The Easiest Fall Craft Ever and Why I Didn't Do It

This craft is fun and so easy. Take a piece of masking tape, preferably wide tape, and wrap it loosely around your child's wrist. Once or twice around is enough. Send him or her outside to pick up leaves and stick them to the tape. Voila! Instant Fall Leaf Bracelet!

This is fun, easy, and gets your child outside playing with nature. What's not to love about that?

So why didn't I do it today, like I had planned? The Orland Library is situated in Library Park, a block-size park with lots of trees that right now are shedding their leaves. Yesterday there was a nice and colorful variety of leaves on the grass. This morning I get to work, and the guy from Public Works is mowing the grass and chewing up all the leaves. There goes my craft project.

So I had to go with the back-up plan. Tissue paper leaves on a construction paper tree. Fine, but not outstanding like the leaf bracelet.

Fall Fun

Here are some songs and rhymes for fall. Sing them all as you flutter your hands like leaves.

Falling Leaves - Sing to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat:

Leaves, leaves, falling down, 

Falling to the ground.

Red and yellow, orange and brown,

Falling to the ground.

Down By The Oak Tree - sung to "Down By The Station"

Down by the oak tree
On an autumn morning,
See all the yellow leaves
Whirling to and fro.
See how they twist and turn,
Whirling, whirling, whirling.
Down, down, down, down,
Off they blow.

Each time you sing it change the color. Ask the children what other color the leaves could be (red, orange, brown, etc.)

Leaves are Falling All Around

Leaves are falling all around,

On the housetops on the ground.

Leaves are falling on my nose,

On my head and hands and toes.

The song is actually called Rain is Falling All Around.  You can find the tune for this song here:

http://lds.org/churchmusic/detailmusicPlayer/index.html?searchlanguage=1&searchcollection=2&searchseqstart=241&searchsubseqstart=b&searchseqend=241&searchsubseqend=b 

Apple-licious!

Some extra kids today---Hooray!  I like seeing new faces.

Nothing very exciting at storytime, but here's a little song that we had fun with:

Picking Apples (to the tune of Frere Jacques)

Picking apples, picking apples  

One by one, one by one

Put them in a basket, put them in a basket

Oh what fun, Oh what fun!

As you sing, reach up and pick apples, then circle one arm and pretend to drop apples in. Sing this 3 or 4 times, getting faster each time. The kids enjoyed it. 

For a craft, we did apple prints. This was an ideal use for the leftover little apples from our tree that I still had in the fridge. But I didn't have enough, so I had to buy a few apples too. Plus, of course, the kids wanted to eat some apples, and they weren't supposed to eat the apples that had paint on them. So I sliced up a few nice apples for snacks.