The last two weeks I had out our Halloween themed activities for tot school. John and Matthew played with everything throughout the two weeks, but of course I didn't get pictures of most of it. It is really hard to take pictures now when I am trying to get two kids to do the activity (or two activities at one time!), trying to keep them from fighting over a toy, and trying to keep Matthew from falling out of his chair or eating pieces of a toy. Soooo...pictures are slim right now. I had all the activity pieces out on the shelf and they just would pick and choose from what was there so we basically are having 'educational play' for about 45-60 minutes each day. If nothing else, it gives us a break from playing with the same ol' toys in the living room!
However, we did a lot of fun things! Here is what I managed to actually photograph:
1. Shaving Cream Pumpkin Painting:
I used food coloring to dye shaving cream. Then the boys painted plastic pumpkins outside in the backyard. This quickly evolved to painting their hands and baths were needed right afterwards! But they of course had fun with this activity.
2. Counting Pumpkins:
I got this activity from Confessions of a Homeschooler. John is really into counting right now and did this perfectly!
3. Skeleton Puzzle:
I made this skeleton puzzle last year using a plastic skeleton from the dollar store. Basically I traced around the skeleton on a folder and then took apart the skeleton. Very easy. John really liked putting this together this year and did this several times. It was interesting because he could fill in the traced outline, but if we took away the folder, he couldn't put the skeleton together very well.
4. Pumpkin Patch:
We made the annual trip to the pumpkin patch with Nana. The boys had fun checking out the pumpkins, jumping in the bounce houses, and taking a mini train ride!
5. Cookie Cutter Prints:
We pulled out the Halloween themed cookie cutters and used them to make art prints. Again, this evolved to John painting his hands...and Matthew trying to eat the paint!
6. Halloween Collage:
We made collages from a Pottery Barn Kids catalog. I am posting more about this tomorrow for Toddler Art Tuesday!
Other things we didn't get pictures of:
-color pumpkin puzzle from Confessions of a Homeschooler.
-candy corn letters (that I posted about HERE)
-pumpkin patch letters (that I posted about HERE)
-monster math from No Time for Flash Cards
-spider leg counting from Little Family Fun (with Uno cards instead of die!)
-Mr. Pumpkin Head (that I posted about HERE)
-pumpkin toss (tossing small plastic pumpkins into a larger plastic pumpkin)
-sorting Halloween erasers in a muffin tin
-playing with a VERY mini sensory bin of spiders and skeletons
WOW- you know, I always feel like I should be doing more with the boys and I am slacking on these tot school things. (I mean, have you seen other people's blogs? They are hardcore and sometimes make me feel like I am failing or something!) But when I write it out, we do more than I realize and even though I could always do more, I shouldn't beat myself up about it!
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I love the collage idea. And I feel like you about working with my 18 month at the same time of my 36 month. I do some activities together, but I always take advantage of an earlier napper to work 1 on 1, specially with the big one. Don't bother yourself about the work you are doing you know what works best for your kids and each child is different with one we can work a lot of activities, while with other only a few and that's fine.
ReplyDeleteWhat fun! I love the shaving cream paint- i have to try that! Did it stain his hands or anythign around him? The skeleton puzzle was super cute too! I would love for you to link up at my TGIF Linky Party - http://livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com/search/label/Linkey%20Parties
ReplyDelete~Beth
Such fun Halloween themed activities. Your boys look like they had a ball with the shaving cream pumpkins. What a fun activity!
ReplyDeleteLooks like ya'll had a fun week. I especially love the idea of painting the plastic pumpkins with colored shaving cream!
ReplyDelete