This Thankful Tree Is Perfect for Any Season!

Use this craft during any season or holiday by switching out the paper colors! Children will love using their handprints to creat this beautiful tree!

Materials Needed:
9×12″ Heavyweight Construction Paper
Best Value Safety Scissors
Colorations® Washable School Glue
Huge 9″ Alphabet Collage Letters
Fadeless® Paper Rolls, 48″W x 50’L

Goals:

• Teaching appreciation for the things that are important to each child.
• To have the children learn about Thanksgiving and what it means to be thankful.
• Using fine motor skills to trace and cut

Before You Start:

• You will need enough pieces of construction paper for your class. To make an autumn tree, use fall colors, such as red, yellow, green and orange.

Let’s Begin:

1. Assist children in tracing their hands.
2. Help them cut out the shape of their traced hands and have them write, “I am thankful for…” on the hand. Let them choose what they are thankful for.
3. Help the children construct the trunk of the tree by using brown construction paper.
4. Next, have each child tape or glue their “thankful hands” to the tree.
5. You can also add pictures of the children if you would like!

Make These Adorable Puffy Pumpkins for Autumn!

This puffy pumpkin craft is a fun, sensory art experience that will help keep autumn in full swing!

An Activity for Preschoolers:
Make some adorable puffy pumpkins for autumn with this fun, sensory art experience!

Goals:

•To explore tactile properties of the squishy paint mixture

•To express creativity and make a fun autumn craft

Before You Start:
For each child, prepare one cup of shaving cream, one squirt of orange Colorations® paint, a few squirts of school glue in small bowls. Set out facial tissues, construction paper (for background) and brown pipe cleaners.

Furthermore:
Colorations® foam paint can also be used instead of the paint and shaving cream mixture. Children can also make their pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns for Halloween! Simply pre-cut tissues into a variety of shapes for dipping into the paint mixture and place onto the pumpkins to form the jack-o-lantern face.

For the supply list and more information, click here!

Activities for Celebrating the Harvest

This post from Susan Root will give you plenty of ideas to celebrate the harvest in your classroom or at home!

The abundance of natural items in the fall makes it the perfect time to extend children’s learning, both indoors and out. In fact, learning will abound as you collect and explore fall items, and extend activities into different areas of the curriculum.

Read more here!

Check Out This Month’s Featured Blog!

Rows of Pumpkins

With the weather getting crisper, kids will enjoy creating some pumpkins (and learn about color mixing as they do it). Read More…