Happy Halloween!

We wish you a very happy Halloween with a look back at Halloweens past.

Eva's 1st Halloween:

My sweet little bumblebee!

Her second Halloween- the Halloween hedgehog:

And this year- a Gentoo Penguin 

(she was very specific as to which species of penguin she wanted to be!):

Have a Spooktacular day!

Are you Ready for Halloween?

We are!  Eva got to go trick-or-treating at our local children's museum on Friday.

They had lots of cute games to play in order to get the treats- here she's looking for Little Bo Peep's lost sheep.  But in typically Eva fashion, she went straight to the crafts.

She made two paper lanterns- a pumpkin and a cat.  She did all the cutting herself.

We also carved pumpkins today and set out our ghost luminaries.

Now we are going to get a good night's sleep so we are ready for all the fun Halloween has in store for us!

Halloween Games

I've added some Halloween games to our exploration station.  The first is a simple counting game using little pumpkin buckets and lima bean ghosts (similar to the dalmatians here- thanks for the idea Kathy!).  We are working on counting larger numbers so I labeled the buckets 10-15 and Eva had to count out the correct number of ghosts to go in each.

I thought it was neat that she counted them out on the floor first before placing them in the buckets.  It definitely made it easier to recount if she lost track.

I love how the ghosts look peeking out!

I also whipped up a quick Halloween matching game by placing stickers on squares of cardstock.  We play memory with the pictures facing up but I think Eva may be ready for the trickier version soon.

We have a similar game that came in our October issue of High Five that we can also play.

The sensory tub has gotten a little spookier

and the pompoms have been replaced with spiders in the tonging activity.

There is also a bowl of Halloween finger puppets and rings for Eva to explore (or stick all over Mommy)

and another counting activity using number cards and mini erasers from the dollar bins at Target.

The pumpkin pie play dough is still getting lots of use along with a collection of Halloween cookie cutters.

Finally we made a spider web using yarn and a paper plate.

I made a little die for Eva to roll to see how many spiders to place on the web.

I think we have enough to keep us occupied until the big day arrives!

 

stART- The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything

This is such a fun book for this time of year!  Eva loves acting out the motions of all the things that follow the little old lady home so we get some movement in with a story.  Today we gathered up some materials and went outside to reenact the story.

First the shoes went CLOMP CLOMP,

the pants went WIGGLE, WIGGLE,

the shirt went SHAKE, SHAKE,

the gloves went CLAP, CLAP,

the hat went NOD, NOD,

and the scary pumpkin head went BOO, BOO!

Then we used all the materials to make a scarecrow just like the little old lady.  Eva helped crumple up newspaper for the stuffing.

When all the pieces were stuffed, we put our new buddy together on the front porch.

Are you afraid?  Eva isn't!

 

Halloween Parade and Footprint Ghosts

Eva decided many months ago that she wanted to be a penguin for Halloween and she was so excited to show off her costume to the neighborhood at our annual Halloween parade!

I love how it turned out and how happy she is wearing it.  We had so much fun parading around the playground!

When we got home we made some quick and easy ghosts.  I just painted the bottom of one of Eva's feet and she stamped on some dark blue paper.  When the footprints dried, I added a little note to them.  Boo was one of the first words that Eva learned how to read so she loves seeing it everywhere this time of year.

Halloween is Coming!

With just one week to go until Halloween, we are finally doing some holiday related things.  Get ready for a spooktacular time!

Crafts
Halloween Ornaments- we'll transform styrofoam meat trays into some snazzy decorations

Lollipop Ghosts- who hasn't made these classic Halloween treats?  Eva needs to join the club!

Ghost Footprints- Eva's little feet will turn spooky for this craft

Ghost Luminaries- we saw this in Family Fun magazine and started savings our milk jugs

Spider Web Weaving- a paper plate will become a home for spiders

Activities
Trick or Treat Alphabet Game- Eva will sort Halloween treats by beginning letter sounds

Spiders on the Web- we'll use the spider web we made to play a fun counting game

Halloween Memory- like typical memory only with spookier pictures

Monster Mash- we'll dance to some spooky tunes

Costume Parade- our neighborhood has an annual Halloween parade and party at the local playground that we don't want to miss!

Books