Monster Family

Here is a fun way to make monsters.

Have your child splatter blobs of paint on a piece of paper. Before it dries, add eyes. Then she has made her own monster family :)

Go Away Big Green Monster! (book and activity)

Go Away, Big Green Monster! is a fun book to read this time of year. It is also very helpful if your child is having fears of something scary being around (like monsters). It helps give the child the idea that she is in control, not the monster.

Here is a fun activity to go along with reading this book.

Your child can make her own monster.

Supplies needed:

• construction paper
• paint
• paper the same color as the paint

Have your child put a blob of paint on the paper--right in the middle. Then have her fold it in half. This will make a shape for the face of the monster. Then have her add pieces of paper for eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and whatever else her monster has. Then she has her own monster to tell to go away!

Top 5 Pinterest Halloween Finds

Here are some great ideas for Halloween!

50 Spooky Treats
by Sixsistersstuff

Pumpkin Scented Paint
by Growing a Jeweled Rose

22 Fall Sensory Play Ideas
by Your Kids Table

55 Halloween Crafts
by I Heart Naptime

31 Ideas for an Active October
by Toddler Approved

See more of what I pinned for Halloween here: http://pinterest.com/valplowman/learning-ideas-holidays/ and here: http://pinterest.com/valplowman/halloween/

Bats!

My girls are freaked out by bats. I don't know how or why this happened (since neither parent has bat issues), but somewhere along the way they got the idea that bat=bad. So, added to our Halloween/pumpkin week was also a day of bat fun! We read Stellaluna first (I love that book! There's a special place in my heart for that sweet little critter!). We read the book slowly, taking time to talk about what she ate, her habits, the bird comparison, etc.

Then we made the I Know A Lot About Bats book. For my 2 year old I printed off pictures of the bats (one hanging upside down, one eating fruit, a moon for nighttime, and others).

Then we reviewed the letter B. I used capital B's to make the wings and let them glue and create. I also printed out a few pictures of a bat flying, used contact paper to laminate it, and cut in into increasingly more difficult puzzles for the girls to solve.

Then, for my 4 year old, we worked on drawing bats. She loved it! It fit in well with reviewing -at words,too.

5 Great Halloween Ideas

You know how you start to look around the internet and find tons upon tons upon tons of great ideas out there for {insert item here}. Since this is a learning blog, I am thinking about learning activities available.

I have fallen into love of Pinterest like many of you. A great thing for me and Pinterest is putting ideas I love for learning ideas all in one place. I don't want to keep these ideas to myself! I thought I would share my top 5 ideas I have seen for fun fall ideas...you know, because you probably can't find enough (wink wink).

Don't Eat Frank Game
Prepared Not Scared

Yummy Treats!

Design Vagabond

More Yum

Explore. Dream. Discover.

Halloween Party Planned

I Never Grew Up

Banana Ghosts

Family Fun

Candy Corn Tissue Art

Here is a fun and simple Halloween activity that is also benign (meaning, it is not scary in the least. Another bonus, for those of you who don't like Halloween, it is a seasonal activity that is about candy, not Halloween). 

Kaitlyn did this in her preschool class this year. You can see it is rather simple-- white triangle and tissue paper squares. The tissue paper was not glued (hence the missing square), but rather was dipped in water and put on the paper wet. When it dried, it stuck.

Here is the cool possible bonus. Kaitlyn's teacher has done this in the past, but the tissue paper bled onto the paper, so the color transferred. That is what she was going for (she didn't know what happened--apparently the tissue paper brand or type might be of importance). If yours does bleed, you would want to remove the tissue paper before it dried so it didn't stick to the white paper.

I am going to try this out with different tissue papers and see if I can figure out which papers work for bleeding. My guess is the waxy feeling paper will not bleed while the rougher feeling paper will. I am starting with cheap dollar store paper...I will keep you updated when I have answers, but until then, I wanted you to have the chance to do this if you wanted! 

Halloween Recipes

(Image)

DearlyDomestic.com has some great Halloween recipes posted, including this one for Candy Corn Pudding. Looks like I need to add Cool Whip to my shopping list for this weekend. This may be perfect for our Trick-or-Treat get together for all the kiddos to snack on!

It also looks easy enough for the kids to help put together, too!

Candy Corn Pudding

*2 Large Boxes of Vanilla Instant Pudding

*Yellow and Orange Food Coloring

*Cool Whip

*Candy Corn

Make pudding according to directions on box. Separate finished pudding into 2 separate bowls evenly. Color w/ food coloring. Top w/ a layer of Cool Whip and candy corn! Enjoy!!

Paper Plate Ghost

Paper plates are amazing. I think you can turn a paper plate into just about anything. 

Here we have a paper plate ghost. 

Supplies:

• Paper plate
• White paper (if arms are desired)
• White crepe paper
• Black paper
• Scissors
• Glue or stapler

Method:

This is a simple paper plate activity because the end-product is white. 

1. If hands are desired, draw and cut out the arms/hands. Either you do this or have your child do it if scissor skills are up to it.
2. Cut out black eyes and mouth. You can draw and cut out, or you can draw and have your child cut out, or have your child draw and cut out. You will know what is appropriate for your child.
3. Cut several pieces of crepe paper.
4. Glue or staple all pieces on. I like glue because the child can do it, but a staple has the potential to hold better.

Halloween Fun: Face Painting

I remember one time as a child standing in line for over an hour to get my face painted. That is dedication! Children seem to love to get their faces painted. Now, I am no artist. You can, however, easily paint fun holiday themes if you break down the picture into simple shapes.

Take the jack-o-lantern pictured above. A simple orange blob, some black eyes, nose, and mouth, and a green stem and you are done. I didn't make that, though, my sister-in-law did, and she is an artist. 

Here we have a spider web. You have a white web made from drawing various lines. You then have  black spider, which is made from drawing a couple of circles and some legs. 

Finally, we have a simple ghost. A white oval-ish with some black eyes and nose. 

There are a few different types of paints that people often use for doing face paints.

The first is a simple crayon or pencil. I haven't tried these, but a youth group at my church does face paints every year at the Halloween party, and they seemed to think they were not as easy as paint, which makes sense to me:

You then have actual face paint:





My sister-in-law just uses normal old acrylic paint:





Try this out with your children! You can do it for any holiday, sporting event, or even just something fun to do along with your weekly theme.

Halloween Books 2011

Here are 5 new recommendations for Halloween Books for you this year.

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat! by Lucille Colandro

My children enjoy these "old lady" books so much that we own almost all of them. This is the Halloween version.





Goodnight Goon by Michael Rex

This book is a parody on the classic book "Goodnight Moon."





Fancy Nancy: Halloween...or Bust! by Jane O'Conner

The Fancy Nancy books are an absolute favorite in our home. The kids love Fancy Nancy. The books bring in extensive vocabulary. This is our new Halloween book for this year.



10 Trick-or-Treaters by Janet Schulman

Count down backwards with this fun Halloween book.





Pick a Perfect Pumpkin by Robin Koontz

This is a book that is heavily science-oriented designed to teach about pumpkins.

Halloween Round-Up 2011

Looking for some Halloween fun activities to do this year at home or in your child's classroom? Here is a fun list.

• Halloween Round-up 2010
• Halloween Books 2009
• Halloween Books 2010

Baby Ghosts

Egg Carton Spiders

Fall Scenery

Family Outings

Halloween Traditions

Jack-O-Lantern Pancakes

Mummy "M"

Paper Cup Spider

Peanut Butter Pumpkins

Pumpkin Faces

Sugar Cookies

Sweet Treats Fall

Yarn Spider

Witch Cupcakes

Mummy "M"

Mmm...fun Halloween letter activity.

Age Range

Toddler and up. Young toddlers will need help.

Skills Learned

Letter and fine motor

Supplies

• Construction paper
• Letter "M"
• White Crepe paper
• Glue

Activity

1. If you are working with a toddler, cut out the "M" before you start.
2. If you are working with a preschooler or older, have her cut out the "M" herself. 
3. Have your child glue the "M" to her piece of construction paper.
4. Have her glue crepe paper over the "M" to turn the "M" into a Mummy!

Paper Cup Spider

This is a simple, fun craft to do at Halloween, while learning about insects, or while learning about the Eency Weency Spider nursery rhyme. This is something Brayden made a year ago at Preschool.

Age Range

Older Toddler and up.

Skills Taught

Fine motor

Supplies

• Paper cup
• Pipe cleaner cut into pieces (for legs)
• Eyes
• Marker for drawing if desired
• 1/8" elastic if desired (for putting around wrist)
• Glue

Prep

1. Cut paper cup down to size
2. Poke holes in paper cup for legs. This will make it easier for your child to get the legs in
3. Cut elastic to size
4. Cut pipe cleaner to size

Activity

This activity is simple. You have your child glue eyes on the spider and draw anything they want on the spider's body. You then have your child poke the pipe cleaner into the holes. Glue or staple the elastic to the bottom of the cup if desired. 

Your child can then put the cup on his wrist and walk it around and be a spider.

Halloween Books 2010

Last year, Raegan posted some of our favorite Halloween books. I wanted to add some more for you to check out this year.

Corduroy's Best Halloween Ever

This has been a favorite of Kaitlyn this year (age 3). She loves the Corduroy character.







Corduroy's Halloween

This is another favorite this year. It is a lift-the-flap book and is a favorite of Kaitlyn and McKenna (18 months).






Where is Baby's Pumpkin? by Karen Katz

This is McKenna's absolute favorite book this year. She carries it around all over the house, she looks at it while I change her diaper...she loves it. I love Karen Katz. She makes great books. This is lift the flap along with some touch and feel.





Go Away Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley

This isn't necessarily a Halloween book, but one I think is great to read this time of year. Kaitlyn just giggles the whole way through this book. It is a great book for telling those mosters to go away and that they aren't scary!





The Haunted Ghoul Bus by Lisa Trumbauer

This is Brayden's (age 5) favorite this year. It is great for school-aged children. This book is great. It is a bout a boy who accidentally gets on the Ghoul Bus instead of the School Bus. At first he is scared, but comes to like the "scary" folks on the bus. By the end, he is super sad to see them go. Great for teaching to get to know people, and also great for kids who might have some exposure to scary things around Halloween to help them not be scared.


I Like Pumpkins by Jerry Smath

This is another favorite of Brayden and also Kaitlyn this year. This book talks about all of the fun things to do with pumpkins at this time of year.





Duck and Goose Find a Pumpkin by Tad Hills

This is a new one with the beloved Duck & Goose characters.







Scaredy-Cat, Splat! by Rob Scotton

Also new and based on a popular character. Splat wants to be a scary cat at Halloween, but is too much of a scaredy cat to scar anyone.