Halloween Roundup

Halloween is SATURDAY. Fall is here and October has been crazy! But thankfully soccer is over and I'm feeling the blogging bug and hope to dive back into this thing that was once my thing. So here's a little Halloween roundup for the two or three of you who still read my blog!

 But first, a really cute picture of me and my kids (and an example of why I don't blog anymore. All I do is lay on my hammock and pay my children to brush my hair.)

The Letter B

B is for Boo!

This is my favorite book for the Halloween season, ever. I love it and every one of my kids has loved it. I've done this activity once before, but we did it again and it was a hit.

 I like acting out each part as we read this book together and your kids can help with the sounds that each part of the (spoiler-alert!) scarecrow makes. My two year old was so nervous by the time that jack-o-lantern said, "BOO!" I knew that was the word that we needed to run with for the letter B.

 Every Fall, I add a bit to my collection of Halloween crafts and I happened to have a bunch of foam pumpkins left over with sticker faces that make them into jack-o-lanterns. You could use construction paper, felt, or even have your child paint faces onto a paper plate pumpkin to make their own jack-o-lantern. The possibilities are overwhelming.

 I let my little ones decorate as many pumpkins as they wanted and we traced some hands because someday I will burst into tears when I open my Halloween bin and see those tiny fingers.

 We talked about the story and decided that we needed to go find a pumpkin head for our own scarecrow we had made out of Edison's clothes, pronto. He currently looked like a lifeless toddler-sized body laying on our front stairs. 

We went on a field trip for Joy School that same day to an elk farm in the valley, which happened to have a self-serve pumpkin farm close by. That's when I realized that I had no cash and had to take all of my children into a local grocery store, by myself. Then back to the pumpkin farm. Then back to the grocery store where they actually had better prices on pumpkins.

But that's another story.

 Gosh, I'm lucky.

 But we did find just the right sized-head for our own scare-crow and Charlotte drew on a face that seemed to shout, 

"BOO!"

"B is for Bats"

The next day, my older girls didn't have school so we kept the ball rolling with our Letter of the Week and did "B is for Bats."

 This idea came from a cute blog I recently found called Crafty Morning.

I like it because it's an activity that can work for a variety of ages.

First, I printed off a few of the templates provided by Crafty Morning, HERE.

Then I had the able-scissor-handed kids (did I say that right?), cut them out. 

As modeled so brightly by Charlotte here.

Tape the bats onto white or black paper, depending on the color of paints you want to use.

I gave each kid a paper plate with paint on it and a pencil with an eraser for the dots.

Dip the end of your pencil into the paint and outline the bat first, then move outward, keeping the dots heavy around the bats so they show up when you remove them after the paint dries.

Knowing my personality, I would have never guessed that making a big crafty mess on my table with a bunch of kids (we had a few extras) would be my thing. 

But this picture makes me so happy.

 Even my two year old enjoyed this activity for about 30 minutes. I gave him a paintbrush and he later added some of his sister's discarded bat stencils.

I always try to drive it home with one last refresher before we move on. Today we read some more "B" books from the library and practiced writing the letter B on paper.

I had some bug stickers that we used to cover the B, reiterating it's shape.

 

Here are some more books that help teach this letter:

Top Ten Halloween Books

I really love children's literature. I'm slowly compiling a little library of my favorites thanks to the Weber County Library sale every August, but I thought I'd share my top choices for this time of year:

 I love this book. And if you search, you can find so many fun crafts and activities that go along with it. My kids love reciting it with me and we've read it over and over again. 

This is a cute book about finding your place. 

I just love that last line, "Oh my Gosh, I'm a Squash!"

This is probably my number one. Maybe it's because I have two daughters who are a bit like this. Angela copies her sister's costume every year, until finally one year she gets creative and comes up with something all on her own. The ending is awesome, with an act of sisterly love. 

Read it, you'll love it. (Name that movie.)

This book builds a monster face page by page and then it all goes away slowly as you tell it to "go away" piece by piece. This is another one my daughter wanted to read over and over again.

 

 

This one is entertaining. Some pages have things that are hard enough to keep my six year old searching, but most are easy enough for my four year old as well.

I love a good book about witches and this one has a nice moral. This little witch has two older sisters who know everything and tell her that she has no powers. So she goes out and figures out what makes her a unique and powerful witch. It's a good one.

These books are adorable. I love the illustrations and the names of each bug they come up with. Always a fun read. This is one that you'll want to read with your kids and not leave alone with them.  Those bugs are fragile.

 Haven't we all learned life's most important lessons from the Berenstein Bears?

This one is no exception. Remember it from my childhood.

  

Here's one that's new to me and I've never read the ending. It kept popping up when I was searching out my favorite books on Amazon and has great reviews. Anyone read it?

I'm going to find it at our library and try it out. Love those witches.

And your Halloween favorites? Please do share.

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??