Now that Halloween has come and gone...

[Josiegirl]

What are you all doing with the dcks?
I'm thinking this next week, we're going to make birdfeeders. I haven't put any out yet and the kids love watching the birds.

[Silly Songs]

That sounds like a great idea . You could also lead into Thanksgiving , start a story about appreciation, have the kids do something kind for each other . I am personally so over the " Christmas in November " theme we see these days .

[Annalee]

My themes for November are "animals in winter", "Dinosaurs", "let's talk turkey" and "the first American Thanksgiving". We will talk about where dinosaurs come from, do they go to school, etc..I have books with these topics to intertwine with this...We will talk about what certain animals do in winter....fly south, sleep/hibernate, etc....then we will get into turkeys and pilgrims....and talk lots about thankfulness.....I usually do a theme each week.....

[CraftyMom]

I plan to continue with Fall related stuff. I have a few crafts in mind. Also we'll go on a couple more nature walks and make a collage with our treasures. Last year we found great big leaves, then taped them to a piece of paper and painted over them, making a negative leaf print and the bonus is the pretty painted leaf (ends up being brown from all the paint )

There's also veteran's day. Last year we made handprint flags and gave them to a dcd who is in the military, each child gave him a high five and said thank you to him (for serving). He was touched

Last year I started an annual food drive. For the 2 weeks before Thanksgiving I had a box set out for families to drop off food. We always donate the turkey that my husband receives from work, last year we donated a whole turkey dinner and then some! Then we decorated the boxes and delivered them to a local soup kitchen. My dcp's loved this! My intention is to teach kids that we have a lot to be thankful for including the food we eat every day, some people aren't as lucky.

Then of course there is Thanksgiving week. We'll talk a lot about Thanksgiving and make a couple of crafts. The day before thanksgiving we have our "feast" (dck's only, no parents)

Here are some photos of past crafts. The indian corn was very fun, they just paint some bubble wrap to their heart's content, then flip it over and press on a piece of paper. When it's dry you can cut it into a corn shape a have them add leaves. We made a ton of prints but only made one corn each. They took the rest of the prints home as they were.

They kids loved the turkey hats last year, they wore them after nap until it was time to go home

The placemats were cute. A handprint for the turkey and thumbprints for family members. Some had many thumbprints, some only had a few. Good time to talk about how families are different

[originalkat]

We are going to do literature units using the following books:
Good Night Moon!
Hush! A Thai Lullaby
Time to Sleep
Ten Fat Turkeys

[Josiegirl]

Cool ideas everybody!
Love your Thanksgiving crafts Craftymom and the flags you gave to dcd! Very nice!

I might have to do the turkey hats with my dcks.
Did you cover the place mats with contact paper or anything?

[Sunshine74]

I plan to continue with Fall related stuff. I have a few crafts in mind. Also we'll go on a couple more nature walks and make a collage with our treasures. Last year we found great big leaves, then taped them to a piece of paper and painted over them, making a negative leaf print and the bonus is the pretty painted leaf (ends up being brown from all the paint )

There's also veteran's day. Last year we made handprint flags and gave them to a dcd who is in the military, each child gave him a high five and said thank you to him (for serving). He was touched

Last year I started an annual food drive. For the 2 weeks before Thanksgiving I had a box set out for families to drop off food. We always donate the turkey that my husband receives from work, last year we donated a whole turkey dinner and then some! Then we decorated the boxes and delivered them to a local soup kitchen. My dcp's loved this! My intention is to teach kids that we have a lot to be thankful for including the food we eat every day, some people aren't as lucky.

Then of course there is Thanksgiving week. We'll talk a lot about Thanksgiving and make a couple of crafts. The day before thanksgiving we have our "feast" (dck's only, no parents)

Here are some photos of past crafts. The indian corn was very fun, they just paint some bubble wrap to their heart's content, then flip it over and press on a piece of paper. When it's dry you can cut it into a corn shape a have them add leaves. We made a ton of prints but only made one corn each. They took the rest of the prints home as they were.

They kids loved the turkey hats last year, they wore them after nap until it was time to go home

The placemats were cute. A handprint for the turkey and thumbprints for family members. Some had many thumbprints, some only had a few. Good time to talk about how families are different

I love the indian corn prints. And how did you get the leaf to stay on the paper while the kids painted?

[CraftyMom]

I love the indian corn prints. And how did you get the leaf to stay on the paper while the kids painted?

I used tape on the backside of the leaf. Double sided tape would be good. It works best if you brush from the center outward, but most of my dck's are 3 and under so there are no "rules"

[CraftyMom]

Cool ideas everybody!
Love your Thanksgiving crafts Craftymom and the flags you gave to dcd! Very nice!

I might have to do the turkey hats with my dcks.
Did you cover the place mats with contact paper or anything?

No, I didn't have any contact paper, but I wish I did! Or a laminating machine! Maybe Santa will bring me one, I would use it all the time

[Annalee]

I plan to continue with Fall related stuff. I have a few crafts in mind. Also we'll go on a couple more nature walks and make a collage with our treasures. Last year we found great big leaves, then taped them to a piece of paper and painted over them, making a negative leaf print and the bonus is the pretty painted leaf (ends up being brown from all the paint )

There's also veteran's day. Last year we made handprint flags and gave them to a dcd who is in the military, each child gave him a high five and said thank you to him (for serving). He was touched

Last year I started an annual food drive. For the 2 weeks before Thanksgiving I had a box set out for families to drop off food. We always donate the turkey that my husband receives from work, last year we donated a whole turkey dinner and then some! Then we decorated the boxes and delivered them to a local soup kitchen. My dcp's loved this! My intention is to teach kids that we have a lot to be thankful for including the food we eat every day, some people aren't as lucky.

Then of course there is Thanksgiving week. We'll talk a lot about Thanksgiving and make a couple of crafts. The day before thanksgiving we have our "feast" (dck's only, no parents)

Here are some photos of past crafts. The indian corn was very fun, they just paint some bubble wrap to their heart's content, then flip it over and press on a piece of paper. When it's dry you can cut it into a corn shape a have them add leaves. We made a ton of prints but only made one corn each. They took the rest of the prints home as they were.

They kids loved the turkey hats last year, they wore them after nap until it was time to go home

The placemats were cute. A handprint for the turkey and thumbprints for family members. Some had many thumbprints, some only had a few. Good time to talk about how families are different

I love the food drive idea!

[BumbleBee]

We're doing Bears, Dinosaurs, and Thanksgiving (for 2 weeks). I have a ton of bear and dinosaur stuff so those are on my theme list of 'fillers.' I just plug them in wherever I have space. We'll probably do dinosaurs again in the spring-and possibly bears too!

[hsdcmama]

I plan to continue with Fall related stuff. I have a few crafts in mind. Also we'll go on a couple more nature walks and make a collage with our treasures. Last year we found great big leaves, then taped them to a piece of paper and painted over them, making a negative leaf print and the bonus is the pretty painted leaf (ends up being brown from all the paint )

There's also veteran's day. Last year we made handprint flags and gave them to a dcd who is in the military, each child gave him a high five and said thank you to him (for serving). He was touched

Last year I started an annual food drive. For the 2 weeks before Thanksgiving I had a box set out for families to drop off food. We always donate the turkey that my husband receives from work, last year we donated a whole turkey dinner and then some! Then we decorated the boxes and delivered them to a local soup kitchen. My dcp's loved this! My intention is to teach kids that we have a lot to be thankful for including the food we eat every day, some people aren't as lucky.

Then of course there is Thanksgiving week. We'll talk a lot about Thanksgiving and make a couple of crafts. The day before thanksgiving we have our "feast" (dck's only, no parents)

Here are some photos of past crafts. The indian corn was very fun, they just paint some bubble wrap to their heart's content, then flip it over and press on a piece of paper. When it's dry you can cut it into a corn shape a have them add leaves. We made a ton of prints but only made one corn each. They took the rest of the prints home as they were.

They kids loved the turkey hats last year, they wore them after nap until it was time to go home

The placemats were cute. A handprint for the turkey and thumbprints for family members. Some had many thumbprints, some only had a few. Good time to talk about how families are different

Wonderful! You are so creative!

[DaveA]

This week is about getting the ducks and chickens ready for winter. I'll be building a new coop to hold them all (right now they're split between a small coop and an igloo doghouse) so we'll go to the store to pick paint color, pet store for bird toys, hardware store to get the hardware (hinges, hasps), and the farm store for food and bedding. Also going to make bread this week- one of our favorite "kitchen chemistry" projects. The library has a display of fall themed kids books, so next time there I'm sure we'll grab some and build off those.