We are currently at the end of our “Green Giants” session – the last one of 2009, and are having fun learning about trees – especially in this season as the trees are slowing starting to change color at Spring Lake. It’s a beautiful time of year at the lake.

Making autumn leaf prints!

While the weather is turning colder and rain is imminent, it is nevertheless still a good time to get outdoors with your children. The fall colors can be spectacular and my children have had some of the most fun splashing through puddles, finding earthworms after a rain, and watching flocks of Canada Geese migrate south this time of year. There are so many fun activities you can do with colorful autumn leaves (see the nature activity on the next page for one idea).

Another special event taking place right now in nature is the return of thousands of Monarch butterflies to the Monterey Bay area where they will spend the winter. It is a bit far but if you’re in the area, it is well worth checking out one of the Monarch’s resting spots, like the Monarch Grove at Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz. We just visited at the end of October and it was spectacular to see hundreds of Monarch butterflies fluttering about and hanging from the trees. Public tours are offered on weekends in November at 11:00am and 2:00pm and no reservations are necessary.

Trying to spot Monarch Butterflies

Thanks, and hope to see you outdoors!

Stephanie Derammelaere

Colorful autumn leaves make perfect preschool craft materials – you can paint or color them, make leaf prints, laminate a special selection for a placemat (or use contact paper), decorate the house with them, make leaf crowns, create leaf mobiles, make leaf rubbings – the list goes on and on!

For this month’s nature activity we chose to make butterflies with some autumn leaves. First, I cut out a body of a butterfly out of cardboard (you could use construction paper too) and the children decorated them.

Next, we colored a “background scene” on a piece of construction paper (clouds, trees, flowers….wherever a butterfly might be likely to be found).

Then we found two matching leaves per butterfly, taped them to the back of the body, and cut off the stems and taped them to the top of the head for the antennae.

This month’s eco-tip is another way to teach your children to reuse. Instead of throwing away those old, broken crayons, keep them to make new fun-shaped crayons!

First, take off all paper around the crayons and separate by color (you could also mix colors but might end up with a lot of brown crayons!). Next, put them in an oven-proof container and melt them in a 200 degree oven for about ten minutes. Once they’ve all melted, pour the melted wax into little molds like those used for making candy, soaps, or candles (you can find these at craft or cooking supply stores). Or, you can just use a muffin tin.

Next, let them set (or freeze them for faster hardening), pop out of the mold, and color with your new, fun crayons! Your children will learn to make something new with what they already have instead of just throwing it away.

Another idea for reusing broken crayons is to peel the paper off of them and keep them for making rubbings. I always keep a bag of peeled, broken crayons around in case my children want to make leaf rubbings, bark rubbings, etc.