Halloween for Toddlers - Part 2

I always feel like Z and I don't do a  lot of activities. I guess we're too busy in the morning. There's playdates, gymnastics, sometimes a photo shoot...Oh well. When we have a "Slow" morning, we do activities. For Halloween, here's what we did...

Halloween Sensory Tub

Z had fun with the tub. She preferred using her hands to feel the black beans and yellow split peas than using the two small measuring spoons provided. She quite enjoyed filling and dumping beans into the Halloween pail. Also used in the tub were some plastic orange spiders, white plastic skulls, a cat figure and some purple twisted pipe cleaners representing worms. Idea for the tub borrowed from Counting Coconuts'.

Coloring a pumpkin

I printed ours from the free printables available on Kidssoup. I provided only an orange triangular crayon from Crayola. She loves coloring and arts in general.

Bowling mummies

I kept three empty "European" (shape is different) soda bottles just for this. We don't drink soda much so I didn't have any more than that on hand but that's ok. I didn't want to waste too much toilet paper on them anyway. After wrapping the bottles with toilet paper, I stuck on some goggly eyes. When the time came, I provided an orange basketball and showed Zahavah how to bowl. She had a blast and laughed a lot every time the mummies dropped to the floor. I saw this idea on MomTimesTwo.

Ghost footprint

Hmmm. Well that didn't go as planned. I never convinced baby to let me paint her foot. :(  I even painted mine and showed her what we'd do but she still decided not to do it. A sad moment indeed. Anyhow, this is a bigger version than what I had planned but it still shows what it'd look like if she'd done the activity. There's always next year! :)

Happy Halloween from Mizzzz Zzzzz the Black Cat

Halloween for Toddlers

Halloween has now come and gone but I still decided to post my toddler's activities. I wish I had posted them sooner so you could do them along but overall, it was a busy week...

Sifting orange spiders from blue craft sand

Just like her big brother, Zahavah also sifted some orange spiders from the sand. She felt most proud when handed "mama's spoon" for the activity. I chose to use blue craft sand to offer a nice contrast to the orange spiders (found at Dollar Store). She did very well with the activity and like it much. I adapted this activity from Counting Coconuts'. 

Making a spider web

Z loves art...especially paint. So one night, I painted a dessert paper plate black (took two coats as it was a glossy one) in prevision for the next day. On activity day, I dropped two small dots of white paint on the plate, and asked Z to add a marble. I then showed Z how to move the plate gently around to get the marble to roll around. She loved it. She quickly learned how to control the marble on the plate so it would roll and not fall off. In the end, we had made a nice white spiderweb and we added one of our orange spiders on top to complete her art.

Stacking bugs

These are perfect for Halloween and made by Lamaze. They rarely get played with but they are really cool. They are magnetic and make it much easier for younger children to stack them (not that Z has any trouble stacking un-magnetized blocks). Z stacked all 6 of them and moved on... :)

Fill and dump

Using small ghost erasers (Dollar Store) and a pumpkin pail (also from the same store), Z filled and dumped the erasers. She loved it and it kept her very busy. She also made a request of repeating the activity everyday...

Halloween stampers

What child doesn't love stamps? Purchased through the Oriental Trading Company, they come in pre-inked purple, orange, green and black stampers. Part of the challenge was for Z to open and close the top. The stamping...well that was just fun. She enjoyed varying the pressure to see the result and as you can see, enjoyed dragging them too to see what would happen. 

Halloween for Preschoolers - Part 4

And so this is my final post on Halloween Week for preschooler Adrian. I hope you've all enjoyed browsing through! :)

Tweezing skulls into pumpkin pail

The little pumpkin pails are always a hit around here. Must be because they are small and seasonal! :) We opted to tweeze-in 1 white plastic skull per pail. Both the skulls and pails were purchased at our local dollar store last year. The challenge was partly picking up a single skull and holding on tight to the tweezers so it would be dropped into a pail. 

Memory Matching Game with Jack O'Lanterns

Matching & memory games are always fun and good for pre-math skills development. I do not have a very great gift at drawing so I printed two copies of these from Frenzy Universe and cut them up. Because a lot of the faces have similar traits, I printed them on paper instead of cardstock. It allowed Adrian to see through ever so slightly and lessened potential frustrations...We started by matching so he could familiarize himself with the jack o' lanterns and finished with the memory game.

History - Previous Halloween costumes

I could have printed these but I thought it would be nice to incorporate computer skills to this activity. I put one Halloween costume picture per year (2008-2011) in a folder and opened up the pictures on the screen overlapping them in no particular order. Adrian had to point to his last Halloween costume using the mouse...all the way to his first costume. After pointing to the costume, he would stick a small post-it on the picture to remember the order.

Life Cycle of a Pumpkin

Printed thanks to Montessori for Everyone. It's very abstract for a child to picture a pumpkin in its earlier stage. Having visited a pumpkin patch, Adrian remembered seeing some green pumpkins and vines though so it helped. Putting them in order was asking too much and I knew it but helping him understand how things grow, now, that's more like it. Next Spring, we shall plant some seeds to watch what happens! :)

How Many Pumpkin Seeds?

Printed a few pumpkins (Acclaim Images), and kept some seeds from a carving to do this one. You know the drill...Roll the die and see how many seeds this pumpkin contained.

Craft - Tissue Paper Candy Corn

Ah...Of course I had no orange tissue paper left...Oh well. I pre-cut strips of tissue paper and showed Adrian how to scrunch them into little balls. He then painted some liquid glue onto the template and stuck the  tissue paper balls into it. Template was found on a blog.

Craft - Pumpkin Paper Plate

Another craft for dexterity development. Tearing isn't easy. I pre-cut some orange construction sheets and Adrian had to tear them. He then painted some glue on and added the trips. We used a dessert plate this time as last time we used a dinner plate and it was too big for his patience! :) He helped me punch a hole and laced the green pipe cleaner in and twirled it around his finger to curl it like a vine. Idea, courtesy of My Montessori Journey!

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Halloween for Preschoolers - Part 3

Did you have a nice Halloween? Did you do any Halloween activities with the little ones? Over here, we had plenty to cover an entire week of fun...all the way to Halloween day.

Making spiders with play doh

Although the spider pictured above is quite cute, it was just an introduction to the activity...which consisted in using a die to see how many legs our spiders would have. We used a small Play Doh container (black colored) and some cut-up black pipe cleaners. Adrian then tossed the die and inserted the right amount of legs into the play doh balls he had made. While doing the activity, the spiders looked like below:

 

Roll a spider leg

Filling in letters

I've been trying to do more literacy activities with Adrian. We read a lot and he knows his letter sounds so I'm trying to encourage a bit more phonetic activities. I thought I'd come up with a little story where the first letter of 4 words (cat, bat, spider and ghost) were missing. But first, Adrian had to figure out where to put the missing letters. I read one paragraph and by hearing the color, he had to pick the right Halloween creature and put it next to the paragraph. After it was done, we went back to the first creature and he had to pick the first letter of it. I based my story on "Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?" by Eric Carle. One of the paragraphs read; " Orange spider, orange spider, what do you see? I see a purple cat looking at me." I, of course, removed the first letter of "spider" and "cat".  Next to this paragraph, Adrian put the spider. Later, he added "s" as well in the open spot. E-mail me if you want your own copy.

Halloween Sensory Tub

Well, the sensory tubs are not as much of a hit as they used to be. My little boy is growing up. Adrian still enjoyed scooping up the black beans and yellow split peas into the pumpkin pail but quickly lost interest. I asked him to count the white skulls, the orange spiders, the cat figures and the purple worms (cut up and twisted pipe cleaners) and then he was all done....

Spider web lacing

The ultimate Halloween decoration! Be sure to use a non-coated dessert paper plate if you do not have black dessert paper plates because this glossy one took two coats of paint and it still didn't adhere right. Anyhow, after turning the plate black, I punched holes here and there. Then Adrian's job was to lace from one side to the other to create a spiderweb design. It was completely counter-intuitive to him. He really wanted to lace the "Right way" as we normally do. :)

Halloween Candy Sorting

A dream come true for most kids. Adrian loved seeing this huge basket filled with candy. I asked him to help me sort so we could have them separated into little baggies for the trick-or-treaters. He did great and even counted each treat kind. I realized that he either really likes candy or need a bigger challenge with counting. He made it up to 29 with no mistakes...Go kiddo!

Magic Witch's Potion - Hunting for Ingredients

Yes! Yet another outdoor hunting activity. This one can be e-mailed to you if you'd like to have your own copy. I made it knowing we'd have these in our big yard. The background story was that Adrian could make a magic potion using these very ingredients to ensure a greater amount of candy collected while trick-or-treating! He took it quite seriously! :)

Happy Halloween from Adrian the Tree Frog

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Halloween for Preschoolers - Part 2

I really missed Halloween this year. It's always a bit sad to live abroad and miss on this cute tradition of dressing up, trick-or-treating and decorating. We still did the best of it and decorated inside and out, bought costumes and yup...went trick-or-treat to the neighbors we know. They told us that Halloween is starting to catch up in Germany and that some kids do trick-or-treat too. We only welcomed 4 at our house but the kids still enjoyed showing off their costumes and getting candy (aka entire chocolate bars!)

Science - Hunting with spider webs

So my son is now at the stage where spider webs are scary. To ease the scariness, I thought we would hunt down those webs for Halloween and remove them if empty. To do so, I handed Adrian an empty spray bottle which we filled with water. I then asked him where he thought we'd find spiderwebs. He knew too well where they usually are in our yard. Every time he thought there might be a web, he'd spray and the web would magically appear. He would then take the witch's broom and remove it gently. The one pictured above was removed later by my husband! Go figure...I'm scared of these critters too! :)

Counting eraser-ghosts

Using our sandpaper numbers from Montessori Outlet. Adrian loves for me to take them out every so often at which point he traces them and then moves on to the activity. I put the exact amount of erasers needed as a self-correcting tactic and took care to mix up the numbers this time to ensure concentration. Adrian quickly corrected his mistake when he ran out of erasers for number 5. Erasers were bought at Target in the dollar bin.

Clothespins on Halloween pail

Great exercise for little fingers in need of fine motor developement. I used a small metal pail purchased at Target and small Halloween clothespins found at Michael's. Adrian then had to decorate the pail by putting the clothespins on the rim. He did great and it looks like the small clothespins are not as challenging as they used to be...

Halloween stamping patterns

Here's a great activity to do with stamps; patterning. I usually create the pattern in front of Adrian and go halfway on the sheet. I then let him complete the sequence I created. We created 7 on this sheet thanks to Oriental Trading Company's Halloween stampers. Adrian is always excited to use stamps so this was really fun for him. I am thinking we'll need to up the challenge now. It's cake to him.

Stringing bats on a twig

Using some of our bats found at the Dollar Store last year. I thought it'd be fun to string them on a twig since bats sleep upside down, you know? Although the twig is small it did have some bumps on it since I plucked off leaves ahead of time so Adrian had to sometimes wiggle the bats around instead of just slide them on. On top of that, holding the twig and sliding on bats added a challenge, especially when he had to pick up another bat from the bowl. After one bat fell off the twig, he quickly learned how to hold the twig when reaching for another bat. Smart kid! :)

Halloween Week for Preschoolers

Well hello there! I am so sorry for the delay in publishing my posts! It feels like it's been forever honestly! I do have a few posts about Halloween activities though. I know it's a bit late for you guys to enjoy them with your children but keep them in mind for next year! :)

Hammering spiders in a pumpkin

Adrian loved this. I asked him to pick up a pumpkin, and sit it on the chair. I then showed him our spider nails and the wood toy hammer. I demonstrated how to hammer in a spider and he then enjoyed doing it himself. I must say he was quite proud of his work and it was a wonderful Halloween decoration. A few people thought they were real. The spiders were purchased through Oriental Trading Company.

Sifting spiders

Making the best out of our sandbox before winter arrives. No laughing but we already received snow this season (yippee said the kids)! This day was mild though so we hid a few plastic orange spiders (Dollar Store) and used a real kitchen slotted spoon for this work. Being the big sandbox fan that he is, Adrian hid the spiders more than once. He has a hard time resisting using his hands for sifting I must admit though. He must be reminded to just shake the sand out though the holes. It was a bit difficult this time as the sand was slightly moist. This idea was adapted from Counting Coconuts'.

Making Halloween colors

We used test tubes for this (found them at Michael's last year). I thought it would be neat since it's a science activity. We also used the sandbox as we do not have a tube stand. We filled each tube with the same amount of water and then, I asked Adrian to squeeze a few drops of red food coloring in one, blue in another and yellow in another. Then, I asked him to make orange, green and purple with the food coloring drops. He actually remembered which colors he needed to use and loved seeing the colors mix in the tubes. He then told me that black was also a big Halloween color and proceeded to make some! :) He loved being able to do this all by himself. You could also put no water in some tubes and mix the colors with the primary ones only but I thought it'd be a bit too messy since tubes have no spouts...

Sorting Halloween colored flower buttons

Adrian is a bit tired of sorting. I think it's a bit too easy or maybe he just didn't care about the buttons...Anyhow, I thought we'd sort by color and then by size but his interest stopped after the color sorting. :( You could also ask questions such as "which is the biggest orange button, the smallest...how many big purple buttons, etc. We just didn't get there. Buttons were purchased at Jo Ann's.

Tweezing pumpkin seeds in a pumpkin pail

I thought it was a cute idea to put the seeds back into the pumpkin! :) It was just challenging enough I think. Adrian is just starting to use tweezer for transferring and the pail's opening wasn't that big so it took much concentration. Overall, Adrian loved the pail and munching on the seeds after they were no longer needed! :) Pumpkin pails were purchased at our Dollar Store.

Cutting up worms

Scissors are always difficult to operate for children. I find that cutting play doh with plastic scissors is the easiest and probably the safest way to learn scissor cutting. As such, this week, Adrian was asked to make long worms with Halloween colored play doh (still haven't gotten around to making my own...). Then, I showed him how to snip that long worm into several small ones. He felt quite satisfied every time one fell on the table. 

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