List compiled 2006 by Carol Vega in Pennsylvania, Christian homeschooling mother of 5.
Add fun to your fall:
1. Carve pumpkins for fun and decoration: Instead of carving a grinning jack-o-lantern, try making patterns using cookie cutters. Stars, hearts, moons, leaves and circles are simple shapes yet make interesting patterns. Cut off your pumpkin lid, scoop out the insides, insert the cookie cutters into the sides of the pumpkins where desired. A mallet may be handy. Repeat this process until you have a pattern you like. Add a candle inside. Place them in a display on your porch with some hay bales or in a cute wagon.
2. Buy a pumpkin and a potted golden mum. Cut off the top of your pumpkin and clean it out. Place the plastic pot with your garden mum down inside the pumpkin. This is so simple yet is such a festive planter. Makes a great table centerpiece, too!
3. Compare and Contrast the pumpkins! Arrange an assortment of pumpkins on a table and give each of your children a piece of paper. Number the pumpkins and number the paper. For each numbered pumpkin have the child, weigh it, measure around the widest part, measure its height, measure just the stem, describe the pumpkin. Have them record their finding on their paper. Then ask them which pumpkin was the heaviest, the widest, tallest and funniest, etc.
4. Take this assortment of pumpkins (from #3) and write numbers, using a black marker on the bellies of the pumpkins (5, 10, 15, 20, 25). Place the pumpkins a few feet apart in your yard. Using a hula let the children toss the hoop and see if they can ring the pumpkins. Give them three tosses and see who can score the most points. After this game, you can still use the pumpkins to decorate with, just put the numbers to the back when displaying so they can not be seen!
5. Pumpkin pancakes: Add 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice and 1/2 cup canned pumpkin to your favorite pancake recipe and you have a yummy festive taste to start off your day!
6. For lunchtime fun, buy the pre-made cups of orange gelatin (single servings) at the grocery store. They usually come in a 4 pack for about $1.00. Before opening the containers, let your children make a pumpkin-type face on the outside plastic using black magic markers. Let each child show his or her pumpkin face to everyone, then open and eat! Added fun to lunch!
7. Yummy Punch in a pumpkin: Make up an orange-colored punch using orange and pineapple juice as two of the main ingredients. Pour into a plastic pumpkin bucket. (These are sold in stores like Wal-Mart in September and October for children to use to collect Halloween candy. They are very inexpensive!) Serve the punch and enjoy! Refrigerate any leftovers!
8. Buy a small journal to use for the months of October and November. Write on the front "Things I am thankful for..." Each day of the month write about one thing you are thankful for! At the top of each page write the date and "I am thankful for..." Do this everyday in October and November and you will have 61 journal entries and remembrances of the blessings in your life! Great for homeschooling children as well as mom and dad!
9. Make a Thanksgiving Dictionary. Take a few sheets of lined paper, top it with a piece of black cardstock paper. Staple together across the top. Add a longer strip of black paper across the bottom that extends out about 2 inches on each side. Glue or staple in place. This will form a pilgrim's hat. Add a yellow square and glue a smaller black square inside the yellow one. This will make a buckle. With a white gel pen write "My Thanksgiving Dictionary" and your name on the cover. Inside write words in a column on the left side, leaving space for the child to fill in the definitions. Write words like: freedom, thankful, voyage, pilgrim, harvest, friendship, blessing, etc. (Make sure to write the child's age or the date on the back of this project, as this will surely be a great keepsake!)
10. Make a "Tom "Thumb." Using non-toxic ink pads, make a turkey using your thumb prints. Make a big thumb print horizontally for its body, a pinky-finger print vertically for the head and many small fingertip touches for feathers in the back. Clean your finger and add the feet and facial features of eyes, a beak and waddle using colored ink pens. A great way to decorate place cards, thank you notes or just make one for fun (inside your "Thankful for" journal)
No comments:
Post a Comment