Search Results for: pumpkin

Top 11 Halloween Books for Kids

October 22, 2013 By Deirdre

This post contains affiliate links.

Here are my top 11 Halloween books for kids! We really try to steer away from really scary Halloween books at my house. I like to read to JDaniel before bedtime and scary books make it hard to sleep. This collection is filled with books that feature pumpkins and creatures that are fun. Another focus of this collection of Halloween book for kids is getting past Halloween fears.

The Runaway Pumpkin– When a pumpkin breaks from its vine, it rolls through a farm encountering many of the farm’s animals. This book is written in rhyme. The rhyme seems to speed up as the pumpkin does.

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything– Despite having many things chasing her a little old lady on a walk remains fearless. Children will love the unique things that chase her and how she deals with them.

Who’s There on Halloween?– Children will love following the rhyming text to find out just who is there on Halloween. I think parents reading this book to their children will too.

How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? (Mr. Tiffin’s Classroom Series)– This is a wonderful tale of how good things can come in small packages. Sometimes the good things are pumpkin seeds and the package is small pumpkin.

Duck & Goose, Find a Pumpkin (Oversized Board Book)– Duck and Goose search over, under, and all around to find a pumpkin. Children will love following Duck and Goose on their pumpkin hunt.

Shake Dem Halloween Bones– What fun storybook characters have when they attend a Halloween party. This book is filled with rhythm and fun. You may want to get up and dance after reading this book.

Happy Halloween, Mittens (My First I Can Read)– Max is a favorite at our house. He makes my son giggle at his antics. This time Max plots to get Ruby’s treats and he will make you giggle too.

Scaredy-Cat, Splat! (Splat the Cat)– Poor Splat is scared about all kinds of Halloween things. Spiders, scary stories, and costumes are just a few of the things that scare him. This book has a surprise ending. Splat ends up scaring the class he is visiting almost as much as he has been scared.

Happy Halloween, Mittens– Mittens so wants to help get ready for Halloween, but can she find a way that is really helpful. Some of the ways Mittens tries to help just don’t work out. My guy loved seeing what she would come up with next.

Pumpkin Hill I shared this book two weeks ago for Read.Explore.Learn in a post called Planting a Pumpkin’s Seeds in a Pumpkin. It is the story of what happen to a pumpkin that is allowed to rot and leave its seeds behind and its children do too. Let’s just say everyone in town ends up with a pumpkin.

I hope you find a couple of books that you would like to share with the children in your life. Many of the 11 Halloween books would be great for children of various ages.

What are your favorite Halloween books for kids?

Spider Letter Swat- Alphabet Activity

October 18, 2013 By Deirdre

Recognizing letters and their sounds is so important when you are learning how to read. This spider letter swat was made to give my son practice in letter sounds and share words that begin with those letter sounds. This was made for Halloween, but I think it could be used in a spider learning unit any time of the year.

Making the Spider Letter Swatter

The first thing you need to do to make the spider is to gather the materials. You will need a plastic lid a little larger than than swatter, a bug swatter, a pipe cleaner, two large wiggly eyes and a black plastic trash bag.
I cut a four strips out of the plastic bag for the spider’s legs.
The strips were the woven through the slits in the swatter. I tried to space the legs three rows apart.
Two holes were placed in the plastic lid and a small section of the pipe cleaner was placed through the holes.
The lid was then attached to the fly swatter by putting the ends of the pipe cleaner through to holes in the fly swatter in the same row. The end of the pipe cleaner were then twisted down to hold it in place.
A rectangle the length of the head of the fly swatter was cut out of the bottom of the plastic bag. By cutting it at the bottom you have two rectangles attached in the middle.
The plastic bag cutout was placed over the fly swatter with the creased area from the bottom of the bag at the top.
The plastic bag needs to be pulled tight and secured at the base of the flapper or head of the fly swatter with a small section of the pipe cleaner. We just wrapped the pipe cleaner around and around a few times.
Then attach the eyes to the spider’s head. You can place them any where on the head that you want to.

Alphabet Activity

When you have created your spider swatter, you are ready to play the alphabet game. We played a couple of versions of this game. The first was to say the letter and what sounds it can make. I stuck with the sounds you hear when you first say the letter sounds. (Some letters make more than one sound. I didn’t really get into that.)

The second version of the game called for saying a word that starts with that letter sound. We both took turns trying to come up with as many words as we could for each letter. I tried to stick with coming up with new words that JDaniel might not have heard before. It was an attempt to increase his vocabulary at the same time that we work on letter sounds.

The third version of the game was trying to come up with words that end with each of the letters. This was little bit of a challenge, but we were both up for a challenge.

Do You Have Other Spider Ideas?

We have talked about spiders a lot on this blog. We made a spider web trellis in our backyard. There was a spider web themed muffin tin lunch. A math game used rubber spiders and pumpkin seeds.

Book That You Could Read and Explore

Halloween Bugs

The link below is an affiliate link.

Halloween Bugs: Halloween Bugs (David Carter’s Bugs)is a really special flap book. It is filled with little doors that creepy crawling bugs hide behind. My son loves to guess what is behind each door. I think younger children will be filled with excitement as each door is opened.

This is the kind of book that you might want to read is a fun voice. I love reading it that way.

You will find more early learning activities on my Early Learning Pinterest board.

Do you swat spiders or just enjoy watching them weave their webs?

Corn Maze- Math Activity

October 13, 2013 By Deirdre

$Corn Maze Numbers Math Activity$

We will be walking through a full-size corn maze when we go to the pumpkin patch until then we have small corn maze math activity in our backyard. It doesn’t have any dead ends or twists to it. It is a simple avenue of corn that we can walk through.

Our corn maze is simply construction paper husks of corn placed on stakes. (The stakes have been collected over time. Our lawn care company places them in our front yard along with a placard with their company name on them. We keep the stakes and pitch the placards.)

I placed a wide variety of numbers on the corn cobs. JDaniel is working on the numbers 1-100 at school this year. I picked numbers that are all over that range.

$Corn Maze Numbers Math Activity - Walking Through the Maze -Gathering Numbers$

The first time through the corn lane JDaniel had to simply read the number to me. If he could read me the number, then he could pick the corn husk and put it into his blue harvest basket. Some numbers gave him some trouble, but most were not difficult.

We then planted the corn husks back onto the stakes. I should have laminated them. The construction paper started to crease a little when we put the corn back on the stakes.

As we walked through the corn this time I asked JDaniel to tell me the numbers that came before and after each number on the corn. This took a little longer and required a little thought. Simply recalling the number had been much easier. This required visualizing the number and then the numbers that appear around it. Moving up to a new level in the higher levels of thinking was a good brain stretcher for him

The last time through the numbers I had JDaniel tell the number in the ones and ten places in each number. I think understanding what makes a number a number helps children bring meaning to the number. This wasn’t that difficult for him. I didn’t think it would be. The goal of was to help him start to build up the number sense compartment of his brain.When he learns expanded notation in school, knowing how many tens and ones a number has will be helpful.

After we explored the corn maze math activity a little more, we took it down and put in it the garage. I was pleasantly surprised that JDaniel asked if we could put it up again a few days later. This time he helped me set up the corn maze math activity and picked what math activities we would do. He got to be the teacher and I was the corn harvester. I just love having him teach me new things.Have you ever been through a corn maze?

Kids Lunch- Apple Filled Lunch

September 30, 2013 By Deirdre

I should be thinking of lunches with leaves or maybe pumpkins, but I am still creating kids lunches with that are apple filled. Our recent trip to an apple orchard has filled our house to the brim with apples. Apples have been appearing during breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Oh! and sometimes snacks. I hope you will like this apples for kids lunch Bento.

This lunch contains several of the things that were leftover from my apple recipe experiments. The applesauce actually isn’t homemade. JDaniel has been dying to help me make some, but we haven’t had a chance between school, soccer and swimming. I did use red sugar to create an apple on top of the applesauce.

The apple chips are something we have made several times this fall. I share the recipe for them last week. They spend a lot of time in the oven, but take every little time to make. JDaniel was thrilled to find them in lunch.I found a wonderful recipe for turkey meatballs in a Taste of Home magazine that had apples in them. I followed the recipe almost completely. Instead of using turkey stuffing along with the egg, ground turkey, grated apple I used cornbread stuffing.

JDaniel complained that the meatballs were to spicy so, I gave him cup of apple jelly to dip the meatballs into. Apple jelly is really bland. It coated the spiciness of the meatballs and made them something JDaniel enjoyed having in his lunch. We will have to try using dips with other foods that a deemed spicy.

You will find more apple themed ideas on my Apples board on Pinterest. There are more Bento ideas for kids lunch on my Bento Lunch board.

Here are some other wonderful apples ideas:

Applesauce Toppings Bar

Apple Chicken Salad Bento

Apple Cinnamon Bread

What apple dishes does your family enjoy?

Fall Bucket List for 2013

September 24, 2013 By Deirdre

I’m a little behind in creating a fall bucket list, but I decided that it wasn’t too late to make one. We started by sitting down at the kitchen table and making a list of things we knew we wanted to have on our fall bucket list. It was no surprise to find that many of the things on our list take place outside or involve time in the kitchen. We spend a lot of time in both of those places.

Rather than hang the handwritten list on the refrigerator I placed the items on the list in Tagxedo. It is a super fun graphic generator. You simply add in your text and the share you want it in and the shape you want the words displayed in. I selected a leaf design and add the stem using Microsoft Paint.

What is displayed on our fall bucket list?

make pumpkin muffins
drink apple cider
visit the pumpkin patch
visit the apple orchard
make applesauce
hike
jump in leaves
paint spider web pumpkins
make apple dips
make Halloween costume

We will probably will do a lot more this fall, but I think our bucket list will give us a good start. I love the way the leaf turned out. It will look great on our fridge.

It is such fun to have ideas we can just look up on the fridge and find. We will be able to decide we want to cross one off our list and just pick one. Having this bucket list up will also give us a reminder of all the fun things we have done in the fall.

We might just have to make a bucket list for each of the seasons each year. I bet some of the activities will change over time and some will be things we yearn to repeat.

What do you have on your fall bucket list?

Dig Into Reading- 22 Garden Themed Books

May 4, 2013 By Deirdre

The summer reading theme for 2013 is Dig into Reading. There are so many wonderful garden themed books that feature a dig into it theme. I thought I would share some wonderful garden themed books for children that you can dig into that feature a gardening theme.

Garden Themed Books

Counting in the Garden

This is a wonderful book that shares just what can go into a compost bin.

The Curious Garden
A little boy seeks to make his community garden more beautiful and over time his garden spreads through out his city.

Flower Garden by Eve Bunting
A little girl and her dad create a wonderful window box garden for the little girl’s mom. What a wondeful surpise.

Counting in the Garden: Hardcover Popular Edition
This is a counting book with wonderful pictures. As you go through the book a new items is added to the garden.

Growing Vegetable Soup (Voyager Books)
All the steps need to grow, harvest and prepare vegetable soup are described in this book.

Green Thumbs: A Kid’s Activity Guide to Indoor and Outdoor Gardening (A Kid’s Guide series)
This book contains wonderful ways to get children into gardening.

How Groundhog’s Garden Grew
Instead of borrowing vegetables from other animal’s gardens Groundhog learns how to grow his own.

Jack’s Garden
This book follows the rhythm of “This Is the House That Jack Built” only this time Jack plants a garden.

One Bean
This book walks you through how a bean grows.

Planting a Rainbow
This wonderfully illustrated book walks you through how many different plants grow. It shares not only planting seeds ,but seedlings and bulbs too.

Pumpkin Circle: The Story of a Garden
The photos and text in this book walk children through the life cycle of a pumpkin.

Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots: Gardening Together with Children
How to create 12 themed gardens is shared in this book.

Sunflower House
The life cycle of a sunflower are shared in this wonderful story. Oh! A wonderful sunflower house is shared too.

The Carrot Seed Board Book: 75th Anniversary
Everyone in this book tell a little boy his carrot seed won’t grow. He tends to it and it does grow.

The Gardener
This terrific story features a roof garden created by a little girl visiting family in the big city.

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A grandmother and her grandson both choose to garden their own way and end up with a wonderful garden.

Zinnia’s Flower Garden

Zinnia and her animals create a wonderful place for flowers to bloom.

The Best-Ever Step-by-Step Kid’s First Gardening: Fantastic Gardening Ideas For 5 To 12 Year-Olds, From Growing Fruit And Vegetables And Fun With Flowers To Wildlife Gardening And Outdoor Crafts

150 garden projects for children 5-12 are shared in this book. What a wide variety of ideas displayed for you to try!

Whose Garden Is It?

Every person, animal, and insect that lives and works on the garden in this book things it is theirs. The impact each has on the garden is shared in such a wonderful way in this book.

Rosie Sprout’s Time to Shine

Rosie has a gift of helping others and tending to not only her bean plant at school, but another student’s. I love this book.

Now that I have shared some wonderful garden themed books I want to let you know that I will be share some wonderful activities that feature a gardening theme on Tuesday, May 7th. Several members of the Kid Blogger Network will be hosting a link up called Dig Into Gardening. I hope you will stop by to link up your own activities then. I am also hoping you will visit my other co-hosts to see how they are exploring the theme.

During the summer I will be co-hosting a Dig Into link up on the first Tuesday of the month. Here are themes and the date the link ups will go up:

May 7th- Dig into Gardening

June 4th- Dig into Exploring Underground Animals

July 2nd- Dig into Construction Sites

August 6th- Dig into Treasure Hunting

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links.

15 Tips for Hiking with Kids

April 9, 2013 By Deirdre

We spent part of our Spring Break staying in a cabin in Cloudland Canyon State Park with my family. There were several hiking trails right below our cabin. On Easter Sunday we explored two trails that lead to waterfalls. Both were beautiful. On our way back my sisters both commented that we hadn’t headed out for the hike well prepared. Each of them went over a list all the things that we needed to do right before we went hiking with kids again. I thought I would share their tips with you.Here are the 15 tips for hiking with kids that they shared with me:

Wear Correct Footwearearing sneakers or hiking boots is really important. Depending on the type of terrain you are hiking on traction to climb over and on rocks may be needed.Shoes that will clean up easily or become messy shoes permanently should be worn. There was a portion of each of the waterfall paths that was always really muddy and wet. I didn’t bring old shoes for JDaniel and had to carry him through those areas. My shoes ended up with mud caked in them. Not all of the mud has come out yet. I am still working on it.

Wear LayersWe hiked several different days that we were at the park. When we were in the sun, we peeled off our fleece jackets. When we hiked under a canopy of trees the temperature dropped a lot, we pulled the fleeces back on. It was so nice to have layers we could take off and on.

Bring Your Cell Phone If anything should happen and you need to call 911 or the ranger station, you will want to have a cell phone. A cell phone can be a great way to stay in touch with other members of your hiking party. Some hikers may move faster than others. If you become separated, you can call them to see where they are.If you don’t wear a watch, you can check a cell phone for the time too. I always seem to loose track of time while hiking.

Bring a Camera

There are wonderful bonding moments and beautiful views of nature that you are going to want to capture.

Bring Snacks and Water

You use a lot of energy when hiking bringing a water bottle and some power snacks like nuts, dried fruit or granola bars. Snack can also be a motivator to get children to go a little further on the path. JDaniel was encouraged to hike until we reached a flat area where we could sit together.

Bring a First Aid Kit

Hopefully you will only need a couple of bandages and some ointment, but if you need more you will have it. My niece got a scrape on her hand that really bothered her. All my sister needed to do was cover the scrape and my niece was able to continue hiking without having to look at it.Bring a Hat and Sun Screen

I totally forgot to bring these. Thankfully my sisters remembered to. Some of us have children are very fair skinned and burn easily. Hats also helped the kids stay warm in the cold areas of the path.Bring Bug Spray

We were fortunate to avoid bug season. When we have been to visit the woods before, the bugs loved JDaniel. Applying bug spray before hiking and during the hike if necessary really helps keep children bug bite free.Bring a Map of the Trail

We really tried to follow the yellow diamonds that marked our trail, but we ended up walking past the uphill turn the path took once. My sister was able to pull out the map and see that the creek we ended up in front of wasn’t on the path. We turned around and found the correct path a few feet away.Look Where You Are Walking

On the steep or really rocky sections of hiking paths it is helpful to remind children to look at where their feet are going. It really helped our kids avoid having too many slips, trips, and falls.Bring a Flashlight

You don’t need to bring a big flashlight when you are hiking during the day. It is nice to have small light weight flashlight to shine into the knot holes of trees or under rock crevices. Sometimes you will find small creatures to observe or areas you want to point out.Look for Fun Things to View

One of my sisters found this wonderful pumpkin knot on a tree. We were all fascinated by it. The fact that it had a stem along with the body of the pumpkin is so cool.

JDaniel loved coming across ferns, moss and other plants on the path. We had read a couple of books on them before we went on our trip. It was wonderful to have him get to see them first hand and to discuss them.We also talked about the waterfall and the water seeping through the rocks on the path. Again it was wonderful to talk and learn more about water with live models to observe.

Remember Little People Walk More Slowly

Not all young children walk slowly, but some do. JDaniel was the youngest of the cousins that were on the hike. The others ranged from 12 to 7. His legs were way shorter than the older kids and while he tried to keep up sometimes he just couldn’t. We were fortunate to have three adults on the hike. I stayed back with the slower one or ones. One of my sisters kept up with the leaders.Assign or Pick Hiking Buddies

My sister and I each tried to stay with the kids. We did assign or had them pick hiking buddies. JDaniel got tired of holding my hand or staying super close to me. Having a cousin or aunt that was a buddy made him very happy. The other kids seemed to enjoy it too. Hiking with kids means giving the kids a chance to hike with a buddy.Reaching the End of the Trail Isn’t The Goal

By the end of each hike JDaniel and I were the only members of our family left on the trail. The others had long since returned to the cabin. I asked him if he minded being the caboose. He gave me the most awesome answer. He said that hiking was supposed to be about enjoying nature and not rushing past it.That is really what it is all about for me too. Stopping to see a slug or centipede on the path. Enjoying just walking together. Setting our own pace so we can enjoy the hike. Those things are really what hiking with kids is all about.

Here are some more outdoor activities and ideas for kids:

Do You See Animals When You Hike?Measuring Chalk DrawingsThese are just 15 tips for hiking with kids. I bet you have a lot more. Please feel free to leave your hiking with kids tips in the comment section. I would for other readers to get to see them.

Valentine’s Day Ideas for a Kid’s Lunch

February 11, 2013 By Deirdre

On Monday JDaniel came home from school and asked if I had made him a muffin tin lunch. For a long time he had a special muffin tin lunch with a theme a couple times a week. I have moved on to bento style lunches this past fall and I guess he has been missing them. I told him that I hadn’t made him a muffin tin lunch, but I would dig around in the refrigerator for some foods we could have to create one. You want to try come up with Valentine’s Day ideas for kids lunch they will enjoy.

Valentine’s Day Ideas for a Kid’s Lunch

Once I assembled a wide variety of foods, we used some heart shaped cookie cutters to transform a few of them into hearts. Others were red in color and were just placed into a heart shaped muffin tin that we have.

JDaniel ended up with cornbread hearts. (I tried to get rid of all the breadcrumbs, but as soon as I got rid of some others fell of the bread.) Red grapes also ended up in the top row. The second row contains a pumpkin bar cookie cut into a heart shape and strawberry yogurt with sprinkles. The bottom row has leftover chili and a slice of American cheese cut into a heart.

As I mentioned, I have started to make themed bento lunches for JDaniel to have when he stays for Lunch Bunch at school one day a week. Below is the lunch he took to school last week. It too has a heart theme.The bento lunch contains a slice of ham, a corn tortilla, and a chunk of Laughing Cow cheese all cut into heart shapes in the main compartment. The top compartments contain dried cranberries and a heart shaped apple along with a heart shaped tomato.

I have to confess that JDaniel did a much better job on the muffin tin lunch then the bento lunch. The bento lunch returned home with the cranberries, tomato, and ham still in the box. JDaniel likes tomatoes, dried fruit, and ham usually. I guess they just weren’t foods in loved on that day.What are some of your Valentine’s Day Ideas for kids meals?

This post is linked to Muffin Tin Monday!

ABCs of Exploring Books with Children: A-H

January 7, 2013 By Deirdre

ABCs of Exploring Books with Children: Activity Ideas from R-Z

Many of you made New Year’s resolutions to do more with your children or to be better parents. The bloggers of the Kid Blogger Network are hosting a ABC event that will probably cover the area you wanted to work on. There are posts that contain lists with related post on Mom Tips and Tricks, School Activities, Learning Through Play, Literacy and Arts and Crafts.

ABCs of Exploring Books with Children: A-H

Click here to view all of the blog participating in the ABC event along with their topics.

Due to the fact that I host a weekly link up based on exploring concepts discussed in children’s books called Read.Explore.Learn, I thought my ABC list should be about about exploring books.

When I was a classroom teacher, I used books to introduce new concepts to my students all the time. Not every child came school with the same experiential background. By reading a book on a topic those who need some foundation building learned some facts on that topic and those that had already learned about that topic had their mind refreshed.

After reading a book, I think it is helpful for children to make a learning connection to the concepts that have just read. There are so many ways to explore books.

Today we will look at activities from A-H. Tomorrow I will cover activities from I-Q and on Friday I will share activities from R-Z.

Here are some of exploring books that we have tried at my house and others I have admired found on other blogs:

A

Album of Book Related Concepts

JDaniel and I read a book about Veteran’s Day and then talk about how his grandfather was veteran. We put photos of the types of planes he flew that I found on the internet and pictures of his grandfather. into an album.

Animal Snack

After reading the book Night Tree last Christmas, we made a snack for the birds to have and hung it from a tree we planted for JDaniel in our year.

Acting Out a Story

Whether it is the child acting out the story or having them use toys to do so helps them share what the story was about and what they learned from it. We used stuffed rabbits to retell the story Muncha! Muncha! Muncha!

B

Bring a Meal

Bringing a meal like breakfast you made for Mom on Mother’s Day is a way to extend the concepts you heard in a book based on Mother’s Day.

Bug Counting

Simple materials like bug shaped erasers and bug box can be used to explore the counting concepts covered in a book like One Little Blueberry.

C

Craft Furniture

If a book has a specific piece of furniture that is featured in it, like the bed in Princess and the Pea. You can crease a simple bed with construction paper.
Compare to Another Story

After reading one book on farm life, JDaniel and I read another farm themed book. We then talked about the similarities and differences of the books.

Cookie Cutter Retelling

We happen to have a lot of cookie cutters at our house. It is fun to search through our bins of cookie cutters to find ones that relate to a story we have read. We can then use them to retell the story just as we did when we read Room for a Little One about the animals around Jesus in the manger.
Cards
After reading a Christmas story last year, JDaniel helped me make homemade thank you notes to send to friends and family.

Craft a Flower

Valentine’s Day and a Valentine’s Day book last year lead to JDaniel making craft that was a vase with flowers to give as a gift.

Cook a Dessert

My family loves haystack cookies so, after reading a book about a scarecrow we made some for dessert.

D

Dough Ornaments

Dough ornaments are fun to make. We made some last year after reading a book about Christmas ornaments.

Design Cardboard Transport System

After reading the book The Red Sled, we made a sled for JDaniel’s bear Ted to ride on just like the bear in the book.

E

Experiment with Concepts

JDaniel and I read a book about a world of ice cream and then we made our own ice cream by rolling a coffee can back and forth.

Eat a Snack Based on a Character

Just last month JDaniel and I had a snack based on the Hobbit after reading a simple picture book based on the book.

Experience Concepts of a Story

Last summer right before going to the beach we read a book about tide pools and when we went to the beach we build one.

Explore Emotions

After reading a book on pumpkins that talked about emotions, we played with a felt pumpkins emotions activity and talked about feelings.

F

Fake or Pretend Play

We haven’t had a lot of snow here in South Carolina, after reading a book about snow we played with fake snow (cotton balls) in a sensory bin.

Field Trips

Field Trips are a great way to extend concepts from a books. We have gone to visit an apple orchard after reading about one as well as a local garden after reading a garden related book.

Finger Puppets

Creating finger puppets like an elephant made of a recycled cd or a turkey out of a cardboard box are wonderful tools for retelling or extending a story.

G

Grab Similar Toys and Pretend

You may not always have a toy that is just like the characters in a book, but you can grab similar ones or have the toy pretend they are the character. We did that with a book based on ocean animals.

H

Hand Puppet

Hand puppets are great for retelling just as finger puppets are. We made a fox puppet to go along with a Dr. Seuss book that still comes out to retell his book along with other books.

Help a Character Dress Up

A simple outline of a character can be dressed up in clothes that wore in the story with cloth, paper, or other craft elements.

Reminder: Tomorrow I will be sharing ABCs of Exploring Books with Children- Part Two: I-P

For more literacy ABC posts you may want to visit the wonderful blogs below.

Books for Preschoolers from Mommy and Me Book Club
Early Literacy from Playdough to Plato
Graphic Novels from Pragmatic Mom
Learning to Read Through Play from Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas
Learning to Write from NurtureStore
Reading Comprehension for Pre K-Grade 1 from The Wise Owl Factory
Storytelling from A Mom with a Lesson Plan

My Posts From Other Blogs – Fall Crafts and Actvities

November 22, 2012 By Deirdre

Today I am taking the day to enjoy time with members of my extended family. The Smith clan is in South Carolina this year for a family reunion and a time give thanks. I hope you enjoy looking for this wonderful collection of fall crafts and activities.

I am giving thanks that they everyone from out of town is staying at the amazing Embassy Suites hotel and that almost all the food is catered. Our Cape Cod house would have been filled to its rafters if everyone had tried to dine at our house.

If you have stopped by for a moment or two of your Thanksgiving downtime, here are some of the posts I have shared on other blogs and websites this month as well as some of my old favorite from this blog.

The other blogs and websites represented are Kiwi Crate’s The Studio and Kids’s Activities Blog this month.

Here are the Fall Crafts and Activities:

A yummy Turkey Bento Lunch with apple feathers and frozen yogurt Thanksgiving molds was served to JDaniel two weeks ago for lunch.

JDaniel and I made a delicious Pumpkin Smoothie. It was smooth and just a tad spicy according to the JDaniel.

One morning for breakfast JDaniel had Apple Cider Pancakes. My husband keeps asking for me to make more the ones I made for him disappeared too quickly he claims.

The final picture in this collage isn’t food related, but we did have fun with the owls in it. They were for a post called Owl Craft for Skip Counting. We counted by ones as we counted their beaks, we counted by twos when we counted their eyes, and we counted by threes when we counted their claws.

A turkey activity for preschoolers and others to work on spatial terms like above, below, and over was created with feeling. JDaniel was told to place the small red feather on the large green one. Then we were asked to place it beside the large red feather. We had a great time making various turkeys with this activity.

Beside it is a turkey JDaniel created. His feathers were created by painting in a salad spinner.

JDaniel and I did our November shopping for our local food bank using a word and picture guide I created that displays food the food bank really needs.

We worked on symmetry while creating a found art object or centerpiece. JDaniel loved collecting the objects to create the project with.A paper boat was used to create a really simple Mayflower craft! I love how the ruffled edge of the plate looks on the sails.

Here are some of our fall crafts and activities :

JDaniel and I made two paper plate turkeys. They were a part of a post called Read.Explore.Learn.- Trouble at the Tappleton’s.

I made the turkey bowling pins for JDaniel when he was two and a half. The turkey’s bodies were made of his hand prints. The post was simply calledRead.Explore.Learn.- Thanksgiving

We made the turkey treat bag to take to our local fire station. We filled the bag with cookies. The post the bag was featured in was called Read.Explore.Learn.- The Firefighter’s Thanksgiving.

Our thankfulness tree spent last Thanksgiving on our kitchen table. It is filled with leaves that list things we are thankful for. The post that featured the tree is called Thanksgiving for Kids: Being Thankful.

The muffin tin meal on the top of this collage features a turkey and all different foods a turkey would eat. The post was called Muffin Tin Monday- Turkey’s Food Pyramid Meal.

The muffin tin meal on the bottom features a stuffing turkey, the best sweet potato casserole, and turkey divan with a turkey biscuit on top. The recipe for the sweet potato casserole is included in the post. It really is wonderful. The post is called Muffin Tin Monday- Thanksgiving with Sweet Potato Casserole and More.

I made my guys a Breakfast Turkey last year. They loved the pumpkin spice pancakes, bacon, and sausage.

I hope you and yours have a wonderful Thanksgiving!