Scarecrow Party

I can't believe how quickly the week has gone!! This time of year it seams that we get so busy, but it's a good busy. It's the kind of busy that's alive with kid fun.

No matter how busy we get, we always have time to share a great story. Last Saturday we went to the book store and bought a few new books to add to our "Fall"collection. I hope to share all about them, and the fun activities that they have inspired in the next few days.

Barn Dance is not a book that is new to our collection, but it is one of my very favorite books. The text is so musical, and the story if filled with magic as the scarecrow comes to life and the farm animals dance until the wee hour of morning.

To celebrate the season and extend the fun of this book, we invited a couple of friends over and made our very own scarecrows.


We used some of our Little Guy's old jeans and a shirt (about size 3). They were just the size for the girls to easily work with (Little Guy helped but I think he was off eating candy corn for most of the pictures). We stuffed our scarecrow with plastic grocery bags.


For the head the girls stuffed one sack with other sacks. They then shaped it into a rounded shape, inserted a ruler (you could use a yardstick if you want the scare crow to stand up), and tied off the bag.

Now for the fun stuff!! We brought our scarecrows to life by creating our own lively faces. We draped the fabric over the "plastic bag" head and tied it on with raffia. We then finished off the scarecrows by tying the wrists and ankles with raffia, and adding a little raffia for hair when needed.This guy went to live at the home of our good friends!! Isn't he fun?

This guy sits on our front porch keeping watch!! Don't you just bet he dances in the yard while we're sleeping?!?

I didn't worry about connecting these guys at the waist. We just sat the bottom portion on a chair and the top portion on top of it, but you could use a long dowel rod or yard stick to connect them for a standing scarecrow (you would also need to make a hole in the pants, so that the dowel or stick could be used to stand up the scarecrow).

Have a delightful day!!

"Oh Lovely Mud" and Friday's Foto Finish Fiesta

If you've just dropped by to see my favorite photo for the "Foto Fiesta" scroll down to the last photo of today's post. But feel free to read all about our "lovely mud" if you have the time.

"Oh Lovely Mud"

When I was teaching, Mrs. Wish Washy was always a favorite of my students, the same is true at home. My oldest daughter loved this book when she was small and my little guy loves it now. It's the perfect book for little ones, it has repetitive language patterns, fun content and, and great illustrations.
In the book, poor Mrs. Wishy Washy is trying to keep the animals clean, but they keep getting in the mud.

For today's activity we learned about the letter M, it's sound, and the fact that the word mud starts with M. We first read the book together and then we maid a "Muddy M" painting

We used brown paint and a letter M shaped cookie cutter, a sponge in the letter shape would work as well.

Once Big Sis came home, from school, we worked together to make farm animal cookies.



I love this recipe, it's easy for kids to roll and cut out themselves. The cookies taste great too!!

Rolled Sugar Cookies

3 C flour
2 t baking powder
3/4 t baking soda
1 C shortening (I used butter(
1 egg, beaten
1 1/4 C sugar
2 T milk
1 t vanilla
Combine flour, baking powder, and soda, cut in shortening (or butter) with a pastry blender until it resembles course meal. Combine egg, sugar, milk, and vanilla. Stir until well blended pour into the the dry mixture. Stir with fork until well blended. pat dough into ball and chill 2 hours (we usually can't wait that long). Role dough 1/8 in thick and cut with cookie cutter.
Bake at 375 for 6 minutes.

After the cookies had time to cool we drizzled them with "mud". We used chocolate flavored almond bark (because it is so easy to work with) but any kind of candy coating or frosting would work.

Friday Foto Fiesta

The kids had such a great time working on this cooking project!! My favorite photo this week is of them together in the kitchen.

To Join the Fiesta!! Visit Candid Carrie.

Have a Delightful Day!!

Flowers in Fall

My little guy has been noticing signs of the changing season. One thing he has noticed are all of the tall sunflowers we pass as we drive Big Sis to school. So what better book to share than The Tiny Seed, by Eric Carl. Today we read the book together. He loved reading about the tiny seeds travels as the Autumn winds blew, until finally the tiny seed grows into the biggest flower of all (even bigger than the house). Sometimes we think of flowers as being something to talk about in spring, but this book ties the cycle of the flower into all of the changing seasons, beginning and ending with Autumn.

After reading the book we painted our own Flower, and snacked on sunflower seed nuts. The first painting is the one I helped him with, the second one is the one he did all by himself!!

Today we pained with tempera paint and a sponge clipped to a clothes pin, and a sponge brush!!

Our next activity with this book will be to sprout seeds, and observe how they grow.

Have a delightful day!!
DeeLight

More Animals On The Bus

Okay I'm a little late. We've had our puppets made I just haven't had time to post.

We made a sheep and a cow, using the same idea as the pig puppet. My little guy wants to make a chicken next. If you want to continue to explore farm animals in automobiles and other unusual places you might check these great books out: Mr. Gumpy's Outing , Mr. Gumpy's Motor Car, Sheep In a Jeep, Cows In The Kitchen.

Have a delightful day!

Farm Animals on A Bus?

The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate The Wash is a great book filled with the funny stuff that kids like. Jimmy's class takes a trip to a farm, but things get a little crazy. Somehow the animals wind up on the bus!!

You may want to take this opportunity to reinforce the color yellow, the letter Y for Yellow and B for Bus, you may also want to sing a new version of the "Wheels On The Bus". Change the song up by singing "The pigs on the bus go oink, oink, oink...The cows on the bus say...(you get the idea).

This book will serve as a bridge into a farm animal theme, but the activities are great as stand alone activities as well.

The next activity is one of my favorite kinds of puppets for little ones. There are many cute paper bag puppets out there, but paper bag puppets can be difficult for little fingers to operate. You will find that I use this same style of puppet again and again (check out 5 Little Monkeys).

This is a simple stick puppet. No need for a fancy pattern. Your little one is going to enjoy creating something special with you no matter how artistic you are. It is also important that kids learn to use their own imaginations to create and problem solve. If they always observe you using patterns, and not trusting your own abilities they will feel less confident in their own creativity. (This is not to say that there is no place for patterns and following directions.)

Today we made the pig, but check back for other animals on Thursday.

I found simple household objects to trace for the face and snout, and then drew 2 simple ears. Use this as an opportunity to talk about the number 2, circles and the color pink (or whatever color you choose to use).

My little one is not quite old enough to cut on a line so I cut the circles out and let him color the snout brown and glue the pieces together, I then drew a mouth and eyes, but older children could do it on there own. It is helpful to draw a small x where the pieces are to be glued, this way your little one will know just where to place the glue and object.

We then glued our little piggy to a popsicle stick and sang "the pig on the bus goes oink oink...

Have a delightful day!!

Big Yellow Bus and Cupcakes Too

In keeping with our "Wheels On The Bus" theme we pulled out our own Yellow Bus (I really think it would be fun to make one out of a refrigerator box).


We are going to have fun acting out the Wheels On The Bus song, and later we'll drive the Big Yellow Bus to the kitchen for Yummy Yellow Cupcakes. This will give us the perfect opportunity to talk about the letter Y and review the color Yellow. You can find my favorite recipe for cupcakes on my other blog Fancy That. This a super easy recipe that starts with a mix, but is Oh so Yummy.

Friday Foto Finish Fiesta

Candid Carrie is hosting a photo show and tell of sorts. This is one of my favorites, it's my daughter and 3 nieces at the zoo. Looks a little like Planet Of The Apes, don't you think?

Have a delightful day!!

Wheels On The Bus --- Snack

The other day i posted an activity based on the book and song "The Wheel On The Bus", today I would like to share a fun food activity.

You will need:
graham crackers (for bus)
golden graham cereal (for windows and door)
teddy grahams
yellow frosting
small Ritz crackers


I could give you the procedure step by step, but it's easy and I'll just share some photos. My 3 year old, 11 year old and her friend all made one. The buses required several paint jobs, and window replacements (somehow the frosting and windows kept disappearing from their buses).

ENJOY!!

The Wheels On The Bus

This is an old standby. Nothing too original, but always fun for little ones.

The Wheels On The Bus is a great song, but can also be found in several different book versions.

We checked Raffi's Wheels On The Bus out from the library. We sang the song, and listened to the song on CD. Now when we read the book together my little one can "read" right along with me.

This is a great opportunity to check out all of the yellow school buses. We look for buses as we drive around town, and talk about the color yellow. For fun we finger painted with yellow. I then drew a bus on the painted yellow paper, cut it out, and added wheels (complete with brads so the wheels go "around and around").



Stay tuned for more bus activities, stories, and songs.