Fall Leaves Craft Storytime

Red and yellow, orange and brown,
All the leaves are falling down.
Days are nippy, nights are clear,
Summer's over - autumn's here!

Despite the fact that it was approaching 80 degrees this morning, we celebrated the turning of the leaves at Make-and-Take Storytime today.

I read the above three books and with Steve Metzger's We're Going on a Leaf Hunt I included the following flannel pieces :

Isn't that skunk just the most adorable little guy??
I took him right out of the pages of the book.

We also shared the following action-song (tune = "Wheels on the Bus" or "Five Little Ducks", you're pick!)
The roots of the tree grown down, down, down,
Down, down, down,
Down, down, down,
The roots of the tree grow down, down, down
Deep in the forest
(we wiggled our fingers from shoulders to toes)
The trunk of the tree grows stout, stout, stout
(arms make a circle and grow out-out-out)
The bark on the tree grows tight, tight, tight
(hug yourself!)
The branches of the tree grow out-out-out
(arms up high)
The wind blows the branches back and forth
(wave arms back and forth over head)
The leaves on the tree come tumbling down
(wiggle fingers up high to down low)



Our craft was super easy (which was great since I had a few 2-year-olds in attendance)
Each child had a tree, a blue background, a glue stick and strips of red, yellow, orange and brown construction paper. Everyone ripped pieces of paper for the leaves and stuck them to the tree (including some leaves "falling down" and on the ground).
At the end, each picture was mounted on a piece of heavy white cardstock and I attached the copy of the poem for a final presentation.
Voila!