Apples, Pumpkins and All about Fall
Orange you glad it's fall? The colors and sounds of fall inspire many moments to play and learn. Your children know what an apple is, but do they know the word orchard? Reading books, talking about what is all around and remembering to have fun harvests a crop of eager and wise learners.
Children who are given time to create art and tell stories develop an understanding of how elements work together. They develop strong motor, math, and language skills. They also enter kindergarten ready to succeed.
Take some time to celebrate Fall through these songs, crafts and activities:
- Ten Red Apples by Pat Hutchins tells the tale of an apple tree that loses its apples one by one to hungry animals. It’s a wonderful story to act out. Make a simple tree for the classroom and put apples on it. Take apples on and off to demonstrate different numbers.
- Have children dip their hands in red paint except for their thumbs. Paint their thumbs green. Now it’s easy to make apple handprints.
- Create Pink Lady apples by drawing faces in pink cupcake liners and top with green pipe cleaners.
- Paper plates can be colored or painted to represent the wide variety of apples that exist.
- Apple prints have a great star effect when the apple is cut in two, dipped into paint and pressed onto paper.
- Talk about the different names for all the Apples, like the Golden and Red Delicious apples. Then have your children mix red and yellow paint to create a new breed of orange apples!
- Play a Pumpkin Patch Matching Game. Create a pumpkin template that your children can trace. Have them each make a matching pair of jack-o-lanterns and then flip them over, lay them on the floor and try to match the pairs!
- Turn over a paper bowl, paint it orange and let the children paste black triangles on the face to create their own unique Jack-o-Lanterns.
- Sing some of these songs about Fall:
Pumpkin song (tune: I'm a little teapot)
I'm a little pumpkin
Orange and round.
Here is my stem,
There is the ground.
When I get all cut up,
Don't you shout!
Just open me up
And scoop me out!
Five Little Pumpkins (tune: Five Little Monkeys)
Five little pumpkins
Sitting on a gate
The first one said,
"Oh, my, it's half past eight!"
The second one said,
"There are witches in the air!"
The third one said,
"Good folk, beware!"
The fourth one said,
"We'll run and run and run!"
The fifth one said,
"Let's have some fun!"
OOOOOOOH, went the wind
And OUT went the light
And the five little pumpkins
Rolled out of sight
Two little apples (tune: This old man)
Way up high, in a tree,
Two red apples smiled at me.
So I shook that tree as har-r-rd as i could.
Down came the apples. Ummmmm, were they good!
Apple Seed (tune: Itsy, Bitsy Spider)
Once a little appleseed was planted in the ground
Down came the raindrops, falling all around.
Out came the big sun, bright as bright could be
And that little apple seed grew to be an apple tree!
Little Red Apple
A little red apple, Hung high in a tree
I looked up at it, and it looked down at me
"Come down, please" I called, And what do you suppose
That little red apple, Dropped right on my nose!
What are some of your favorite things to do with your children this season?
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