Salty Leaves

A local mall asks schools and day care centres to help decorate their hallways.
They provide card stock shapes for students to decorate.

We chose to decorate them with watercolour and salt.

Pure enjoyment!

Play Changes from Day to Day

The children have been asking where the bugs are so I set up this play invitation and included bugs.

 It was fun to watch their interactions, how they played with each piece.

What interested some children and not others.

 There's something about the world in miniature that intrigues some children (and adults too, my husband loves model railways).

 One at a time she carefully covers the tree with bugs, birds and wreaths till...

 its decorated like Christmas.

 This little one collected all the toad stools,

 carried them around to the tray

 and sorted.

 Each day for the past week

 the scene looked different.

 We had to move it to a new location

and  found new toys to join in the fun.

Apple Tree Snack

Today we made apple trees to eat for snack.

 I sprinkled the apple slices with cinnamon for colour, fragance and to help them stay appealing when they go brown.

Story - The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything

This is one of my favourite stories, I've been telling it for a long time. And I especially like to tell it at this time of year.
It is based on the book The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda D. Williams.

Sign of the week - scared, happy

This week we are beginning our Hallowe'en activities so I thought it would be a good time to introduce some emotion signs.
When you are signing any emotion sign it is very important to show the same emotion on your face and with your body so the meaning is clear.
Here is the how-to for 'scared' and 'happy'.

Our song for the week is one of my favourites "Dingle Dangle Scarecrow"

Dingle Dangle Scarecrow

When all the cows are sleeping and the sun has gone to bed, up jumps the scarecrow and this is what he says
"I'm a dingle dangle scarecrow with a flippy floppy hat,
I can shake my hands like this and stamp my feet like that.”

When all the hens are roosting and the moon's behind a cloud, up jumps the scarecrow and shouts very loud
"I'm a dingle dangle scarecrow with a flippy floppy hat,
I can shake my hands like this and stamp my feet like that.”

When the dogs are in their kennel and the doves are in the loft, up jumps the scarecrow and whispers very soft,

"I'm a dingle dangle scarecrow with a flippy floppy hat,
I can shake my hands like this and stamp my feet like that”

When all the pigs are snoring and the stars are shining bright, up jumps the scarecrow and shouts with delight.

"I'm a dingle dangle scarecrow with a flippy floppy hat,
I can shake my hands like this and stamp my feet like that.”

Autumn Leaves for the Window

I found this beautiful autumn leaf craft at Having Fun at Home blog.

It took a little prep of cutting the leaves and drawing the lines with a glue gun but the rest was easy. 

 Provide a variety of autumn coloured water paints.

 Smaller brushes and water.  It was popular (even without the paint - first time painters had fun painting with water).

 "Look you can see the colour on the other side."

 This art work has inspired a new idea - letting the children use the glue guns to make spider webs - look for the results in a future post.

Aplle Peel Printing

Today we peeled apples.

Today we measured with apple peels.

Today we spelled our names with apple peels.

It was quite by accident that this happened.

The peel fell off the machine and landed just like you see it above.

 It inspired us to print our whole name.

Today we discovered a new material to practice our letters.