November themes & activities

[Fun&care]

I would love to know what you all have planned for November as far as themes and arts and crafts are concerned....Septemb er and October were easy with all the fall/ halloween stuff going on, and we do Christmas stuff for all of December, but I have no clue what to do with the kiddos for November!

I would love some ideas!

Thanks ladies!

[monkeymama]

November is colors and shapes and the a little Remembrance Day

[playfelt]

I do apples, farm, harvest in Sept/Oct and then Halloween so I can save the fall leaves, squirrels and acorns, getting ready for winter for November. I just can't bring myself to talk about red leaves falling down when all we see are green leaves and were playing outside in our tshirts.

Climate seems to be changing and also with toddlers they need to see things for it to make sense. Now that we are seeing the leaves turn colours and fall off and the squirrels getting really busy - saw my first geese fly over a couple days ago too - yuk - we can do activities based on what we are seeing.

November is a good month to do fairy tales and stories that take place in the forest so you talk a lot about trees, the animals that live in the forest and that leads you into hibernation and animals getting ready for winter, then tell a story of a family going into the forest to choose a tree for Christmas and bringing it home decorating and transition into Christmas.

[2cuteboys]

I was wondering the same thing! It seems a bit early to start with a winter theme, I think I might bridge the gap with a forest theme as playfelt suggested.

We're supposed to have full on snow in the next 2 weeks though so I don't have to wait for long to start with winter !

[bright sparks]

In November I typically don't do anything specific other than a remembrance day craft. For me it's the calm before the storm. December is so busy and so is September with fall activities and thanksgiving that I like to slow things down a little for a few weeks. All I can think about right now is planning my Xmas Party and activities. I have to think outside the box a little bit this year as I only have one child able to independently craft my others are too young so I will be switching up crafts for sensory and malleable play.

I move in my new playroom on Monday, apparently lol, so the kids will not need much in the way of entertaining with the new set up and a few new things I have got in store for them, so November will be covered with the novelty of the new space seeing us into December. Look out for Before and After pictures in the next week or two.

[Daisy123]

Hibernation and migration. We talk about animals, do related crafts and we walk in the woods to see the changes around us as everything gets ready for winter.

[Fun&care]

Hibernation and migration are great ideas...makes perfect sense but I had never thought of it. So what specific crafts or activities do you do that relate to hibernation and migration? I should be able to find books at the library. What about songs? Are there any for this topic?

Thanks ladies!

[torontokids]

We have been doing the fall, harvest, thanksgiving, Halloween thing for the last while. Next week we are doing super heroes! The kids gave me ideas of themes they would like to see and this was one of them. I bought capes from Dollar Tree and the kids are going to decorate them themselves, make masks, we'll talk about everyday heroes e.g firefighters, cops, moms, dads etc. I haven't started to look on pinterest yet but I am sure there will be tons of stuff we can do.

[playfelt]

Christmas starts for me on US thanksgiving. We always used to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Kids loved the balloons and naming the characters they saw and it always ended with Santa Claus so the perfect lead in. This would be a Thursday so Friday is one of those sort out days and change out some decorations such as taking down the scarecrow and leaves stickees on the window and putting up our Santa set.

I don't do anything winter (mitts, hats, snowmen, snowflakes) in December as January is a long month otherwise. I stick to Christmas stuff, elves, ornaments, etc. Really there are only 3 weeks to fill in when you figure most are off the week of Christmas and even if they aren't the kids need loads of down time and so do you.

[5 Little Monkeys]

I use November to prep for December. I will introduce a few winter themed stuff and Remembrance day and just do our normal art activities that we do all year.