Fall is such a beautiful time of the year. As much as I love Winter (and wish the South got more snow than we do), I really do love Fall more. I know most people get excited about their first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season, but I get excited about seeing the trees change color, watching football games on TV, decorating pumpkins, and preparing (and eating!) Thanksgiving dinner. To help share all this excitement, I’m pairing a few Fall-themed books with related activities for you and your kids to enjoy!
Amelia Bedelia’s First Apple Pie. Amelia Bedelia was a favorite of mine growing up, and I love that my little girl enjoys her books too. I have come across several Amelia Bedelia books about when Amelia was a little girl that are just as cute as the classics that I grew up reading. (This book has a recipe at the end for an apple pie in case you want to give it a try.)
Apples and Pumpkins Quiet Time Activity. Looking for a little quiet time with your little one? Or maybe just a few minutes to try to get dinner ready? This activity allows your little to work on fine motor skills and learn to follow a pattern (while keeping them magically busy)! For this, I found images of an apple, a pumpkin, and a leaf to trace onto felt. I used red for the apples, green for the leaves, and orange for the pumpkins. You could do various colors of apples or leaves instead, of course. Have fun with it!
For the rod, I got a 3/4″ dowel rod, and my husband cut it to a more manageable length for our toddler. In order for Penelope to “thread” the rod with the items, I cut a little ‘x’ in the center of each item to create an opening that would allow her to get the item onto the rod.
If your little toddler is in the mood to learn how to follow a pattern, you can create strips of paper with either an image of an apple, leaf, or pumpkin, or simply use the three colors to create random patterns. (I am terrible at being random, so I actually used a random number generator and assigned each color a number and went from there. Not sure if I should have really admitted to that or not…ha!)
Everything was in order for my little girl to play while I made breakfast!
Leaf Man. Such a cute book! This one will have your little one’s imagination running wild when you take a walk to see the leaves and acorns along the way. Will you see a Leaf Man or a Leaf Animal on your next outdoor adventure?
Leaf Necklace and Bracelet. To keep it simple, I thought dyed noodles would work well as “beads,” and I could create the colors I wanted. Bonus! Using noodles I had on hand and six (disposable) cups, I dyed my noodles. For the green and orange, I used the color mixing guide on the box for dying eggs as my guide and then played with the colors as the dying process went on. For the deeper, darker colors you see in the picture, I let the noodles soak for about 48 hours.
For the leaves, there are multiple options. Gather interesting leaves on a nice walk together, find more durable leaves in the floral section of just about any craft store, or you can make your own leaves out of paper or fabric. I chose to use felt, so I searched the internet for leaf images, printed them out, traced them onto the felt, and cut them out. Since I was using felt and a plastic yarn needle, I decided to cut a small hole in the leaves to make it a little easier for Penelope’s little hands to thread the leaves onto her necklace.
Luckily, I had this pretty green yarn amongst my craft supplies to use for the string of the necklace. I wanted something pretty long so that she could easily fit it over her head and so that my husband and I could wear it too. (Our girl just loves dressing us up as well!) So I knotted the ends together with the needle in the middle, and it was time for the fun to begin!
Penelope did a pretty good job on her own for a few minutes and then asked me to hold the needle. This still allowed her to work on her fine motor skills. We also named the colors as we were adding them onto the necklace to work on color recognition. I think she enjoyed the noodle beads more than the leaves because every once in a while I had to suggest we add a leaf! Since we had some left over noodles beads, we made a little bracelet too. Such a fun craft project that you can still play with once you are finished!
I Know It’s Autumn. This short book notes the changes around us as the Autumn season arrives. How does your little one know it’s autumn?
Rice Crispy Pumpkins. These treats are so simple to make for a fun treat at home or make them to share with friends at a party! The recipe I used for my rice crispy treats was on the package of marshmallows; I just added food coloring before adding the cereal. To make the shade of orange for my pumpkins, I doubled the number of drops of red and yellow suggested on the package for mixing icing.
Once I got my cereal all stirred in nicely, I waited for it to cool for just a little bit. During that time, I got out my parchment paper and unwrapped some tootsie rolls. Since the mixture is still sticky, I sprayed a small amount of non-stick cooking spray on my hands and then grabbed a handful of rice crispy mix, molded it into a ball, and stuck a tootsie roll into the top. That’s it! Super easy, and super tasty! Hope you and your family enjoy these as much as my family did!
Cute ideas! Thanks for sharing. My girls are going to love doing some of these!
Glad you enjoyed the post, and I hope your daughters do enjoy the books and crafts!