Autumn is upon us! Pumpkins. Colorful leaves falling. Autumn decorations, scented candles, and tasty dishes. All of these are highlights in my opinion during the fall season.
With this in mind, I thought I would present 2 new items in my shop and some fall themed books to read to or with your children.
Educational Fall Shop Items
Sunflowers
Sunflowers are one of my favorite types of flowers. Their bright yellow petals with dark center make me smile. Truly, they do! How do sunflowers make you feel? Do you have them in your yard or garden? When we get our country home built, these flowers will be added to my yard or garden for sure! Needless to say, I felt the need to make an item in my shop with sunflowers.
This is a fun Montessori style learning activity filled with four sunflower life cycle (2–part) cards and three activity sheets. The cards if printed on card stock paper and laminated should last for several uses by little hands.
This activity can be used any time of the year. It can be added to any plant study. In the photo you will see a book called The Sunflower Parable by Liz Curtis Higgs. This is a beautifully illustrated book (illustrated by Nancy Munger). It is about a little boy who wants to grow something b-i-g. He chooses the sunflower because it grows so tall. He is so proud of how tall his flowers grow right up to heaven in his eyes. He is so proud of how big and yellow they are. But, as summer passes and fall appears, he gets discouraged as his flowers began to droop. He feels like what he planted is not useful. But, his father the farmer shows him how God uses the sunflower to feed the birds. This is such a cute book to read. It covers the sunflower life cycle as well as providing a spiritual lesson for children. *Scripture used in this book is taken from the International Children’s Bible. This book can be found at Christianbook.com or possibly at your local library.
Pumpkins
How fun it is to choose just the right pumpkin for carving! Children do so enjoy going to pumpkin patches to find that “perfect” pumpkin to take home. As you cut out the shape of the face of the pumpkin with your children and dig out the “guts” of the pumpkin, why not talk about how God created the pumpkin? Why not use that as a teaching tool at that moment?
Here is another item in my shop that can help with learning about the life cycle of a pumpkin:
This digital downloadable product contains pumpkin life cycle cards, number cards, letter cards, and tracing cards. This is a Montessori styled learning activity. When printing this product at home, it is best to use card stock paper and to laminate them for longer use. For easy storage, you can punch a hole in the corner of each card and place them onto an “O” ring.
In the photo you will notice four pumpkin themed books:
- The Pumpkin Patch Parable by Liz Curtis Higgs — This book is filled with biblical principles and examples for being a witness to others for Christ by using a pumpkin as the lesson. (I have a previous post containing a children’s devotion and printout about this topic. Feel free to read it and download the free printable.) This book can be found at Christianbook.com or possibly at your local library.
- How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? by Margaret McNamara — This is a great book to use to teach counting. One of the students in Mr. Tiffin’s class bets that the biggest pumpkin has the most seeds. One million! Another student who knows all, decides she knows exactly how many seeds are in the medium sized pumpkin. Another child, the smallest in the class, has not idea which pumpkin has the most seeds. This is a playful, humorous book that covers the topics of counting and size. This book can be found at Barnes & Nobles bookstore, Christianbook.com, or your local library.
- Strega Nona’s Harvest by Tomie dePaola– This is a cute book about sharing. This book can be found at Barnes & Nobles bookstore, Christianbooks.com, or your local library.
- Pumpkin Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington– This is a sweet book about the pumpkin life cycle. It is filled with beautiful color drawing and watercolors of the life cycle of a pumpkin. This book can be found at Barnes & Nobles bookstore or your local library.
*Although I mention specific stores in which these books can be found, I in no way am advertising or gaining any type of funds for mentioning them. I do this to help you find the books. That is all.
I encourage you to visit my shop here to check out these items mentioned in this post as well as other great educational items for your children’s learning experience.
Have a wonderful day!
