Apple Trees, Apple Songs & More Apple Crafts

Yesterday's tissue paper stained glass apple

My Apple Cinnamon Wreath

Our paper orchard

Today we focused on more the growth of the apple. We talked about the seed growing into the tree and the blossoms on the tree in the spring turning into green apples and then they become red (or stay green or turn yellow). The book from the library, I Am an Apple by Jean Marzollo really helped with the lessons. It is an early reader book, but that helped make it simple for Hazel to understand. She keeps looking at it. We also read a short story about Johnny Appleseed and sang some apple songs (including of course the Johnny Appleseed song).

Apple Tree in each season

Our crafts today are making paper trees, making apple cinnamon wreaths, talking about the parts of the apple, the tree in each season, crayon stain glass apples and leaves (a great way to use some of those broken crayons), and if we have time we will do a handprint tree, but we may save this one for Friday. We are also going to bake whole wheat apple muffins tonight for breakfast tomorrow. Our big Michaelmas celebration will be tomorrow so our crafts will be focused around that and we have school in the morning.

Hazel's Cinnamon Apple Wreath

Unfinished apple stained glass using crayons

It seems as naps may be coming to an end for Hazel. She has not napped this week. The positive side is she is going to bed by 6:30 which gives Steve some time for himself at night, but she can be very cranky by the time he gets home. She is however taking quiet alone time in her room every day instead of a nap. She spends a half hour or so "reading" her books and playing with the few toys that are in there. It gives me some time to breath.

Ok, now onto our crafts.The paper trees came from All Kids Network. We drew on the apples instead of using beads. I figured it would be a bit easier for Hazel to handle at this age.

The Cinnamon Apple Wreath also came from All Kids Network. We used cardstock instead of craft foam for the apples, stems and leaves, but I loved the idea of putting the cinnamon stick on it to add another sense to it.

Before doing the four season tree we talked about the sequence of the apple tree. There is a great worksheet on Mrs. Nelson's Class. For older kids you could have them do the sequence on their own, but for Hazel I showed her the sequence and we talked about it. She is now coloring it in. The four season tree was inspired by The Virtual Vine. And yesterday Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas also did a similar craft. I cut four of the trunks out and two of the green leaves both from cardstock. Then I had her glue them on with some help. Then we added tissue paper. We talked about the spring being the pink blossoms, the summer the blossoms become green apples which turn red as they mature, the fall the leaves falling as well as the apples and the winter the branches are bare except for our cotton ball snow.

Crayon Flakes

Flakes on wax paper pre-iron

Iron at low heat setting

The crayon method for stained glass pictures came from DLTK-kids. I posted this link yesterday, but we did it with tissue paper as we had done a leaf earlier. Today I tried the crayon method. To do this, you first use a crayon sharpener to make flakes of crayon in the colors you want. The smaller the pieces the easier it will be. Then you put the crayon flakes on a piece of wax paper. Fold the wax paper over it and with a low heat iron melt the crayons between the wax paper. Be careful not to get crayon on your iron or ironing board. I did let Hazel try the iron, but we talked about the hot part. Then glue the outline on it and let it dry. Once the glue is dry you can cut around the outline and glue the other side on. Then you can hang it in your window. Here are some pictures to help with this explanation.

Melted crayons

Frame glued on...Waiting for it to dry

Ok, that is enough for today. I'm off to make a quick dinner and those muffins! Have a great day!!

More Autumn Decorations and Apples, Apples, Apples

Autumn Hand Wreath

Today Hazel and I focused on apples and did some painting crafts. Now apples are one of Hazel's favorite foods. She has one at least once a day. My mother-in-law now keeps apples at her house for Hazel, and she never has fruit in her house. So today we started by reading the story, The Little Red House With No Doors and No Windows and a Star Inside. And of course we cut the apple sideways to see the star inside. We then pulled out white paper and red paint and did some apple prints. While we had the paint out we also did some mushroom prints with mushroom tops from our yard, leaf prints, acorn prints, etc. and used an apple cookie cutter.

Signs of Autumn

Lights to help with the shorter days

For the first full day of autumn, Hazel and I spent the morning reading books about autumn and doing some crafts. We really focused on the signs of autumn. (I should add that yesterday at school we "read" Autumn by Gerda Muller. Since it has no words I'm using read loosely.)


This morning we started with two of our library books Step Into Fall: A New Season by Jane Belk Moncure and Seasonal Crafts Autumn by Gillian Chapman. (Please note: I have provided links to Amazon, but I  in no way am suggesting you buy them there, etc. I just know I like to have a place to see where to purchase the book when it is referenced.)

Shorter Days and Diwali:
Next we started our crafts. Seasonal Crafts: Autumn discusses the festival of Diwali (the beginning of the Hindu New Year) and suggests making lanterns.  We took the suggestion but changed the lanterns. We used baby food jars (I saved some from when Hazel ate it), Mod Podge glue, and fall colored tissue paper and of course a tea light. We had read how the days are getting shorter, so making lanterns seemed to be an obvious connection to it.

To make the lantern take a clean baby food jar and spread the Mod Podge glue on it. Then stick small pieces of tissue paper everywhere. It can overlap. The most important thing is to cover all of the outside visible surfaces. If it extends to the top do not fold it over, but leave it to dry and be cut off. It can be bent around the bottom of the jar. Let the glue dry some then paint another coat of Mod Podge on it. Let it dry completely and then trim top if necessary and put tea light candle in it. Light for a stained glass light.




Leaves Falling:
And of course autumn is not autumn without mention to leaves. This week I read on Mom on Timeout how to make Stained Glass Fall Leaves. To make this you will need a leaf pattern (or multiple--Mom on Timeout includes some), fall colored paper (the thicker the better, but construction paper will work), wax paper, glue, scissors, exacto knife, and tissue paper.

Have child rip tissue paper into small pieces. While he or she is doing that, cut the leaves (you need two for each leaf) and then leaving a frame, cut out the inside with the exacto knife or razor blade of some sort. Take a piece of wax paper that will be able to fold in two and completely cover past the cut out part of the leaf. Spread glue one half of it and have child put small pieces of tissue paper on it. The goal is to cover the entire half of the wax paper. They can overlap. Then spread glue on the other half and fold over. Let the glue dry a bit. Then glue the leaf frame on each side of the wax paper so they overlap appropriately. Then trim excess wax paper/tissue paper. Tape to a window and let the sun shine through it.

Birds Migrating
The last sign of autumn we focused on today was the birds migrating south for the winter. The idea of this craft came from Seasonal Crafts: Autumn, but we expanded on it by adding feathers and decorations. Instead of making it into a mobile, I tied them to the different arms of a light in our kitchen. So we now have a circle of birds flying south. With older kids, I would probably make the mobile and try to do it in the V-shape and discuss why the birds fly in that shape. For this craft you need cardstock or cardboard in nice colors, crayons or markers, tissue paper, scissors, glue and feathers and string (and a stick if you are going to make it into a mobile).

To make this craft do your best to draw and cut out a bird shape and cut a slit where the wings should go. Let child decorate bird. Take a piece of tissue paper (I cut mine into thirds or so) and fold it back and forth in accordion style (see picture to the right).  Stick the folded tissue paper into the slot you cut for the wings. Glue feathers to tail. Poke a hole in bird and tie a string/thread through it and hang.  Make more for your flock. You can open the wings like a fan to make them appear to be flying.

For our next crafts I'm hoping to include more with smells of fall. I'm thinking of playing with my playdough recipes and adding scents again. I'll let you know how it comes out. I'm also almost finished with my oversized queen quilt top. I'll share it soon.  Enjoy your weekend!

Leaves, acorns, pine cones and crafts!

Hazel's handprint

Today I adapted a recipe for No-Bake Craft Clay from The Arts and Crafts Busy Book by Trish Kuffner. When it was ready, we made nature impressions from the things we gathered on our nature walk on Sunday. We also did one of Hazel's hand. Hazel really enjoyed this craft and my hands smelled of cinnamon for quite awhile afterwards even with washing. We are going to try new scents next. I'm thinking I will add some vanilla extract the next time and may play with other extracts and essential oils. It adds a whole new sense to play dough.

Oak leaf and acorns

Oak Leaf

My oak leaf and acorn

No Bake Craft Clay Revised:
Food coloring (I used red and yellow to make orange and the dots are the cinnamon)
1 1/4 cups cold water
1 cup cornstarch
2 cups baking soda
Cinnamon (or other scent of your choice)
Saucepan
Plate
Damp cloth (that you don't care if it gets messy)

Add the food coloring to the water and then put in pan. Then combine the water with the cornstarch, baking soda and cinnamon (I probably used about 2 teaspoons, but didn't measure it). Mix over medium heat until it becomes the consistency of mushy mashed potatoes. The original recipe said about 4 minutes but I found it took much longer like 15 minutes. Then scoop onto the plate and cover with the damp cloth until cooled. (It does solidify while cooling.) When cool knead the dough and shape. To do the nature impressions take a small ball and make it into a disc big enough to take your piece of nature. Press the leaf or whatever you are using down into the clay and then lift up. You may want to let the disc set a little before pressing to make sure you get more details.

The other craft we did today was leaf rubbings. I found this idea on Michaels website...well actually an email they sent me. I printed out a few copies of their leaf shaped book and gave some to Hazel and kept some. I showed her how to do leaf rubbings. My original hope for this project was to keep her busy while her toe nails dried, but she decided she did not want to try the Piggy Paints with me today after I touched her toe to apply the base coat. So my toes are pink and hers are not. However she did have fun doing some rubbings and coloring in general. You can definitely tell which ones I did and which ones she did. We did not cut them out and I probably won't since several of them went outside of the outline. Hazel has not learned to color in the lines yet.

Welcoming Fall Free Printables!

I have been working on some autumn decorations and of course with fall comes Halloween. Hazel and I made some frames and I printed some autumn quotes to put in them. We will mail them to our family (my family lives in three states and the closest to us is 2 hours away). I taped the sayings in so they can easily be replaced with a picture if the person we give it to would like.

Supplies for one frame

I found these wooden frames on clearance at Michaels for 49 cents! I had some "silk" leaves and we just modpodged them on to it. Hazel found this very easy to do.

For some of the others we painted them (Hazel loves painting) in fall colors. I only gave her yellow, orange, red and brown paints. Then we stuck fall stickers on them. We had some with sayings and some foam ones. We tried a few without paint, but the painted ones came out much better.

The final frame we did was a larger one which was $1 at Michaels. I had bought this before I found the ones on Clearance. We modpodged tissue paper squares on to it then after it dries put on a sealing coat of ModPodge. After it dried we added some stickers.

Supplies for tissue paper frame

Finished tissue paper frame

Painted with stickers

Leaf frame with yarn apple in front

Yarn pumpkin

As you can see I also have made some yarn apples and pumpkins from Make and Takes blog. And I made some banners. I made a Happy Autumn one with witch hats on the back. (I'm hoping to share these with you once I figure out how to post a pdf file here.) If you do make this, remember to do the back in reverse. I made this mistake late last night and had to fix it this morning.

Trick or Treat Witch Hats

Trick or Treat Ghost Banner

Finally I did a trick-or-treat ghost banner like paper dolls we use to cut out. Again, once I figure out the pdf files on here, I will provide you with the banners and the autumn phrases.

So begins my fall decorating. Enjoy your weekend!!
I think I figured it out. Let me know if this works or doesn't!
Autumn Phrases  Welcome Autumn Banner
Witch Hat Banner  Ghost Banner