Hedgehogs and Leaves

Our crafts this week have been based around hedgehogs and leaves but our first activity of the week is rhyme time. On the walk there, my little ones where in a very inquisitive mood and we had loads of questions, here are just a few of them.

1. Why is my shadow big?
2. Where's my shadows head gone?
3. Why are there 2 buses at the bus stop?
4. Why is that person waiting at the bus stop?
5. What's that? pointing at scaffolding?
6. Why do they have it (scaffolding) there?
7. Why do they have panels on the roof?
8. What do solar panels do?
9. What is electricity for?
10. Why is there only one dandelion?
11. Why is the dandelion not all there?
12. Do only girls have eyelashes?
13. Why do Mummy's have different names?
14. Where's that digger going?
15. Why's that mummy got a dog with her?

I think I managed to answer them all in ways they understood! They were very quiet during rhyme time but as soon as they left the library they started singing lots of songs. At home we made some hedgehogs, we sat and cut up the paper straws together, then got on with some gluing.

While waiting for the glue to dry, we watched a couple of you tube clips of  two hedgehogs and this of one hedgehogs and read Percy the Park Keeper and the Hedgehogs Balloon, when they were dry we painted them.

The request at the end of the day was can we make more hedgehogs, so the next day we made some out of paper plates. When they were dry, the children used scissors to cut the edge of the plate to make the hedgehog spines.

Today we painted some resist leaves, using masking tape to mark out the leaf veins. 

Then the children painted over them.

One of my little ones wanted to make a house with the masking tape, so with some help we stuck the tape down in a house shape and they enjoyed painting over the tape

When they were nearly dry I peeled of the masking tape and cut them into leaf shapes. When they were fully dry, they decided to dance around the living room with them, pretending they were tree.

Pumpkins and Apples

Last week we made the most of the sun and had a trip to the allotment were the children enjoyed picking some apples, blueberries and a few raspberries. All our fruit trees are very dwarf ones, which means the children can easily pick the fruit themselves and when needed I can easily prune them too.

We have lots of pumpkins growing this year, not sure what has happened to the butternut squashes I planted out, as we have none! One of the pumpkins was ripe enough to bring home and we made some pumpkin soup and pumpkin muffins.

The children enjoyed scraping out all the seeds before I then peeled and grated the pumpkin and I talked about how all the seeds they were scraping out, if left to dry might grow into new pumpkin plants if we planted them.

Pumpkin Muffins

225g plain flour

10ml baking powder

2.5ml bicarbonate of soda

100g margarine

90 sugar

1 egg, beaten

125ml milk

250g grated pumpkin flesh

Cream the margarine and sugar together, then add the beaten egg and mix.

Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda together, then add a spoonful of flour mix at a time to the sugar/margarine mix, until all the flour is mixed in.

Then add the pumpkin flesh and mix well.

Bake at Gas 5 for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden, makes 12 muffins.

I found out our pumpkin life cycle cards for the children to sort through and to try and sequence.

I have had fun and knitted a hedgehog from a kit I had and then found some left over wool to make a pumpkin, have seen some some lovely patterns, for conkers and acorns, that I would like to knit too, they can be found here. I was really pleased with the way they turned out and L loves them.

On a not childminding note, I finished my lace scarf that I have been knitting, fairly easy pattern as long as I concentrate, the only problem is I'm not sure if I am going to get a chance to wear it as M is eyeing it up!!

Marbling Leaves

This has got to be our favourite Autumn craft, the fun of creating the pattern leaves, the giggles as they get to play with the shaving foam and paint after we have finished the leaves and the lovely finished product to put on our wall.

I covered a tub with shaving foam, smoothing it down with a spatula.

Then carefully poured paint over the foam.

Then taking a stick, carefully draw lines through the foam/paint mix so you get a marbled effect.

Gently press you leaf shape in the paint mix and remove carefully.

Then with a piece of stiff paper, carefully scrape of the excess paint/foam, you want to gently drag it along the paper not pressing down hard.

Finished result.

They then had fun with the remaining paint/foam mix, squishing it through their fingers, pretending to wash their hands and drawing patterns in the tray, as the foam disappeared they kept asking for more foam, ended up using a whole tin of shaving foam and very happy children.

Autumn Tree

The little ones enjoyed rhyme time this morning and we made it home without being rained on. While they enjoyed their snacks, I set about sticking up the tree I had cut out and then covering it with sticky back plastic, non sticky side to the window. The little ones were getting very excited about what I was going to do next and asked lots of questions as I put out bowls of different Autumn stickers, leaves etc for them to stick on the plastic. This is an activity I seem to do most Autumns as it is a big hit with all ages. You can see some of the photos of last years tree here. From previous experiences it looks lovely when the you have bright Autumn day and window jsut glows with the autumnal colours, unfortunately today is rather overcast and miserable looking.

Autumn Planning and Cork Printing

I love Autumn and all the crafts and activities we can link to this season. Today we have read several Autumn stories, my favourite is Ferdie and The Falling Leaves, the enjoyed printing with corks and paint to create some lovely trees.

They then had fun with the paint, printing with corks and trying to paint with them too.

In the afternoon the older ones used some stickers to add some animals, apples, acorns etc to their pictures.