Too Many Pumpkins

Too Many Pumpkins, by Linda White and Megan Lloyd, is my favorite pumpkin book. I truly enjoy looking for it when we pull down the Halloween box each year at home.  I got my copy through a book club order because it was the 99 cent book of the month. How could I lose, right? Anyway, the art in this book is just fabulous. The little details are great, especially because the book has a lot of words for a picture book.

In the book, Rebecca Estelle (and her cat Esmeralda) hate pumpkins.  Through a pumpkin truck accident they end up with more pumpkins than they know what to do with and they come up with a creative, kind, and generous way to get rid of them all.

Besides the enjoyable art I love that the book goes through a whole year and the cycles of the seasons as though they were nothing special.  Nothing screams, “fall is when we harvest!” at you, like so many other books do.  I love that the protagonist is an older woman who has a history that informs her current preferences.  I love that several of the pages end with, “until…” implying that something new might happen and letting you guess what it might be before you turn the page.

This is not a book for very young children.  The main problem is that the very first page has a lot of words and very little art other than the page border and a small drawing.  3-year-olds who love to read may be able to sit for it.  I’d say it’s more for 4s and 5s. 

This year, my own kids (who are 6 and 8) informed me that I didn’t need to read it to them when we pulled it out of the Halloween box.  They told me they could read it themselves (which they can), which deprived me of my snuggle time with them and my enjoyment of the book.  In desperation I read it to the Kindergarten class at my school.  I figured only a few would listen, but most of the class sat and paid attention.  They loved the page with all the carved pumpkins.  At least someone wants to hear about Too Many Pumpkins!

Chime Wall

Here is a picture of our fabulous, all-weather chime wall. This sucker is expensive but was purchased because of a grant we got. Our music teacher spent some quality personal time writing grant applications and so we are very, very lucky!

The kids love the chime wall. We had it inside our large motor room for awhile, but it was pretty loud in there. We also had to modify the mallets a bit so they couldn’t be inserted in the chimes, necessitating some roto-rooter action by our custodian (you’d think the company would have thought of that).

We put it outside at the start of alumni camp and there it will stay pretty much permanently. It’s so nice to hear. The kids like to experiment with wiggling the chimes in their pockets, like the boy in the photo. Some of them are convinced that they can get the chimes out.

In the past we've used various metal things attached to the fence for music, and I'm assuming we'll continue to do that. If I ever get a picture, I'll post it. Random metal items and then sticks to bang them with is always a good idea for outside. Kid-made music beats even the nicest thing played on the boom box.

Taking Things Outside

As I’ve said, we like to go outside whenever possible.  We sometimes leave our classroom door open so kids can wander in and out to the play yard at will.  When we do that we move some of our usual indoor things outside.

Here is a crayon setup from earlier in the year.  With the twos I often secure paper down so they don’t have to worry about it moving while they work with things that have some resistance, like crayons.  As they get better at it I remove the tape or whatever I’m using to secure the paper down.  This is a picture of a little table that can be flipped over to make a seesaw.  I’ve taped the paper down.  There are actually several layers of paper so I can pull them off as needed without taping down more paper while children are waiting.  At the beginning of the year the children aren’t as attached to the product as they become over the course of the year, so multiple children worked on this piece before someone was ready for a fresh piece of paper.

The picture on the right is a nice musical instrument the music teacher brought outside.  It’s closely related to the xylophone, but darn it all if I can’t remember what its true name is.  Anyway, this is not an outdoor instrument.  It has to be pulled back inside at the end of the day.  The children are used to seeing it in our gross motor room, so having it outside is a real treat.  I took this picture before school started.  I don’t think it sat idle for more than a few minutes all morning. 

In addition to moving things like this outside, we also try to have regular classroom things outside.  In the toddler yard we added a small play kitchen.  For the older children there are various large building toys.  We bring books outside and leave them on blankets or benches.  Obviously, our music teacher comes outside and brings all her cart full of instruments with her.  All of this is in addition to our permanent outdoor offerings, like sand and water (and associated toys), and play structures.  We try very hard to make the outdoors a true extension of our indoor classrooms.

What I want you to notice is that we aren’t afraid to take our indoors out whenever possible.  There are some things that don’t go outside, like our classroom shopping cart, because we’ve learned from painful experience that some of those things just can’t endure the use they’ll get outside.  But we push the limits wherever possible and accept that some things may get used up.

How to Make Easy Felt/Flannel Board Pieces

I like using a felt board to tell stories, particularly with 3s and up. Actually, mine's a flannel board because I couldn't find large enough felt. The ones at school are made of some material I don't recognize. But it's all the same thing.

Unfortunately, I have trouble finding good pieces for the board. Sure, I can cut out geometric shapes to let the kids explore, but we don't have a library of felt board pieces for storytelling where I work. So I have to purchase or make anything I want to use. When I priced some sets I was a little shocked. A few years ago I made some pieces out of laminated paper backed with hook and loop tape. It worked, but I didn't think hard enough about storage and some of the pieces got lost before their second outing. I'm not very artistic or crafty, so making more pieces seemed too daunting and I dropped it. Plus, I'm a little scared of the school's laminator!

Recently, I decided to try again. In the book 2'S Experience: Felt Board Fun (2's Experience Series) I found a reference to something called Pellon. It turns out that this is a brand name for interfacing, which is used in sewing and crafting. It also turns out that you can buy versions of interfacing that are thin enough to use for tracing line art AND it sticks to felt. It's not terribly sturdy stuff, but I wanted to make pieces for me, not for the kids.

Using the art in the felt board book, I started work on pieces for Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? After copying the art (a really important step since my ink went straight through the interfacing onto my copy) I traced it with permanent markers. Using fabric markers I colored in the pieces, stuck them in the drier to set the fabric marker color, and cut them out. Almost instant pieces!

Are they professional quality works of art? No, not really. But they work. And they're cheap. They didn't take all that long to make, which is key for me. Next on my list of things to try is to make some slightly sturdier pieces (something I think will involve fusible interfacing) and a felt board with storage. I've seen references to being able to print from a printer directly on interfacing, but I was unable to find out specifically what kind of interfacing other than the expensive stuff in small packages sold for that purpose. If I have any luck I'll let you know!

Do you want some printable instructions for making these felt board pieces? I thought you would. I've put the instructions, complete with photos for each step, here at Instructables. I highly recommend the Instructables site for all kinds of ideas. It's the first time I've written an Instructable, so let me know what you think.