Fall Trees and Scarecrow Fun

This past week went by super fast!  We wrapped up our fall unit with a beautiful art project and some scarecrow fun. Here is our week in pictures:

We painted the background colors first, then free-styled the tree trunk and branches.  Once everything was dry, we balled up tissue paper and glued it on to represent the leaves.  I think they turned out beautifully and I love how they are all different.  They really brightened up the hallway!

We talked a lot about scarecrows.  I read these two stories:

 (You can click on the images to read the description of each book.)

We have really been using a lot of visible thinking strategies in our classroom.  We looked closely at the cover of the second book and did an "I See, I Think, I Wonder" thinking routine with it.  The kids came up with answers such as "I see birds flying."  "I think the scarecrow is happy."  "I wonder what it would be like to stand on a pole all day and night."

We also completed a "Scarecrows Have, Can, Are" brace map from Deanna Jump's scarecrow unit. She has a wonderful scarecrow craft too that hopefully we will be able to finish making this week! We glued it next to our shape scarecrow faces.  This was a great review of our 2-D shapes because the scarecrow faces used circles, squares, triangles, rectangles, ovals, semi-circles, trapezoids, and hexagons.  The pattern pieces are from my Fall for All! pack.

We happened to be studying patterns this week so these pattern sheets from Kindergarten Faith were perfect!  We used our watercolors to practice painting patterns.  The kids loved it!

Of course what is a little fall fun with an edible treat!  We made these yummy scarecrows.

 I originally found the idea in a magazine from years ago.  (Parenting or maybe Family Fun?)  You can google edible scarecrows these days and find lots of images.  You "paint" sugar cookies with icing and then add on the pieces.  We used sugar wafer cookies for the hat, brown M&Ms for the eyes, candy corn for the nose, sprinkles for the mouth, and shredded wheat cereal for the straw.

I'm linking up these fall ideas with my bloggy friend Shuna at Pocket Full of Kinders.  Check out her linky for more fall ideas! :)

I'll be back tomorrow with a recap of our Fire Safety fun! Then on to pumpkins, bats, and spiders! :)