Fall Fun!

So, unlike apple week, I have not been as prepared to start fall and pumpkin month. To some unforeseen circumstances my sister and her family came back from their mission in Africa for a month, which has turned into a blessing for MAC and her three year old cousin. Lots of playdates and family time this month!

I did use 1+1+1=1.com for their leave and pumpkin songs which Mac and Ellie both love. Ellie likes the hand motions for the songs and will at least give us our audience and claps for us when we are done.

Special snack has been on a hiatus, partly because DC and I have been on a cleanse, but we did manage to make rice krispy treats shaped like leaves and pumpkins.

The books we read were:
How many seeds in a pumpkin by McNamara
The Busy Little Squirrel by Tafuri (little young)
The Little Scarecrow Boy by Brown
Mouse's First Fall by Thompson (little young)
There was an Old Lady who Swallowed Some Leaves
Leaves Leaves Leaves
P is for Pumpkin by Wargin
The Biggest Pumpkin Ever by Kroll
Pumpkin Patch Parable

Crafts were a little tough this month for some reason. I bought a perler bead craft kit of a pumpkin. I also had her make a pumpkin out of paper strips. We also did a tissue paper leaf craft where she just crumpled up tissue paper and glued it on a leaf cutout. Good age for this craft. And we did a shrinking ghost craft. You take a styrofoam cup, draw a face on it and shrink it in the oven for a minute or less at a high temperature.

Pioneer Farm

I surprised Mac during birthday week with a field trip to the Pioneer Farm. It was a great learning experience. She was definitely on the young side at six for the understanding of each particular area, but could do all the activities. We started with a tour of the schoolroom and a woman spoke about the history of the pioneers that made it out this far west, a horse carriage ride and then made candles with the group.
  

Then it was onto the cabin of the pioneers where she could grind coffee, roll out dough, shave, curl hair, try on pioneer clothes and wash them, chop carrots and cabbage and a bunch of other simple tasks that were for children back in the days. It's amazing they had time to play! 

Toward the end we had a chance to do some blacksmithing- pounding horseshoes that were steaming hot, carpentry- pounding in nails, sawing off parts of a log and using pulleys and every kids favorite part... the petting farm and hay jump. Of course, Ellie trooped along with us.