Homeschool Theme of the Week: Scarecrows!

For those who have been wondering if I will be posting Thanksgiving activities anytime soon, the answer is - YES!  I had not planned to post those until next week but will try to speed up the process so I can post something earlier for those of you interested in ideas for your own class or homeschool.  Until then, please enjoy our humble scarecrow theme and activities...  :)

We made these guys to go along with our wooden spoon scarecrow activity (see pics below).

Cute, are they not?  And easy to make - just paint some clothespins black, add black feathers, wiggly eyes, and a paper beak.  Yes, I know crows don't have orange beaks.  However, my daughter pointed out that if we made the beaks black, they would be hard to distinguish from the rest of the crow body.  So, orange the beaks remain.  :)

Here is our very own small scarecrow we made from a wooden spoon and one of my daughter's doll dresses.   I attached a craft stick (popsicle stick) to the wooden spoon to make the arms, and we dressed her and stuffed her.  :)

Isn't she lovely and friendly looking!  Even the crows seem to enjoy her amicable presence!  :)

This was our "crow" (as in "exult") can.  We wrote down all sorts of things my daughter is able to do and at least a couple of skills that she has not quite yet achieved.  The ones she has already accomplished, we glued to the can.  The skills which we are still working on are being held onto by the crows until she proves she has mastered them at which time we can add them to our "crow" can and rejoice together!  :) 

This type of thing might be a good activity and eye-opener for a parent and a child (especially for one who is struggling) of how accomplished the child really is.  Sometimes we forget how far our children have come and how much they have learned - it is good to be reminded (for both parent and child).  :)  By the way, not all of what we wrote on the can is academic (I can play nicely, I can do my chores, etc.).

My daughter is not often called upon to write her last name, so this is an area I know needs a tad bit more practice.  Thus, the crow is hanging onto it for us until we can happily add it to the other mastered skills on the "crow"can.

This was a fun accordian style book  made from paper bags and snippets of items (I was inspired in part by this gorgeous blog:  www.katherinemariephotography.com).  Each page contains a descriptive sentence stating what the reader sees.  The final page - the surprise - is that all of these items have come together to make a scarecrow (BTW - I believe all those black squiggly lines are crows flying away).

Scarecrow Pete is a really cute story we read about the friendship between a boy and a scarecrow.  The scarecrow helps to instill in the boy a passion for reading as the two embark on imaginary adventures with the help of many wonderful books!

This activity became an extension of that tale.  I call it "scarecrow painting" because the point of it is to wrap up a bunch of straw, raffia, etc. and use it to paint with (pretending you are a scarecrow painting with your arm - your arm is the brush).

In this case, we talked about where Scarecrow Pete might like to go if he could get down off of his pole.  My daughter thought the beach would be a good destination for him, so we pretended she was the scarecrow painting a picture of where he would like to travel.

This was a watercolor painting my daughter made.  We then did some texture rubbings of things and used the rubbings to cut out a small scarecrow, gluing him to her picture.

This is a picture of one of the stories we read and also of our fun little pointer for the week!  Basically it is a small autumn pick and we just use it for a calendar pointer (or anything else which might need to be pointed out).  

We have several different "pointers" which range from decorative picks to fun eraser toppers on pencils.  I try to keep them somewhat seasonal, and it just seems to add to the excitement of a new theme when I pull out a new pointer.  (Picks are great because if you get them for sale at your local hobby store, they are SOOO inexpensive.  I think this little scarecrow only cost $.50 to $.60!!!)

Linking up:
www.runwithglitter.blogspot.com
http://www.delicateconstruction.blogspot.com/
http://diyhshp.blogspot.com/
http://www.singingthreelittlebirds.blogspot.com/
www.makingtheworldcuter.com
www.letkidscreate.blogspot.com
http://www.abcand123learning.com/
www.momontimeout.com
www.houseofhepworths.com
http://www.amommysadventures.com/
www.bearrabbitbear.blogspot.com
www.whipperberry.com
www.homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com
http://www.jdaniel4smom.com/
http://www.sunscholars.blogspot.com/
www.fingerprintsonthefridge.com
http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com