1-2-3 Come Make A Multi-Purpose Scarecrow With Me

Since there are so many standards on our plates these days, there never seems to be enough time for everything, let alone a fun seasonal craft that we know our students would enjoy. That's why I spend so much time designing hands-on "craftivities" that revolve around all sorts of standards. 

Because it's so comprehensive, it took me several days to complete this Common Core scarecrow, and even more hours to make a sample of all 11 scarecrows, but it was time well spent, as they turned out so cute, are easy for your kiddos to make, and reinfore the following: 

Upper and lowercase letters, vowels, sc blend, beginning s sounds, matching words with pictures, numbers 0-30, odd and even, skip counting by 2s, 3s, 5s & 10s, shapes, telling time, colors, contractions, number words, color words, compound words, CVC words, and rhyming words.

Completed projects make a wonderful fall bulletin board, or look sweet hanging back-to-back from the ceiling.

To make this extra special, fold a sheet of white construction paper, have students trace their hand and then cut once, to get two hand prints for their scarecrow's "gloves".  I ran yellow construction paper through a shredder to make the "hair". 

Run off the scarecrow's body templates on a variety of colors of construction paper.  Students trim and glue together. 

For more fine motor practice, cut yellow rectangles with a paper cutter.  Have students snip the bottom portion and glue the "hay" to the back of the scarecrow's pant legs, then crumple.

I purposely made these patterns super simple to cut out, but if you think this is too much for PK kiddos, have a room helper trace once and then cut 3-6 shirts and pants out at a time,  leaving just the head for preschoolers to cut out.  

There's a blank head so children can draw their own scarecrow face, as well as a completed template for little ones to color.

 Students make their scarecrow and then trim and glue on the appropriate patches.  The vowel scarecrow is especially versatile, as it not only covers vowels, but shapes and colors too.

For extra practice, when everyone is done, play an "I Spy" game and give students a piece of candy corn to use as a manipulative.  Choose a student to call out a "patch". 

Children locate that letter, number, shape or whatever, cover it with the candy corn, and then raise their hand. 

This is a fun way to practice and review standards, as well as a quick and easy way to whole group assess, as you can see at a glance who is having difficulty. 

I've also included blank patches for you to fill in with whatever, plus ideas and templates to use the number, letter and shape scarecrows for matching games.

i.e. match the lowercase patches to the uppercase letters; match the number word patches to the numbers; and/or match the shapes to the shape words.

For more scarecrow-themed letter fun, click on the link for a set of scarecrow alphabet cards.

The following scarecrows are wonderful for vocabulary building and Daily 5 word work: Carl is the Compound words scarecrow; (Click on the link for an alphabetical list of over 3,000 compound words.)

Connie, is a contraction action scarecrow; (With an alphabetical list of 72 contractions)

Sam, is a scarecrow that loves 37, 3-letter words that begin with S; (CVC practice!)

Scott, is the SC blend scarecrow, with a list of 50 words. The packet also includes an entire SC blend section, with lots more activities.

Sophie, is a scarecrow with 47-picture patches, for simple words starting with the letter S. 

For a quick review, I've also included 4, Ss word, picture posters.

Rodney, is the Rhyme Time scarecrow, with 56 words that rhyme with scare and a list of 274 words that rhyme with crow.

Write the words that rhyme with scare on the front of Rodney, and have children choose some words that rhyme with crow and write them on the back.

In the sample, I chose 24-scare rhyming words and wrote them on the shirt, and then wrote an equal amount of words that rhyme with crow, on the pants.  The alphabetical lists include rhyming words that start with every letter except U & X.  I chose one of each.

Finally, the number scarecrow, has several options and serves double duty.  There are number patches from 0-30, which  I traced in a variety of colors. 

You can make Odd Todd and Even Steven scarecrows (front and back) or put the odd numbers on the top and the even numbers on the bottom.  (See photo.)

For more math number practice, I've also included skip counting patches.  Children can skip count by 2's, 3's, 5's and 10's.  There are matching worksheets in the packet as well, along with number cards, plus number puzzles in color & black and white.  

For more odd and even scarecrow number fun, click on the link to practice numbers from 1-120, in the Scarecrow's Pumpkin Patch packet.

If your kiddos are familiar with that concept, but need to work on matching numbers to their number words, use the Norman & Nancy number scarecrow patterns, with numbers 0-10, along with their matching number word patches.

Glue the numbers on the shirt and the number words on the pants.  For more practice, have students write the words above their matching number patch.

Click on the link to view/download the "craftivity" portion of the Common Core Scarecrow Packet.

This section will be FREE for an entire year!  After that, you can pick up the whopping 184-page jumbo packet in my TpT shop for just $5.95.  Click on the link for Patches, The Standard Scarecrow Craftivities packet to pop on over.

Thanks for visiting today.  I need to unclutter my brain, so we're off to a nearby fall festival.  It's a beautiful autumn-weather day, if the rain just holds out for awhile. 

 "If stars can shine with darkness, so can you." -Unknown

1-2-3 Come Do Some Scarecrow Activities With Me!

I love scarecrows; they were one of my favorite things to draw as a child.  Having grown up in Wisconsin, I enjoyed seeing the variety of these farmer-creations that kept watch over the pastoral countryside.

One of the first Art & Activities units that I designed was on scarecrows.  This was prior to all of the software programs, fonts and clip art that I now have at my disposal, but I think you'll still enjoy making some of these cuties from my hand drawn patterns.  Click on the link to view/download the 66-page Scarecrow Art & Activities packet. 

Here are a few samples:

Patrick, the paper chain scarecrow, can help your kiddo's countdown to Thanksgiving break.  Choose 2-colors for the links and review an ABAB pattern, or add a 3rd color to do ABCABC. 

You can simply make one to hang in your classroom, or set this scarecrow up as an independent center and have children work on one of their own. (Assign as many links as are appropriate for your age group.)  To incorporate blends, have students write an sc word on each link.

Carl, the counting scarecrow, will help your students review numbers 1-10, skip counting by 2's, 5's and 10's as well as the spatial directions of left and right. 

Five Little Crows in a Cornfield, is a "craftivity" that also includes math practice.

My all-time favorite scarecrow craft I call "Personal Scarecrows."  They are "jointed" so you can pose them in different ways.

Cut out a variety of colored construction paper shapes to use as "patches" for a quick and easy shape review.

I enlarged my students' school photo.  This became the scarecrow's head. The picture appeared very pixilated, which added to the awesome scarecrow looking effect. 

If you don't have the ability to do this, I've also included a scarecrow head template your children can cut and color.

When I was a freelance writer for Mailbox Magazine, my editor asked me to write a scarecrow poem.  The personal scarecrows were my inspiration. 

We received zillions of compliments on our hallway display, and my Y5's really enjoyed making them.  Click on the link to view/print the Personal Scarecrow craftivity.  

On a smaller scale, you could do Sam/Samantha the Shapely Scarecrows.   Give students the option of whether they want to make a boy or girl scarecrow. 

With the personal scarecrow, students got in some great cutting practice, by snipping on the lines of a square to make "hay". They glued these to the ends of the scarecrow's arms and legs. 

For Sam/Samantha, I ran yellow construction paper through my husband's shredder.  Pick up a bunch, crinkle it even more and tape the end to the back of the scarecrow. 

If you don't have a shredder, The Dollar Store sells bags of all sorts of colors.  Look for shredded paper in the gift bag section.  Most school offices have a shredder; you can ask to borrow it. 

To make "stuffing hay" a bit easier for little ones, put a piece of double-sided tape on the back. Children pick up pieces of shred and press them on the tape, when they are done, cover the stickiness with a piece of regular tape.

Remind students ahead of time, that if they throw the shred around and make a mess, that they will not be able to use some on their scarecrow. I think it gave Sam/Samantha that finishing touch. 

A template of additional shapes is included. Students can cut and glue as many "patches" to Sam's/Samantha's clothes as they desire.  I used a piece of yarn to make a dangler.  If you want this to look good on both sides when they spin, each child needs 2 of everything. 

A simpler way to assemble the scarecrow is to have students glue their pieces together.  Punch a hole in the triangle and suspend from the ceiling back-to-back with another child's scarecrow.   Adding a few real buttons adds a bit more pizzazz.  Click on the link to view/download Sam/Samantha The Shapely Scarecrow craftivity.

Finally, my favorite scarecrow easy-reader is My Scarecrow's Nose.  It too reviews shapes, as the scarecrow tries on different shaped noses.  In the end, he gets his favorite, the triangle. Children read, trace, write, color and draw. 

A graphing extension is included, where students vote on their favorite nose for the scarecrow; 2 worksheets continue the shape review.  Click on the link to view/download My Scarecrow's Nose.

I have a nice variety of other scarecrow activities on the site, including scarecrow 10 frames, and a scarecrow glyph.  Click on the link to zip on over to the scarecrow section. 

Thanks for visiting today.  I design and blog daily, so I hope you can pop by tomorrow to grab the newest FREEBIES. 

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"It will not always be summer; build barns." -Hesiod