Fall trees

With Fall right around the corner, our community is very golden, and full of falling leaves. The kids are so excited, because with fall comes things like Thanksgiving, and Halloween! (and of course, closer to Christmas). So, today we did something that I try to do each year- just so I have them all to keep! We made hand/finger print trees. The kids love doing this, because they get to get messy!

Early this morning, I painted their hands, and down their arms a bit- in brown. Then we pressed them onto the paper. While we let those dry, we read some fall books and sang some fall songs. We talked about all the exciting things that fall brings!

Once the tree trunks and branches (their hands) were dry, we set to work to make it look more like fall!

While we put the paint out, we talked about fall colours. And then, once each child had their "pallet" they started putting their finger prints on their trees!

They all have a great time watching their hand print become a tree, and also getting very messy!

More apples

I didn't get time to post yesterdays craft, so I will add it to todays!

We are still talking about apples this week. Yesterday we read some stories about apples, and apple pie! (gave me a craving for sure!)

For yesterdays apple core craft, we needed the cut out apple core pieces (top and bottom with red and core with white!), glue, paper, crayons and a stamp pad (you could use finger paint if you don't have a stamp pad).

First, the kids coloured on their paper. We were talking about other fruits, and of course apples, so they could draw/colour something "fruit" related on their paper.

After we were done with our colouring, we glued the apple core to the paper. And then the top and bottom of the "eaten" apple!

Once the apple core was on the paper- we needed seeds! That is where the stamp pad and the kids finger prints come in! Press one finger into the stamp pad (or black/brown finger paint), and press them onto the core!

Then today we did apple stamping! This was fun, and will be a nice picture to hang on the wall for fall! First thing this morning, I cut 2 apples. 1 of them I just cut in half, and the other into quarters- just to give some different shape! I left them on the counter just to dry out a little bit before we needed them!

At Craft time, I put some finger paint on our paint trays (we use ziplock container lids- they are great!). Just a small amount! So it is stampable, and not a glob of paint on their paper! And I put one apple per colour. We did fall colours!

Then, I just let the kids go to work. We switched colours fairly often, and they often went back for another colour!

Day 12 of 25 Christmas crafts

Today is day 12 of 25 Christmas crafts, and today, we used our finger prints to make lights on a Christmas tree!

First I got some white paper, and the paints.

 Then, the kids used their fingers to put "lights" all over the page! 

 We let them dry for awhile, and then cut them into tree shapes, and used markers to "connect the dots", making it look like stringed up Christmas lights!