Fantastically Fun Fall Festivities

With the arrival of Fall comes the most wonderful time of year, in my opinion. The air begins cooling, the leaves begin turning, and all of the wonderful harvest colors abound. I also love all of the Fall and Harvest activities we begin doing with the kiddos. We've been busy and thought we'd share a few of the adventures we've been having with you.

Balance is key as my friends soon find out. Is it easier to balance
with the help of a friend or to do it by yourself? I think it depends
on the load they are carrying, but there was definitely lots of
problem solving and collaboration occurring.

We began setting up our outdoor farmers' market this week with straw bales, a wheelbarrow, wagons, baskets, and many types of harvest items including: Indian corn, pumpkins, apples, gourds, carrots with greens, radishes, potatoes, and more. Our goal isn't so much that they are pretending to buy the items, as it is the community effort that emerges as they transport the items from straw bale to wagon to wheelbarrow to basket and so on. 

Our Harvest of the Month cooking project was a yummy pumpkin parfait, which the kiddos all tried and most really enjoyed. The got to mix canned pumpkin and yogurt and top it off with rice Chex cereal. 

Then it was outside to check out the appearance of a new wagon they could take turns riding. I must say, I was so impressed with the negotiating and give and take that I saw taking place. They had to work out who would pull, who would push, and who would occupy the two rider seats. They would go in one configuration for awhile, then switch around, then give others their turn.

Our amazing Nana Teri brought all the supplies for the kiddos to make a scarecrow and they busied themselves wadding up newspaper to be the stuffing for our newest addition. 

It was a fine dance occurring as some worked on the scarecrow, some pushed the wheelbarrow, some pulled a wagon, some pushed/pulled/rode in the other wagon, and more. There were enough activities to keep all the children busy with Harvest items or other outside opportunities. 

Taking her haul to the market

More collaboration taking place before our eyes

Newspaper wadded and now to begin stuffing the shirt...

Shirt pretty much stuffed, then they
moved on to stuffing the pants...

and she's complete. What a friendly little lady
we have gracing our playground. Thanks, Nana Teri!

I had purchased some watercolor paper and eagerly awaiting the opportunity to use it. I chose a few of our donated Harvest items and placed them on a festive plate, pulled out the liquid watercolors and the special paper and we were set. We encouraged the kiddos to look carefully at the items before they began painting and then to paint "what they saw".

We're having so much fun and there will be many more adventures to come. Happy Fall, Y'all!!