Another idea for an experience book:

You’ll probably need to use a binder because this will be a big book.

You can find patterns for anything on the internet.

ABCs of FALL

a—apples or acorns: “A is for apples.”

1. Sponge paint apple shape or glue acorns.

2. Eat some apples or applesauce. You could even make some applesauce as part of this activity. Just peel and dice apples, put in a pan with a small bit of water and cook until apple pieces are soft. Mash with potato masher. Add a small bit of honey if desired.

3. Bring in red, yellow and green apples and taste each one and make apple prints with each one using red paint for the red apples, green for the green apples, etc. Put the pages together in a book.

b—bats: “B is for bat.”

1. Make a bat. Use two black or dark brown hand prints (heels of hands together on paper) for the wings. Then glue oval shape for body (between or on top of the overlapping hand prints). Add a circle on top of the oval for a head and add wiggly eyes. Or a cut out felt bat would make it fuzzy like a bat.

OR basket:

  1. Weave paper or yarn to make a flat basket to glue on paper. Add a handle.
  2. Play a game prior to making your paper or yarn basket using a real basket to collect items.

c—candy corn : “C is for candy corn.”

1. Eat candy corn!

2. Use textured paper and/or colored paper to make the three parts of the candy corn and glue on paper.

OR corn :

  1. glue re
  2. Glue kernels of dried corn or popcorn on a corn shape to glue on paper.

d—dressing up: “D is for dressing up.”

1. Glue pieces of a costume on paper. Let the child pick what kind of costume he/she would like.

2. Draw a simple face made up like the child’s costume face.

e—eat: “E is for eating Halloween treats.”

1. Eat some yummy Halloween snacks and glue the wrappers on the paper.

f—feather: “F is for feather.”

1. Glue feather.

OR football: Cut a football shape from fun foam, use puff paint to make the laces and glue shape on paper. Toss a football around to see how it feels.

OR feast, friend, food

g—ghost: “G is for ghost.”

1. Make a ghost out of tissue paper and glue on page for book.

2. Use a sponge to make a ghost shape and stamp paint ghosts on paper. Add eyes when dry with black paint and a q-tip.

h—hay: “H is for hay.”

1. Glue hay on paper.

i—Indians: “I is for Indian.”

1. Make Indian head bands (one to wear and one to glue on paper for book.) Or take a picture of the child with the headband on and glue the picture in the book.

j—jack-o-lantern: “J is for jack-o-lantern.”

1. Paint a pumpkin shape and add features to make a jack-o-lantern. I like to use this poem with this activity and then recite it every time you look at the book:

Pumpkin, pumpkin

Round and fat

Turn into a jack-o-lantern

Just like that! (we clap when we say THAT)

k—kickball: “K is for kickball.”

1. Cut a round ball out of fun foam and add puff paint dots to make it sort of like a kickball. Glue on paper

OR Kit Kat (the candy bar):

  1. Eat a small Kit Kat and glue the wrapper on paper.

l—leaves: “L is for leaves.”

1. Marble paint on leaf shapes. Glue them on paper.

2. Go outside and collect leaves that have fallen out of the trees. Glue on paper.

m—mask: “M is for mask.”

1. Make two small masks (like the kind that just cover the eyes). Glue one on a paper for the book and let your student take the other one home.

OR moon:

  1. Cut a moon shape (crescent or round) out of textured paper. Glue on paper .

OR monster:

  1. Find a picture of a monster or make a monster to glue on paper.

OR mums:

  1. Glue silk mums on paper after you experience some real mums.
  2. If you work with high school aged students, make a homecoming mum. If it’s a girl, then she can wear it, if it’s a boy, then he can give it to a girl or mom or a favorite teacher.

n—nuts: “N is for nuts.”

1. Bring in several nuts (almonds, pecans, walnuts) and a nut cracker. Crack the nuts and eat the nut meat. Save the shells and glue the shells on paper.

o—owl: “O is for owl.”

1. Find a pattern of an owl and cut it out. Glue it to the paper and add soft feathers to the body.

2. Listen to the sound an owl makes.

p—pumpkin pudding: “P is for pumpkin pudding.”

1. Make pumpkin pudding:

1 box instant vanilla pudding

2 cups milk

1-1/2 cups canned pumpkin

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

½ cup brown sugar

Mix the pudding (notice the color and texture of the dry pudding mix) with the milk. The mix changes colors! Stir until sort of thick. Add the pumpkin after you taste the plain pumpkin (ick.). Notice how it changes colors again! Smell and taste the spice and sugar and add them to the mixture. Stir until well mixed. Put in a bowl and ENJOY! Mmmmmm…. Here’s a poem for this activity, too.

Pumpkin pudding tastes so good.

With sugar, spices and milk.

Stir and stir with a spoon of wood

Until it feels like silk. Mmmmmmm

  1. Save the pudding mix box, inner bag, pumpkin wrapper to glue on paper with the poem. Glue some of the spices on the page, too!

OR popcorn:

  1. Spread a big, clean sheet out on the floor or table. Put a hot air popcorn machine popper in the middle of the sheet. Take the top OFF of the popper. Let the popcorn pop and watch it shoot out of the popper! Be careful to NOT touch the kernels that don’t pop…they might be very hot. Gather up the popped popcorn to eat and glue on paper.
  2. Or, cut out popcorn shapes and glue on paper.

OR pilgrims:

  1. Make pilgrim hats to wear. Take a picture of student in hat and glue the picture in the book.

OR pumpkins:

  1. Carve a pumpkin.
  2. Save the seeds and roast them to eat. Let some just get really dry.
  3. Cut out a pumpkin shape and glue the dry seeds in the middle.

q—quilt: “Q is for quilt.” (a nice warm quilt to snuggle under when it gets colder)

1. Use scraps of fabric and cut them into equal sized squares. Glue on paper to look like a quilt.

2. Wrap up in a warm quilt and feel the different textures.

r—rake: “R is for rake.”

1. Practice raking leaves outside with a real rake.

2. Use a craft stick and toothpicks (or pieces of coffee stirrers) and glue on paper to represent a rake… unless you can find a small wood rake at a craft store. Then just glue that one on the paper. Just remember, the representations don’t HAVE to be perfect or exact. Just a “picture” to help the child remember what has happened in the past.

s—spider: “S is for spider.”

1. Make a spider out of a large pompom and pipe cleaners and glue on paper.

OR scarescrow:

  1. Make a large scarecrow as a class all together to display throughout the fall season.
  2. Make smaller scarecrows to glue on paper for book.

t—turkey: “T is for turkey.”

1. Trace around the student’s hand on brown paper. Cut out and glue on page for book. Add some colored feathers to the fingers for the feathers.

2. Paint the student’s thumb red, each finger a different, bright color and the palm of the hand brown. Make hand print on page for book. Add an eye on the thumb. You can also glue feathers in between the fingers for texture.

3. Here’s my favorite poem for turkeys:

The turkey is a funny bird

His head goes wobble, wobble

And all he says is just one word

And that is GOBBLE, GOBBLE!!!!

u—ugly: “U is for ugly.” (like ugly monsters at Halloween)

1. Make an ugly picture. It can be a monster or just something ugly.

v—vase: “V is for vase.”

1. Make a vase out of textured paper and glue on page for book. Add some mums or pansies at the top for a fall flower arrangement in a vase.

OR vampire:

  1. This might be popular for the teen crowd.

OR vanilla:

  1. Smell and taste vanilla. Make vanilla pudding or eat vanilla wafers.
  2. Glue the label of the vanilla on the page for the book or part of the vanilla wafer box.

OR V: When birds “migrate” to the south for the winter, they fly in a V.

  1. Make small birds in a V formation on the page for the book.

w—witch: “W is for witch.”

1. Make a black pointed hat and glue on paper.

OR web:

  1. Buy spider webs at the store and spread over the page and glue on. Use the spider webs in the classroom, too.

x—x: “X marks the spot.:

1. Make a big red X on the paper.

y—yellow: “Y is for yellow.” (yellow is a fall color)

1. Paint the page for the book yellow.

2. Make a yellow collage with pipe cleaners, tissue paper, construction paper, milk jug lids, pompoms, feathers, and anything else yellow you can find.

z—zipper: “Z is for the zipper on our jackets we wear in the fall.”

1. Buy a small zipper and glue it on the page carefully. If you just get the glue on the fabric part of the zipper, then the actual zipper will still work.

2. Zip the zipper UP and then DOWN.