Littles Learning Link Up: October 24, 2017- Keepsake Hand and Fingerprint Autumn Trees

 Each month you will find:

• A seasonal round-up (usually toward the beginning of the month)
• Posts where I share what I have been up to with my early elementary children (including occasional highlight posts where I share how we used ideas that have been linked up here on Littles Learning Link Up).

Each week, I will host a link up, where you can share either what you have been up to recently, or old posts that may go with the theme.  Feel free to link up more than one post.

Each week I will continue to feature a couple of posts from those that have been linked up. 

I hope you will continue to share your wonderful posts, and I hope you will find something new to try with your child(ren).

It would be great for everyone to stop by and visit the other linked-up posts as well. Check them out, leave some comments, pin those that interest you. Let's make this a real party and socialize with each other.

What have we been up to?

We are all excited that co-op has started back up. The children are enjoying their new classes and mommy is enjoying coming up with crafts for the preschool class. A couple of weeks ago I shared the Two-Sided Paper Plate Apples we made. Last week we made a couple of different autumn tree/leaf crafts to go with the book My Leaf Book by Monica Wellington. I am sharing the one this week, and will be sharing the other next week. 

In our homeschool we have continued our study of Ancient Egypt and have also been learning of other ancient civilizations that developed as people groups spread out after the Flood of Noah's day, and after the time of the Tower of Babel. We have been reading about Abraham and Sarah during our Bible reading time. Our science lessons for the last few weeks revolved around pyramids. 

Let's take a look at that review schedule real quick:

Two weeks ago I posted my reviews for CTCMath and Brinkman Adventures Season 4. I only have two more reviews for the Crew this year. In November I will be sharing my reviews of The Pencil Grip's Thin Stix Creativity Pack and The Magic Stories. I can't believe our Crew year is already coming to a close for 2017. Speaking of which, if you are a homeschooler who also actively blogs, the Crew just recently opened up applications for the 2018 Crew year. Stop by the Homeschool Review Crew blog to check it out.

Moving on to this week's craft:

In the preschool co-op class we made Keepsake Hand and Fingerprint Autumn Trees. A few years ago we make Fall Hand Trees where we used the children's hand and wrist as the tree. I then had the children tear up paper for the leaves. This time I decided to use the children's fingerprints as the leaves.

I read "My Leaf Book" by Monica Wellington to the children. This is a book I reviewed a couple of years ago and just loved.

This craft was quite simple. Which is perfect for a group that includes 3 and 4 year olds, plus a one year old. I worked with the children two at a time, instead of in a big group.

Here is what you will need:

Brown construction paper for the trees

More fall colored construction paper for the frames

White card stock

Acrylic paints in red, orange, yellow, and brown

Green crayon/marker/pencil for the grass. We used the Thin Stix we have for review.

Glue stick

Pencil

Scissors

Egg carton to hold the paint

The first thing I did was call the children over one at a time so I could trace their hands on the brown paper. Then I cut them out. Older children could cut the trees out by themselves.

Then the children glued their paper hands onto the white card stock.

They used the green Thin Stix to paint grass onto the bottom of the paper. What I love about these things is that they dry so fast and cover the paper so much faster than other art media would. If we used regular paint we would have had to wait for that paint to dry before I could have the children do their fingerprints. As the Thin Stix dry within 90 seconds, we were able to do the fingerprint leaves immediately without fear of the children getting green paint on their arms.

 I put a little bit of each color paint in separate compartments of the egg carton. Then I taught the children to point their index finger and use one color at a time. After they were done with a color I wiped their finger with a wet paper towel and they chose the next color. They continued in this fashion until they were happy with the leaf coverage on the tree, plus whatever they had falling off and on the ground.

We set them aside to dry.

I then called the children over one at a time to choose their background frame. I decided it was better to do this last, so there were no stray paint marks on the frame.

Lovely keepsakes of the children's hands and fingerprints. These can be done each year to see how much a child has grown.

Some things I would like to share with you:

More Fall Leaf Crafts:

Those autumn leaves have been falling down all around. If you are looking for some ideas that focus on fall leaves, I invite you to check out my Fall Leaves All Around Round Up:

Pumpkins are popping up all around. Though we don't celebrate Halloween, I do love pumpkins. A couple of years ago I posted my Pumpkin Fun Round Up.

As much as I hate thinking about this, Thanksgiving is just around the corner (scary isn't it?). Here is my Thanksgiving Round Up chock-full of Thanksgiving craft, snack, and learning activity ideas.

Now onto:

Littles Learning Link Up Features

On my last Littles Learning Link Up post, there were 17 wonderful posts linked up. I will be picking one randomly selected post to share, plus the top clicked-on posts.  

Please, don't forget to stop by other posts that are linked up. See what catches your eye, stop by, pin the post to a relevant board, and perhaps leave a comment to let the author of the blog know you have been by for a visit. I know I appreciate others commenting and letting me know they have read my posts, so I am sure others do too.

This week's randomly selected post is:

Katelynne from The Disguised Supermom shared Veterinarian! A Community Helper Preschool/Kindergarten Series.

And here are this week's top clicked on posts.

Betty from Let's Get Real shared MANNERS: A FREE PDF of our Manners Study.

Dani from Live Love Learn Gracefully shared September in Review: A Homeschool Journey.

Nikki from Life & Lovely Chaos shared The Power of Play: Educating Young Children

Join the Party!

I would love to have you join in this week! What sort of activities do you do with your young children? Do you have some favorite activities you would like to share? I invite you to link up below. I will be pinning posts on one of my relevant boards, and I would love to feature some of the activities each week from what is linked up.

Please know I may share a picture from your post and link back to it, along with sharing how we used your idea in our school time. By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. Additionally, if you choose to try out any of the ideas with your child, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.

Linky will be open through Monday night, to give me time to check out all the posts and get the Features organized. Please take the time to visit some of the other wonderful posts linked up.

No button currently, and there won't be one until I can figure it out seeing as Photobucket has changed things. Feel free to still share the picture in place of the button. Just link it to my Littles Learning Link Up permalink please.

An InLinkz Link-up