Sweet Owl Cookies
Hoo loves cookies? I do, that’s hoo! What you need: - 3/4 cups butter, softened - 1 cups sugar - 2 eggs - ½ teaspoon vanilla - 2 ½ cups flour - 1 teaspoons baking powder - ½ teaspoon salt - Chocolate chips - Almonds - Bottle cap, cleaned - Small fork - An adult assistant to help you with this recipe What you do: 1. Preheat oven to 400°. 2. Mix butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. 3. In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. 4. Add flour mixture to butter mixture and mix to form a ball. 5. Cover and refrigerate dough for at least an hour. 6. On a floured surface, roll out dough to about ½” thickness. 7. Using a small glass or cup as a cookie as a cookie cutter, cut cookies out in circle shapes. 8. Set your circles on an ungreased baking sheet about 1” apart. 9. Using leftover dough, form two small balls for each cookie and press them into the top half of one of your larger circles. These are your owls’ eyes. 10. Press a chocolate chip into the centre of … Read more
Clay Owl Craft
This craft is so easy you’d be wise to make a few. What you need: - Sculpting clay - Marker cap What you do: 1. Roll out clay to about ¼” thickness and cut out a circle using a drinking glass as a cookie cutter. 2. Use the cap of a marker to lightly press overlapping semi-circles into the front of the circle to form the breast feathers of your owl. 3. Fold in the two sides of your circle to create the wings. 4. Fold down the top of your circle to form the head and squeeze the middle of the flap slightly to make a beak shape. 5. Mold the ears into points. 6. Make two eyes with the top of the marker. 7. If you’re using baking clay, have an adult assistant help you bake it according to instructions and then paint your creation. These little owls are a real hoot!
Molly and Millie Fly a Kite
Hey! It’s me, Molly. I just had the most fun day ever with my little sister, Millie. Today I took her to the park with her new kite. It was a really windy day so I knew it would be perfect. I told Millie to hang on to the spool of string and I ran and ran with the kite until the wind caught it. It flew so high! At first Millie was a bit scared she was going to let go of the spool but I ran back and helped her hold it. As she watched the kite dance and bob around she giggled and giggled! She thought it was so much fun. Suddenly, though, the wind changed and all of a sudden the kite started diving down. I tried to run in a different direction to catch the wind again, but it was too late – the kite plunged right into a tree. We ran over to the tree to get the kite, but it was totally stuck. Millie was so upset! I didn’t really know what to do. I tried tugging at it but it was really wedged … Read more
Leaf-Shaped Sandwiches
You can use pretty much any filling you like to make these autumn sandwiches. What you need: - Bread – a variety of whole wheat, white and rye bread makes for a more ‘colorful’ collection of leaves. - Your favorite sandwich fillings: cheese, ham, peanut butter & jam (if you’re not taking them to school), tuna, egg - Leaf shaped cookie cutters What you do: 1. Make your sandwich. 2. Cut out leaf shapes. 3. Eat.
Indian Corn Craft
What you need: - Toilet roll - Yellow tissue paper - Yellow or orange ribbon - Orange, black, brown, yellow and red paint - Paintbrush (or finger!) - Glue What you do: 1. Using a paintbrush or your finger, randomly dab spots of paint all over the toilet roll. Allow to dry. 2. Wrap a piece of tissue paper around toilet roll, leaving it partially open on one side to expose ‘corn.’ Make sure there is plenty of excess paper at one end. 3. Glue paper in place near the end of the toilet roll where there is excess paper. 4. Tie a ribbon around the excess paper, just below the toilet roll. You can make a bunch of corn by tying several corn cobs together. This craft makes a great decoration for your front door.
Laurabeard’s Favorite Fall Activity
This is my report on my favorite fall activity this year. Last weekend we organized a trip out to the country because Sparky’s Uncle Arte was going to have a bonfire. Arte helps out at his friend’s farm and he asked us to come along and help clean up. We all put on some old clothes and when we got there we helped Arte collect all the loose leaves, and gather twigs and branches lying around in the fields. We made a circle of rocks in an open space and then threw all the yard waste into the middle. Arte told us all to stand back and then he lit the fire. It was so big!!! We had collected so many dried leaves and twigs that it just started crackling right away and next thing the flames were leaping up to the sky. We kept on working, collecting more and more twigs and leaves and throwing them on, and then when we had picked up most of the yard waste, Arte brought out some hot dogs for us to roast over the fire. Mmm! I’ve never had hot dogs cooked over a fire … Read more
Sweet Acorns
These sweet ‘nuts’ are perfect for a fall themed party. And guess what? No nuts! What you need: - Plain donut holes - Chocolate or butterscotch sauce - Pretzels - Toffee bits What you do: Pour sauce into a small bowl. Pour toffee bits into another. Dip one half of a donut hole into sauce. Let excess sauce run off into bowl. Roll the sauce covered half of the donut hole in toffee bits. Poke a pretzel into the top. This treat is as decadently delicious to eat as it is easy to make!
Fall Leaf Butterflies
What you need: - Two pipe cleaners, pink or pink plus one other color - Two or four fall leaves, not too crumbly - Glue gun - An adult assistant to help you with this craft What you do: Place the two pipe cleaners alongside each other, overlapping so that there is about 2″ of spare pipe cleaner at each end. Bend the two pipe cleaners at the middle and twist together to form your butterfly’s body. With the spare ends, form antennae. Using a glue gun, run a bead of glue along the bottom of the butterfly body and affix one leaf. Repeat with second leaf overlapping first leaf. Why not suspend your new friend from the ceiling where you can see it every day?
Autumn Pencil Case
What you need: A piece of felt in red or orange, red, orange, yellow, green and brown felt scraps, yarn, darning needle, two large beads. What you do: Fold the piece of felt in half (hamburger fold). Thread the darning needle with your yarn. Tie a not at the end. Sew both sides of the felt to make a bag. Around the top of your bag, do a simple, big stitch. When you’ve got all around the top, take the needle off the yarn and tie a big bead onto either end of the yarn. You can pull the yarn to close the bag (this is how a drawstring works). If you want a larger bag, just use two pieces of felt and sew them together – use the same method for the drawstring part. Cut out leaf shapes from each of the felt scraps. Attach felt leaves with fabric glue.
A Leafy Afternoon
Sparky here, dudes! We had an epic afternoon at school! We got to spend the whole afternoon outdoors. Ms. Cowoline gave us a challenge. We had to go out and find as many different types of leaves in as many different colors as we could. When we came back we would have a competition to see who found the widest variety of leaves, who found the biggest leaf, who found the brightest red, etc., etc. – you get the idea, right? So I went exploring in Kinzville Park. I was determined the win with the biggest leaf. I searched and searched and searched. There was one leaf that was bigger than my hand. That WAS pretty big, but not big enough. Then I found one as big as my foot! Big – but I was sure I could do better. Just as I heard Ms. Cowoline blow her whistle letting us know it was time to line up back at the school, I saw the most gigantic golden maple leaf I had ever seen, hanging from a high branch. I had to have it. I jumped up trying to reach it, but it was just too high. Then I … Read more
