Tag: Halloween

Halloween Countdown Day 7: Make “Gourd-geous” Faces

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Halloween 7 Gourdgeous Faces (7)

One week into October, the kids are loving our daily countdown towards Halloween. Older kids can help put together this quirky craft, while younger ones will definitely need your assistance. That said, the materials turn the project into sensory play, with a little bit of learning and imagination thrown in!

To make each face, round up a collection of gourds from a local farm or market, and then use items from your craft bin to turn those bumpy silly shapes into little creatures.

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You can talk about the shapes of the gourds as you work, or ask your child to spot the biggest one, the smallest one, or the one with the most colors.

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I added wiggle eyes, bead noses, and red felt mouths to each of our gourd friends with hot glue.

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One had a decidedly lopsided look!

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Meanwhile, Veronika was busy with all those materials, and I could tell she was mimicking my motion of “gluing” the items on.

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When the gourds were done, Veronika immediately dubbed the smallest one the “baby”. She loved pretending to add cheeks to it with additional beads, and pointed out its features. “She has eyes!” she said with delight.

Then she tucked it into bed under a piece of extra red felt. “She’s warm and dry,” she told me.

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So there you have it: Halloween gourds are so much more than just decoration, but great for playing pretend, too!

Halloween Countdown Day 5: Giant Chalk Pumpkin

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Halloween 5 chalk pumpkin (5)

In today’s run-up to Halloween anticipation, tell your kids they’re about to grow the biggest pumpkin in the world. Yes, bigger than the county fair winners; yes, bigger than the Great Pumpkin. How, you ask?

With chalk!

Head to your driveway or any similar large surface and pull out the orange and green chalk. Really the only limit was how much space we could color in with our one stick of orange. But we got nearly a patio-sized pumpkin.

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Bigger kids can help with the actual pumpkin; younger siblings will love scribbling with chalk alongside you.

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There was a sort of nostalgia to this project, too, since it’s likely a farewell to sidewalk chalk until spring.

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We’ll love looking out at our “pumpkin patch” for the next few days, until rain washes it away.

Monster Headbands

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Monster Headbands (4)

Here’s a fun costume craft from Travis’s latest Highlights magazine, perfect for spooky dress-up in October! We made two of the four suggested versions.

To start, wrap craft feather boas around plain headbands from the drugstore. You can simply wrap the boas, or use hot glue or adhesive dots to secure at the ends for more security.

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Our first monster had three big eyes on top. Glue black felt pupils onto white ping pong balls, and hot glue on top. If you want the eyes further above the head (which we did not do), attach them to the ends of boa-wrapped pipe cleaners instead.

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For the second monster, we made one big cyclops eye. I glued a large piece of felt onto a thin piece of cardboard, with two pipe cleaners glued in between. Add two more colors of felt, followed by a black felt pupil. Wrap the pipe cleaners around the top of the headband to secure.

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Note: You could also use this method of felt-glued-onto-thin-cardboard to make horn shapes, too, another version that we skipped.

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Travis loved making silly monster faces.

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And we even had an appearance from Baby Monster!

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Halloween Countdown Day 4: Crepe Paper Mummy Wraps

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Here’s another classic Halloween game that your children are sure to love as much as you did as a kid! Wrapping people up in crepe paper will always elicit giggles and get everyone in the Halloween spirit (heh).

Just grab a roll of crepe paper and start wrapping. Both my kids were eager little mummies, standing still with such curiosity while I wound around them. Travis went first…

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…and Veronika immediately needed a turn!

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They loved trying to walk with their legs tightly bound.

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And to break free from the grave, of course!

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And then they thought it was hilarious to wrap up mommy, and watch me stumble about.

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As a bonus, all that leftover crepe paper is sure to be a hit with the kids, too! No crepe paper? No problem! Grab a roll of toilet paper to do this activity instead.

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Interpretive Pumpkin Painting

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Pumpkin Art for Toddlers (8)

Veronika and I did a quick abstract art project today to help her paint her first “pumpkin”!

I love art at around age 2, because toddlers are just beginning to tell you what they’re drawing, even if you can’t always see it. So I thought it would be fun to guide Veronika through a jack o’ lantern painting. I set out watercolor paper along with orange and black paint.

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“A pumpkin starts as an orange circle,” I told her. Of course her pumpkin was going to be “abstract”, but she loved dabbing the orange on the paper.

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She quickly was more interested in black paint, pressing the brush firmly onto the paper, which almost made black triangles. So I showed black triangle eyes on my pumpkin!

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As she worked on her “pumpkin”, I worked on mine. Often, I find myself jumping in with my kids’ artwork, and this project was the perfect reminder to let her take ownership of her work.

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She told me she was drawing a black square, and we talked lots about shapes and colors as we worked.

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In the end, we had a perfect toddler pumpkin painting, and a mommy one to boot!

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Halloween Countdown Day 3: Jack O’ Paper Plates

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Halloween 3 Cute Paper Plates (4)

We kept our Halloween countdown simple with a classic today, since it was a busy Saturday. But we knew we wanted to fit in at least some Halloween fun!

So grab white paper plates and any orange coloring supplies, and turn those plates into pumpkins.

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I used marker, while Veronika preferred orange crayon.

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Next I cut facial features from black construction paper. Older siblings can help with the cutting and little ones will no doubt want to help glue the shapes on with a glue stick.

I kept our pumpkins friendly looking so they weren’t scary, but certainly feel free to make them spooky if your kids are older.

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They look perfect over a doorway in our house. Boo!

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Halloween Countdown Day 2: Spider Web Stroll

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Now that our kitchen is nice and spooky, it was time to continue our countdown to Halloween with a hunt for outdoor spookiness!

Veronika has a love-hate relationship with spiders; she’s clearly a little fearful of them, but also drawn to looking at them, particularly one that lives in our kitchen window.

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That tension is probably why spiders are the perfect just-scary-enough Halloween decoration for little kids. There’s a fear factor, but you can also show your child that there’s nothing to really fear. To help, go on a spider web walk!

As we strolled around our neighborhood, we kept our eyes open for pretty webs. You can demystify spiders for your toddler by looking up close, and finding webs that are close to a perfect circle.

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Bonus points for any you find with dew drops or a spider in it! But for all that, Veronika prefers the fake spiders strung up on our bushes, which is just fine too.

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Halloween Shaving Cream Sensory Activity

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To get in the mood for all things orange this month, I turned the color into a sensory experience for Veronika today!

To start, I filled a shallow tray with a thick layer of foamy shaving cream. You can use orange food coloring for the next step, but I preferred to drizzle on some red and some yellow.

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This way, Veronika could see it “magically” turn orange as we mixed it all together.

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She wasn’t hesitant about getting her hands in it, but she quickly decided she didn’t like being goopy.

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Instead, I passed over a paintbrush. Now, she loved stirring through! So we pulled out orange and black construction paper and soon she was smearing the pages with the mixture. To make it more like puffy paint, add a little glue and stir to combine.

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As a final messy element (since, heck, we were already a mess!), sprinkle a little glitter on before the puffy paint dries. Once dry, scrape off any excess shaving cream.

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This is great way to have Halloween-themed sensory play with one- and two-year-olds, even before they’re old enough to understand the holiday!

Mansion of Mystery

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Cardboard Haunted House (10)

We’re kicking off Halloween with a big BOO around here! This project is definitely a complicated one, but so worth the effort when your kids see not just a dollhouse but a haunted dollhouse… that includes its very own witch!

To assemble the house, start collecting cardboard boxes, empty paper towel tubes, and empty toilet paper rolls, and wait until you have a good assortment. Paint all of the cardboard pieces with black acrylic paint and let dry. I recommend two coats of paint for maximum spookiness.

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The next day, I mixed and matched the boxes and tubes until I liked the arrangement, and then used hot glue to attach everything together.

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On the third day, I added adornments. Cut squares of yellow construction paper to be window panes and arrange in groups of 4 around your boxes. I also had one arched window for added spookiness.

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For tower tops, cut circles from black construction paper and cut one notch in toward the center of each, then fold into cones and use tape or glue to attach atop each paper towel tube

For doors, cut shapes from brown construction paper, either rectangular or arched. One door couldn’t actually open, and had a red bead glued on as a handle.

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Because Travis requested we actually be able to put figures inside the house, I cut one box so it was open in the back and added doors that could swing open and closed.

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You can get a lot crazier with decoration, using construction paper for a fence or shutters, or adding additional boxes cut on the diagonal for a roof. But I reined in the haunted-housiness there.

All we needed now was a witch! Paint a toilet paper tube black. Once completely dry, paint a green square on the top for the face. You’ll need several coats of green to hide the black. Cut a rectangle from black felt and fringe the bottom with scissors, then glue on for hair.

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Add facial details with marker. So as not to spook the kids, we had a happy witch.

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You can make a whole witch family if you have enough cardboard tubes. Want to get really crafty? Add brooms! Just glue fringed brown construction paper around the bottom of a short stick.

Needless to say, I think the kids will find ways to play with this house all October.

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Not-So-Spooky Spider Handprint Window Cling

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It’s October which means it’s officially time for all things spooky! For this particular decoration, we started the night before to give the paint time to dry. In the morning, we then could quickly assemble a few spiders in the window.

Tape a piece of contact paper onto a table, with the backing still on. Paint your child’s hand with black washable paint, making sure to paint only the palm and 4 fingers, but not the thumb.

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Press onto the contact paper, then immediately repaint the hand and press again so the palms overlap and the 4 fingers stick out in the opposite direction. An 8-legged spider!

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Veronika loves getting paint all over hands, so I didn’t have to sell her on this project one bit. We made two baby spiders and then she giggled as I painted my own hand for a mommy spider. We invited big brother Travis to contribute a medium spider, but he didn’t want his hand painted.

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Once the paint dried, we added wiggle eyes for decoration. You can add smiles or other accessories to your spiders, too, if desired!

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For the web, use white glue to create a web design in the corner of a windowpane. The internet tells me that this will peel off easily when the time comes, and I sure hope so!

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In the meantime, peel the backing off the contact paper spiders, and simply stick to the window. They look just spooky enough up there.

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