Julia Donaldson Archives -Imaginations Running Wild-

Fall is here and it’s time to read some scarecrow stories and make a craft. We made a scarecrow paper bag puppet out of supplies that we had at home and I think it turned out pretty cute!

Scarecrow Books

1. The Scarecrows’ Wedding by Julia Donaldson —

My son loves Julia Donaldson’s books! This is a cute, rhyming story about 2 scarecrows, Harry and Betty, who fall in love and plan their dream wedding. They set out in search of everything they need for their wedding. Harry and Betty find that they have to temporarily separate in order to get all of the decorations they need. The farmer notices that Harry is missing, and adds a new scarecrow. The new scarecrow tries to come between the happy couple. He smokes a cigar (Betty says “don’t you know that’s bad for you?”) and causes a fire. Yikes! Harry returns to save the day! They have their dream wedding with all of their friends 🙂

2. Otis and the Scarecrow by Loren Long —

Otis the tractor has several wonderful stories. In this fall-themed one, the farmer introduces a new scarecrow to the farm. Everyone is excited to meet the scarecrow, but its frown drives them all away. The scarecrow stands silently scowling in the field, day after day. Otis worries about the scarecrow being friendless and decides to befriend him. During a game of who can sit silently the longest, Otis decides to sit quietly by the scarecrow. The farm animals join him and they all stay quietly together until the puppy gets the wiggles! Otis thinks he might have seen the scarecrow smile just a little bit to be surrounded by friends.

3. The Scarecrow’s Hat by Ken Brown —

In this circular story, chicken wants scarecrow’s hat. With some great problem solving skills and a gift for bartering, she goes around the farm trading things with all of the animals until she gets something to trade scarecrow for the hat. The reader finally learns why chicken wants the hat so badly — for a nest!

4. The Scarecrow by Beth Ferry —

I was desperate for some scarecrow stories to read with my preschooler and I saw this and bought it without really checking it out first. I am so happy I bought this book! This is a truly lovely story about seeing the good in others. The scarecrow and the crow become best friends. They see each other through the ups and downs of life, side-by-side. Get ready for compassionate feelings to bubble up and smiles to form as you read this one!

5. There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves by Lucille Colandro —

The silly old lady is back in this fall-themed story. She goes on a stomach-filling journey, gobbling up fall items (a pumpkin, a rope, and some leaves). Preschoolers will laugh away at all of the silliness going on in this book! What does she make with all of the stuff? Do you think its a scarecrow?

6. The Lonely Scarecrow by Tim Preston —

This book is an amazing tactile experience. The pages have ridges and shapes to touch and feel that compliment the lovely pictures. This is a beautiful story that teaches readers that just because something looks scary/different/unpleasant, doesn’t mean that it is. The animals are all afraid of the mean looking scarecrow, leaving it all alone. How can the scarecrow convince them that it wants to be friends? When the snow comes and falls over the scarecrow, it turns it into a friendly looking snowman. The animals flock to the snowman and the scarecrow finally has friends. Will the new friends remain after the snow melts? Check this one out from your library to find out.

Looking for more fall-themed stories? Check out my list of FALL BOOKS and APPLE-THEMED activities.

Scarecrow Puppet Craft

scarecrow craft — Scarecrow Paper Bag Puppet

Make a fun scarecrow paper bag puppet with only a few supplies:

1 paper bag (lunch size)

construction paper

scissors

glue stick

googly eyes

a marker

My son picked out all of the colors for his scarecrow: greet hat, brown face, blue shirt, pink cheeks, blue patch, and yellow straw.

I cut out the shirt, face, cheeks, patch, and hat for him. He cut the yellow straw pieces.

First, my son glued the blue shirt onto the bag. Next he glued the face onto the flap of the bag. He glued the straw to the underside of his hat before gluing the hat onto the scarecrow’s head. Next, we flipped the puppet over and my kiddo glued straw pieces to the back of the sleeves. This made it look like straw was poking out the shirt.

After gluing all of the pieces onto the paper bag, my son picked really big googly eyes for his puppet. He stuck them on the scarecrow’s face, slightly under the straw. He drew on a great, big smile with a green marker for his finishing touch.

Alphabet Worksheet

Make your way through this straw bale maze to get to the scarecrow at the end. Color the bales in alphabetical order to find your way out.

Click HERE to download this free PDF version of the Alphabet Straw Bale Maze for your preschooler to practice their alphabetical order skills.

Fall I Spy

If you haven’t already tried this fall-themed I Spy, now is your chance! It is full of cute fall-ish things that I love: hedgehogs, leaves, sunflowers, pumpkins, and of course, scarecrows! How many of each picture can you find? Write your answers in the boxes next to their pictures.

Fall-I-Spy-1 Download

I hope you enjoy these scarecrow stories and craft!

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Whether you live near the ocean or not, you can enjoy beach-theme books and activities with your little one at home. Check your library for beach-theme books!

Beach-theme books and activities for preschool and kindergarten — Beach-theme books and activities

We made it to the beach! And of course, we had to bring some of our favorite beach-themed books with us 🙂 Books, waves, sandcastles, and lots of splashing made for a great time!

Enjoy some of our favorite beach-theme books and activities with us!

Beach-Theme Books—

Duck and Goose are some of our favorite picture book characters! My son has loved them for years (and I’ve loved them even longer!). We’ve been reading Duck and Goose stories since he was a baby. Their books come in a board book format that was perfect for when my kiddo was in the grabby stage, and now that he’s older, we read the picture books. We have actually brought Duck and Goose go the Beach and the stuffed animals to the beach with us a few times now 🙂 In this book, the two friends set off on an adventure and find themselves at the beach! But do they actually the sand, sun, and waves? Read it and find out 🙂

My son LOVES Adam Wallace’s How to Catch a Mermaid! It’s a fun book about 2 kids and dog who hatch all sorts of plans to catch a mermaid because who wouldn’t want to have a mermaid friend, right!?! Spoiler, the kids get themselves trapped instead and the mermaid saves the day! This book has rhyming text and bold, bright pictures that compliment the fun story. This has been one of my son’s favorites for a over a year now and we hope you like it as much as we do!

The Sandcastle that Lola Built by Megan Maynor– based on the “House that Jack Built” story, this is a cute book about a little girl’s beach day. In this great example of teamwork, Lola and her new friends work together to make a sandcastle for mermaids. Fantastic pictures and rhyming text make this book a winner!

After reading this, we had to make our own sandcastle 🙂 And just like in the book, the tide washed away our castle too!

Inky's Amazing Escape: How a Very Smart Octopus Found His Way Home — Inky’s Amazing Escape

Inky’s Amazing Escape by Sy Montgomery — my kiddo loves this book! It is a true story about an octopus named Inky, who escapes from an aquarium in Australia and makes its way back to the ocean. We learned a lot about octopuses from this non-fiction picture book, and we were fascinated by Inky’s journey. My son was so excited when he learned that Inky liked playing Legos just like he does! Out of all of the books written about Inky, this one is our favorite. Sy Montgomery is a gifted storyteller and we were absolutely fascinated by this amazing octopus. I check out lots of library books for my son and I to read together, but this is one book that we felt that we needed to own. We truly love this story and read it over-and-over again.

My son got Over in the Ocean: in a Coral Reef for his birthday recently and it is AWESOME! It has fantastic pictures that were formed from clay by artist Jeanette Canyon that perfectly compliment Marianne Berkes’ sing-songy text. You and your little one will want to study these pictures over-and-over again to get all of the details incorporated onto each page. This book introduces a variety of cool sea creatures. It also lends itself well to movement activities that preschoolers will love to do. At the end, there is a seek-and-find activity to search for all of the sea creatures from the book, as well as a sneak-peek into the clay creations. We had so much fun reading this at the beach!

"Beach Day" by Candace Ransom. This is great for preschool and kindergarten beach-theme books and activities. — Beach Day!

Candace Ransom writes great beginning-reader books. The text is simple, but not boring and the pictures capture the joy of the kids’ adventures. In Beach Day! the family heads out to enjoy the beach together. The book captures the fun, excitement, and joy of family outing at the seashore. The kids gather seashells, build a sand castle, and see some neat sea creatures. As you read this one with your little one, you just can’t help but get caught up in the fun! Be prepared to read this multiple times 🙂

Another one of our favorite authors is Julia Donaldson; her books are perfect for preschoolers and kindergartners! For our beach-theme stories, my son and I read A Snail and a Whale. A snail yearns to explore in this rhyming book. However, snail finds that its explorations are hindered by its size. When whale offers to help snail take a journey, it is a dream come true. Snail enjoys adventuring with the large whale. Uh-oh, whale gets stuck and it is up to the small snail to help its new friend. This story goes to show that no matter how small you are, you can still help others.

Beach-Theme Activities —

To go along with our beach stories, my son had fun doing a beach and an ocean-themed I Spy challenges and an ocean-themed Find The Differences worksheet.

Download them for your kiddo to enjoy too:

– Beach-Themed I Spy— count how many of each beach item you can find!

–Ocean-Themed I Spy — count how many of each ocean creature you can find!

–Ocean-Themed FIND THE DIFFERENCES: can you spot 5 differences between the 2 scenes?

–BEACH alphabet letter tracing worksheet: practice tracing the letters and then color the picture!

CRAFTS —

SPOUTING WHALE: this turned out super cute and my kiddo really enjoyed making this.

Spouting whale construction paper and tissue paper craft for preschool and kindergarten beach-theme books and activities. — Spouting Whale

Supplies needed are white and blue construction paper, pencil, scissors, blue tissue paper ( 1″ x 1″ squares), glue stick, white school glue, and googly eyes.

1. I drew a whale shape on the blue paper and cut it out.

2. My son used a glue stick to glue the whale onto the white paper. Next he rubbed the glue stick all over the bottom of the paper and glued on the blue tissue paper squares to make the ocean water.

3. Together, we wadded up the blue tissue paper squares to make the water spout.

4. Using the white school glue, I added glue dots in the pattern of the whale’s water spout and then my son added the wadded the tissue.

5. To complete his craft he added the googly eyes.

TOILET PAPER ROLL OCTOPUS:

My son loves Inky’s story so much that we decided to make an octopus craft.

Inky the Octopus toilet paper roll craft for beach-theme books and activities — Inky the Octopus

Supplies needed are an empty toilet paper roll, washable paint, paintbrush, kid safety scissors, googly eyes, and a marker.

-First we painted the toilet paper roll red. (use whatever color you want). Then we let it dry.

-After it dried, my son made cuts in the bottom of the toilet paper roll to make 8 legs. He gently pulled each leg up so that they legs splayed out and his octopus could stand.

-Then he attached the googly eyes and drew a mouth, and our cute little octopus was ready to explore our house!

Hope you enjoyed our beach-theme books and activities!

To help cover the costs of this site, I joined Amazon’s Affiliate Program. I get a small percentage of the sale if you buy a book through one of my links. Thanks for your support! Happy reading 🙂

Tag: Julia Donaldson

Scarecrow Stories and Craft