Touch and Feel Scarecrows

I recently had a student make a special request that we make a scarecrow at school.  So to honor this request, I did a little research and planning and we celebrated scarecrows!  You know, I have never explored a scarecrow unit in my class before and I have to say, we had a wonderful time exploring our scarecrows….

We didn’t jump right into a scarecrow unit because it took me a week or so to find something for the children to make that I really thought they could do and enjoy doing.  Today, I want to share with you some of the little extras I put together to go along with the making of our scarecrows…

We read the book titled, “The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything” by Linda D. Williams.  I have owned this book for years but again, it never occurred to me to partner it up with a scarecrow unit.  This is a wonderful book – full of rhyme, action, patterns, sequencing and just a touch of scary, depending on how you read it, with a not so scary ending…

After reading the book, I gave each child what I call a story book token.  A story book token is something I usually make and give to each child to spark their memory of the book we read in class that day. For this story, I made and gave each child a tiny scarecrow. Some of the children carried their scarecrows around with them all day and others put their scarecrows in their cubby. All the children took their tiny scarecrow home with them at the end of the day…

While making the story book scarecrows, I also made a simple scarecrow texture game.  Scarecrows are packed full of texture  from the straw and sticks for arms and legs to the patches on their clothing so I thought we would explore the textures just a bit as part of our study of scarecrows…

After reading our story, the children put their hand in our mystery box and pulled out a scarecrow….

Each scarecrow was dressed in something different (sandpaper, foam, felt, burlap) and we talked about whether the scarecrow was soft, bumpy, rough, smooth, and so forth…

A fun way to explore the clothing that scarecrows wear and at the same time, promote new vocabulary as we played our touch and feel scarecrow game…

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Deborah J Stewart

Deborah J Stewart

Every time I think I know everything I need to know about teaching young children, God says, "Hold on a minute!" and gives me a new challenge.

Let me tell ya...

With each new challenge that you overcome, you will find yourself better equipped and more passionate about teaching young children.

God didn't call wimps to lead, teach, or care for His children. Nope, he has high expectations, so get ready. You will have to give your very best but after teaching for over 30 years, I can tell you that it is a wonderful and rewarding journey.

Whenever your calling feels hard, just remember, 'He who began a good work in you (and in the children you serve) will be faithful to complete it.'

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