{Rubbed Leaf Hedgehogs}

These cute little hedgehogs brightened up our dreary fall afternoon last weekend!

Rubbed Leaf Hedgehogs

Creativity for Preschoolers

Sweet Pea loves collecting leaves, sticks, rocks, anything from nature that she finds on our walks. As a result, we had a large pile of leaves that she had collected and pressed and was looking for something to use them for.

After seeing these leaf turkeys and these leaf hedgehogs, we decided to make our own versions of hedgehogs with them. Sweet Pea is in the Hedgehog class at preschool, and our dog's name is Hedgehog (in Hungarian), so hedgehogs were the perfect subject for our crafty Sunday together!

We got out some paper and drew some snouts - just a rounded, slightly curved triangle with a circular nose on the end. 

Then we put leaves under the papers and rubbed them gently with the side of a crayon (we love these ergonomic crayons from Boya). 

Aren't they sweet? I think our little Hedgehog approves!

Looking for more leaf-y activities? How about these?

Natural Leaf Garland

Fall Leaf Wreath for Kids to Make

Simple Fall Nature Art

{Simple Canada Flag Nature Craft - Maple Rubbing}

Canada Flag Nature Craft for Kids:

Maple Tree Rubbing

For Canadians feeling patriotic or for non-Canadians learning about Canada, here's a fun nature craft to get your creative kids outdoors.

We made this Canada flag craft last summer for Canada Day, but it would be great to do anytime! All you need is some paper, a red crayon or coloured pencil, and a maple tree!

Lay your paper in landscape format and using a maple leaf, mark out thirds with vertical lines down the paper. Make a leaf rubbing in the centre of the paper (notice that nice Canadian spelling of 'centre' ;-p ) by laying the paper on top of the leaf and gently rubbing the crayon at a sideways angle over the paper where the leaf is underneath.

Then, lay the paper on the trunk of the maple tree and make bark rubbings over the outside thirds of the paper to fill in those sections completely.

Enjoy the time outdoors and perhaps take the opportunity to also check out some other types of barks and leaves and make comparisons.

{DIY Natural Leaf Garland}

Last week we made this beautiful natural leaf garland during mother-daughter crafts time. I just adore it! This would make a lovely autumn/fall or Thanksgiving decoration, laid across a table, or draped around the room as we have done. I had thought it might dry out and crumble after a few days, but it's still beautiful and perfect after a week. *Update: It's now March and it's still beautiful and perfect, despite hanging in our living room in direct traffic!

{Fall Leaf Wreath for Kids to Make}

Princess Pea made this sweet fall leaf wreath 

to decorate our front door this autumn season.

All you need is a disposable plastic plate 

{Simple Fall Nature Art}

Today Sweet Pea and I had fun creating some simple autumn nature art.

{First Day of School Tradition: Schultuete}

Our older daughter was born in Germany. At the time, I taught first grade there, and I fell in love with this German First Day of School tradition: the Schultüte, or Zuckertüte as it is called in the east, where we lived and where the tradition originated. Translated as 'School Cone' or 'Sugar Cone', it is a special tradition just for kids entering grade one....

{Pumpkin Fairy World}

We started carving our pumpkin the other day and created this cozy fairy garden out of it, inspired by this pumpkin diorama.

First we cut the top - the girls were delighted by the sight of all the stringy, seedy insides!

It took some convincing, but I finally managed to get the girls involved in scooping out the insides (granted, they were a bit cold inside since the pumpkin had been sitting outdoors). Princess Pea isn't really a fan of slime, so she used a spoon and bowed out at the first possible escape window, but once Sweet Pea got started, she really enjoyed the sensory experience and helped me sort through the goop to collect all the seeds for roasting.

I cut a huge 'door' in the front (which fits back on), and we gathered bits and pieces from the garden and house to create this comfy spot for a fairy to sit and reflect.

We had found this 'fairy chair' piece of wood in the forest a couple of weeks ago and brought it home for our outdoor fairy garden. We added a few sprigs of lavender, some bark chips, and painted pebbles and snail shells from around the garden. Then we added a fake flower, a plastic salamander, a small wooden apple, a felted owl, and, of course, a fairy.

I think it's really sweet, and the girls are quite taken by it! We have it set up on the upstairs balcony, facing in towards the window so it can be seen from indoors as well as played with outdoors under the cover of the balcony roof.

I think it's not how we'll use it on Halloween night, as we'll need light in it, but it's a fun way to use it for now. When Halloween comes, I'll fit the door back on, and either carve a face in the other side, or perhaps drill some holes to make a lovely luminary like the one Taming the Goblin made.

What did you do with your pumpkin this year?

You might also like to see our 'mummykin' pumpkin from last year, or see more pumpkin ideas here. And there are lots more seasonal ideas on my Halloween and Fall pin board.

{Play with Chestnuts, Acorns, and Walnuts}

18 Ways to Play

With

Chestnuts, Acorns, & Walnuts

Now that Autumn / Fall is here, the girls are going crazy collecting chestnuts, acorns, and walnuts! Chestnut trees, oak trees, and walnuts trees all grow in abundance around here, and every day they come home with pocketfuls they've collected or bagfuls from our generous neighbour. (I just found 4 walnuts in my purse that they must have popped in there!) 

We usually take our annual autumn walks to collect chestnuts and acorns around this time of year. This year we also brought home some logs, but that will be another post!

They enjoy trying to smash the walnuts open with a big rock (or even by jumping on them). Princess Pea eats them by the handful, while Sweet Pea prefers to play with them over actually eating them.

Princess Pea made a sweet little walnut sailboat at preschool last week, using a toothpick and a couple bits of construction paper - quite similar to these walnut boats by Red Ted Art.

The girls love to play with the nuts in all sorts of ways. They make for great sensory play, math play, and fine motor play. 

Do you have walnuts, acorns and chestnuts around, too? Why not try:

• * sorting them into the different types of nuts
• * counting them
• * ordering them by size
• * scooping and pouring them in a sensory bin
• * painting with them (my class made chestnut versions of these golf ball paintings as part of our recent science unit on forces and motion)
• * using them as loose parts to pair with play dough
• * testing whether they float or sink
• * practicing fine motor skills by moving them from one bin to another with a spoon/tongs
• * serving them up (with a spoon and fine motor skill) at teddy bears' tea parties!

Here are some other super ideas for using fall nuts from some more Kids Activities Network bloggers:

Acorn Animals from Red Ted Art 

Acorn Fairies and Elves from Growing Green-Fingered Kids

Weighing and Exploring Acorns from Teach Preschool

Nature Family from Kitchen Counter Chronicles

Fairy Walnut Presents from Curly Birds

Chestnut Math Play - Perimeter and Area from The Golden Gleam

Chestnut Collecting, Scooping, and Fine Motor Play from Happy Hooligans

{Back to School Quick Crafts and Blog Hop}

2 Quick Back to School Crafts!

It's back-to-school time for me, I'm afraid. So while I am busy getting back into the swing of things, I am leaving you with these two fun and simple back-to-school crafts we made last year at this time. 

I'd love to say that I'm one of those teachers who just can't wait to get back to school and meet all their new students, but really I could happily live the summertime life at home with my two peas indefinitely! I never get bored of summer.

1. {Back to School Crafts: Flower Pencil Toppers and Sparkly Rings}

The best part of back-to-school time is all the new school supplies [affiliate link], right? ;-) At least, I've always thought so. So last August when I followed this link to a YouTube video tutorial from Simple Kids' Crafts for making flower rings, we adapted them to make them into pencil toppers, too! 

[You'll need: pipe cleaners, glitter glue, pencils] [affiliate links]

Leave a couple of inches on the ends, and twist the pipe cleaner into loops to make flower petals (you can use a pencil to bend the loops around, or just do it by hand). Then twist the ends together and loop it round your finger. Twist to secure, making sure the pointy bits don't poke you. A dab of glitter glue makes them sparkle!

Then we just adapted them into pencil toppers too, by winding the ends around a pencil a few times. Because you know, writing is all the more fun if you've got a fancy, sparkly, flower topper on your pencil!

And there you have it - so easy and wouldn't they make great little gifts for new classmates or teachers?

Looking for MORE PIPECLEANER IDEAS?

2. {Back 2 School Craft in a Minute: Pencil Pot}

As I was getting my classroom set up I put together this pencil pot in, literally, a minute. I had a plain cardboard pencil pot (though you could just as easily use a can of some kind from the recycling box), and wrapped a couple of scrap ends of bulletin board borders around it. One around the top, another around the bottom, and taped them in place. Ta-dah! Done. Cute, no? I just love it! Think I'll have to make several more this year (and for the record, this one lasted through the whole school year in my classroom last year and is still in good enough condition to use this year, too!)

{Apple Printing}

I've been meaning FOREVER to do this with my little peas, and I finally got around to it recently.

We used to do this as kids with potatoes, cutting a shape out of the raw half potato.

For this time, though, we used some old apples that had been sitting around,

and just printed with the shape of the apple itself.

Simply cut them in half, dip into a tray of paint, 

and press onto paper.

Sweet Pea also wanted to use brushes and lids to make different kinds of marks.

You could also try using different kinds of fruits and vegetables,

or do like we did as kids and cut out shapes in the foods.

We used a big sheet of paper from a roll, so we can use it later as wrapping paper for a special someone. 

Find more:  Painting Ideas for Little Ones; Kid-Made Gift Ideas

{Outdoor Play Party: More Fall Leaf Play}

Have you noticed yet that we are loving playing in the fall leaves??

Here are some more ways we have been playing outdoors in the leaves:

Making leaf cakes

 Running and jumping in piles of leaves

 Swishing through them with our feet to make little pattern paths (can you see it in the middle there?)

 Scattering them over the play table, then sweeping them off again with an old paintbrush

 Using them to leave a Hansel and Gretal-style trail for the neighbour's cat,

just in case he might want to follow us home!

Check out our other autumn / fall activity posts for more seasonal play ideas!

Did you see all the posts linked up to last week's Outdoor Play Party? My favourite was this one submitted by Sunhats and Wellie Boots - after they had been talking about hibernation, her daughter wanted to make a hedgehog house for the hedgehogs to hibernate in! (How sweet is that?)




Catherine at Sunhats and Wellie Boots, please feel free to copy the button above to display on your blog!

And be sure to check out my co-hosts' pages to see what they picked to feature as their favourite outdoor play idea submitted last week.

How did your kids play outdoors this week?

Share your ideas for outdoor play activities with us every week! Here are just a few guidelines for sharing.

• Any kind of children's outdoor play is welcome. If it happened outside, then please link it up!

• Please do not share any competitions, promotions, or posts that are not related to Outdoor Play.

• Please remember to link back to this post and help us spread the word about the importance (and fun!) of outdoor play! You can grab my button from the sidebar or copy and paste the 'Outdoor Play Party' button below. 

• Each week we will feature an activity from the previous week. By contributing you are giving permission for an image and link to your post to be republished.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Linking to: It's Playtime, TGIF, The Play Academy, Sunday Showcase, I Can Teach My Child, Sun Scholars