Marshmallow Corn !

I was looking for a good place to hide Halloween candy and found marshmallows I hid months ago. They were hard and dry and perfect for a craft! If you don’t hide sugary treats from yourself in your kitchen just leave the marshmallows out over night to get stale.  They need to be stale so that your child can color them, without marshmallow bits getting on your markers, or being too squishy to color. Have fun with this, my son thought it was hilarious that he could color the marshmallows and asked at dinner if he could color his fish sticks. Thankfully the markers were put away.

1. Gather your materials. You will need a handful of stale mini marshmallows, yellow and brown construction paper, red, brown , yellow and orange markers , glue and scissors.
2. Start by coloring one end ( or more) of the marshmallows with various colors.
3. Keep going!
4. While they color the marshmallows draw an ear of corn on the yellow paper and husk on the brown.
5. Add glue to the corn.
6. Add the marshmallows.
7. Color the husk if you want.
8. Cut the husk out.
9. Glue it on the top- you can wait until everything is dry to glue it on. I was eager to post this so I fast forwarded a bit. 
10. Let dry and cut out .

Books

This First Thanksgiving Day: A Counting Story by Laura Krauss Melmed is a stunning gem of a book. I can’t believe I haven’t read it before, normally great books like this go through teaching circles like wildfire. The book has so many layers it will keep toddlers and preschoolers alike busy and engaged. The text explains the first Thanksgiving while counting 1-10 in rhyming poetry and the illustrations by Mark Buehner have hidden treasures, see if you can find them! After I return this to the library, I will be buying it for sure!

Twas The Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey was such a treat to read. It’s a reworking of the classic Christmas poem, with a Thanksgiving twist.  A bus full of kids head off to the turkey farm the day before Thanksgiving and are immediately enamored with the birds. When a child asks the farmer what the axe by the door is for… well let’s just say the truth is told and the kids fall apart. They don’t stay down for long though, the kids outsmart the farmer and their teacher to save the turkeys from the axe. Somehow the author finds a way to make the possible slaughter of these happy friendly, named turkey’s funny. My son was giggling while I was kinda nervous that they’d get the axe! Great rhymes throughout this hilarious book!

Thanksgiving Treat by Catherine Stock is a really heart warming book that will take you back to family gatherings of your childhood. The story follows the Thanksgiving day preparations of an extended family and one little boy who just wants to help. He goes from one job to the next where he is always told he is too little, or it’s too dangerous for him to do, and he should go somewhere else. Finally his Grandpa steps in with a very important job and the sad little boy is given new hope to be helpful. I remember being too little, and I know that from time to time my son is told he is too little too, this book is a kind reminder of finding ways to make even our littlest family members feel important and included. My son really liked it as well, while reading it today he stopped me and listed some of the things he is still too little to do, and the things that he has recently been able to do independently. Great book to sit down and talk about with your child.