Dramatic Play: Costumes Box

Every year, on September 30th I pull out the Halloween decorations (because my hubs won't let me do it earlier) and I pull out the old costumes and let the kids play with them for the whole month.

They are in great condition and a great change from the normal princess and police dress ups my kids play with all year.  This is also the time I go through the regular day dress ups and repair and wash them.

We went in the back yard and let the kids enjoy the first day of their Halloween Costume Box.

This also gave me just enough time to put everything out while they were busy "playing."

Even my 9 month old had some fun!

Happy Fall everyone!

Pumpkin Flash Cards

Pumpkin Theme Activities for Kids.

Cut up paper into card shapes.

Write the number at the bottom and draw the appropriate number of stems.

Then let the kids thumbprint/finger print the corresponding amount of "pumpkins"

Once dry, laminate and use for anything!

We are going to use them for church...on the way, for quiet activities and for counting.

Simple easy and made by your toddler!

Pumpkin Books

Here are the books we are reading right now for this unit....

The Biggest Pumpkin Ever  by: Steven Kroll

It's Pumpkin Time    by:Zoe Hall

The Littlest Pumpkin    by: R.A. Herman

The Three Friends and the Pumpkins   by: Tomie dePaola (8 pages they are going to memorize)

From Seed to Pumpkin   by: Wendy Pfeffer
(my favorite)

We are also going to listen to Pumpkin Soup  by: Helen Cooper

And since I am catering to girls I couldn't resist Pinkalicious and the pink pumpkin    by: Victoria Kann

Candy for Toddlers

Valerie - What do you do with Halloween Candy in your house of Toddlers? - Jennie S.
Jennie S.

Well, having many toddlers in my house I sort through the candy as it comes in and pick out the things that they can't have like gum or blowpops and put them back into the outgoing bowl. Then I let them have 5 that night and 5 the next day and we then sort out the chocolates like snickers and stuff - freeze them - and make different things with them.

My family is famous for snickers pie, milky way shakes and crunch cookies. We give them out at Thanksgiving Treats to the neighbors. If you were at my wedding you would have had my Snickers Pie as me and my sister made 11 the night before the big day!

The other stuff like smarties and things that are non chocolate we use as cleaning bribes throughout the year.  I never have to buy candy and it lasts through Easter. Hahaha, just in time for more candy!

Witches Brooms

I know you were totally waiting for another awesome Toddler Halloween Snack idea right?

Here is one more to finish our week.

You need 1 string cheese cut into 3 parts, licorice strings, and 3 pretzel sticks.

 Start by peeling up the cheese half way.

 Once my kids saw how to do it, they jumped right in!

 It should look like this...

 Then you stick the pretzel down the other end...

Then add the licorice.

Then enjoy!

If you like these snack ideas or want to see more...please leave a comment and I will make sure to add them into my weeks! :)

Monster Munch

Another fun Halloween snack.  My son is in charge of the snack and on his day its monster day, which we will do on Halloween week. :)

Anyway here is my creation of MONSTER MUNCH! Aaah! Monster Munch is what Monsters eat-not monster parts. :)

Here is what I used: 

Honey Nut Cheerios (people eyes)

Vanilla Goldfish (dead fish)

Raisins (bug eyes)

Sunflower Seeds (mouse toes)

Sweedish Fish (baby tongues)

Chow Mein Noodles (dried up worms)

Cocoa Puffs-not pictured but used (mouse poop)

Totally gross, but fun.

I let them create their own mix and for my son's class I made a chart and let them see and read what was in their individual snack sized ziploc bags.   

 Then it was time to eat.

And discover what each thing was.  It was a fun activity. Try it instead of candy! 

Fun Halloween Snack

I couldn't resist making my kids something fun for snack.

You need an orange, a pretzel stick and a green airhead. Shown here...

Cut the airhead into a large triangle and then wrap around the pretzel. Stick it into the peeled orange.

Look! A pumpkin!  We added dried spiced cloves after this to make the eyes nose and mouth.

 

 But before we could do that we had to eat the candy! Haha.

It was a fun after school snack to get us into the Halloween Spirit!

Recycled Halloween Puzzles

All of your Halloween cards that you get in the mail are so fun for the kids but then what?  Well, you detach the front part of the card...the cute stuff and cut it into different pieces so they are easy to put together later... here are my kids doing it.

 

The best part is that they can do it again next year, you see we just ziplocked it and put it in the Halloween Box for next year!

Pumpkin Seeds

This one is easy but I am assuming no one has a recipe...

Carve pumpkins.

Here are the innards.

Wash the pulp away.

Mix in a bowl 1/4 cup melted butter, 2 TBS of seasoned salt OR 2 TBS cinnamon and sugar. Mix with the seeds.

Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 400 for 45 minutes.

Now my husband is happy. This kids are too I guess.

Bones Puzzle

Here is the link where I found this puzzle. Since R was coming over to play with L...I thought this would be super fun for them to do while I grabbed a snack. I cut out the pieces and then laminated them with packing tape so they would be protected but bendable. It even came with a guide and the kids played with it for 20+ minutes. The best part was that they made their own skeleton men...there was lots of laughter too.
Perfect little halloween fun, I also copied them smaller on cardstock and put mini magnets on the back for a travel game for when we are on the road.

Foot print Ghosts

When A came over the other day we made these ghosts.
They are super easy and I'll show you how...

Paint the foot, then stamp it. Repeat, and stamp the two prints so that the heels match up.

Tada!
Cut around the outside and then draw a face. Done!

5 Little Pumpkins

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate;

The first one said, "Oh my it's getting late."

The second one said, "There are witches in the air."

The third one said, "But we don't care.”

The fourth one said, "I'm ready for some fun!"

The fifth one said, "Let's run and run and run."

"Wooooooo" went the wind,

And out went the lights.

And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

This is one of my favorite Halloween Songs/Poems. So we made a project out of it.

What we used...

Orange paint, Brown Paint, White Paper, Blue Cardstock, Yellow Cardstock, Brown Paper Bag.

We painted pumpkins on every kids hands...

I even did it with my 7 month old's hands.

Then you stamp that on the paper.

Repaint and Repeat 4 times so there is 5 pumpkins on the paper.

Let dry and then cut the outline out. With the paper bag cut a gate, a simple one.

With the Blue Cardstock cut it in half.

With the Yellow Cardstock cut the moon.

Then assemble the project.

Here they are finished.

On mine I made 2 with all 3 of my kids hand prints. So cute right?

Spider Web - for Halloween

Woah! That last post had an overwhelming response with the comments! Thanks! :p LOL

This project was inspired by my son:

Who is 3 and really wanted to be a spider for Halloween. So I obliged.
Here is what what you need:

2 Cans, Paint, Pipe Cleaners, Paper, Rubber Bands

Tear off paper from the cans(we were using these tonight otherwise write on the can what it is before ripping off the label!) Then cover the cans with Rubber Bands.

Next dip in paint and Roll, Roll, Roll.

While it is drying cut the pipe cleaners into 4 pieces. Like the length of your finger.

Then let the kids twist them into each other until all 4 pieces are used up.

My daughter didn't see where I was going with this...
Then glue the spider to a desired location and cut the paper into a web shape or circle.
Done.