Pumpkins, Jack-o-Lanterns, Trick-or-Treating: OH MY!

HALLOWEEN!!!

The thrill and excitement of the season is upon us! 

I am hoping that in the midst of the abrupt change of seasons (for some of us) that you are safe and enjoying all of the delight of the concluding of the month. 

Do you celebrate fall harvest? 

Do you have fun with Halloween? 

What could be simpler than a brown paper bag pumpkin? 

Leave well enough alone -- or embellish with magic marker details. 

These doozies are 'hanging on the gate!' 

I can still remember the first time I held a 'little miniature pumpkin. 

They make me smile every season -- all over again!  

I had this pumpkin activity in last Friday's Fine Motor, but I think it deserves a repeat performance with the rest of the pumpkin clan. 

In the same way that I've been talking about the fun and flexibility of creating your own monster with its unique details, designing your own Jack-o-Lantern opens up the floodgates of possibilities. 

Here's the two dimensional version of the Jack-o-Lanterns on the Gate. 

This time the bulletin board is outside the kindergarten classroom. 

Bulletin Board of "Jack-o-Lanterns" Sitting on a Gate in Kindergarten 

Scarecrows in Kindergarten and Preschool

SCARECROWS!!! Kindergarten Scarecrows! 

Don't ya just LUV LUV LUV a 'craftivity' that involves a paper plate as a base?

These hay-for-hair, grand-smiling scarecrows were hanging from the ceiling last week in kindergarten. 

I got to spot them during my visit to Blue Heron Elementary outside Denver for my Author/Illustrator school visit! 

LUV LUV LUV this mouth! 

What fun with the details..... that's how each scarecrow gets "personalized." 

Get thee some paper plates and strips of yellow construction paper for hair. 

Of course my favorite part are the individual mouths using magic markers. 

Some are scarier scarecrows!

And an anchor chart with proper scarecrow parts getting labels. 

You know you're in kindergarten when............... 

The scarecrow gets an anchor chart. 

Let's conclude with a couple of fall bulletin boards. 

Each of these next two images are preschool bulletin boards that feature scare crows!

One final image: Scarecrow Bulletin Board!

Look at this idea from preschool. 

The children's photographs are the crow faces!!

-- Debbie --

Are you following my little store over at TpT? 

From now until Trick-or-Treat I have my new digital zip-file of "Monster Spray" 

on SALE! 

It would be the perfect addition to your Halloween party!

File includes the song in Mp3 format with some cute little pdfs for the lyrics in pocket chart format for the chorus! 

More Monsters! Fine Motor + Fine Art!

FINE MOTOR LEADS TO FINE ARTS!!

First off the good news: it's FRIDAY! 

Then even MORE good news: 

great ideas ahead in this, Part 34, of my Fine Motor Friday series. 

We've been talking here for a while about MONSTERS. 

I've been searching for monster-work to help launch the digital download of my children's song "Monster Spray" over at TpT. 

Enjoy these third grade projects at Blue Heron Elementary in Colorado, hanging outside the Art room during my Author/Illustrator school visit this week.

It's so much fun to draw monsters. Since they are imaginary, there is no right or wrong answer and everyone's project is awesome! The more 'out there' you can imagine, the more fun the project and its end results. 

The old art teacher in me just LUV LUV LUVs this project!

By third grade some children are having frustrations over their drawings not 'looking like' the subject. The more frustrated a child becomes the less likely they are to want to engage in the creative process. This is a brilliant project to ensure success from every budding artist developing both their fine motor skills and also their creative and artistic efforts. 

Let's shift gears from the artwork of the 3rd grade to the YOUNGER set. 

While being hosted by our Colorado Clement family I got to make classroom visits to the preschool housed in Blue Heron. Ya just gotta LUV a seasonal project that gives golf tees, a hammer and a pumpkin to a young child! What an engaging way to wield growing control over those fine muscle motor skills. What an empowering activity! 

In the same Bluebird preschool classroom I was overjoyed to see these bins of gourds being sorted by color family. 

Happy Harvest indeed. 

Just having a variety of fall produce to handle, explore and categorize is a great sensory activity. 

The color sort is just brilliant. 

I like to conclude my Fine Motor Friday installments with a reminder to have the children see YOUR writing around the room. Just like reading is encouraged by seeing others read, so is writing encouraged by observing all of the times when writing is necessary. 

Here's a super fun reading pocket-style, anchor chart from the kindergarten room..... just in time for trick-or-treating fun next week. I'm such a fan of seeing the sentences in the handwritten format. KUDOS!

Are all of the children in your world gearing up for monster fun? 

What costume dreams are unfolding at your house?

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

I'm always grateful for your helping my efforts by pinning images that you have found helpful. 

-- Debbie -- 

Yes. It's true. 

I opened a 'store' at Teachers Pay Teachers! 

My song entitled "Monster Spray" is in a zipped file in Mp3 format. 

***It will be on sale all weekend... starting tomorrow morning! 

Did you catch these earlier 'monster' articles? 
 My Monster RoundUP is one click away. 
That article has dozens of ideas from bloggers around the world! 


A couple weeks ago I demonstrated a DIY Monster Puppet from upcycling 'trash.' 
Click back here to see that treasure. 

Trees 'Growing' in the Classroom: Tree RoundUP

TREE ROUNDUP!!!

All sorts of trees created in the classroom.

I started this post because of these next two photos of  three dimensional 'tree' bulletin boards slash sculptures, that are part of a preschool classroom in Seven Hills School in Cinci. Once I built my little collage above as Pinterest bait, I realized that I had other 'trees' in my memory card. 

WELCOME to the 'tree' round-up 

from my various Author-Illustrator School visits around the county! 

I want to live in the middle of this bulletin board: the sun is shining!

Don't these two images just make you want to move to Cinci and attend school at Seven Hills? Of course the fact that this first bulletin board has a 'calico' background just makes my quilting heart smile!! How cheerful is that? The acorns across the bottom are the letters of the alphabet. Sorry I don't have a close up to share on that attention to detail! KUDOS for extra-clever use of a theme. 

If you look carefully in the upper right hand corner of the above picture, you will see the border of individual paintings each child created by painting over the two words: "Be Kind." I had those featured in an earlier RoundUP here on kindness, generosity and emotional intelligence. 

This same classroom that is obviously going 'green' has an entire 'slab' of actual tree bark mounted between their glorious windows. Yes. I literally HAD to touch it. What an imaginative way to bring the outdoors into the classroom. 

Same room. Look at this stack of 'loose parts' that can become a part of all sorts of learning opportunities.

Block center. 

Cars and roads over mountainous terrain. 

What sorts of art projects can you imagine? 

So now that I have your attention let's see what other 'trees' I have to share. Hope that they inspire your own efforts to integrate science, nature and art within your setting.... whatever the age of the children. 

This Texas tree follows the unique contours of the room's architecture without missing a beat. Don't ya love how the posters are hanging right at child's height with details of the season and tree's growth? 

The display of fall colors above is from a visit I just made to Montgomery, Texas. I LUV LUV LUV the collaboration of all of those painted hands for the leaves. I was there to give a seminar to the area child care providers from across the county. 

Here's a tree painted on the classroom wall. 

I'm willing to bet that the adornments change with the seasons. 

It's part of the scene at Otter Elementary in Elgin, IL. 

Handprint Apple Tree Bulletin Board 

I just smile ear-to-ear at that poem, handprint, Apple Tree bulletin board. Worth integrating into this tree RoundUp, for its use of onomatopoeia in early childhood alone! 

Next up Chicka Chicka bulletin boards from WI, OH, FL + CO! 

   

Chicka-Chicka Boom Boom on the Wall 

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Bulletin Board 

Chicka-Chicka Quilt in Colorado Kindergarten Room

While roaming Otter Creek hallways I saw these 'Spanish' trees-of-all-seasons created in the elementary school. They are made with colored tissue paper and each student has a tree for each season, mounted on their own piece of standard size construction paper.

Bulletin Board: Apple of our Eye

Right this minute in 'real time' I am in Colorado, visiting our CO Clement family. These are the trees growing in the rooms of the Bluebirds and Ducks. I got to make a visit to my favorite Bluebird yesterday! 

-- Debbie --