Scarecrow preschool and kindergarten activities, games, lessons, and worksheets. Corn and pumpkins ripen along with other crops and scarecrows watch the fields to keep away hungry crows. During fall and Thanksgiving give thanks for the bountiful harvest and feast with your family and friends. These occurrences and occasions are marked with fun activities, games, rhymes, rhythms, literacy practices, and festive snacks in this bountiful theme. So jump in and learn how to build a scarecrow, practice sight words with a Scarecrow Rebus Story, enjoy an ice cream cone horn of plenty, sort plant parts, flop around, sing songs and more!
Scarecrows and harvest are a great theme to explore with your children during the fall and autumn season. Here are some lesson plan ideas:
In the Field (Working the field)
Scarecrows
Corn
Place different hats, flannel shirts, and pants inside the dramatic play area. Let children dress up as a scarecrow and stand on one leg.
Provide some brown play dough, some wheat stalks, some small scarecrow puppets, and some black beans for crows. Let children create a field with a scarecrows.
Provide some dried corn cobs and let children pretend to be crows picking and removing the corn kernels from the cob.
Discuss with children why they think a farmer puts scarecrows in their fields. Ask children to think of other ways the farmer could scare the crows away from the crop.
Discuss with children the type of clothing scarecrows wear. Say the poem below together and pretend to wear the different clothes. Write the poem on sentence strips and place picture of the different clothes at the end. Read together:
Scarecrow Clothes
by Jolanda Garcia, KidsSoup Inc.
My scarecrow has a hat.
My scarecrow waves like that.
My scarecrow has a shirt.
My scarecrow has a skirt.
My scarecrow has pants.
My scarecrow loves the plants.
Let children follow the instructions to dress their scarecrow.
Choose one child to be the scarecrow standing on one leg in the middle of the circle. Play some music and let children pass a dried corn on the cob around the circle. When the music stops, the child with corn (crow) runs off with the corn around the circle. The scarecrow tries to catch him/her before he/she gets back to her/his seat. Choose another scarecrow.
Read the book How to Build a Scarecrow to children. Discuss the different steps and let children place the pictures in order. Make a scarecrow craft.
Scarecrow, Scarecrow
by Jolanda Garcia, KidsSoup Inc.
Scarecrow, Scarecrow, turn around
Scarecrow, Scarecrow, look at the ground
Scarecrow, Scarecrow, raise your arms high
Scarecrow, Scarecrow, wink with one eye
Scarecrow, Scarecrow, bend your knees
Scarecrow, Scarecrow, flap in the breeze
Scarecrow, Scarecrow, wave and sway
Scarecrow, Scarecrow, keep those crows away
Once corn is fully dried on the cob, allow children to use them to make corn cob prints.
Place some popcorn kernels in a small clear bowl. Let children estimate how many kernels are in the bowl. Write their answers on a piece of paper. Empty bowl and count kernels together. Compare the result with their number.
Place a large amount of corn kernels in a small container. Use the crow cards to let children count 10 corn kernels and place on the boards.
Place popcorn or popcorn kennels in a small bowl. Let children use tweezers to pretend to be crows picking corn. Let them place the corn on the crow printout.
Show children a picture of a crow. Write the word "crow" on the board and underline the letters "cr." Explain that the word "crow" begins with the /cr/ sound. The sound is made with the letters "c" and "r." Ask children if they know of any other words that begin with the same sound. Write the words on the board.
Print and place crow printables on the floor. Use five bean bags to toss on the crows to scare them away. Place the crows in order from largest to smallest.
Scarecrow and Fall Coloring Page
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Happy Scarecrow Coloring Page
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Scarecrow Chant
Original Author Unknown
Scarecrow, scarecrow,
How scary can you be?
You scared away the crows,
But you can't scare me!
No, you can't scare me!
Floppy Scarecrow
Original Author Unknown
The floppy, floppy scarecrow
Guards his field all day.
He waves his floppy, floppy arms
To scare the crows away.
The floppy, floppy scarecrow
Guards his field all day.
He waves his floppy, floppy legs
To scare the crows away.
The floppy, floppy scarecrow
Guards his field all day.
He waves his floppy, floppy head
To scare the crows away.
The floppy, floppy scarecrow
Guards his field all day.
He waves his floppy, floppy hands
To scare the crows away.