Scarecrow - how do you feel?

Every year this scarecrow, that stands at a toddlers height,

gets a new head and comes in to play.

 Each day his face is transformed into a variety of emotions.

Sign of the week - pumpkin

This week's sign is 'pumpkin'.
Hold your left fist in front of you.  With your right middle finger and thumb, flick the back of the left fist.

Our fingerplay for the week is Five Little Pumpkins.

Five Little Pumpkins
Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate,
The first one said, “Oh, my it's getting late!“
The second one said, "There are witches in the air.“
The third one said, "But we don't care.“
The fourth one said, "Let's run and run and run!“
The fifth one said, "Isn't Halloween fun?“

Then Woooooo went the wind
And OUT went the lights.

And five little pumpkins rolled out of sight

Story - The Big Pumpkin

The oral story that I shared with my families is called The Big Pumpkin.
It is same story line as "The Great Big Enormous Turnip".

Granny Apple Dolls

A while ago we started making Granny Apple Dolls.

First we had to carve the apples and let them dry.

During the next week we watched them change as they dried.

Then they were ready to add a body.  

We used dried corn husks.

Meet Mr. & Mrs. Apple Doll.

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.