Pumpkins are everywhere! I love Fall and all the fun things you can do with pumpkins!
Pumpkin Print Painting is a fun way to smell pumpkins, talk about seeds and vines, predict what is inside a pumpkin, and create a personal, free-style painting project!
2- Cut the pumpkin in half and let your kids clean out the insides.
3- Squirt paint onto the plates, and show your kids how to make a print. It works best if you wiggle the pumpkin around in the paint and again on the paper. Let them loose to explore and create! Don't worry if they decide to paint with their hands too--pumpkin print painting is an experience!
Did you see ourleaf print paintings last week? Check out these other awesome Fall print painting ideas:
These leaf print paintings are a fabulous sensory experience that can be used with your preschoolers to review colors, talk about Fall, and create art!
They also require very little set-up and can even be made outside! Here's the easy how-to:
Simple Supplies:
leaves (go outside and let your kiddos find the perfect leaves!)
paper
paint (we used Fall colors: red, yellow, and brown)
paint tin or paper plate
paint brushes
Easy How-to:
1- Put a squirt of each paint color in the tin or plate.
2- Show your children how to make a leaf print. Invite them to create a masterpiece!
Here are our finished Leaf Print Paintings:
I love how some of the children glued their leaves to the picture with paint and others worked on a design they had in mind.
In the end, even their plates looked like art works!
This activity works great by itself, or you can tie in a discussion about seasons and why leaves change colors!
Do you have "Fall" leaves? Our over-night lows are just getting down in to the 70-degree range, and it is so fun! Enjoy your Fall crafts!
Last week I taught a letter-themed preschool co-op focusing on the Letter C and the Number 3. Our group has four high-energy boys and one girl, and they all turned three a few months ago! So we, of course, filled the morning with lots of exciting letter-C activities, and now I'm sharing them with you!
Gathering Activity: Construction Site
A sensory activity with bulldozers, excavators, and other construction tools!
Circle Time: Letter C Introduction with Carpet Scraps cut in a c-shape. Name review, A & B review, News Share (each child gets a moment to talk). Put the C's in groups of 3.
Cave Activity. Build a cave with couch pillows and blankets. Go on a Bear Hunt to find the cave (review Bear starts with B). Pretend Play: Bears in a Cave. Find 3 fish to eat.
C Maze. My six-year old daughter really wanted to help plan the day. She volunteered to make a maze for the kids that they could complete by tracing the C's down the correct path. She also added in some distracting A's. She's getting pretty good with Word! You can have her maze too by clicking HERE.
"Cooking" Activity. Go outside and "cook" with real tools, pans, bowls, flour, and water. I also added a bit of baking soda and vinegar. It was awesome!
Egg-carton Caterpillar Craft. This is a classic for a reason...kids love it! To prepare, cut the egg cartons in half, cut pipe cleaners in eight pieces, pre-pop tiny holes for the pipe cleaners with s small screw, put out some paint, and grab some self-adhesive wiggly eyes. Getting the pipe-cleaners in the little holes is excellent fine muscle exercise, as is painting and sticking eyes on the caterpillars!
C Snack: Carrots and Cookies! My cookies were whole wheat oatmeal raisin yumminess!
Story & Song: The Very Hungry Caterpillarby Eric Carle. This fabulous book reviews days of the week and the life cycle of butterflies. You can see it in the link below, and Netflix currently has a 6-minute "movie" where a narrator reads the book and a few aspects are animated (like the caterpillar crawling). {picture below is Amazon affiliate link}
The Itsy Bitsy Caterpillar (Tune: Itsy Bitsy Spider)
The itsy bitsy caterpillar climbed up on a leaf.
He spun a cocoon, and then he went to sleep.
While he was sleeping he dreamed that he could fly.
When he awoke, he was a butterfly!
I know that technically butterflies make a chrysalis, not a cocoon, but I'll explain that when the kids are older!
Carrot Cutting: Hole punch THESE CARROTS and tie some long green yarn to them. Show your children the carrots that just grew way too much! Encourage the kiddos to cut the yarn, but don't get stressed if they cut the carrots too! This is another fun way to strengthen those finger muscles...and both "carrot" and "cut" start with "c!"
Circle Starts With C: And we have a huge circle-shaped parachute! Parachute Play is tons of fun!
Circle Time: Review & Wrap Up
Free Play: We've scheduled 20-30 minutes of free play for the kids to practice their amazing get-along skills at the end of each day!
Supplies:
Construction Sensory Bin
C-shaped carpet scraps
3 hidden fish
C mazes
Cooking Tools & Water
Carrots & Cookies
Cutting Carrots
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Egg Cartons, pipe cleaners, wiggly eyes, paint
Parachute
Some convenient Amazon affiiliate links are below...you never pay more for clicking over to Amazon through my links, but I get a small commission for referring you. See more details here!
This free Preschool Pumpkin Maze packet an be used two ways: as a maze or as a roll & cover game! It's perfect for fall or autumn themes!
The packet has ten mazes: 5 with a blank background and five with corn in the background as a distractor.
You can put the pumpkin mazes in a sheet protector or laminate them for repeated use. Simply use a dry erase marker and wipe it off with a paper towel when you're done! These mazes strengthen the small muscles in your children's hands and prepare them for more rigorous writing and cutting. You can also let older preschoolers cut along the pumpkin path or color in the blank rectangles!
To use as a roll & cover game, grab a die and give it a roll. Cover the number of pumpkins indicated with BINGO markers, beans, or candy corn! Your children can fill a page as a team together or you can give each child their own page, and let them race through the maze individually. Games like this strengthen counting skills and help develop a sense of 1-to-1 correspondence, which is important in learning to read and later math skills!
I love serving healthy food in a fun way, and these Apple Cinnamon Apple Bowls have been a hit every time we make them!
My preschoolers (and older kids too!) think it is so fun to eat out of an apple! The cinnamon stick brought an unusual conversation to the table and we all enjoyed a little breakfast variety!
You can make Apple Cinnamon Apple Bowls in three easy steps:
1: Cook your oatmeal. I like to add a bit of applesauce, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Yum!
2: Cut out your apples. I use a knife to cut a bowl shape, and then a spoon to scoop out anything left behind.
3: Scoop your oatmeal into the apples. Add a cinnamon stick. Serve with a spoon... and a cup of milk!
Obviously we did not eat the cinnamon sticks, but it was fun to taste them and talk about how cinnamon is made. Most of the kids refilled their apples several times and then ate most of their bowls too! Super fun, and super easy!
This blog is not leaving, but the weekly linky party is moving to Facebook.
Before I go any further, I want to tell everyone who has linked up to Teach Me Tuesday in the past, "Thank you so, so much for joining me here!! I have truly enjoyed hosting Teach Me Tuesday at Preschool Powol Packets. It is an event that I look forward to each week and I love promoting your posts on Facebook and Pinterest too! I feel like I have "met" many of my favorite bloggers through this linky party and I really want to stay in touch with you! Please join me at https://www.facebook.com/PreschoolPowolPackets each Tuesday to share your wonderful posts!
Because I have loved Teach Me Tuesday here so much, this was a very difficult decision for me. I do not want to bore you with all the details and research that went into this decision, but I will tell you a few things: I have hosted Teach Me Tuesday for more than 40 weeks (in two segments), and I have absolutely loved it. It is always hard to make a big change when you have invested a lot of time and emotion into something, but I am sure this is a good thing.
So, here is how it will work:
1- Click over to my PreschoolPowolPackets Facebook page.
2- Under my header, in the middle of the screen is a button that says "Highlights." Click on it and change it to "Posts by Others" so you can easily see what everyone else is sharing.
3- Share 1-2 of your best family friendly educational posts by leaving a link and (optionally!) adding a photo. You are welcome to share family friendly lessons, activities, crafts, printables, games, recipes, etc.
4- You can click through and visit posts that others have shared and/or leave them comments right at PreschoolPowolPackets!
I will, of course, visit posts shared and pin them!
I would love to have you share tonight or any time tomorrow!
And, as the final Teach Me Tuesday event here on the blog, I want to feature the most clicked link from last week and the free printables. Remember to visit myFree Printables board herefor more great resources!
Last year I made this giant Spooky Ghost the night before Halloween, and he greeted my kids as they came downstairs:
The Spooky Ghost is super cute, stands up by himself, and is the perfect Halloween decoration! I didn't post about him last year because Halloween was over by the time we made him, but today I'm going to tell you everything you need to make one yourself! While I have seen several people making these ghosts, I want to give a shout-out to Love and Laundry for first introducing them to me!
How to Make a Spooky Ghost:
Simple Supplies:
microwave-safe bowl
water
corn-starch
spoon
drying stand (I used a balloon taped to a vase.)
cheesecloth (*see note at bottom)
black construction paper and glue
Easy How-to:
1- Stir 1 cup of corn-starch into 2 1/4 cups water. Microwave for 2 minutes. Stir. Microwave for 20 seconds. Stir. If it is still watery, microwave for another 20 seconds. It should look like this:
2- Mash the cheesecloth into the cornstarch mixture until it is completely saturated! I use a spoon so I don't burn myself, but you can also let the cornstarch mixture cool a little first. If you're doing this with children, do not let them touch the hot cornstarch mixture!
3- If your drying stand is not created, prepare it now! I like to use a 12" balloon taped to a tall vase.
4- Pull the soaked cheesecloth out of the cornstarch mixture and give it a few squeezes to make sure it is really soaked.
5- Drape the cheesecloth over the drying stand. Leave it overnight. You can dry it with a blow dryer in about 20-30 minutes, but you risk popping your balloon prematurely.
6- When your ghost is dry, cut two eyes out of a piece of black construction paper and stick them on with a big pile of glue! Then set him up somewhere where he can "smile" at your kiddos! Of course, they will want to play with him too...
We love all kinds of cute, fun, and not-gory Halloween decorations! Do you usually decorate for Halloween? What do you like?
*Cheesecloth note: We have found cheesecloth in the baking isle at our local grocery store, but it is about $4.00 for 2 square yards. You really want more than just 2 yards so that you can cut it and have a 2-3 layer thick ghost. Two yards is enough to cut in half and make a 2-layer ghost on most sides, but a little more really makes a stronger ghost, especially if your kids are likely to touch and play with it. Wal-mart sometimes carries larger packages, or you can use the convenient Amazon affiliate link below. You never pay more for clicking through these affiliate links, but I receive a small commission for referring you. You can read more details here.
