Fall Crafts

Fall crafts and activities with the wee ones today--I thought the biggest hit would be a bunch of big boxes and a tent upstairs to use for "bear caves" (we've been talking about hibernation), but they were more into these activities, bear biscuits and turkey clips.Clara sprinkles her bear with cinnamon sugarDana helps Lucas with the sprinklesSophia tries out her bear biscuitA finished biscuitThe turkey clips--the sample on the left, Clara's on the right, idea from this site.

It sort of freaked me out to find myself getting ideas from this website, since I stayed away from cutesy themes when I taught first grade, but for two year olds they were perfect. The bear biscuits worked well, though I made a substitution of dried cherries for maraschino. The sensory bears they suggest (you rub cinnamon, lemon, soap, etc. on bear shapes cut from sandpaper and have the kids try to match them by scent) were easy and a good introduction to a new kind of sensory matching, and opened the door to talking about how bears use their senses to find food, along with the book Every Autumn Comes the Bear by Jim Arnosky. With the sensory bears I put colored dots on the back so kids could confirm their guesses or know to try again. Fun day!