Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Halloween Fun

When I was a teacher, I loved planning fun learning activities to go along with each holiday.  October was always filled with Halloween story problems, spooky writing prompts and Fall fun and games for my students.  They loved it and it definitely made our learning experience more fun.  Now that I'm a full time mom, I spend time planning holiday activities for my toddler to do at home.  She gets so excited to do fun things together and loves that I change them up regularly.  I know Olive will be in school full time in just a few years so I am very motivated to make the most of our time at home together.

Here are our current favorite activities:
HALLOWEEN SORT
I found these little pumpkins on super clearance at CVS last year and the whole bag was $0.50.  I saved them for Olive to play with this year and tossed the candy that was inside each pumpkin.  I also picked up these skeletons in a package for $0.99 at Wal-Mart.  I let Olive pick out her pumpkin and she choose this purple one this year.  The whole set of things cost me $3 and I'm looking forward to pulling it out every year for her to play with.

We have had a great time with this assortment of Halloween goodies.
We've played hide and go seek with them.
Practiced opening and putting back together the pumpkins
Hidden things in the pumpkins
Lined them up
Sorted them
Counted them
Made patterns with them
Practiced tossing them into the pumpkin

STICKERS
My parents sent Olive some cute foam stickers and I picked up some at the Dollar Spot at Target.  Olive made her own little pumpkin patch.  We practiced fine motor skills trying to get all the stickers off the paper and onto the card stock.  We also practiced colors.  I had her ask for the crayons by color name and then she added some personality to her little patch.  We displayed it on the fridge and she's happy to see her art work on display.
 We also have a bunch of other stickers that she's stuck in coloring books, decorated independently with and just enjoyed playing with by herself.


PLAY OUTSIDE:
We have been out and about a lot lately.  Olive's had a great time playing in the leaves, collecting rocks and acorns, playing at the park and going on walks.  I'd love to do a little nature scavenger hunt with her to work on her vocabulary and let her gather anything that is interesting to her. 


 WHAT FUN THINGS ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR FAMILY THIS MONTH?


 We are hoping to get to do these fun things before the month is over:
Cookie cutter sort
Make Halloween sugar cookies together for our neighbors & Kevin's co-workers
Go to a Halloween party/hayride
Decorate play dough pumpkin
Watch some fun Halloween cartoons
Eat some s'mores
Paint - pumpkins, hand prints, foot prints and free style
Pick out a pumpkin
Trick-or-Treat

My favorite Halloween pins waiting to be attempted from Pinterest:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/76/e1/d9/76e1d9116f765d751f2b5b2bb02771e8.jpg
 via thisreadingmama

Pumpkin Play Dough Invitation to Play from I Heart Crafty Things -- Make a Jack-o-Lantern with Playdough.:
 via iheartcraftythings

 Halloween party treats :):
 via ourbestbites


7 comments:

  1. Oh what a fun idea with the sorting/matching game. We're all about the stickers and coloring here too. I found some fun Fall stickers in the Dollar Spot last week (more like leaves, animals, acorns) and we've toted sections of those stickers with us everywhere! That candy corn counting printable is cute too. Need to snag that! And some candy corns :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love doing Halloween activities as well. Jack and I did several fun pumpkin/Halloween related activities so far this October. I really love the candy corn activity and have already printed it out. I'm going to pick up candy corn today and do this tonight. I just know he is going to love it! Thanks so much for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for sharing all the fun ideas! Looks like Olive loves playing in the leaves!! Have a great day!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lolol, her excitement at the leaves.

    ReplyDelete
  5. These crafts are so great! The photo of Olive playing in the leaves is so adorable! :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. That leaf photo of Olive is a serious keeper. Her little face is just the sweetest. Looks like you guys are having a blast this fall and are ready for Halloween!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love all of these ideas! Olivia loves having new activities and I like ones that are budget friendly. I love the photo of Olive playing in the leaves!!

    ReplyDelete

I LOVE hearing from you!! Thanks for taking the time to leave sweet comments; I enjoy reading every one of them.