kid stuff

CREATE YOUR OWNFALL

Numerous crafts and bright ideas bring autumn to P hotos of children jumping in a pile of leaves or collecting colorful leaves or taking a hayride through the woods give a picture of a northern fall. Costumes in stores feature furry longsleeved creations. None of this is a picture of what autumn or Halloween the Sunshine State. | we paint them orange and put little seashells on the top for a stem,” Dani says. “The swirly worm shells make a good stem. Then we paint a face on it and make a pumpkin.” “You can always do shell art,” adds Naples artist Laura Barnard. “Kids can collect BY ANDREA STETSON is like in sunny Southwest Florida. So we set out to find shells at the beach and you can spray paint them in lots ideas to create a picture of the season in the sunshine. of colors. They could use them to decorate around a

Jamie Berendes, a former art teacher at Bonita Springs mirror. We would go out and collect pine cones and then Elementary School, says she adapted to the environment spray paint the pine cones. They can put glue on the pine when teaching students. Since there are no leaves turncones and sprinkle them with glitter.” ing into browns, reds and yellows here, she had students Barry Leaman, the youth education director at the create them from local greenery. Centers for the Arts Bonita Springs lived in Salem, Mas

“We got some leaves and we cut sponges in the sachusetts, for many years and found the transition to a shape of the leaves, and then we sponge painted the Florida Halloween three years ago quite startling. leaves,” Jamie explains. “Talk about a big deal. They revolve their whole Jamie also likes to use shells in her creations. economy around it,” Barry says. “My kids had to adjust, “We took scallop seashells and hot glued fake too, because they were used to the change in feathers around the top,” she says. “Then we seasons.” glued googly-eyes and a triangle of felt for the The 20-year veteran of teaching art nose to make turkeys. You can also do pine says his philosophy is more about famcone turkeys, since we have those here, too.” ily and less about the season. Dani Korson, a member of the Bonita “Family gathering events, that is Springs Shell Club, says volunteers there what I am looking for,” he stresses. make fall crafts out of shells. “When I came down here, I realized “We usually use sea urchins, and that everything I learned about fall goes out the window.”

&NATURE PARK A Y e ar T o R e m e m b e r! THE VACATION AT HOME YOU WILL NEVER FORGET. We gave the whole place a deep COVID-19 cleaning and have taken extra steps to make it safer and more fun! Eat at Southern Grill, enjoy happy hour at Tommy’s and ride the carousel. You’re gonna love it! Visit us on Facebook or website for more offers and details. 16554 N. Cleveland Avenue (US 41) N. Fort Myers, FL 33903 (239) 995-2141 • shellfactory.com

Nature Park

SAVE THE DATE Oct. 11th –Nam Jam Oct. 17th –Book Signing Oct 25th –Annual Pass Halloween Bash Nov. 19th –Bike Night featuring Torched

Barry’s favorite fall craft is making board games reflect the season and family.

“A game like Memory, but instead of the cards being numbers or symbols, have them be different people in your family or different parts of your house. And you draw two of them,” he says. “A game like Candyland, you do your home or neighborhood. You decide what you are going to put in the spaces. Find something important that you put in the spaces. I think that is what we are celebrating. This year it is going to be really tough. You can’t travel. What you can do is bring in that fullness of family.”

Barry also uses fall colors in his art.

“If we do collage work, we might pick the colors that are fall,” he explains. “Use magazines; find yellows and oranges and reds that are bright. It is really hard.

“You are taking an entirely different culture of celebration. I know they understand fall colors and that leaves fall off of trees, but it is hard to picture that. You don’t get the change, so you are waiting for something to happen that doesn’t happen. So we focus on family. That is what everything is about.”

Local families have additional ideas for spreading fall creativity: » Find green leaves in a variety of shapes and sizes. Put them under a piece of paper and use the side of an unwrapped yellow, orange or red crayon to do a crayon rubbing of the leaf. » Find colorful orange and purple scallops on the beach and glue them to drawn tree branches to represent local leaves. » Fill pine cones with peanut butter and coat with bird seed; hang outside for the birds to enjoy. » Draw a tree in the sand and decorate it with colorful shells.

Samantha Senkarik, of Naples, has a different fall tradition with her two children.

“It’s all about the fall candles and cinnamon broom sticks from Publix,” she says. “That always gets me in the mood.”

For those who need some fall foliage to get into the autumn spirit, there is a way to see fall colors in Southwest Florida. Golden rain trees turn yellow and orange in the fall. Along Livingston Road in northern Collier County, these trees are prominent in the road median, giving people a glimpse of fall as they pass by.

The Naples Botanical Gardens also has its own fall colors.

“In the fall the garden has a lot of pinks,” says Renee Waller, communications manager at the Gardens. “The muhly grass is all in bloom; they have all pillowing pink blooms. And our silk floss trees, those are also bright pink blooms, and they are some of the most jaw-dropping trees on property.”