Halloween!

Honey Pot is 3 years and 5 months old

Little M&M is 19 months old

Books

We nabbed a few books from the library, and combined them with a few from our own collection as well. We read them again and again throughout the week!

Spiderweb Sensory

We had leftover spiderweb material from our decorations this year, so I decided to let Little M&M play with it a little bit. I spread it out over a tray, and placed a few spiders inside. He had fun plucking at the spiders and trying to free them from the web.

Q-Tip Skeleton Craft

I had seen these all over Pinterest, and had to let Honey Pot give it a try! I free-handed the skull, which wound up being way out of proportion, but oh well. This is why I don't freehand things! Then I cut and bent the q-tips that Honey Pot would need for her craft. I let her start with the gluing.

For the ribs, I showed her exactly where to squeeze the glue.

Here is the final product. Honey Pot was so proud!

Halloween Breakfast

On the morning of Halloween, I gave the kids a small surprise on their banana halves. Just a few mini chocolate chips, but they recognized it immediately as a ghost! It was a nice way to start the holiday, to show them that today was a special day.

Haunted House Math

This idea comes from No Time for Flashcards. She free-handed her haunted house, but I couldn't take such a risk! I found a cute one from The Adventures of a Polka-Dotted Teacher and printed it out. First I had Honey Pot color it in with crayons.

Then she glued it onto a piece of her favorite color paper.

I wrote numbers inside each window and door, then drew dots on the bottom of each ghost for her to match up to them.

She counted the dots, and glued them onto the haunted house where they belonged. She did great!

Here it is!

Jack-o-Lantern Felt Board

I created this last year, and it was great fun. I pulled it out again for Honey Pot and Little M&M to play with this week. Check out last year's Halloween unit to see more!

Mad Scientist Slime Experiment

We saw a fun Halloween episode of Sid the Science Kid recently, and in it they had a slime experiment. We wanted to give it a try to. Here is the recipe from the PBS Kids website. Unfortunately I have no pictures of this activity. Slime and toddlers are risky business, and I couldn't leave his side to take pictures. But this goop is fun stuff! The kids helped me mix the ingredients together, then they played and squished to their content. Be prepared for a mess with this one. But it's FUN!

Halloween Movie

We concluded our week with a fun Winnie the Pooh movie we rented from the library. They loved it, and so did I. We love Lumpy!

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Autumn

Honey Pot is 3 years and 5 months old

Little M&M is 19 months old

Books

We read a variety of books about autumn this week. Some of these include Apple Farmer Annie, Clifford's First Autumn, and Let It Fall. But here is our favorite from this week, which we read over and over!

Leaf Walk and Collecting

While Honey Pot was at preschool one morning, Little M&M and I went to a local park for a walk. I wanted to collect leaves for a couple of crafts, and he was super helpful!

When we got home we separated them into two groups: the old, brown leaves went into a baggie to crumble, and colorful leaves went onto a platter to rip.

Leaf Glitter Craft

This idea came from the Parents magazine website. First I printed out autumn clip art onto two pieces of paper, then I set the kids up with their leaves. We crumbled Honey Pot's into tiny pieces, and left Little M&M's larger.

I squeezed glue around the entire outline of the acorn, and dabbed just a little bit of glue onto Little M&M's tree. Then they got to work!

I don't have any process pictures of Little M&M, as he required constant help with this craft. But here are the final products!

Felt Board

I brought the felt board back out from last year! We've used this for a few different themes in the past. Feel free to browse how by clicking "felt board" in our labels list on the right! Or check out last year's full autumn theme here!

First, I let Little M&M explore it for the first time.

He loved throwing the leaves onto the board! They didn't always stick, but he had fun with it anyway.

When we were finished playing, I set it up in a corner in case anyone wanted to revisit it later in the week.

Honey Pot noticed it as soon as she returned from school!

She wanted to make a red leaf tree!

The next day the both of them played with it together!

Fall Addition Worksheet

We did a few worksheets as well. This one came from All Kids Network. Addition is a new concept for Honey Pot. But now that she can recognize her numbers and count so well, I wanted to introduce her to the idea of equations in some way. This was a good start!

Tracing Lines Worksheet

Honey Pot loves tracing lines. This autumn themed one came from the Education website.

Fall Beginning Sounds

I was prepared to create my own version of these in Photoshop, until I stumbled upon this set on Pinterest. I consolidated it a little bit, choosing just my favorites. Then I set it up on our cookie sheet with a few magnetic letters. Honey Pot rocked this activity! I would ask her what the picture is, then ask what letter she thinks the word starts with. She got all of these right!

Cookie Cutter Printing

We've done this activity before with other cookie cutters. Remember Memorial Day? It had been a while, so I wanted to try it out again. I set up the table with paper, and autumn paint colors each in their own plates.

I helped Little M&M get started first. I demonstrated how to make a print, then let him do as he pleased.

He made a few smeared prints, but mostly just painted with it like a brush!

"Bracelet!"

Then Honey Pot started her project.

At first she was so very neat, making rows of leaves and acorns!

Then she looked over at her brother's project and got some other ideas in her head...

Ah well. Process not product! :)

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