sssssssssssssssssssss........

For a little Friday afternoon fun, I thought I'd share a few photos of our diy Halloween decor this year - giant snakes!!!  I know, I know!  Halloween was a week ago, but - gah!  I can't get enough of these two slithery fellows...

I made them from flat, twin-sized sheets I found at the thrift store.  Elise and I stuffed them with leaves, and the rest is history!  Well, it was actually a lot more work than that, but they did come together in the end - and they were a huge hit with all our trick-or-treaters!  ;)

Happy weekend, friends!

happy halloween!

Happy Halloween!!!

We've already been cruising around the neighborhood, 

checking out decorations - in full-costume, of course.  

I don't know who's more excited for trick-or-treating tonight... 

me or Elise!  Ha! 

If you celebrate Halloween, I hope your day is "bear-y" sweet and spooky!  ;)

muffin tin tuesday

In honor of Halloween (which is only next week - eeeek!!!), Elise and I filled a muffin tin with orange-colored foods for our afternoon snack.  It'd been awhile since we'd had a special-themed snack in a muffin tin, and Elise LOVED it.  Food is such a fun and meaningful way to explore colors, textures, and shapes - I need to remember to do this more often with her!

from the top left:  

chipotle tortilla wedges, sweet mini pepper, goldfish crackers, orange juice
shredded golden beet, rotini pasta, sesame stick crackers, mandarin oranges
cheddar cheese cubes, garden carrots, dried apricots, sun gold tomatoes

Did I mention Elise LOVED this snack?!  She really did.  While she's usually an eat-and-run kind of girl, this snack captured her attention for awhile.  Maybe all those little muffin tin compartments appealed to her sense of order?  ;)

Do you ever make special-themed muffin tin snacks for your little ones?  I'd love to hear your suggestions!

spooky spooning

What's spookier than a bowlful of spiders?!

A bowlful of hidden spiders, of course!!!!

EEEEEEEK!!!!!!!!!

This past week, Elise has enjoyed using her wire strainer 

to sift plastic spiders out of a bowl of red lentils.

If you don't have a wire strainer, try using a slotted spoon or just your hands.

It's quite thrilling to sink your fingers right into the lentils, and feel around for the spiders...  

that is - if you dare!!!!!

Happy weekend, friends!

halloween recap

E's first Halloween experience

as a trick-or-treater

was a HUGE success!  ;)

We mostly people-watched and checked out decorations,

but Elise did some actual trick-or-treating, too.

She figured out the routine pretty quickly:

Find the person with candy.

Take a piece.  Drop it in the bucket.

Repeat.

As it turns out, 

Elise LOVES candy.

Ha!

Here are my tips for making a confusing holiday like Halloween fun for a young toddler:

• Try on costumes with friends and family before Halloween.  I set up a costume corner for Elise a couple weeks before Halloween.  She tried on costumes with friends and family, and had lots of fun. She also went to a Halloween party the day before Halloween, and played with other children wearing costumes.  On Halloween night, Elise didn't seem at all surprised or frightened to see people in costumes.  Occasionally, she squealed in delight when she saw someone whose look really struck her fancy!
• Choose a costume that your child can relate to.  Next year, Elise will choose her own costume, but at 15 months, it was up to me and Hubs.  One of Elise's first animal sounds was a monkey, and she always gets really excited when she sees monkeys in books, so "monkey" seemed like a fairly logical costume choice.  
• Include your child in the costume-making/ buying process.  Elise participated in putting together her costume from start to finish.  She went to the craft store to pick out the pattern and supplies, and she tried on the costume as my mom and I sewed.  If you're buying a costume, invite your child to go shopping with you, and if possible, let them try on costumes in the store to check fit and style. 
• Give your child time to get used to wearing the costume.  As soon as Elise's costume was finished, it was available for her to wear throughout the day for a week or so before Halloween.  By the time the big day rolled around, it was covered in food (!), but she was also really comfortable wearing it.
• Look at Halloween decorations in the daylight.  Not all Halloween decorations are as cute as my owls!  On Halloween morning, Elise and I walked our trick-or-treating route, and watched people putting up decorations.  Many of our neighbors explained to Elise what they were doing, and invited her to come by to trick-or-treat that night.  I was also able to see which houses would be too scary to walk by in the dark (i.e. the house with zombies crawling out of the yard).  
• Take your time packing up the decor.  This applies to all holidays!  As an adult, I'm usually ready to put away the holiday the day after it's done, but I learned as a teacher, it's better for kiddos to do it gradually.  There's so much build-up before a holiday; putting things away over the course of a week can prevent children from feeling totally letdown.  Elise is still playing in her costume corner, and our jack-o-lantern is smiling at us from the nature table in our living room.  

Do you have any Halloween tips?  I'm looking for some suggestions on what to do about all that candy - scary!  It was out-of-sight, out-of-mind this year for Elise, but I have no idea how we'll approach the sugar rush next year...

paper bag owls

This Halloween decoration was inspired by my 15-month-old daughter's love of owls.  I made these owls during her afternoon nap, and surprised her when she woke up!  Elise helps me with most projects, but this one seemed more appropriate for a slightly older child. 

materials

• paper bags (large owl is a leaf bag, small owls are gift bags with the handles cut off)
• leaves
• masking tape
• paint/markers
• glue
• wall bumpers (large owl eyes)
• ping pong balls (small owl eyes)
• sharpie 
• x-acto knife/scissors
• orange card stock

1. Fill bags with leaves, pressing down every so often to make compact.  (We live in a windy place, so I put large rocks in the bottoms of my bags first to keep them from blowing over.)
2. Tape the top of the bag closed, shaping the sides into "ears."  I used painter's tape, but masking tape would be ideal.  (see above photo)
3. If your bag has writing on it, you'll probably want to paint over it.  I used spray paint to paint the large owl I made from the leaf bag.  I didn't paint my small owls because I made them with plain bags.
4. Use paint or markers to add details like feathers, wings, etc.   I used a black sharpie for the details on the white owl.  I used white paint on the other two owls.
5. Draw pupils on wall bumper and ping pong ball eyes with a sharpie.  I used double-sided tape to attach wall bumper eyes to the large owl.  The ping pong ball eyes were a little trickier to attach.  First, I cut ping pong ball sized X's with an x-acto knife where I wanted the eyes to be on the owls.  Then, I applied glue to the backs of the ping pong balls and pressed them into the X's.  
6. Cut triangles out of orange card stock for the beaks, folding down the center to add dimension.  Use glue to attach beaks to the owls. 
7. Done!  Give your finished owls a kiss - that's what Elise does.  ;)

Hoo Hoo's excited for Halloween?!?!!!!

"I spy" tub

"I spy with my little eye..."

Halloween treasures hidden in a tub of leaves!

Elise has enjoyed digging through this tub of leaves to discover

ornamental gourds, a rat, a bat, a carnival squash, and a snake.

A few reasons why I think this "I spy" activity is great...

• It offers lots of language opportunities.  Elise is just beginning to say words, so I mostly just name the objects.  As she becomes more confident with the items in the tub, I've been challenging her to "spy" certain items (I never ask her to find something if I'm not completely sure she knows what I'm talking about, though.).  An older child could look for items of a certain color, beginning sound, texture, etc.   
• It provides a sensory experience.  Just digging through the leaves alone activates the senses!  I also tried to select objects with a variety of textures, so they would feel different from the leaves and each other.  Elise has been using her sense of sight to find most of the objects, but an older child might enjoy closing his or her eyes or wearing a blindfold to "see with the hands" instead.
• It reinforces object permanence.  The first time Elise did this activity, she didn't know what she would find in the leaves.  All the times after (oh, there were many more times!), Elise knew that even though the rat was hidden in the leaves, it was still there.  An older child may be able to recall from memory some or all of the items that have yet to be found.   
• Last, but not least - you can count the objects!  Sometimes, after we've taken everything out of the tub, I count the objects aloud.  I also say things like, "I spy one more thing!" as we look through the leaves.  Once an older child knows how many items there are total, he or she will be able to use addition/subtraction to determine how many objects are still hidden.
• Oh, I thought of one more thing!  I'm not sure about this, but it there has to be something to seeing just part of an object and knowing what the whole is.  For instance, in the top photo, only a small part of the snake is showing, but since you know what the objects are now, you know it's the snake.

Happy Halloween week, friends!  ;)  

pumpkin scrubbing

Pumpkin covered in muck and mud?  No problem - just scrub, scrub, scrub!

The weather here has been gorgeous lately -

perfect for scrubbing pumpkins al fresco!

1. Pour warm water from a pitcher into a small dish.
2. Scrub, scrub, scrub!
3. Use the dishcloth to wipe up spills and dry your pumpkin.

The next day we cut our pumpkin open,

and cleaned out the seeds and pulp.

I steamed the flesh and we used it to bake pumpkin bars.

It was fun to do so many things with one little orange squash!

(The bad news?  It looks a lot better than it tastes!  If you want a yummy pumpkin recipe, 

try this Ultimate Pumpkin Bread Recipe - we made it a couple weeks ago, and it was amazing!)

Happy weekend!

spiderweb felt board

A spooky felt board is just right for little fingers in search of some Halloween fun!

materials

• felt or batting (I used batting)
• embroidery floss
• plastic spiders 
• thrifted frame 

First, sew the web onto the batting by making BIG stitches with the embroidery floss - each section of the web should be just one stitch.  Then, wrap the batting around a piece of cardboard, and stick it into the frame.  Finally - the fun part - arrange the spiders on the web.  They will sort of stick by snagging on the batting, but make them more secure by tucking a leg or two into the web.  

I hung our spiderweb felt board up in Elise's costume corner - 

this place is seriously the most popular spot in the house right now! 

Easy, right?  But. are you brave enough to stick the spiders on???  

EEEEK!!!!!!

More Halloween fun here.

the costume corner

As Halloween approaches, I've been trying to think of ways to introduce this kind of crazy holiday to my 15-month-old.  Don't get me wrong, I think Halloween is loads of fun, but it must be pretty confusing to a little person who is just trying to figure out reality.  People dressed as animals?  Masks?  Wigs?  Oh, my...

My solution:  temporarily transform our book nook into a costume corner.  I mean, what better way to explore the idea of wearing a costume than to try on masks and wigs with your friends and family?  In case you can't tell from the above photo, Elise thinks it's great!  ;)

A witch's hat, small masks, wigs, headband ears, and play scarves 

are simple, durable costume accessories for a toddler to experiment with.

Everybody's getting in on the fun!

10 more days 'till Halloween...

eee-hee-hee-hee-heeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Click here to check out some of my favorite Halloween activity posts from the past!

busy hands

tweezing terrifying spiders
from a box filled with black beans
{much easier to clean up than rice!}

lacing wallpaper pumpkins
{more durable than regular paper}

pumpkin number sequencing
{the idea for this came from My Montessori Journey}

opening bottles
{filled with imaginary potions}

using tongs to arrange orange puffs on a palette

rolling out sugar cookie dough
{get the recipe here}

cutting out a bat

and adding the final touches...

ta da!
the scary treats fresh from the oven
{We ate them all day long!}

our finished jack-o-lantern mosaic
{Featured today over at The Crafty Crow!}

Happy Halloween Eve!

a jack-o-lantern mosaic

Many of you lovely blogging friends gave me great ideas
of things to do with paint swatches.

SO,
today we used them to make a jack-o-lantern mosaic.



First, I drew an outline of a jack-o-lantern on a big piece of paper.
I set out paint swatches in shades of orange, green and black.
I cut and glued on a few, so the children would get the idea
of what colors went where.

In the beginning, it was a little tricky for some of the children
to visualize what in the world we were trying to make,
but as the jack-o-lantern filled in, they all caught on.

It was kind of like working on a big puzzle...
each child stopped by the mosaic throughout the day,
pausing to cut and glue on a piece or two (or twenty),
and then went along with his or her daily business.

It's not quite finished
{it will be waiting for the children tomorrow morning}
but I wanted to give you a peek at how beautiful it is.

I love the sense of community it's brought to the classroom, too.
The children so often make things for themselves or their families;
it's been extra special for them to make something for their classroom!

black light fun

It was pretty much like a Montessori
RAVE
in the cubby room this morning.

I covered up the windows and replaced the regular light bulbs
with black compact fluorescents.
{purchased at Home Depot after searching all over town}

What better way to start a Monday morning
than drawing with highlighters under a black light!

Our clothes were glowing, the paper was glowing,
and the fluorescent markers were nearly electric.

After everyone had a turn to draw,
we busted out the Putumayo World Music
and danced with silky neon scarves.

It was awesome.

I think fluorescent play dough would be REALLY fun under a black light.
{Next time!}

sweet and scary

The idea for these scary {and sweet} spiders
came from Jennifer at Ramblings of a Crazy Woman.
She is one busy, crafty lady!

Each child painted a section of an egg carton.
{We used brown, purple, and black paint.}

The children selected googly eyes
and glued them onto their spiders.

Then came the tricky part,
we had to WAIT for the paint to dry.

Whew! It was intense!
Have you ever watched paint dry?!!!

When the paint was almost dry,
I poked 8 holes in each spider with a corn cob skewer.
Then, the children counted-out 8 pipe cleaner legs
and pushed them through the tiny holes.

Aren't they spook-tabulous?
I love the way the indentations on the bottom of the
egg carton make the spiders look like they're smiling. :)

FYI: I did this as an afternoon project with a group of five 3-4 year olds.