Fall Sensory Bin

I set up a Fall sensory bin for the girls this morning (really, it's for me...I love these things).  I planned to include many more objects in the bin, but as I played with it, I realized that simple sensory bins are really more fun and engaging for us than busy ones with so many distractions.

It really is very soothing to pour and scoop, so I did this for a while this morning while hanging out with my sick sweeties (the girls have been sick all week, so we've only left the house once in almost a week).


I was hoping I wouldn't be the only one who enjoyed this sensory bin, so I was happy to see both girls really enjoying it throughout the day!

A Fake Fall Leaves Activity

E started stuffing fake fall leaves into this empty tennis ball container, and I thought that was a great idea! 






After she put all of the leaves in the tennis ball container, I showed her how to put one at a time in a 2 liter bottle.  I showed her how to push it down with just one finger at a time.  She copied me exactly and was able to push the leaf in the bottle easily.   After that she tried to use her thumb and a couple of fingers at a time.  She wasn't as successful, but it was fun to watch her try different ways of doing things.






Check out those long fingernails!  I felt like a bad mama when I saw how long her fingernails were in this picture...I have a hard time keeping them cut...they grow SO fast!



After she finished the activity, she put the leaves on her head and said "hat, hat."  She puts EVERYTHING on her head and calls it a hat...love it!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I found our felt turkey activity just in time for the girls (O & my niece) to play with while it we prepared Thanksgiving dinner. We had a nice Thanksgiving with lots of delicious food, and I hope you did, too!

Our Thankful Tree

We've turned our Ghost Tree into a Thankful Tree. I have a basket full of silk fall leaves, a marker, and tape sitting next to the tree. Each morning we write something we are thankful for on a leaf and tape the leaf to the tree. O always insists on writing on her leaf by herself :) I plan to write the year on the leaves and save them in a small wooden box. Next year we can look through this year's leaves to see what we were thankful for this year. So far O has been thankful for lollipops, the Thankful Tree, the turkey (sitting next to the Thankful tree), chicken & dumplings, her baby sister, and ghosts.

A Fun Felt Turkey Activity

This is a repost from last year...if only I could find the turkey this year.

IMG_1997 (Large), originally uploaded by omamom16.

The idea for this activity came from Itty Bitty Love's jack o'lantern activity. I didn't get around to making that one, so I decided to make a turkey. I couldn't really get a good picture of a turkey in my mind until I saw Laura's turkey, so that turkey was the inspiration. I also got ideas for the feathers and hats from Starfall. To make this activity, I just cut the shapes out from felt, took pictures of the different turkey arrangements, printed the pictures (wallet sized), laminated the pictures, and we were ready to go! I spread all of the pieces out on a bigger felt board, so O could see them easily. To make the small felt board, I just glued a piece of felt to a piece of a cardboard box. I think we are going to have LOTS of fun with this one!

Fall Handprint Art

O and I had fun making a handprint tree a few days ago. The idea for this activity came from Montessori Moments. I traced O's arm and hand on construction paper (she chose the colors) and then cut them out. She glued the arm and hand "tree" to a piece of paper and glued leaves on the tree. She really enjoyed collecting the leaves, and she especially enjoyed spreading the glue all over her paper!

Cookie Cutter Cheese

Guh-guh (my mom) loves to make eating fun, so she has been using cookie cutters to cut cheese to put in O's soup and on crackers. O has enjoyed eating leaf shaped cheese and turkey shaped cheese this week! What fun!

Mixing Colors with Shaving Cream

O LOVES to play with shaving cream! We decided to mix yellow and red to make orange in honor of Autumn. We placed cardstock on top of the shaving cream and food coloring to make marblized art. However, O was not very interested in making artwork. She just loved playing with the shaving cream. She mixed it around with spoons, spatulas, and forks. She put it in her plastic ice cream cones and "sold" me an ice cream cone :) She also hid tiny plastic animals in the shaving cream. This kept her happily occupied while I cleaned the kitchen :)

Autumn Sensory Box

Here is our Autumn sensory box! It's quite a hit! I filled the box with popcorn kernels, silk leaves, wooden acorns, wooden peg people, small wooden boxes, and a small basket.