On Our Bookshelf - Autumn Books for Toddlers

Last year, I shared a list of autumn board books, many of which we are enjoying again this fall - be sure to check it out, especially if you are looking for books for a younger audience.  Today I wanted to share a few titles that are currently popular around here, some of which are new discoveries and others that one year old Harper was not so interested in and two year old Harper cannot get enough of. I am always on the hunt for great books to share with my little guy, be sure to let me know if you have and recommendations!

This Is Two

 Everyday he says at least one new word. He loves animals, especially if they are either very fierce or very cute. he also loves vehicles of all sorts, and desperately wants a bike. If he sees people dancing on a movie he will grab his stuffed monkey aka his dance partner and dance along with them. He dances and sings with such passion at his toddler music class that the teacher has jokingly said she is worried about her job because he is ready to teach the class. He is obsessed with wearing his boots, which is great, because I am pretty obsessed with his boots too. He has recently gotten very interested in helping in the kitchen and will cry when we have to move on from stirring or mashing so the cooking can be finished. he is also still a huge bookworm. He feels things intensely and has a strong will, he is also very sweet and loving and hardly wants to leave my side. he brings so much joy to Rob and I, we often marvel at how vibrant he is and how lucky we are to have him.

Hello September

We are so glad you are here! 

Apples and Pumpkins - fall toddler learning activity

I am so excited about the felt board activity that I made to go along with "Apples and Pumpkins" by Anne Rockwell. 

"Apples and Pumpkins" (or "App" and "Pun-Key", as Harper calls them) is a sweet story about a family going to a farm to apple pick and select a pumpkin from the patch .

I cut shapes to resemble one of the apple trees, apples, basket and the pumpkins in the book. I made pumpkin vines out of yarn and made tried to cut the leaves for those and the apple tree in something like the correct shapes. The tree, and all the leaves are stuck down with hot glue, but the apples and pumpkins are loose so they can be "picked" and stuffed in the basket (I left the top unglued, so it is basically a pocket). 

Harper and I played with the felt board as we read through the story, picking the apples from the felt tree, when the family in the story picks apples and doing the same for the pumpkins. Then we put the pumpkins back in the pumpkin patch and the apples back on the tree (sorting, identification) and as we did that I talked with him about how the apples are red and the pumpkins are orange (colors), the pumpkins are larger and the apples smaller (differences, size) and how the apples grow in a tree and the pumpkins grow on vines (horticulture/nature). I could easily see incorporating a counting activity as well.

Harper had such a good time with this, he even asked me to get it back out again a few minutes after we had initially put it away. By my standards that makes it great success, I cannot wait to try more activities like this with him!