T is for Turkey

Circle Time

Turkey Songs and Stories
Turkey Books

Activities
Cutting with Scissors

Playdough with toy Tools
Coloring
Tool Puzzle

Felt Board

Art Study

The Tree Swing by Frangonard

Snack
Tater Tots

Arts and Crafts
Handprint Turkeys
Yarn Turkeys

Cooking
Why Thanksgiving dinner of course! We have a simple one the weekend before, just as a family, and then travel to Grandma's for the "real deal".

Turkey handprints

A staple of thanksgiving childhood. Simply paint fingers, and press and you've got a cute little turkey.

GreatThanksgiving Books

Over the River and Though the Wood by Lydia Maria Child

There are many versions available of this classic Thanksgiving poem but I like the one illustrated by Christopher Manson best. Even though the snowy scenes depicted bring Christmas to my mind more than Thanksgiving I love the look and feel of the old fashioned holiday and especially appreciated the music included on the back page so I could sing the book.


Thanksgiving Is Here! by Diane Good

The text in this one is a treat with a rollicking rhythm that's just begging to be sung but its the illustrations that really make it a keeper. The pen and watercolor illustrations are so full of hilarious detail that I found myself flipping thru the pages long after the kids had finished to follow the many side storylines in picture. A book Zeke requested over and over...and over...again!

Thanksgiving With Me by Margaret Willey

This soft ballad is a dialogue between mother and daughter as they anticipate the girl's 6 uncle's arrival for Thanksgiving. The whimsical pencil drawings pair perfectly with the mother's remembrance of past Thanksgivings, and both characters' excitement for the one to come. As a family with many uncles ourselves, Zeke and I especially loved this book but I think any family can relate.


Thanks for Thanksgiving by Julie Markers

Fun rhyming text and beautifully detailed two page spreads take us thru a list of the little and the big things to be thankful for

Thanksgiving Songs

Thanksgiving (sung to: Are You Sleeping)
Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving
Here it comes, here it comes.
Turkey on the table, turkey on the table.
Mmm-good, mmm-good.
Cornbread muffins, chestnut stuffing,
Pumpkin pie, ten feet high.
We were so much thinner, before we came to dinner.
Me-oh-my, me-oh-my!

Thank You (sung to: Twinkle Twinkle)
Thank you for the sun so bright,
Thank you for the moon at night,
Thank you for my family,
Thanks for friends who play with me,
Thanks for everything I see,
I am thankful, yes siree

P is for Pumpkin

Circle Time

Pumpkin Songs and Stories, and Pumpkin Books

Activities
Orange Playdough
Peg Board
Pouring Beans
Pom Poms

Felt Board
Pumpkin and face pieces

Art Study
Battle of the Pyramids by Watteau

Snack
Pudding

Arts and Crafts
Painting miniature pumpkins
Carving Jack-o-Lanterns

Cooking
Pumpkin Pie

Other
We went on a family field trip to the pumpkin patch.

Pumpkin Painting

Carving pumpkins is a really popular pumpkin activity, and a ton of fun. But painting pumpkins, either big ones or the small miniature ones, can be just as much fun.

Great Pumpkin Books

Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin by Mary Serfozo

I just loved the fun wordplay in this tale of a young tiger named Peter in search of the perfect pumpkin, "Not a lumpy bumpy pumpkin. Not a stumpy, grumpy pumpkin, but a sunny sumtuous pumpkin." Beautiful rhymes matched with beautiful illustrations of swirling paint streaks of gold, yellow, and purple.



Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper

Cat, Squirel, and Duck all live cozily together, each with special tasks, right down to their preparation of pumpkin soup. Until one day when Duck decides that he wants to stir! With warm, rich, and enchantingly detailed illustrations this is a beautifully told story about friendship and sharing, and it even includes a recipe for pumpkin soup.


The Runaway Pumpkin by Kevin Lewis

This isnt the first Lewis book I've recommended on here and I'd be surprised if it was the last. It's a bit of a tongue twister, but the "thumpin bumpin" rhythm of the text was a perfect match for the pumpkin crashing thru the family farm and wrecking havoc in this fun and spunky book.


Pumpkin Day! by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace

This isn't the first Wallace book I've recommended on here either, and I know it wont be the last. I love her cut-out illustrations, and how she is able to include so much information; jack-o-lantern history, different varieties of pumpkins, ect in each of her books without ever breaking the rhythm of the story. This one even has pumpkin jokes sprinkled throughout. It finishes off with a recipe for pumpkin seeds as well as pumpkin muffins.

BONUS HALLOWEEN BOOK

Mouse's First Halloween by Lauren Thompson

The Mouse's First books are all winners, and this one is no exception. With its gorgeous double spread illustrations I thought it had just the perfect amount of creepiness for the very youngest of trick-or-treaters.

Pumpkin Songs and Stories

Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater by Mother Goose
Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater,
Had a wife and couldnt keep her,
Put her in a pumpkin shell,
And there he kept her very well.

Five Little Pumpkins
Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate, (hold fingers up)
The first one said "oh my its getting late," (hands on cheeks)
The second one said "there's a chill in the air," (hug self)
The third one said "but we don't care," (shrug)
The fourth one said "we're ready for some fun," (jump)
The fifth one said "lets run, run, run," (run in place)
So woo went the wind, and out went the lights, (clap)
And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight (roll arms).

Handprint Tree

Zeke really enjoyed making handprint trees this week.

First I let him paint his hand with brown pain and a paint brush, then after making his handprint I showed him how to fingerprint leaves onto his tree.

L is for Leaf

Circle Time
Leaf Songs and Stories, and Leaf Books

Activities
Coloring with markers
Stringing Beads
Leaves collected on a leaf walk and a magnifying glass
Leaf matching game

Felt Board

Art Study
Van Gogh's Mulberry Tree

Snack
Lemonade, and ants on a Log (aka cream cheese, raisins, and celery)

Arts and Crafts
We stuck leaves to contact paper

And also, made tree handprint paintings

Cooking
I planned on making sugar cookies cut with a leaf shape. But then the leaf shape I thought I had couldnt be found, and I had apples left over from A week anyways. So we made apple cake :)

Field Trip

The arboretum, where we searched for leaves.

Leaf Songs and Rhymes

Autumn Winds (can be done as a circle game, like ring around the rosie)
Autumn winds begin to blow
Colored leaves fall fast and slow
Whirling twirling all around
Till at last the touch the ground

5 Little Leaves
5 little leaves so bright and gay
Were dancing about on a tree one day
The wind came blowing thru the town
And one little leaf came tumbling down
(4, 3, 2, 1)

We also tried a longer story this week, which went over quite well. It was simple enough to memorize and while Zeke didnt really ask for it, like he did our Daisy the Dino story, he listened each of the 2 or 3 times I told it.

The Little Leaf
Once upon a time a little leaf was heard to sigh and cry. The twig he grew upon asked him "What's the matter little leaf?" and the leaf answered, "The wind told me that one day I will fall to the ground."

The twig told this to the branch on which it grew, and the branch told it to the tree, and when the tree heard it, it rustled all over and told the leaf, "Don't be afraid. Hold on tight, and you shall not go until you are ready." And so the leaf stopped sighing.

Every time the tree shook itself and stirred up it's leaves, the branches shook themselves, and the twigs shook themselves, and the leaf danced up and down merrily as if nothing could ever pull it off. And so it went all summer.

Then, when the bright days of Autumn came, the little leaf saw all the leaves around him become very beautiful. Some became yellow, some red, and some striped with both. IT asked the tree what it meant, and the tree said, "All the leaves are getting ready to fly, and they have put on these beautiful colors for the joy of it."

The little leaf began to want to fly as well and it grew very beautiful thinking about it. Just then, a little wind came and the leaf let go, without even thinking about it, and the wind took it up and turned it over and over, and it flew thru the air.

Leaf Matching Game

I put together a leaf matching game for Zeke this week, since the animal matching one went over so very well.

First I copied off a pattern to decorate the front, colored and cut it, and pasted in onto a manila folder.

Then I copied off 2 sheets of leaf patterns and colored and cut those as well. The first set I pasted into the inside of the folder (I also labeled the leaves as oak, maple, ect). The second I laminated. You can see I also stapled a baggie into the inside of the folder to hold the laminated leaves.
Thus a very simple matching game was made.

A fun idea for a slightly older child would be to print off patterns (or real pictures) of leaves, paste them into the folder, and then take a walk in your nearby neighborhood, park, or arboretum to find real leaves to match. This would be a great way to learn how to identify different leaves.

Or alternately you could cut the leaves in half, so that the child is matching up one half of the leaf to the other buy shape.

Great Leaf Books

The Little Yellow Leaf by Carin Berger

This was both mine, and Zeke's favorite book. In fact, I very much want to buy this one. The collage illustrations, made from graph paper, magazine pages, touches of paint, and even I'm pretty sure at one point a water bill, are stunning. But even more rare (for a children's book) the text is beautifully rendered. A "riot of fiery leaves" fly thru the air, apples get "musky" and leaves "crackly dry", a harvest moon "blooms amber" and the sun "beckoned and teased". I could read this book over and over, and Zeke could listen to it just as many times.



Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert

This is a preschool/kindergarten staple. The die cut pages and leaf collages (made from photocopies of real leaves) are both stunning, and sometimes hilarious (I just love those leaf chickens!) as the story follows the journey of the Leaf Man, for after all, "A leaf man's gotta go where the wind blows."





Mouse's First Fall by Lauren Thompson

This book had very simple text, a bit more geared towards Malachi, then Ezekiel. I just loved the texture of the illustrations, however, not to mention the variety of shape and color in the leaves.





Who Loves The Fall by Bob Raczka

Not strictly a leaf book, this one still stole our hearts...and got us very excited for the season! With bright illustrations and catchy rhymes it takes us thru everything we love best about fall, from the obvious (pie crust fillers) to the not-so-obvious (former caterpillars-aka monarch butterflies). Zeke especially enjoyed the reference to "helicopters" as we have a Maple tree and these curious flying seeds ourselves, but I think its safe to say everyone will relate.