Autumn Notice Board

You might remember on my Themes and Plans post, I mentioned under the Home heading that I wanted to work on our learning rooms notice board. Well, I took a couple our hours, involved the girls and here we have it!

As you can see, I chose to go with an autumn theme. We are not far away from the change of season - in fact the last two days here in the Midlands, it has felt very autumny with a drop in temperature, rain and a blustery wind. As you can see there is still space on our board for holiday related things (such as a turkey craft over thanksgiving time etc). Let me take you on a tour of our board...

Top left is my seasonal 'mood sheet'. This notes all those little things that were on my planning sheets in order to get into the 'spirit' of the season. At the very top is a box stating the Autumn months(September -early autumn, October - high autumn and November-late autumn). Top right of the page are traditional English autumn happenings such as bonfire night (Guy Fawkes) and the traditional Autumn game played by English children of conkers etc. In the middle of the page I have noted typical autumn foods and the bottom box lists autumnal nature happening's. Some of the things I have listed are: 'Harvest Moon, Equinox date, smell of wood smoke in the air, blustery winds etc..

Below the mood sheet we have an autumn acorn  calender. The months that fall into the autumn season are placed here. The squirrels were found under a google search ('vintage squirrels' I think), enlarged, colored in and then cut out. I absolutely love them!

Below middle of the board is a little field mouse carrying his winter stash. He is walking through fallen leaves - which were all made by the girls - in is acorn nut are words which remind us of the season. The girls came up with all the words they could think of that meant 'autumn' to them. Some words are: 'nuts, leaves, color, gathering, peaceful' etc. Some of the leaves were rubbings others are from a downloaded maple leaf template which the girls then colored in the leaf rubbing method. they really are affective! They started their rubbings in single colors and then got creative using two or more colors per leaf.

Bottom right is a monthly seasonal poem. Each new month the poem will be taken down and replaced with a new poem. The current poem is 'Ode to Autumn' by John Keats.
The idea of the board is to a) capture the essence of the season, and b) provide a changing and interesting assortment of seasonal tributes to interest and draw in the children. They have mentioned how much they like the board frequently. I find them standing in front of it reading the interesting bits and bobs. As we find interesting bits of nature on our nature walks we will pin it up on the board. I have begun to order our autumnal books which will go on the book display for them to read and browse through. The books I have chosen are on my sidebar under 'Seasonal Book Basket'. I have chosen these books for their lovely little stories as their outstanding illustrations. The Brambly Hedge books illustrations are captivating for children and adults alike. I don't believe that excellent books have a set 'age appropriate audiance'! I gain so much enjoyment from beautifully illustrated 'childrens' books, and I fully intend to pass that on to my children by having these books on my bookcase for them to browse through and enjoy throughout their growing years ;o)

I think what I enjoyed most about putting this notice board together, was the fact that the girls got involved and contributed some ideas. They really enjoyed working on this. My eldest DD was full of suggestions for future boards and storage suggestions for when we take the display down. What a peaceful and enjoyable afternoon we spent together ;o)