Pea Shelling

This was very fun for the summer program!  They first cut the ends off and then simply open the peas and take them out to eat!  I limited this activity to two peas each so there was enough for everyone each day.

 Here is a sweet boy shelling his peas :)

Farm Animal Grouping and Labeling

For my farm unit I created this simple activity.  The fence is actually my old 'Breyer' fence from my horse collection from when I was little :)  It's very handy as it folds up accordion style.  There is an assortment of farm animals that they first group together and then match the label to.  It is self correcting as the labels have pictures of the animals on them.  

 After grouping them together and matching the labels appropriately they can write the words of the animals on the paper most appropriate for them (strips of paper or lined paper).  Of course there is often some play involved after all the work is done which they always love.

Color Matching

This is a work I usually put out at the beginning of the school year.  The triangles are are laminated together and the clothes pins have the colors glued on them that are from paint samples (you could color them as well with a sharpie)

Here are some little hands matching the colors and clipping them on.

The finished product!

Fruit Leather

We are lucky enough to have a food dehydrator at our school from 'Dry It You'll Like It'.  We made fruit leather with mashed up raspberries with a little honey added to it.  We passed it around circle, let everyone have a turn mashing the berries and then they all scooped out a 1/4 cup onto a piece of waxed paper.

 There were so yummy!  We let them dehydrate for two days and then served them at snack!

Bats on Moon Counting Work

This is a work I've wanted to make for years.  I finally got around to it this year.  I used Ben Franklin's dye cuts which are free to use as long as you buy the felt or paper there.

I made a few extra bats as I'm sure some will get lost at some point!

This was in constant use during October and they referred to it as the "Batman Work"  :)

Five Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate

Of course everyone knows that classic finger play and poem and there are various art projects to go along with it.  I've done a few different ones over the years and this one seems to be the most practical for the kids to do independently.

The pumpkins come pre-cut (these ones are foam) and they were from Michaels.  Their first step is to choose five pumpkins and draw faces on them!  I cut 2 different sizes of brown strips of paper for the fence posts and rails.  There is also a crescent moon paper punch and the poem all printed out to glue on the back.  (they do that part first!)

Here is the finished product- the poem is glued on the back so they can teach their parents when they bring it home! 

On Halloween Night Felt Play

This is a Halloween felt play that is well loved each year!  You  place each piece out one at at time while you tell the story.  After a few times the kids can help tell the story too!  This works on a felt board or a work rug.

Here is how it goes...

This is the moon that shone in the sky on Halloween night.
This is the broom that sailed across the moon on Halloween night.
This is the witch that rode on the broom, that sailed across the moon that shone in the sky on Halloween night.
This is the cat who belonged to the witch that rode on the broom that sailed across the moon on Halloween night.
This is the owl that woke up the cat that belonged to the witch who rode on the broom that sailed across the moon that shone in the sky on Halloween night.
This is the jack-o-lantern who startled the owl that woke up the cat that belonged to the witch who rode on the broom that sailed across the moon on Halloween Night.
This is the ghost that carved the jack-o-lantern who startled the owl who woke up the cat that belonged to the witch that rode on the broom that sailed across the moon that shone in the sky on Halloween night!

Thanksgiving Feast Place Mat

Each year in addition to our daily family style lunch (each family brings lunch for a week and we eat family style daily) we have a Thanksgiving Feast.  The lucky family who gets that week get's to bring at the Turkey Day Fixings!
To make it extra special the kids each make their own place mat. Below is the tray with all the supplies.  These include short and long strips of paper (for the place mat boarder) dried and pressed leaves, different colored large square, rectangle, and triangle shaped paper  I use all fall colored/themed paper and it's all geared to fit a standard 9x12 piece of construction paper.

 Here is one being assembled

 The children choose the construction paper base they want as well as all the different choices of shapes.

Here is a finished product!  They all turn out different and depending on the size of their hand, you can sometimes trace both hands.

I will laminate them all to use at our feast and then they can take them home to use for their own!

Leaf Rubbing

This is a fun and simple leaf rubbing project that is easy to pull out every year.  I dried and pressed an assortment of leaves then glued them around a 8 1/2 piece of paper- carefully placing them where the poem wording would not be.  I then laminated it.

I printed out the Autumn Leaves poem.  (Print out multiple copies of this for the shelf)

Paperclip all four corners onto the laminated copy and rub with the flat side of the crayon.

 It looks great every time and you can really see the stems and the veins of the leaves- which the children are almost always sure to point out!