Pumpkins, leaves, and rain… oh, my!

Fall is certainly upon us!

Looking to put together some fall fun for your community’s youngest residents? Plan an exciting story time and craft on a very small budget. Check out these great crafts, books, and rhymes for fall!

Songs

Everyone loves these simple chants and songs. Sing along with the kids and get them moving!

**TIP** Use simple props like scarves or finger puppets, or just use your hands and arms to lead the children in song.

Here are some lovely librarians singing the classic fall favorite: the Five Little Pumpkins song.

Here’s another easy to follow along Pumpkin chant.

This song uses some small scarves to highlight the changing seasons, and sometimes unpredictable weather!

This song even incorporates sign language into the hand motions to help children become more literate in using hand signs to communicate!

Big thank you to Dana and Lindsey. They are the children’s librarian duo behind the Jbrary site where I found these songs. It’s packed full of fantastic resources!

Books

Take advantage of your local library to hunt down the perfect fall reads with everyone’s favorite: Pumpkins!

Here are some of our top titles collected by a former children’s librarian. You can check out her long list of fall-themed children’s books over on Rebecca’s blog - Sturdy for Common Things.

• Mystery Vine: A Pumpkin Surprise by Cathryn Falwell
• Sophie’s Squash by Pat Zietlow Miller, illustrated by Anne Wilsdorf
• Pumpkin Circle: The Story of a Garden by George Levenson, photographs by Shmuel Thaler
• Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin Pie by Jill Esbaum
• It’s Pumpkin Time! by Zoe Hall, illustrated by Shari Halpern

Crafts

You don’t have to plan a craft that breaks the bank! Here are three simple crafts that are loads of fun and easy for little hands to do!

How easy and fun are these “pumpkin” paint stamps? All you need is a bag of apples, orange poster paint, and paper!

Image source: Frugal Mom Eh!

No two toothy pumpkin grins will be the same with this paste-together jack-o-lanterns project.

Image source. Krokotak

Do you have rocks somewhere in your community? With some orange paint and sharpies, you can turn them into fun fall decorations.

Image source: Easy Peasy and Fun

You can also hold a pumpkin coloring contest this pumpkin printable available from Art with Jenny K.

No need for your average orange pumpkins here! Get out all the paints, markers, crayons, and pencils to let the kids’ abstract creativity shine through!

Image source: Art with Jenny K.

With all these ideas and resources you’ll be able to create a fun-packed pumpkin-themed fall storytime and craft for your community’s youngest residents!

Title Image source: Pixabay