R is for Robot!

Books

We borrowed these fun books for our robot day. Another favorite, which we discovered during our Robot Unit two years ago, is Boy + Bot. This is always such a fun theme!

Letter Recognition

For our letter R activity today, I gave Little M&M and Honey Pot a template of the letter R to fill with robot stickers. I found these at the Dollar Tree, and we had plenty leftover for future sticker activities.

Robot Tinker Tray

We had done a tinker tray for the first time last Halloween. It was one of the most engaging activities we had ever done! We had done foam pumpkins at the time, but with most of the same supplies we used this time.

    

For this activity, I used floral foam and foil, both purchased from the Dollar Tree.

And here is what I provided at the kids' craft table: pom poms, straws, pipe cleaners, rubber bands, toothpicks, paper clips, hole punch reinforcements, thumb tacks, brads and googly eyes. I also set out some glue and a pair of scissors.

They were so excited to get started! Little M&M was a big fan of the rubber bands.

While Honey Pot went crazy with toothpicks.

Here she is attaching two foam blocks together to make a larger robot!

And Little M&M loves scissors. He cut all of the straws into teeny tiny pieces.

I sat right beside them, working on my own robot, so I could watch them closely with the sharper pieces. They were both very careful.

Here is Honey Pot's first finished product:

Mine:

And Little M&M's:

We used these for pretend play, all the while rearranging their parts and adding more pieces. Here, Honey Pot added rubber band bracelets:

Lots of pom pom antenna:

And here is the little baby robot she made.

It was a super fun activity and, just as the Halloween version, lasted a long time!

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Halloween Crafts and Activities!

To see some of the Halloween activities we've done in the past click on the links below, or keep scrolling to see what we did this year:

Halloween 2013
Footprint Ghost Craft
Pumpkin/Jack-o-Lantern Theme

Books

These are the books we borrowed from the library this year, and we combined them with our home collection. Our very favorite is Big Pumpkin!

Pom Pom Pumpkin Painting

I provided the kids with a template of a pumpkin, orange paint and a pom pom in a clothespin. It is such a unique way to paint, and they were eager to give it a try! Little M&M used the method I imagined they both would...stamping:

while Honey Pot chose to paint with it as if it were a brush:

Both very different, and both very cute! After the orange was complete, they each painted the stems brown. But I have no final product pictures beyond this:

Candy Corn Craft

This idea and template comes from Thriving Home. First we worked on our scissor skills.

Then squeezed glue onto our template...

and added our paper to look like a candy corn.

Playdoh

We pull out our playdough so much, that I often forget to take pictures. Here is one I snapped of princess Honey Pot using our Halloween cookie cutters to make a ghost.

And then I snapped this picture too, before another session:

Sticky Paper Ghost

This craft was inspired by Sunny Day Family. I often try to vary our craft materials where I can, and so I loved the idea of a fuzzy-belly ghost! I printed a ghost onto cardstock, cut out a large section from its belly and placed it onto contact paper with the sticky side up. The kids enjoyed placing the cottonballs on it, and having such a great sensory experience in their final product!

Jack-o-Lantern Felt Board

I pulled out our trusty felt board, which I created back in 2012, and the kids enjoyed making various faces.

Tinker Tray + Pumpkins

I saw this idea on Meri Cheri, and their pumpkins are incredible! We had never done a "tinker tray" before but we will surely be doing one again! I filled a muffin pan with various materials, and provided each child with a foam pumpkin from the Dollar Tree. This invitation was waiting for them at the craft table during "Patch Time" today.

They were SO excited, and so free to do as they please. It was so much fun to watch!

And they came up with some awesome ideas.

Little M&M decided to do some threading and made a snake.

And elephant pumpkin!

A work of art!

Their imaginations never cease to amaze me. And I am not exaggerating when I say that this activity lasted hours. We must do it again.

Monster Math

I did this activity last year with Honey Pot during our Monster Theme, and it's something that Little M&M loves to pull out on his own now and then. The idea originates from No Time for Flashcards. You really can't go wrong with googly eyes, in any craft or activity. So why not add some math!

Monster Wreath

Little M&M also made a monster wreath by painting the outer edge of a plate, and gluing on googly eyes. This was an impromptu craft, though it came out all right!

Name Recognition Activity

I created a pumpkin patch for Little M&M, where each pumpkin had a letter from his name. There was one set printed on paper, and one set cut out. He had to pick up a pumpkin and match it to the page to spell his name. Fun activity, and it really helps with letter recognition.

Halloween Worksheets

Honey Pot completed a connect-the-dot and color-by-number, though I do not really have photos of them! The printables come from Ziggity Zoom.

Pumpkin Seeds - Witch's Hat Craft

We dyed pumpkin seeds to use to decorate a witch's hat! Little M&M helped with the mixing in the morning while Honey Pot was at preschool.

They took a long time to dry, so we wound up completing the craft the following day. The kids spread some glue onto a coloring page of a witch's hat, and stuck on the pumpkin seeds.

So cute!

Mummy Craft

We created mummies by wrapping white yarn around cardstock cutouts.

Add googly eyes...ta da!

 Happy Halloween!