Pumpkin Pretzels

I found this cute recipe on Pinterest for pumpkin pretzels. I thought it would be fun to make and let Little Man stick the M&M's in for the stems. They were so easy. You can find the recipe here.

Stained Glass Leaves

It has been very wet and rainy around here lately. We have been doing all these things with leaves and had not had the chance to get outside and actually play in the leaves. We finally got out and collected some leaves. Afterwards we made some leaf murals. I taped down a piece of contact paper (sticky side up) and gave Little Man leaves to stick to the contact paper. We talked about the color of the leaves as he put them on. When he was finished I put another piece of contact paper on the other side to seal the leaves in.

Leaf Counting

Little Man's favorite number is three. We joke that he is never going to be able to count past three because it is so exciting. But I thought this would be fun to work on his numbers. I printed trees on pages 24-28 from Oopsey Daisy's Mommy School packet and we counted out the same number of leaves as the number on the tree. This is something I think we will come back to again and again.

Paint Dotter Fall Tree

So the original plan for this craft was to paint Little Man's hand and arm and it would be the trunk and then paint his hands different colors to create the leaves. Let's just say Mama didn't have the motivation for that. So instead I cut a trunk out of construction paper and let Little Man use my favorite paint dotter to dot on the leaves. As we changed colors we talked about the color he was using and sometimes counted how many leaves he was making. 

After creating his tree we talked about how it looked like the trees outside. We looked at the trees outside and talked about the color of the leaves. I can't wait for a somewhat warm/dry day that we can actually go out and play in the leaves.

Fall Sensory Box

I have not put together a sensory box for awhile and honestly now I don't know why!! Little Man LOVED this fall sensory box. He mostly enjoyed putting the beans from the bottom into a bowl and then back into the box. Who knew!?!?

In the box I included red and brown/tan dry beans, fake pumpkins and gourds, fake leaves, and some fall cut outs. It was fun to go through the different things and name them, talk about their color and shape. I got most of the things from the Dollar Tree so it was a pretty cheap set up. I plan on keeping it around for awhile for when I need a minute to make a meal or take a breath. : )

Pumpkin Pancakes

Well it is for sure fall here now. All the leaves are falling, pumpkins are on everyone's doorsteps, and apple cider is in the stores. This morning Little Man and I decided to make some pumpkin pancakes and were they delicious. Here is the recipe we followed: 

Pumpkin Pancakes

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 cup milk
• 6 tablespoons pumpkin puree
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 egg

Directions:

1. Stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, salt, nutmeg and cloves in a medium bowl.
2. Whisk together the milk, pumpkin, butter and egg in a separate bowl. Fold this mixture into the dry ingredients.
3. Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat.
4. Pour 1/4 cup batter for each pancake and cook approximately 3 minutes per side.
5. Serve with butter and maple syrup.

Then we put the batter in our new fun pancake creator and made some pancakes. 

Little Man ate a good amount of the pancakes (which is a huge accomplishment for him. He doesn't eat much!)

Contact Paper Leaf

We have started to talk about leaves since all the leaves are changing and many falling now that it is cold here. To start out our time about leaves Little Man did some more dot painting from 2 Teaching Mommies' Leaves Unit.

Since it was rainy outside we weren't able to go out and collect leaves so we made our own leaves. I gave Little Man a piece of contact paper (sticky side up) and some pieces of torn up construction paper. He then stuck the construction paper on the contact paper. When he was finished I put another pieces of contact paper on top to seal it in. 

Then I taped an outline of a leaf on top and cut out the leaf to make the leaf shape. When we were finished we talked about the colors and how they were like the colors of the leaves outside. 

A is for Apple Dot Painting

Today I found a Mommy friendly way to paint. They are kids paint dotters. When Little Man presses the end to the paper a little bit of paint comes out. They are great!! 

I used A is for Apple dot painting from 2 Teaching Mommies Apple Unit. It was fun helping Little Man putting his dots in the circles. 

Ten Apples Up On Top

It seems like whatever you are doing there is always a Dr. Seuss book to go along with it. One of my favorites is Ten Apples Up On Top. This was a fun book to read to Little Man. After reading the book I showed him how I could try to balance an apple on my head. I tried to get him to balance it on his head but he wasn't too thrilled about that. I then gave him a paper with lots of apples on it. I found this in Oopsey Daisy's A is for Apple Mommy School packet on page 62. I let him color the apples and then cut them out for him. I put glue dots on the back and helped Little Man glue the apples on top of his head. He thought it was funny to see all the apples on his head. 

Apple Jacks Lacing

One of our good friends gave us a set of large beads and a rope for Little Man to work on his fine motor skills. He loves for us to hold the rope and put the beads on. This activity is a scaled down version of lacing the beads. I gave Little Man and his friend some Apple Jacks, tied one end of a piece of yarn so the Apple Jacks wouldn't fall off, and put tape on the other end to make it easier to put the Apple Jacks on. I then helped them to lace the Apple Jacks onto the yarn. Little Man enjoyed it more when I put the Apple Jacks on and he got to take them off and eat them.

Apple Transfer

For a very long time Little Man has loved to transfer items from one container to another. When I saw this activity idea I knew he would love it. I went to Hobby Lobby and bought some mini fake apples. I then put the apples in a container and put an empty container next to it. Little Man enjoyed dumping the apples from one container to another. I also gave him a spoon to try to pick up the apples and put them in the other container.

Apple Colors

Little Man has been saying more and more of his colors so when I saw this activity in 2 Teaching Mommies: Apple Tot Pack I thought it would be great to work on Little Man's color recognition. We worked on this over a few days and still go back and review the colors. 

Homemade Applesauce

I love letting Little Man help out in the kitchen but sometimes it is difficult to find things for him to do. When I thought about making applesauce I knew exactly what I would let him do. So I got the apple peeler/corer out and let him crank away. He thought it was a lot of fun. 

After we finished peeling and coring I cut the apples into smaller chunks and added 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon all to the crockpot. It cooked on low for 7 hours and we had chunky applesauce. 

The original recipe came from Oopsey Daisy's A is for Apple Mommy School packet. Her recipe can be found on page 19.

Sensory Apples

Little Man is starting to repeat many words that are said to him. So it is fun to expose him to new things and name them for him. Today we had a sensory experience. I used a cut out of an apple and made four different textured apples. I made a bumpy apple out of bubble wrap. A sticky apple out of  contact paper. A soft apple out of cotton balls. Lastly, a rough apple out of sandpaper. Little Man and his friend enjoyed touching the different apples and saying the words. 

A Visit to the Apple Orchard

Sadly there are no apples to pick in Michigan this year due to the early warm spring. But it is still fun to go to the apple orchard with friends. There were many animals to pet, a pumpkin patch, and they even had a small silo that had corn in it like a sand box to play in.

A is for Apple

Now that we have learned a little about the letter A we have also introduced that apples start with A. I used a printable from Confessions of a Homeschooler and let Little Man color the letter A and an apple tree. Side note: I was so excited the other night when out of the blue he said "color". I said "Do you want to color?" and he said "Uh huh!" Love it!!! 

Apple Tree Snack

I always feel like we eat the same snack every day....Goldfish. I thought it would be fun to find some apple snacks. The first I found you can make apple trees out of all edible things. I started with Ritz crackers, pretzels sticks, icing, and M&Ms.

I then put a little icing on the cracker. I let Little Man add a pretzel stick (the tree trunk) and M&Ms (the apples). He of course loved the icing the most. We mostly had pretzels and crackers bit it was still more fun than Goldfish.

Apple Picking

This activity turned out to be a lot more fun than I anticipated.  I placed paper apples around the room and let Little Man and his friend go "apple picking". They enjoyed picking up as many as they could and bringing them to me. We then sorted them by color and worked on our color words and counted how many of each. They wanted to pick again and again.

 I got the apple pictures from Oopsey Daisy's A is for Apple. If you download the packet you can find the same pictures on page 68.

 Little Man running back with his apples.

A is for Apple

Well, it has been awhile since I have posted anything. I guess that is what happens during the summer. We have spent a lot of time outside enjoying the beautiful sunshine. Now that it is starting to get a little cooler I decided to start a new unit. It seems appropriate to do something fallish so I decided on Little Man's new favorite word...apple.

I have found some activities about the letter A, color red, and apples that we will be enjoying for the next few weeks. Hope you enjoy!!

It seemed most appropriate to first introduce the letter A. So today we worked on saying the letter A. We also talked about what the letter A says and traced it with our finger. I then let Little Man and his friend color the letter A.

You can find the same printable here inside 2 Teaching Mommies Apple Unit. If you download their Apple Unit the file is named LetterA.