Pumpkin, Leaf & Acorn Fall Craft and Homeschool Lesson

Pumpkins, acorns and leaves scream fall to me. Their colors are gorgeous and when you see them, there is no mistaking autumn is here with crisp air, bonfires, apple picking and wonderous views. To bring a little bit of the outside inside, M2 and I did a craft with all three. Once we finished, we had a beautiful decoration to set on the hutch.

Homeschool Lesson
While we painted, I talked with M2 about colors, shapes, fall, acorns, leaves and pumpkins to add a toddler age appropriate homeschool lesson. To help her with taking turns, sharing and team work, the craft has aspects I had to do or help her with. She learns best through art and music, so this craft a perfect way to incorporate learning. When we were done, she was so proud of her work!

For older kids, you can go more in-depth while you craft or do a lesson before followed by the hands-on art. They'll be able to do the craft themselves also.

Fall Craft Week
Next up for Fall Craft Week is a roundup of 20 crafts for kids from other bloggers followed by my cute Welcome, Fall Wooden Sign. Friday I'll have adorable hand print, footprint and thumbprint Halloween art M2 and I created to share with you. There's also a roundup of 15 crafts for moms coming up Thursday!

Supplies
Orange acrylic paint the shade of pumpkins
Green acrylic paint the shade of leaves
Brown acrylic paint the shade of a pumpkin stem
Apple-red acrylic paint
Autumn colored silk leaves
Small glass display bowl
Acorns gathered from outdoors
Orange permanent marker, fine tip

Directions and Lesson
Mom's turn: Draw four circles around the bowl with the permanent marker so your child knows where to paint.
Child's turn: Paint inside the circles. Talk about how the shape is a circle, the color orange and other things that are orange.
Mom's turn: If needed, clean up the paint that went outside the line or clean it up a bit with paint, making them bigger.
Mom's and child's turn: With both of you holding the brush, paint stems on each pumpkin then vines connecting each stem. Finish off the stems with leaves which you can make by adding thick lines randomly. Talk about how pumpkins grow on the ground on vines that come from stems. Identify brown and green and name other things that are those colors.
Child's turn: Plop the acorns in the bowl. Talk about how acorns come from trees and that squirrels eat the nuts.
Mom's turn: Cut the leaves off the stems.
Child's turn: Add the leaves to the bowl. Talk about how leaves grow on trees and change to pretty colors in the fall. Name the colors and other things that are those colors.
Mom's turn: With the red paint, write "fall" on one side vertically between two pumpkins then the year on the opposite side between two pumpkins. Talk about fall, including fun things you do, how the weather changes, that it's when the leaves change colors, pumpkins are ready to pick and squirrels begin collecting the acorns.
Let your project dry then enjoy the beauty of fall indoors!

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Pumpkin, Leaf & Acorn Fall Craft and Homeschool Lesson

Pumpkins, acorns and leaves scream fall to me. Their colors are gorgeous and when you see them, there is no mistaking autumn is here with crisp air, bonfires, apple picking and wonderous views. To bring a little bit of the outside inside, M2 and I did a craft with all three. Once we finished, we had a beautiful decoration to set on the hutch.

Homeschool Lesson
While we painted, I talked with M2 about colors, shapes, fall, acorns, leaves and pumpkins to add a toddler age appropriate homeschool lesson. To help her with taking turns, sharing and team work, the craft has aspects I had to do or help her with. She learns best through art and music, so this craft a perfect way to incorporate learning. When we were done, she was so proud of her work!

For older kids, you can go more in-depth while you craft or do a lesson before followed by the hands-on art. They'll be able to do the craft themselves also.

Fall Craft Week
Next up for Fall Craft Week is a roundup of 20 crafts for kids from other bloggers followed by my cute Welcome, Fall Wooden Sign. Friday I'll have adorable hand print, footprint and thumbprint Halloween art M2 and I created to share with you. There's also a roundup of 15 crafts for moms coming up Thursday!

Supplies
Orange acrylic paint the shade of pumpkins
Green acrylic paint the shade of leaves
Brown acrylic paint the shade of a pumpkin stem
Apple-red acrylic paint
Autumn colored silk leaves
Small glass display bowl
Acorns gathered from outdoors
Orange permanent marker, fine tip

Directions and Lesson
Mom's turn: Draw four circles around the bowl with the permanent marker so your child knows where to paint.
Child's turn: Paint inside the circles. Talk about how the shape is a circle, the color orange and other things that are orange.
Mom's turn: If needed, clean up the paint that went outside the line or clean it up a bit with paint, making them bigger.
Mom's and child's turn: With both of you holding the brush, paint stems on each pumpkin then vines connecting each stem. Finish off the stems with leaves which you can make by adding thick lines randomly. Talk about how pumpkins grow on the ground on vines that come from stems. Identify brown and green and name other things that are those colors.
Child's turn: Plop the acorns in the bowl. Talk about how acorns come from trees and that squirrels eat the nuts.
Mom's turn: Cut the leaves off the stems.
Child's turn: Add the leaves to the bowl. Talk about how leaves grow on trees and change to pretty colors in the fall. Name the colors and other things that are those colors.
Mom's turn: With the red paint, write "fall" on one side vertically between two pumpkins then the year on the opposite side between two pumpkins. Talk about fall, including fun things you do, how the weather changes, that it's when the leaves change colors, pumpkins are ready to pick and squirrels begin collecting the acorns.
Let your project dry then enjoy the beauty of fall indoors!

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N is for Nest Craft

Rainy days can be difficult for little ones who enjoy nice weather and feel cooped up inside. I am joining 25 other bloggers in the A-Z of Rainy Day Activities  blog hop to give you great ideas of what to do with your kids when the weather is bad. Today, I bring you the letter N.

Lately, M2 has been fascinated with birds. We live in the country, so see lots of birds. She points and says, "brr," whenever a bird flies by her view. We even have two bird nests in the yard right now, one which just hatched. Visiting the baby birds before our daily walks is a must.

When rainy days took over last week, her new obsession gave the the idea to do a nest craft with her. We made a tree, a bird, and a nest for the bird to live in. M2 had lots of fun and is so proud of her craft work. She just had to show it off to her uncles who came to visit.

The craft is also an opening to teach your kids about birds and nests. While we crafted, I told M2 about birds and how they make nests out of pieces of things they find. We have a few bird nests in our yard now, so I told her how the birdies have eggs in the nests, which hatch into baby birdies. You can get more detailed and go more in-depth depending on the age of your child.

Supplies
Scissors
School glue
1 piece blue felt (you can get packs or single pieces at the store)
1 piece brown felt
1 piece green foam (you can get packs or single pieces at the store)
Feathers
Googly eye
Foam stickers of flowers, birds, butterflies--whatever you'd like to include
Medium brown, light brown, and multi-color yarn

Directions 
Moms can do this part, unless you have older kids who are able to do these steps
Cut yarn into small pieces, roughly 1/2 to 1 inch long
Cut foam into the shape of the top of a tree
Cut blue felt into shape of a bird
Cut brown felt into a nest shape
Cut remaining brown felt into a tree trunk shape

The kids take over here
Glue googly eye and feathers onto the bird
Glue yarn pieces onto the nest
Stick on the stickers where ever
Glue the top of the tree to the trunk
Glue the nest onto the space at the bottom of the tree top and top of the trunk
Glue bird onto the nest

Next up on the blog hop is an obstacle course from Cutting Tiny Bites.