Friday, October 25, 2013

Spooky Lanterns and our Favorite Halloween Traditions

Halloween is just around the corner! We've been getting into the spirit of things with some of our favorite Halloween traditions...

The Spooky House 
For some reason, gingerbread houses intimidate me and I've never tried making one with my kids. But a spooky house made out of graham crackers and black frosting with candy corns and marshmallow ghosts? Bring it on.

 My husband is in charge of construction. The rest of us decorate and sneak candy.



Pumpkin Faces
I originally posted this activity a few years back here with a few other toddler games for Halloween. I pulled out our felt pumpkin with the various shapes for facial features this year and it kept my two year old busy for a little while. It's a great way to review shapes.




Pom-pom Drop
 This was a big hit last year.  I put pom-poms inside of a mini plastic pumpkin and showed my toddler how to place them inside the paper towel holder that I taped to the edge of a small table.
 
Then the pom-poms fall inside of the bigger plastic pumpkin and they get can start all over once the mini pumpkin is empty! I thought it was fool-proof...
 
 
But boys are different. Edison did enjoy this activity for a few minutes until he noticed me watching and decided to throw all of the pom-poms onto the floor. THEN, he ran over to our art cabinet, found the big box of pom-poms and started to empty it as fast as he could before I could run over with my big 8 month pregnant belly and stop him. Fail.
But try it. Maybe just with girls.

Spooky Lanterns
This was a new activity for us this year and it's a keeper. We're studying the letter L this week, so I wanted to make some spooky Lanterns.  
 We started by decorating our paper with some spooky designs.
 
Then we folded it in half lengthwise and I marked where I wanted my four year old to cut lines, from the fold to about an inch from the edge of the paper.
 
 
 Pull the ends of your paper together and secure with tape.
 We added a handle at the top by cutting a strip of paper and taping it to the inside of the lantern. Then we added Halloween stickers to the outside just to make them spookier.

 We plan to light them at night with our battery-powered tea lights.
 You can make the lanterns tall and skinny or short and "plump" by trimming off some of the paper along the long or short side of the sheet.
Once my oldest daughter came home from school, we got really creative and made a ghost, a vampire bat, and a witch (not pictured because she was immediately hung from my daughter's ceiling).
 I came across a book about Chinese lanterns at the library called Lin Yi's Lantern.
 
I think the book has a good moral and is a good one if you want to learn a bit more about the Chinese Moon Festival. But just FYI, it has nothing to do with Halloween and does not hold the attention of 4 and under. 

I will, however, be posting about my top ten Halloween books over the weekend. 
Have fun getting ready for Halloween!


P.S. Aren't my kids cute??
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