Crowing about Fall

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One of the ways to teach kids about seasons is to have them help you welcome the seasons. A great welcome for fall is to make a scarecrow. Don’t have a garden? Who says you need one? You can even have your children decorate a fake garden for the scarecrow.

Scarecrows are only limited to your own imaginations. There are no hard and fast rules on how to make one. It would help to teach your children about appropriate colors for a fall scarecrow. Have them do some research on how scarecrows got started or on scarecrows around the United States. Teach them spelling by having them learn how to spell the different parts of the scarecrow and names to use for it.

Fall is a great time to also learn about the different activities held during the fall across the country or in other countries. You might even set up a fake scene for your scarecrow to help enforce the part of the country about which your child wants to learn, or to demonstrate an activity from another country they’ve discovered.

You could get an old basket for your scarecrow to sit in on your porch and have your child help you collect leaves to fill the basket. This is a good time to teach about leaves, different trees, and the animals that inhabit the forest. Your child could decorate a poster with photos cut and glued from old magazines for your scarecrow to hold.

Make your scarecrow a cross-bearing scarecrow by adding an old necklace you find at a garage sale or thrift store, teach sewing by having your child sew a cross on the pocket of your scarecrow, or even make a scarecrow that resembles your pastor or one of the characters in the Bible. You could even have your scarecrow hold an old Bible and pretend to have Sunday School with your little ones.

The possibilities for learning, teaching, and decorating are endless. This is a wonderful art project that can incorporate other skills while providing a bonding exercise for you and your child. Don’t just “FALL” into your project, jump in with an open mind!

By Guest Writer Shawnee Bowlin