starts to happen, we make sure to pay attention and discuss the noticeable changes.

Activities:

Take a walk and point out signs of fall~leaves changing colors, leaves falling down, piles of leaves on the ground.
Jump through piles of leaves.
Collect leaves, pine cones, acorns, berries, etc.


Once home, use the collected leaves, etc. to make some fall crafts.

• Leaf Wreath: cut the edge off of a paper plate, use as the base of a wreath. Help child glue fall leaves around the edges.

• Leaf Rubbings: use crayons and rub over different shapes of leaves to make a fall leaf art piece.
• Leaf Collage: Layer and glue leaves onto paper to form a unique leaf collage.
• Fall Centerpiece: Place twigs, leaves, and other natural items you collected on your nature walk in a vase for a homemade table centerpiece.
  

The signs of autumn are all around us in nature. We just need to get out and look for them!

Spiders and Bats, Oh My!

We've been reading all about Halloween and some of the spooky decorations that are put up as part of the celebrating the holiday.

Today we decided to made some spooky spiders and batty bats.

We took a plate and a coffee filter that Kyle painted purple to make the spider. After cutting the coffee filter into a body, we cut legs out of the plate. We glued the legs on the body and drew eyes onto the head.



Our bat:
Kyle painted a piece of paper with brown paint. I cut out a head and a body from that paper and Kyle glued them onto another piece of construction paper. We also made brown handprints and cut those out for the wings.

Pumpkins

Read 5 Little Pumpkins or do the fingerplay:

5 little pumpkins sitting on a gate.
The 1st one said, "Oh, my! It's getting late!"
The 2nd one said, "I'm ready for some fun."
The 3rd one said, "Let's run and run and run."
The 4th one said, "There are witches in the air."
The 5th one said, "But, we don't care!"
Then, WHOOOOOOSH went the wind, and out went the light.
And 5 little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

Use plates or coffee filters or paper from the fall colors painting activity to make pumpkins. Cut out circles and green stems. Glue on the stems. We made 5 pumpkins to go along with the fingerplay.


Paper Bag Pumpkins: Paint brown paper sacks orange; let dry. Cut a few inches off the top and stuff with paper scraps. Gather top and tie with green pipe cleaner. Draw on a jack-o'-lantern face, if desired. Add to your pumpkin patch.

Fall Colors

Read a book about fall and how the leaves on the trees start to change colors and fall off the branches.

Talk about some of the colors we start to see in the fall.

Mix paints to make these colors--red + yellow = orange, throw in some brown, too. (We are starting to run out of paint colors, so Kyle just HAD to use some blue, white, and purple after we made our fall colors.)




Many of these items we painted on can be used for other autumnal crafts!

Airplanes: Day Five

Field Trip

If your area has a air and space museum, visit it. Plan to attend an air show and try to tour historic planes. Travel to your nearest airport...preferably a small one...and watch the planes land and take-off. If you can, meet a pilot and tour his plane. Or, find a hot air balloon festival to attend.