Indian Corn Crafts

We made a few Indian Corn related crafts today.  I've decided to extend the harvest theme into the first part of this week and then later in the week we will delve into turkeys.  But back to the Indian corn.  First off, Eva used her paint dabbers to make the kernels on some ears of corn I drew on yellow card stock.

Then Eva cut some strips from brown packing paper we had in our scrap box to use as the husks.  I cut out the ears and she glued them together.

Next she glued on the husks.  (Notice how she doesn't let go of those scissors- they are her favorite thing to play with lately!)

Ta-da!  Indian corn!

We also used an actual ear of Indian corn to paint with.  To begin, I dripped different fall colored paints onto a sheet of paper.  (We put the paper in a shoe box top just in case the ear rolled away.)

Then Eva rolled the Indian corn around in the box to spread the paint.

The ear got quite a bit of paint on it so we put another piece of paper in the box to paint on.

Eva's hands got pretty messy doing this so she asked for another piece of paper to make handprints on.  I love how her little fingerprints look like kernels too!

We hung up one of the masterpieces with the Indian Corn craft on the Roman shades.

Harvest Name Puzzles

I found these fall cut outs at the dollar store and decided to make name puzzles with them.  There were five of each shape so now Eva has a Mommy puzzle,

a Daddy puzzle,

and an Eva puzzle.

We also made a scarecrow out of a toilet paper tube, some scrap paper, a craft stick, a cupcake holder and two clothespins.

Cornucopia Collage

This is a super quick and easy craft that allowed Eva to do two of her favorite things- cut with scissors and glue!  I gave her the supermarket ads from this weekend's paper and told her to cut out some food.

While she was busy with that, I cut out a horn of plenty shape from tan paper.  When she had all the food cut out, Eva set to gluing it in.

A cornucopia of favorite foods just in time for Thanksgiving!

Puffy Paint Gourds

We whipped up a batch of homemade puffy paint like we saw here.  I thought it was really cool but Eva did not want to touch it so she used a paintbrush.

Her hands never once touched the stuff but that did not prevent her from adding a little drama to the painting.

She cried the entire time that she didn't want to touch it but she wouldn't give up painting with it either.  Oh the trials and tribulations of being an artist.
She did manage to paint on three different colored papers and when they were dry, we cut out some gourd shapes.

We have them hanging on our window (who knew Roman shades would make such great display areas!)

Harvest Sensory

Our sensory/exploration area had gotten quite crowded with all the fun Halloween games so it was nice to pack it all away and put out just a few things for harvest.  Every week when we go grocery shopping or stop by the farmers market, Eva requests a gourd.  We have built up quite a collection so I laid them out on a tray.  Later in the week we will sort them by various attributes, but for now they are out to touch and examine.

Our turkey, Mr. Gobbles, is keeping watch over them.  I also packed away the Halloween cookie cutters leaving just pumpkins and turkeys to stamp in the pumpkin pie play dough.  Eva can also use Indian corn to make some neat impressions in the dough.

Finally I replaced the spooky sensory tub with a simple harvest one.  Drawing on Counting Coconuts tub from last year, I filled it with popcorn kernels.  I added some funnels and a few measuring spoons to use as scoops.

It's pretty basic but Eva played with it non-stop for almost an hour when I set it out!  She even figured out how to get the funnels to balance in the kernels.

(Check out her cool stamp- she got that for being a good listener at dance today and couldn't be prouder.)

Happy Harvest

Welcome November!  It's time for harvesting and giving thanks.  This week is all about the bountiful harvest.

Crafts
Toilet Paper Tube Scarecrow- we'll use scraps to transform a simple recyclable into a cute scarecrow

Puffy Paint Gourds- we'll create our own puffy paint to give texture to paper gourds

Fingerprint Indian Corn- no harvest is complete without some Indian (or Harvest) corn

Corn Cob Painting- I can't wait to see the abstract paintings Eva will create using a corn cob for a paint roller

Cornucopia Collage- Eva is going through a little scissor obsession of late so we'll put her skills to work cutting out pictures of food to place in a paper horn of plenty

Cup Crow- this little guy is too cute to pass up making

Songs
Five Crows All Shiny Black (sung to the tune of Five Green and Speckled Frogs)
Five crows all shiny black,
Sat on a scarecrow's back,
Eating some most delicious corn ... yum yum!
Scarecrow winked and shouted "Boo!"
Scared one crow and away he flew,
Now there are four black shiny crows, caw caw!

Scarecrow (sung to the tune of I'm A Little Teapot)
I'm a little scarecrow
Stuffed with hay,
Standing watch in my field all day.
When I see a crow
I like to shout:
"Hey, Mr. Crow, you'd better get out!"

Activities
Scarecrow, scarecrow- we'll be moving around following the lead of Mr. Scarecrow (like the Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear rhyme)

Gourd Exploration- we'll be touching and examining all different gourds

Harvest Sensory Tub- check out what it's in this month's tub

Cooking
Corn Bread- we'll bake some yummy corn bread to enjoy

Books