Easy and Fun Halloween Knock Down Game

(4 1/2 Years)

We love playing games, board games, running games, cards games.  We love them all!  While searching for fun carnival-style games for our school's Fall Festival, I saw a knock down game made with painted coffee cans.  They were so adorable, but also very time consuming, plus I don't have ten coffee cans just lying around.

Hmmmm.... I know, I'll use orange Solo cups!  They are perfect for this project.  Inexpensive.  Stackable.  Easy to decorate.  Easy to store.  Heck, they are even recyclable!  Sold!

Materials Needed:
Orange Solo Cups - we used ten
Black Sharpies
Pin pong ball or a wadded up paper lunch bag

Wild One and Little Miss wanted to help- yes, you can practice writing and strengthen your fine motor skills.

This only took about twenty minutes to create our ten scary faces.  Then it was time to PLAY!  First Little Miss stacked the cups.

And... then Wild One knocked them down!

So much fun!  Oh and we're learning.  We're carefully building and using fine motor skills.  We're using critical thinking and spatial reasoning skills.  We're using hand-eye coordination and gross motor skills.  More importantly we're having fun!

Easy Frankenstein Decorations

(4 1/2 Years)

Wild One asked that we decorate for Halloween during Labor Day- LABOR DAY- weekend!   That's right, early September and we are decorating for Halloween.  They were so excited when I told them that we could start putting up all of their decorations, I wish I had it on film.  They are hilarious!

Well, after we put up all of our decorations, I realized- I don't have a lot of Halloween decorations.  Which is just fine, because the next question from Wild One was to make new decorations.  It's time to open up my Pinterest board and search.  As soon as Wild One saw the Frankenstein decorations, from Allison at No Time for Flashcards, his decision was made.  

We save our cardboard tubes (paper towel and toilet paper rolls) for projects.  I'm so glad we had a bunch on hand, because these little guys are so much fun to make and are a perfect project for this age.  

Materials Needed:

Cardboard tubes (toilet paper or paper towel rolls)

Black markers

Green dot markers

Googly eyes

School glue

Scissors

Golf tees

Draw a black line around the tube, about a third of the way down the tube.  This will be the guide for their Frankenstein's hair.  Let the kids color in the hair.

 Use the green dot markers to color in the rest.

 Time to make his grin- remember the stitch marks.

Hee hee- a little sorting now.  There are four sizes of goggly eyes in there.  

 Add two drops of glue for the eyes. 

Affix the eyes to Frankenstein.

Make tiny slits in the hair with scissors.

Press down the hair.

I punctured holes for the bolts (golf tees), and then let them push the tees through the pre-made holes.

 
Little Miss decided her Frankenstein needed a white puffy skirt.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Sticker Lightning Bugs

(4 1/2 Years)

Last Christmas, Bella (our Elf on the Shelf) gave Little Miss and Wild One a going away present.  It was a three-month gift to Kiwi Crate.  These little gift box gems are PERFECT for those times when you want (or need- you know those times) a project that they can work on semi-independently.  Today was the day; we painted, we built, we played with the kinetic sand, we made the volcano erupt- again, and it was only 10:30!  Out came the kit with everything in it.  I handed the kids their bottles, and colored stickers, and let them have fun decorating.

Quick!  Throw in a load of wash, load the dishwasher, start organizing the craft area (again!).  

It took less than ten minutes for them to decorate their bottles.  I thought it was going 

to take two or three minutes, but I saw how carefully they were working and I 

seized the opportunity to get a few chores done.

Wild One created a collage of color, overlapping some stickers.  Whereas, Little Miss 

created rows of the same color, making sure to space them apart ever so slightly.  Twins.

 I love how proud she is of her work!

 I helped them attach the straw, wings and feet.  They added the goggly eyes.

All finished!

 Time to make them fly.

Let's do it again!

 Experimenting the differing rates of speed if the string is held at a steeper decline.  

They loved this.  I did too!