Pumpkin Cat ~ Picture Book & KID KANDY

Pumpkin Cat
By Anne Mortimer
(Katherine Tegen Books, HarperCollins Publishers, 2011)

Pumpkin Cat is a story of unlikely friends, Cat and Mouse.

Cat wonders how pumpkins grow. So Mouse decides to show the answer by planting pumpkin seeds. All throughout the growing season, Cat and Mouse watch the pumpkin plant grow and develop baby pumpkins. By fall, Mouse is ready to carve a surprise for Cat.

Delicious illustrations in Pumpkin Cat make readers want to reach out and touch Cat and Mouse. They look so soft and cozy!

Young readers will enjoy the simple text and gorgeous pictures. Gardeners young and old will be delighted at the retelling of the pumpkin life cycle.

KID KANDY:

Decorate a Pumpkin

We can all carve a jack-o-lantern. But did you know there were others ways to decorate pumpkins?

1. Get some newspaper and wax paper. Spread newspaper on the table and cover it with wax paper.

2. Choose your pumpkin. Make sure it is clean and dry.

3. Gather colored tissue paper and white school glue. Squirt some glue in a disposable cup and add a tiny bit of water to thin it out. Find a wide paint brush.

4. Paint a small section of the pumpkin with glue. Tear off pieces of tissue paper and stick it to the glue. Continue painting and sticking on torn tissue paper until the pumpkin is covered. Add a thin coat of glue over the top of all of the tissue paper. Let dry.

5. Look! Now you have a rainbow pumpkin. Happy Fall!

Other art supplies to use on pumpkins: glitter, newspaper, patterned paper, permanent markers, stickers, sticky dots (for buttons, beads, and bits of yarn), ribbons, and curling ribbon.

Watching the Seasons - Fall ~ Picture Book & KID KANDY

Watching the Seasons - Fall
By Emily C. Dawson
(Bullfrog Books, Jump!; 2013)

Watching the Seasons - Fall is a perfect nonfiction picture book. Filled with glorious fall photos, one could not wish for better pictures.

The nonfiction book features are what make this book stand out. Table of contents, charts, glossary, index, short sentences, text boxes, and learning more about the topic section really make Watching the Seasons - Fall shine.

Early readers will love the challenge of reading this beautiful book and learning how much fun nonfiction can be.

KID KANDY:

Rank Your Favorite Fall Activities - And Then Do Each One!

1. Make a list of your favorite autumn activities. Put each activity on a separate index card. Some people enjoy raking leaves, visiting pumpkin patches, carving pumpkins, or touring apple orchards. Ask your family for their ideas.

2. Rearrange the cards until they are in the order of your favorite fall activities.

3. Start at the top of the list and do that fun activity. Place the card on the bottom of the list and continue having fun with all of the other activities.

4. Did you find a new favorite? Did you learn something?

5. Invite a friend to choose his or her favorite and have some fall fun together!

P.S. Fall is my absolute favorite season. I love pumpkins, so one of my favorite fall activities is going to pumpkin patches and buying pumpkins for my house!

Ready for Pumpkins ~ Picture Book & KID KANDY

Ready for Pumpkins
By Kate Duke
(Alfred A. Knopf, 2012)

Nothing could be better than pumpkins in the fall and guinea pigs!

Guinea pigs have been a big part of my classroom environment for most of my teaching years. Sturdy, chatty, adorable, large, and slow enough to catch, both preschoolers and kindergartners have loved and cared for our squeaky pets.

Ready for Pumpkins tells the tale of Herky (Hercules), a guinea pig in Miss MacGuffey's first-grade classroom. After tasting fresh green beans, Herky decides he wants to have his own garden. Using pumpkin seeds he saved from the previous fall when the students make a herk-o-lantern, Herky and his friend, Daisy, planted seeds. And waited. And waited.

Ready for Pumpkins is a funny tale about pumpkins, how we get pumpkins, and the relationship between friends. Too cute too miss!

KID KANDY:

Plant Some Pumpkins

1. Get some pumpkins seeds. Depending on the season, you may have to wait to plant, save seeds over the winter, or get busy right away with a packet of seeds from the garden store.

2. Find a nice large area in the garden or yard that gets plenty of sunshine.

3. Follow seed packet directions. Or, plant 3-5 seeds in a hole on top of a small mound of dirt. Gently water the dirt until it is soaked. Keep the pumpkin hill wet until it starts to sprout.

4. If the sprouts all grow, you may want to take out a few puny ones so the biggest ones can have lots of space.

5. Water your pumpkin plants regularly. Watch as the leaves grow, tendrils curl, flowers bloom, and baby pumpkins start developing.

6. In the fall, you will have your own pumpkins for decorating, carving, and eating! Save some seeds for next spring!

Fun Tip: When my pumpkins are green, I like to use a flat blade screwdriver type tool to scrape the names of my grandchildren in the skin. The scrapes will scar over and make cool designs as the pumpkin grows. ASK an adult to help!

My Autumn Book ~ Picture Book & KID KANDY

My Autumn Book
By Wong Herbert Yee
(Christy Ottaviano Books, Henry Holt and Company; 2015)

My Autumn Book simply and beautifully encapsulates the essence of fall, my absolute favorite season.

A young girl joins the joy as nature races towards winter. Is it really fall?

In gentle verse, the story of fall as seen through the eyes of a child is shown through her exploration and enchantment with the natural world.

My Autumn Book is a great book to read together with young children.

KID KANDY:

Make a Fall Picture Book

Just like the girl in the story, you can make your own fall picture journal.

1. Ask an adult to help you use a camera.

2. Go on a fall nature walk. Take pictures of the signs of fall you see.

3. Print the photos.

4. Tape or use a glue stick to attach fall photos to cardstock or construction paper.

5. Label your photos - spider, leaf, rain, tree, and so on. Decorate the pages around the photos.

6. Staple pages together on one side to make a book.

Now you can read your own fall book!

What is your favorite fall book? I'd love to hear.

Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin Pie ~ Picture Book & KID KANDY

Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin Pie
By Jill Esbaum
(Scholastic, Inc., 2009; National Geographic Kids)

Pumpkins are one of my favorite signs of fall. I adore pumpkins and cannot wait for the season of my dreams to roll around and please me with the smells, sights, and sounds of leaves, pumpkins, and cooler temps.

Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin Pie is a beautifully photographed nonfiction picture book about the pumpkin life cycle. The pumpkin life stages are shown through photos. Examples of ways we use pumpkins (carving, eating, baking, floating, etc.) are shown in full color. There is such a wide variety of seasonal sights featured in this book, I love reading it just for ideas that get me in the mood for pumpkin hunting.

Young readers will be inspired to hit the pumpkin patch and choose a favorite pumpkin - be it orange, yellow, green, white, smooth, lumpy, tiny, or enormous.

KID KANDY:

Grow Pumpkin Vocabulary

1. Visit a pumpkin patch or even just the grocery store fall display.

2. Check out the pumpkins and squash. There are so many wonderful and varied types of both.

3. Touch, smell, and compare the pumpkins.

4. Use all the words you can think of to describe the pumpkins - smooth, lined, warty, bumpy, striped, fat, flat, huge, petite, and so on. Make a long list.

5. Let your child choose a favorite pumpkin to take home.

6. Describe the pumpkin using vocabulary words. Make it exciting!

7. Happy pumpkin day!

I can't wait to go visit a pumpkin patch and find pumpkins to use for decorations.

A Tree for All Seasons ~ Picture Book & KID KANDY

A Tree for All Seasons
By Robin Bernard
(National Geographic Society, Scholastic Inc., 1999)

Some books you just keep. Forever. Because they are beautiful.

A Tree for All Seasons is one of those keeper books. That front yard on the cover is what I want my front yard to look like. The trees, the picket fence, the falling leaves, the children playing . . .

A Tree for All Seasons contains fabulous photos of nature in the fall. Winter, spring, and summer are also included in this book - all the seasons of a tree.

This nonfiction picture book will excite young readers to go outside and enjoy nature, no matter what the season.

KID KANDY:

Tree Journal

This is so much fun. I used to do this with my preschoolers. There was a huge, giant, enormous tree right next to our classroom. I marched them all out and took photos of each during the three seasons of school. We were not there during the summer, so I couldn't feature that season. But the other three seasons became nature books about our tree.

1. This project will take a year to complete, but it is so cool to look back and see the changes! It is worth the long wait.

2. Take a photo every season with your chosen tree (your yard, at school, at a park, or in a forest - just make sure to use the same tree each time).

3. I loved having the children sit in a wagon - one at a time - and smiling for the camera. The wagon also became a great carrier of leaves, seed pods, and pumpkins.

4. Print out each photo for the seasons. Display on the refrigerator or bulletin board. Add every new season. When you get photos from all 4 seasons, tape them to cardstock and make a book with them. Now you can check out the seasons and your tree all the time!

5. Compare that tree. What changes do you see between seasons? How did you change over one year? Which is your favorite season? Why?

Isn't nature grand? I'm so glad that God created such a wonderful world for us to enjoy.

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Fresh Fall Leaves ~ Picture Book & KID KANDY

Fresh Fall Leaves
By Betsy Franco
Illustrated by Shari Halpern
(Scholastic Inc., 1994)

Fresh fall leaves are some of my favorite signs of the season. The crunch, the smell, and the dancing are magical as leaves drift away from trees and carpet our ground.

Fresh Fall Leaves, the book, is a simple story about kids enjoying leaves in the autumn. Paper cut and paint illustrations lend themselves very well to this picture book and offer glimpses of fall beauty.

Readers will get great ideas of fun things to do while reading Fresh Fall Leaves. I can't wait to see my own leaves fall!

KID KANDY:

Make Syrup Leaves

This is one of my favorite leaf making activities! It's messy and sticky but so much fun.

Materials: cardstock, scissors, marker, food coloring, light corn syrup, wet wash cloths, wax paper

1. Draw big leaf shapes on cardstock. Cut them out.

2. Pour little puddles of corn syrup on a leaf. Help your littles squeeze a few drops of red, yellow, and blue food coloring on top of the corn syrup.

3. Use fingers to smear, mix, and spread the sticky paint all over the leaf. Repeat with other leaves, using wash cloths to wipe some of the sticky away.

4. Put leaves on wax paper to dry. This may take several days if the weather is damp.

5. Look at your beautiful, shiny, colorful fall leaves!

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