Play Trays This Week

               
                  Orange sand on a tray encouraging to practice print.
  
Practicing print starts with making marks. 
We saw lots of different marks; straight lines – short and long,
curved like a smile, dots and circles were a few.
           
Excitement when the marks becomes something recognizable to the child.
   
The sand also encouraged scooping and sifting through the fingers.
 
                   Felt fall pieces to sort by shape or colour.
         
Sorting tray with acrylic acorns, mini tongs, baskets and squirrels.
                   What fun we saw happen with these props.

                        Helping the squirrel dive in to eat the acorns.
                              
 
Sorting the acorns or once discovering the sorting tray turns, giving it a great spin.
           
Milk cap drop box.  I saw this idea over at We Can Do All Things.
 
The children loved it and the box was easy to move around to meet any sized child.
               
Parents liked the simple materials and felt they could make it at home.
            
The children enjoyed emptying the box to start over as much as they enjoyed slipping the caps into the box.

Our Pumpkin and Sunflower Story

      
Our story started last spring.  We planted seeds with our big buddies.
After they sprouted we transplanted them to our outside garden.
                     
All summer, myself and another family ventured to the school to keep them watered.  When school started, in September, we were happy to see blossoming pumpkins and tall sunflower plants.
 
All September we kept them watered
and watched the pumpkins change from green to orange
   
and the sunflowers blossom and opened towards the sky.
 
Today we harvested.
 
 
We counted how many sunflower blossoms grew on this one stalk that I’m holding.

Inside we’ve been documenting our pumpkin story.


The children look at the pictures and we write what they say.
   

Our pumpkins and sunflowers are now keeping our scarecrow company till we’re ready to eat them.
            

Story - Why the Trees Lose Thier Leaves

I've told this story before but called it The Evergreens. 
It's a nice folktale to share in this season of Autumn.

Here's the written form for you.

The Evergreens

(Story from the Vancouver Coast Region)

Once, a long time ago, a small bird broke his wing just as winter was coming along.

Unable to fly to the warm south with his friends, he hopped into the forest to look for shelter.

First he asked a birch tree for help.

"Lovely birch tree, " the bird said, "I've broken my wing and must find a place to keep warm. Will you let me live in your branches until spring?"

"Heaven no!" the birch replied, "I have enough to worry about just taking care of my leaves for the winter. I have no time to help you."

The little bird then hopped to a huge oak tree. "Mighty oak, "he said politely, "will you let me live in your branches until spring?"

"No way," the oak said. "I know your type. You'll just eat up all of my acorns. Move along, move along!"

The poor bird limped over to a willow tree. "Gentle willow," the bird implored, "may I live in your branches until spring?"

"Are you kidding?" the willow said. "Perhaps some trees take in strangers, but I certainly don't. Go away!"

Weak and dejected, the bird fluttered along, not knowing where to turn. "Where are you going, little bird" a concerned voice asked.

The bird looked up at a friendly Spruce. "I don't know,"he said miserably. "My wing is broken, so I can't fly south, and I need a warm place to stay for the winter."

"Come and live in my branches," the spruce said. "I'll be happy to have company for the winter."

The bird gratefully fluttered into a low branch and was settling down when a nearby pine tree called, "Welcome little bird. I'm sorry you are hurt. I'll help too, by sheltering the spruce to keep you both out of winter's icy wind."

"Me to," piped up a small juniper. "I can help by giving you berries to eat all winter long."

"You're all so kind,"the bird said. "Thank you very much."

"They'll be sorry," whispered the oak, the willow, and the birch.

The very next morning, Jack Frost brought his children out to play. “We want to touch all the leaves in the forest so we can see what bare trees look like. Can we, can we, Pop?" the Forest children jumped with excitement.

"Hold it," said Jack Frost sternly. Old Jack had been testing the air the day before and had seen the plight of the little bird.

"Don't touch every leaf," he ordered. "Let the trees who were kind to the little bird keep their leaves."

Being good children, the Frost children listened to their dad.

That is why today the spruce, the pine, and the juniper stay green the whole year long.

Leaf Impressions

Yesterday one grandmother, Nonie, brought in a big bag of leaves.
We used them to make our prints.
    
Then today we used the rest of them to make impressions.

First we placed leaves on the table then covered them with foil.
We used the brayers to roll over the foil.
 
Brayers and paint rollers are like cars, they attract boys to the art table.

Unfortunately the foil I had was purchased at a dollar store and had creases in it when I took it off the roll.  So it was difficult to see the impressions.
         
But you could feel them while the leaves were still under the foil.

Then we used markers to sketch the leaves on the foil.

They enjoyed the drawing on foil. 
I think it’s because there is little friction and the marker slides smoothly.

I think next time we try this I will buy heavy duty foil.
It was a good project to experiment with.

Leaf Prints

The table was ready for leaf printing this morning
and I thought I would give it a try.

I realized I rolled too much paint onto the surface
and it came off with my print, making it blurred.

But I soon learned that the children used more control
when applying paint to their leaves, therefore wasn’t a problem.

After applying the paint they covered the leaf with a piece of paper.
Then used a brayer and rolled over the paper.
I love his focus.  Notice the tongue.

When lifting the print, the leaf often stuck to the paper. 

Difficult to tell though because the placemat is showing the reflection.

We used a variety of leaves with pleasing results.
 
 
    

Autumn Leaf Cookies

Yum!

We’ve been talking about the colours the leaves have been changing and today we made our own coloured leaves 

to eat.

                                   

I premade the sugar cookie dough and tinted it red, orange and green.

Then rolled the dough into little balls.

                               

The children took a group of balls and placed them between waxed paper before

 rolling out the dough.

                

There were mini, leaf shaped, cookie cutters to chose from.

                   

Parents talked about the shapes of the cutters and the colours of the dough.

                           

Amazingly from those three little balls of dough they were able to make

2-3 cookies.

Time to bake. 

This little boy was very interested in the cooking part and insisted on taking the pan to the oven.

                               

So I took this opportunity to talk about time.  We set the timer then he went back to play.

At one minute left I showed him the timer and we checked the cookies.  

 Love the smile on his face, anticipation.

                             
                               

One batch of sugar cookie dough provided enough mini cookies for three days of snack.