Leaf Turkey

I love doing crafts with my kids any time of the year, but Autumn is possibly my favorite. We decided to make our own natural centerpiece this year and called him "Tom Turkey".
We filled a large paper grocery bag and filled it with newspaper. Then we used white glue to attach leaves all over the body. To give the leaves a bit of shine and help them adhere a bit better, we added a layer of spray gloss.
For the head we cut out a cardboard box and embellished it.
Voila...our very own leaf Turkey to help us celebrate the harvest season.

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving~ I know we did!

Leaf Man

One of my favorite fall books is Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert. The beautiful leaf collages tell the story of Leaf Man and his journey. Since  "a Leaf Man's got to go where the wind blows"....we figured he should venture over to Vermont.

So we tried our hand at our leaf man creations today. Though they aren't nearly as imaginative as the book's various animals and objects, my kiddos were quite proud of their creations. I'm sure this is something we will recreate throughout the autumn! Especially after we revisit and reread the book a few more times.

Also, if you check out the book from the library, be sure to look at the endpapers. It's like a simple field guide to leaves and Ehlert explains her technique for the leaf collage.

And....as you gather your leaves it's always fun to sing, "We're going on a leaf hunt.."

Leaf Crowns

What a wonderful first weekend of fall we had. Vermont is a great place to live anytime but autumn by far is the best time of the year for me!
We spent Saturday at the Burke Fall Festival and Sunday close to home enjoying the gorgeous fall day. The kids and I went for a walk in the woods to gather brightly colored leaves and other treasures. When we got back to the backyard I suggested we make leaf headbands, which was NOT received well by my 6 year old son. Clearly his understanding of 'headbands' is something with ribbons and bows and clearly only meant for girls to wear!
So I came up with a completely new project. Leaf CROWNS, you know, the kind that manly kings wear when they are in charge of their empire or forest!

Clearly my re-wording was acceptable because my son dove right in to attaching the leaves to the crown! And of course, little sis, was following right along.

Not to brag, but check out the thickness of that carrot we grew!

To make: cut a thin cardboard crown to fit your child's head (cereal boxes work great). Add strips of double sided tape and attach brightly colored leaves that you've gathered. You could use glue instead, but I thought the tape would work better on fresh leaves, could be worn instantly, and it was mess-free for my 2 year old!

Voila, you too can be the king or queen of your forest!

Bird Nest Creations

Our lovely little bird nest that we made while walking in the woods this past week!


What began by pulling out some of the inner bark from a dead tree........

led to the creation of bird nests for an entire flock!

My son took this photo to show off his bird nest collection!

My son was so excited by the first little nest that he decided he needed to make one for his preschool teacher. Then he decided he needed to make them for all the kids in his class and the helpers in class too.

So we started a little assembly line of bird nest crafting. He pulled out the bark as I wove it into a nest shape. Then he found the perfect amount of moss and pushed it down into the nest. Then he topped each of them off with some fresh green grass from a tiny little patch that we have in the woods. 

In the end, the nests turned out so beautiful!

As we worked on the project I told my son how easy it was for us to collect the bark, moss, and grass but explained how a little bird would have to work much harder. He thought about it for a while and realized that birds don't have hands, and instead would have to use just their beak.  I also added how the bird would have to carry each little twig or blade of grass up to their selected spot in a tree, and how it would take hundreds of trips to finish the nest.

He became really quiet...and then asked if we could just give our 16 nests to the birds.
"They need it more than my friends. And we can just climb up the tree to make the nests for them."
So we talked about why this wouldn't work...but decided that we would put his nest in a special tree. Then we could check on it throughout the spring to see if any bird decided to take up residence.

~What a sweet memory this afternoon spent in nature will be!

Go visit Go Explore Nature today to see photos that other nature loving kids have taken!

Bunny Basket

We've done a verison of this milk jug bunny basket every year for Easter. This year's is 100% recycled. The ears are made from cutting a paper towel tube and coloring in the pink portion. The eyes are milk jug lids. The different colors were my son's choice and it does have a fun psychadelic vibe to it! The rest is colored in with permanent marker since washable markers wipe off of plastic. Make sure to use hot glue so the pieces stay attached during those active egg hunts.
In past years our bunny baskets live on well after Easter. They are great to leave in the garage for holding small toys or for outdoor use when gathering scavenger hunt items!

Hand Trees

We received a couple more inches of snow today, but luckily I have my son's budding tree and sunflowers to make at least the indoors feel like spring! 
My daughter also tried her hand at the same craft as big brother....

And her's turned out just as charming. She loves when she gets to do the same projects as her 'DiDi'!

After she put the stickers on she was sure to count them, "one, do, free".

These hand trees are hanging in our dining room, reminding us of the treats that nature has in store for us. Later we will add them to our Nature Journals, along with all the bark rubbings and drawings of the trees we are going to learn about this month!

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In my opinion, handprints and footprints make the best keepsake art projects! Today I found a great blog that has just that for every season and holiday: http://funhandprintart.blogspot.com/