Hello everyone! Just popping in to give you a few quick ideas for some fun Halloween themed art and math, and also a few recycled play ideas and book suggestions!
Hope you enjoy and have a safe and fun Halloween!
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Paper Plate Pumpkin
It's a no brainer! Take some orange (or red and yellow if you'd like to include a lesson on color mixing) paint, white glue and shaving cream and mix some neato "poofy" paint.
Paint your paper plate and glue black triangles and mouth shapes to make a jack o' lantern.
I cut a spiral out of green paper for the vines, which my son wanted to glue on as "arms". :)
The added idea for motor strength would be to have your child cut their own shapes out of black paper with child safe scissors! Fun and easy, plus cute to display!
Candy Corn Math
Something yummy always makes math fun! As you can see from the picture, what I did was take a ziploc bag, and place 10 dots on the outside, along with the number "10" using a permanent marker. I then put 10 peices of candy corn in the bag.
Have fun counting all of your peices, adding and subtracting peices, and learning math in this "sweet" way. The best part is that you get to eat it when you are all done! Kids love it. Try this activity with larger numbers, multiplication or fractions for older children!
Recycled Cereal Box Play Houses
I got this idea from a great book I have called "365 TV-Free Activities (You Can Do With Your Child)" (Bennett, Bob Adams Inc, 1991).
Check it out here: http://www.amazon.com/365-TV-Free-Activities-Your-Child/dp/1558505857.
The idea is to take your recycled cereal (or mashed potato, cracker, etc.) and cut doors and windows in them, to create play houses! I turned mine inside and taped them back up out so that we could draw on them. This is an awesome open ended project--get out the scissors, tape, crayons and markers and have a blast! Not only do they look neat when you are done, but it is a free and creative activity that your child will love.
The play houses are as elaborate as you'd like them to be...we even made steps for ours! They look neat when lined up into a little "neighborhood". Try it!
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In closing, a few book suggestions that we've enjoyed reading! These should be available at your local library:
Bats at the Library
http://www.amazon.com/Bats-at-Library-Brian-Lies/dp/061899923X
Bats love to read too...and they've flown in through an open window at the library!
Too Many Pumpkins
http://www.amazon.com/Too-Many-Pumpkins-Linda-White/dp/0823413209
An overgrowth of pumpkins!
Pumpkin Soup
http://www.amazon.com/Pumpkin-Soup-Helen-Cooper/dp/0374460310/ref=pd_sim_b_7
A story of friendship and tasty pumpkin soup!
Thanksgiving Fun and Fall Ideas
The holiday season is upon us! I love making holiday art projects with kids because they are so festive, make great gifts for family members, and center peices for the holiday table!
We're getting started on fall over here with two (yep, you guessed it--parent pleaser!) fall art projects:
Cupcake Liner Owls
It's a very simple concept--we just painted a paper plate with brown paint, and then added an orange triangle piece for the face shape, a folded orange diamond for the beak, and cupcake liner eyes. Inside the eye you can place a googly eye or button!
Paper Bag Stuffed Turkeys
For this project, you need a paper bag (size is up to you--and a family of different size turkeys would be so cute!) We colored on our bags with brown marker, and then glued multi-colored feathers I had cut from construction paper. The feathers get glued onto the bottom flat part of the paper bag. After that, we stuffed the bag with tissue paper (or whatever you have to stuff with), and twisted the end to make the neck. I had pre-cut a face shape from cardboard to which the kids glued a beak, waddle and two eyes. Then we attached the face to the neck and it was all done! It makes such a cute centerpiece!
Other fall ideas:
Indian Corn
Indian corn is an awesome science and art project all rolled into one. Kids will enjoy touching the texture of the corn and it can be used to roll intersting patterns into playdough, or onto paper with paint!
Bird seed play
Older kids can play in a tub of bird seed/deer corn/etc. For extra fun you can add fall items like pinecones and acorns, or fall shapes. Kids will enjoy scooping and pouring the seed into cups. It's a great science and large/fine motor exercise!
Scented playdough
It's fun to add essence like cinnamon, nutmeg or other fall scents to your playdough.
Playdough turkeys
Make a batch of homeade playdough and tint it brown. Buy googly eyes and feathers and store together in a tub to make playdough turkeys when the mood strikes! I love doing these, they are so much fun.:)
Fun Idea
Go on a fall nature walk. Bring a bag of popcorn with you, just for the animals. Throw handfuls as you walk. Did you know that you can pop regular corn in the microwave? You can dry pop corn in a folded paper lunch bag in the microwave, just as you would microwave corn. If you really want the squirrels on your good side, toss in a handful of peanuts.:)
Fall Book Suggestions
There are many out there but here are some of my absolute favorites!:)
 Rosie's Walk |  Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf |
 Nuts to you |  Owl Babies |
More Thanksgiving Links
More Thanksgiving Resources
This link has more project ideas and also great books on how to inspire thankfulness in your child.
Hope you have a wonderful holiday season and thanks for reading!
