C is for Colors (Fall Colors!)

I love all of the fall changes in the air. We enjoyed the fall colors for preschool. We made an extra colorful fall treat to celebrate the first day of fall!

• Read “Mouse's First Fall” by Lauren Thompson …  or any other book with great fall colors!

• Preschool Journal C Page
  1. Practice writing Cc and “Colors” … we used fun pencils with lots of colors so our page was extra colorful.
  2. Stick colorful fall leaf stickers to the page (I found these at Michaels).

• Colorful Fall Hand Trees
  1. Trace your preschoolers hand and forearm on brown paper.
  2. Let them cut it out (I helped my 3-year-old, but my 4-year-old did it all by himself)
  3. Glue their hand tree to light blue paper.
  4. Stick colorful fall leaf stickers to the page … some on the tree, some on the ground and some falling! We used these, but I found them at Michaels.

   

• Colorful Crayon Shaving Leaves … I love how these look in the window
  1. Use a sharpie to draw a large leaf outline on wax paper.
  2. Have the kids help remove the paper from several fall colored crayons.
  3. Make crayon shavings by using a manual pencil sharpener. I let my kids try to do this themselves, but it was a little tricky. They had more fun when I made a pile of crayon shavings for them to use.
  4. Sprinkle the crayon shavings all over the wax paper.
  5. Place another piece of wax paper on top.

     (before)                             (after ironing)

  6. Place a large piece of paper on your ironing board, then the wax paper leaf, then top with another large piece of paper.
  7. Carefully iron on top of the paper (on LOW heat). It doesn’t take very long to melt. The more your iron, the more the colors smoosh together. I like to do it until the colors are just starting to spread.
  8. Let cool. They cool very quickly.
  9. Cut around your leaf shape and hang in the window!

• Colorful Fall Scavenger Hunt & Wreath
  1. Make a simple colorful wreath
     • Trace around a large plate and a smaller cup to make a wreath shape.
     • Using the wreath as a pattern, cut out several fall colors & glue them around the wreath.
  2. Take your colorful wreath on a fall scavenger hunt walk. Find leaves and other fall items that match your colors.
  3. When you get home, glue the items to the matching colors.
  4. Hang up your colorful fall wreath!

• Fall Colored Sugar Cookies … these were a yummy treat to end our colorful day and were fun to make!
1. Make a batch of your favorite sugar cookies.
2. Divide the dough into four balls.
3. Color each ball a different fall color. We used red, orange, yellow, and green.
4. Take pieces from each ball and smoosh the colors together into a large ball.
5. Roll out your dough (and ooh and ahh at the cool colors)
6. Use a leaf cookie cutter to cut out your cookies. This is the one we used:
7. Sprinkle with colored sugar sprinkles & bake.
8. Delicious … even without frosting.

Scarecrow Colors

This is a fun little book that you can print out and color with your kids. I love it because once they’re done coloring, they can look at the pictures and “read” the story themselves!

  

• Print all 4 pages of the book
1. Click each picture to download.
2. Print the pages front to back.
3. Stack, fold & staple.
• Color the book
1. Read the words on each page and follow the directions (“The hat is brown.” = color only the hat brown! Leave everything else white.)
2. Color the whole picture on “The End” page again following the descriptions from the previous pages.

Fall

• Jump in the leaves!

• Fall Wreath
  1. Grab an empty egg carton and go for a fall walk.
  2. Collect anything that reminds you of fall time … leaves, sticks, nuts, helicopters (I think they’re really maple seeds).
  3. When you get home, cut the inside out of a paper plate or cut a donut shape from a brown grocery bag.
  4. Glue all of your treasures to the plate to make a festive wreath!
• Pinecone painting
  1. Tape a blank paper to the bottom of a box.
  2. Pick two fall colors and roll two pinecones in each color.
  3. Place the pinecones in the box and gently rock the box around to make a picture.
  4. Remove the paper and cut into a leaf shape.
• Fall Poem
  1. Type out the following poem and practice it a few times with the kids.
  2. Help them glue it onto a fall-colored piece of paper.
  3. Decorate the border with fall-themed stickers!

Signs of fall are all around.

Apples, scarecrows, leaves on the ground,

Cozy sweaters, and pumpkin pie.

It feels like fall - my, oh my!

• Fall Book … This is a cute fall time booklet for the kids to put together.
  1. Print the pages below (click the picture). Print the cover page on fall-colored paper and the inside pages on white. Cut the pages in half and stack.
  2. Read the text, then guide the kids through the simple directions below to complete each page.

 

• Cover … Trace the title “Fall Brings” and write your name.
• Page 1 … Pumpkins round
  • Tape pieces of curling ribbon to the pumpkins to resemble vines.
• Page 2 ... Frost on the ground
  • Spread glue over the grass
  • Then sprinkle silver glitter over the glue to resemble frost.
• Page 3 ... Falling leaves
  • Press your finger on a red ink pad, then make prints on & below the tree to make foliage.
  • Repeat with other fall colors.
• Page 4 ... And longer sleeves
  • Cut a long-sleeved shirt and long pants from fabric scraps.
  • Glue them onto the person outline.
  • Finish coloring the boy or girl. Add a face, hair, shoes … whatever you want!
• Mixing Fall Colors
  1. Place red & yellow tempera paint & a bath puff in each of 2 shallow containers.
  2. Draw an outline of a tree trunk on a large sheet of newsprint.
  3. Work together with your preschooler to color the tree trunk.
  4. Then each of you grab a puff (one using yellow, one using red) to make lots of foliage.
  5. When you work together, you will make orange foliage too!

Leaves (or Fall)

 

You know what I love about kids? They are happy just be go outside and play in the wind and the leaves. We have a tree that grows the most GINORMOUS leaves. Add those to a very windy day and the kids ran around having a ball. Here are some other activities to do with leaves…

• Leaf Collection
  1. Collect as many different kinds of leaves as you can on a walk or in the backyard.
  2. Use a magnifying glass to compare the shape, colors, edges (some are bumpy, some are smooth)
  3. Examine the veins in the leaf.

 

• Leaf Rubbing Garland
  1. Lay the leaves flag on a piece of paper.
  2. Cover with another blank paper.
  3. Unwrap fall-colored crayons and lay them flat to color over the leaves.
  4. Do several rubbings, then cut them out and hang from a string to make a pretty fall garland!
  5. OR … try this version with newspaper from Life with Little Ones!

• Pinecone Painting
  1. Tape a blank paper to the bottom of a box.
  2. Pick two fall colors and roll two pinecones in each color.
  3. Place the pinecones in the box and gently rock the box around to make a picture.
  4. Remove the paper and cut into a leaf shape.
• Simple Leaf Subtraction!
  1. Cut out a large brown felt tree with bare branches and five fall-colored felt leaves.
  2. Recite the poem below, pausing after the 3rd line to remove a leaf and let it fall to the floor.
  3. Notice how quietly the leaves fall, then whisper the last line.
  4. Continue with the remaining leaves.

{Five} little leaves are hanging on the tree.
Along came a breeze and blew one free.
The little leaf fell without a sound.
There are {four} on the tree and {one} on the ground.