Our theme again last week was fall and we did several fun activities.  Here are some of the things we did:

We had 2 sets of pumpkins in various colors.  I put one set out on the table and gave Hailey the other set.  She matched up the colors.  This is a great way to practice color names.

We made pumpkin prints- here’s what you’ll need: green and orange paint, paper and a paper plate.

Dip the top part of your child’s fist into the orange paint then make prints on the paper.

Then use your finger to add a green stem.  If you do this with an older child the prints might actually look like pumpkins.  But, Hailey did not want any help and did not want me to show her how to do it- so she had fun but they don’t exactly look like pumpkins.

I made a pumpkin patch then put pieces of Velcro on the patch.  Then I added some pumpkins that have Velcro on their backs.  We sang this song to the tune of “Clementine:”

I saw a pumpkin
a big fat pumpkin
It was hanging on a vine
Hailey came along and picked it
took it home
and said, “It’s mine.”

And as we sang the song Hailey would go pick a pumpkin off of the patch during the “Hailey came along and picked it” line.

Lastly we made an acorn:

First you’ll need to paint a brown piece of paper with a darker shade of brown.

Once the paint dries, rip apart the paper.  Also, rip apart a piece of regular brown paper.

Glue the lighter colored brown paper to the top of the acorn and the brown paper that was painted to the bottom of the acorn.

The finished acorn.

Come back tomorrow to see our number, shape and color activities from last week.

Please also take a second to stop by the Velveeta Casserole Challenge and vote for me (I’m the one on the right- Livin’ With Me and the Meat Lovers Pizza Casserole). You can vote once each day and I’d appreciate it so very much if you’d vote for me. Thanks!

I showed you our spider we made out of playdough and pipe cleaners yesterday to go along with “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” song that Hailey loves.

So, I had a fabulous idea that we could do some “ball painting” to create a spiderweb look. It didn’t exactly work.

Here’s what you’ll need- paper, ball, paint, bowl, something to stir if you want to mix your paint together, and a box with sides.

Put some paint in the bowl.

Stir it up to create a fun new color. Or make your toddler upset because she has just decided that she doesn’t like mixing the colors together.

Next you should be able to put the paper inside the box with sides, add some small drops of paint to the paper, and then tilt the box to make the ball roll which will create lines all over the paper (our spiderweb in this situation). The problem was that I used one of Hailey’s golf balls- so it is hollow and didn’t really weigh enough to roll through the paint. It kept getting stuck in the little paint blobs.

So, we tried a deeper box so that Hailey could shake the box harder without the ball flying across the room.

This is the reason we didn’t use marbles (which will give you the best results- but only if your children no longer put everything in their mouths). The golf ball is covered in paint and is being inserted into Hailey’s mouth.

Here is our finished spiderweb. Which looks nothing like a spiderweb. BUT, Hailey had fun making it and that is what matters.

Hailey loves “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” song so I thought I would do an easy project with her to make our own fun spider.

Here’s what you’ll need: Playdough and pipe cleaners.  We used pink because that is Haileys favorite color.  And also to keep our spider looking fun instead of scary.

Cut up the pipe cleaner into eight pieces to be used as legs.

We made our spider and then sang “The Itsy Bitsy Spider.”  This is Hailey doing the hand motions for the “down came the rain” line.

And then Hailey decided she didn’t like the spider anymore, so she pulled all of the legs off.

Just in case you need the lyrics here they are:

The itsy bitsy spider
Climbed up the water spout
Down came the rain
And washed the spider out
Out came the sun
And dried up all the rain
And the itsy bitsy spider
Climbed up the spout again.

And if you need the tune- check that out here.

I found another fun idea over at No Time for Flashcards that went well with our Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star theme. So, we decided to give it a try.

You’ll need: Card stock or construction paper (I used card stock), crayons, several dark colors of paint to mix together or black paint if you have it, paper plate and paper bowl, something to stir with if you’re mixing paint (I used the craft stick) and foam brushes.

First- draw several stars, a moon, some planets, etc. You will need to press pretty hard when you are coloring.

Put some dark colors together or if you have black paint- just use that.

Stir the paint together.

Put a very thin layer on the plate.

Paint over your stars, planets and moon.

The finished picture. (I had actually drawn a lot more stars using silver and gray, but our paint turned out the same color and you can’t really see a lot of our stars.)

Since we’ve been focusing on songs the last couple of weeks, we did an art project based on Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star- another one of Hailey’s favorites.

Here’s what you’ll need- black construction paper for the sky, glue and a moon and stars. I cut the moon and starts out of white felt, just for something different.

Glue the moon and stars on. Hailey loves gluing and it is very good for the muscles in her little hands to squeeze the bottle- so I let her do it even though it can get a bit messy sometimes.

Put the moon and stars onto the sky.

The finished picture.