Halloween Art

These first two Halloween crafts, Big K actually did last year but since I didn't have this blog at that time, I'm compiling them all together to do a whole page of Halloween crafts!  Honestly, I'm quite disappointed in myself for not doing more this year because I kept having the intentions too but the month of October for us is just entirely too hectic!!!

The first project is egg carton spiders. I tore one little "egg" section out of an old egg carton and let her paint it black for the body. Then we added some googly eyes and pipe cleaners for legs.  Super cute and she kept it on her dresser forever. And you can sure bet she knows spiders have 8 legs! 

For this pumpkin I drew out the outline of a pumpkin with a pencil to give her a little bit of guidance but then let her paint it freely on her own.  I'd say quite impressive considering she wasn't quite even 3 at the time!  Handprints for the stems!  

Every year, I try to do something different and creative with our pumpkin decorating.  This year we did bat pumpkins.  Little K's only turned out looking the best because a certain someone had to glue all her pieces on.  But she did do the majority of the painting!  Big K won the award for creativity though because it was all HER work and she thought the bat should have 4 eyes.  Why not?!

And last but not least, simply pull out some pumpkins cut out of construction paper or foam with a variety of different shapes they can use and let them freely decorate their own jack o lanterns.  You'll be amazed at how much they enjoy doing something this simple.  We've done it several more times since!  

Well, that's all I've got!  I promise I'll try to start getting a little more creative soon.  The brain's just been a little burnt out lately. =)  

"Apple Pie Making"

Apples, apples, apples!  Our main topic of choice these past couple weeks.  I believe I got this idea from "Growing a jeweled rose" and then tweaked it a little myself.  I made regular old cloud dough that we've done before following the recipe: 7 cups of flour to 1 cup vegetable (or baby) oil.  But this time I added in some crushed up chalk (that I smashed with a hammer) to give the red color and put in some cinnamon for a yummy smell (I didn't have any sort of apple spice).  

They used their muffin tins to make yummy apple pies!  This turned out to be an activity that they stuck with for a LONG time over the course of a couple days AND it was a handy activity that they were able to do right outside the door on the back porch while Mommy made lunch.  Score!  The apple letters I had originally made for a different activity but never got around to it so we threw them in there too.  Big K liked putting them in alphabetical order and spelling out her name with them.  I tried to stretch the activity with spelling other words too but that interest didn't last too long.  Not yet at least! =)  

And this of course is what eventually ended up happening with it...making a lovely icky mess on my back porch! What toddler/preschooler can continue to play with something messy in a contained space? But it was enjoyable during the process so well worth it! 

Apple Tree Bath

Big K has been talking about apples a lot at school lately so she's really into anything that involves them.  The girls both simply LOVED the fall leaves tree we made on our back door so I thought "why not bring in an apple tree for a special bath time treat?"  They love bringing new ideas into the tub since those same ole bath toys just get played with day after day...

So I pulled that brown washable paint out again during rest time the other day and painted them a tree in the tub!!! Made some red and green apple cut outs from foam and they now have themselves an apple tree for a couple days until it all washes off!  

You could incorporate letters or something using these too but since Big K has already mastered her letters I didn't really see the need.  I just let her have fun and free reign to do whatever she wanted!  She of course did something creative on her own and created a pattern.

Little K's apparently all fell from the tree into a pile.

                                     

Don't you just love all these easy ways of entertainment?

Halloween Sensory Table/Pumpkin Play

Materials Needed:

Green glow in the dark spider web (Hobby Lobby)

Plastic trick or treat pumpkin

Pumpkin confetti (Hobby Lobby)

Foam sticker candy (Hobby Lobby)

Orange and black boa (Hobby Lobby)

Homemade spider web made from painted cardboard and yarn (that Big K personally wove herself) 

Another added goody I put over in our play area/activity table were real pumpkins with little plastic face pieces you can decorate them with.  I purchased these a couple years ago from CVS for a couple dollars.  They are pretty hard for little hands to push into an actual pumpkin so I first pushed some in to make some beginning holes and then they could switch them out through those.  Little K has LOVED playing with these everyday!  I just love fall/pumpkins!  It's my favorite time of year!!!