ACTIVITIES
Pumpkins from Sandwich Bags
Your child can make playful pumpkins using paper sandwich bags and items from your craft box. If you don't have paint, use crayons to create a colorful design. No tissue or pipe cleaners? Use paper, yarn, ribbon, whatever is to hand.
Skills include hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, language development, sticking, cutting and coloring.
Cutting tip: Give your child a narrow strip of paper to cut for the shapes to make the face. They do like to snip while mastering scissor skills before they can cut along lines.
Introducing the letter p-p-p
The 'Big Event' for 'p' just needs some dollar shop peaches, pears and plums and a pink pillow slip. Peppers, pineapples, potatoes, pumpkins, or anything else beginning with 'p' will work just as well. The children will be learning how the sound of 'p' works while just having fun. Nothing abstract here! As a bonus, simple sorting and counting are included.
I often introduce 'p' during the pumpkin season as there are so many references to p-p-pumpkins, including activities such as scooping out pumpkins, counting the seeds as a number activity, and, of course, in books we are reading.
Threading Pumpkins for Preschoolers
This simple activity includes hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. You just need paper, yarn and a hole punch. If you want to turn your pumpkin into a jack o'lantern, you will need a pair of children's scissors. Alternatively, you can draw a face on using crayons. The leaves don't have to be tissue paper; regular paper will do.
crafts for the letter 't'
Trees from Tubes
Make seasonal trees using items from around the house or classroom. Cover a tube either with paper or by painting it. Snip around one end to make the roots. (We all know children love to snip with scissors!) Wrap a sheet of plain or colored paper around scrunched up newspaper and wrap some tape around to make a handle; it will look like a lollipop! Hold this handle while you paint the top of the tree, if you are painting. You may prefer to stick cut-outs, such as leaves, fruit or flowers, on the crown of the tree. Be creative! If you glue underneath the roots, you can stick the tree onto a base, maybe as part of a forest or orchard, or next to a house. We would make mini milk carton houses and each child would stick a house and tree on a base. The children would then decorate the base, making pathways, hedges and flower beds.
A tree to go with the book 'Chicka Chicka Boom Boom'
All you need for this well loved craft is a cardboard tube, a strip of green paper for the leaves, either paper or paint for the trunk, a pair of scissors, and any kind of letter stickers or cut outs. Your preschooler can do pretty much everything. First either paint the trunk or cover it with paper. Snip around one end to make the roots so your tree will stand up. Take a long strip of green paper. The width should be about double the height of the tube. Fold the green paper in half lengthwise. Cut strips along the green paper, but only up to the crease. When finished, roll up the paper. Pop the uncut part of the paper into the tube. The roll will probably spring open a bit to fit itself in the tube. Arrange the 'leaves', if necessary. Stick the letters on the tree - on the leaves, up the trunk - wherever you want!