Fall is Fun!

There's so many great themes to do in the fall; apples, leaves, squirrels and acorns. I've already posted about apples so I thought I'd post my newest fall set. It includes, leaves, squirrels and acorns! Of course, you'll want to use Nuts to You by Lois Ehlert and possibly her titles, Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf or, for older preschoolers, Leaf Man. I also like Nancy Tafuri's, The Busy Little Squirrel with this theme. The pictures are big and there's minimal text. There's also the added challenge of predicting what will come next from the clues on the page. This leads to some interesting exchanges between me and my storytime kiddos. I love it when one of them has that 'ah ha!' moment and begins to understand the concept.
    

Here is a pic of the felt set that I made. I already had the leaves and had made a larger version of the squirrels a few years ago to use with another rhyme. I reduced the size of the squirrel on the copier and cut out many separate pieces for the 3D look I wanted. I've been wanting to make some acorns since I saw Katie's post here. I love her great squirrel rhymes and was inspired to make up one of my own. Here is the link;  Fall Fun. I start by putting the leaves on the board as I say the first verse. The acorns are already under the leaves. Then I add a squirrel and turn over the leaf to 'find' the acorn underneath as I do the other parts of the rhyme.  We end up with all the squirrels on the board beside a leaf and holding an acorn. We always count again at the end.  This works on that one to one correspondence as they count rather than rote counting. I think I got the pattern for the squirrel from an old Mailbox magazine many years ago. There are a LOT of Google clip art images that you could easily deconstruct to make your own pattern. I used black and pink slick fabric paint for the features and a google eye.  I had to put some glitter on my leaves and acorn caps!  I am looking forward to using this rhyme and set this fall. After I do this rhyme, I'll play 'Which One's Missing' with the colored leaves. They never get tired of that game!

Fall is always Fun with Friends at Storytime!!