TP Roll Monsters

Empty toilet paper rolls are one of the hardest items for me to throw away because I know there are so many craft possibilities I can use them for. Halloween is an especially great holiday for making TP roll crafts. Ghosts, bats, witches, Frankenstein, mummies... TP rolls are the perfect craft item for these Halloween favorites. Since Baby Bear is just starting to learn about all these silly creatures, and because Monster's Inc. is currently one of his favorite movies, I opted for letting him create his own TP roll monsters this year. All they took were some empty TP rolls, paint, craft foam, glue, and wiggle eyes, and they turned out so cute.

Baby Bear opted for painting his monsters with his hands rather than with the paint brush.

I added some spots while Baby Bear added some wiggle eyes all over.

I helped Baby Bear make two monsters, and then he helped me finish mine. They're silly looking, but that's the point. They've got Baby Bear's artistic touch for sure, which makes me love them all the more.

Halloween Sensory Box

There are soooo many choices for items to add to a Halloween sensory box out there!!! I could have made five different sensory boxes out of all the items I thought about using. But, Baby Bear didn't need five sensory boxes, so I narrowed it all down to a water beads sensory box. I went with water beads because of their somewhat slimy feel, comparable to eyeballs (though I didn't tell Baby Bear that). I then added a few items we had around the house, some extras from our Halloween goody bags, and a couple of dollar store finds. Baby Bear has been having fun with it, so I'd say this box was a success.

Baby Bear's favorite part of this sensory box was probably getting to help make it. He helped measure the water beads, add them to the bags, and poured in all the water. I had planned on only using black and orange, but Baby Bear wanted yellow, too. It was his box, and still looked Halloweeny, so that's what we did.

The contents: a jack-o-lantern cup, a styrofoam pumpkin, plastic glow-in-the-dark skeletons, Halloween-colored jelly bracelets, rubber spiders, a pumpkin cookie cutter, plastic bat rings, wiggle eyes, glow sticks, and a McDonald's crawling hand toy.

Whatever you add for your Halloween sensory box, a cup is a must! Scooping and pouring the water beads has been Baby Bear's favorite part of playing with this sensory box so far. (It is usually his favorite part with all sensory boxes.) Sometimes he counts the beads, spiders, or bats into the cup, which provides some great basic math practice. In fact, he probably would have been happy with just the water beads and the cup... and the rubber spiders he likes to scare me with.

Candy Sorting

When you think of Halloween, what are the first three things you think of? I'll bet one of your answers was candy (with the other two likely being costumes and pumpkins). Papa Bear's favorite candy is peanut butter M&M's, and Baby Bear is following in his footsteps as this is his favorite reward for potty training. That is why Baby Bear, Papa Bear, and I decided to use a bag of fall-colored peanut butter M&Ms for a sorting game. We poured out a couple dozen M&Ms and took turns placing them into different cups of a muffin tin. Papa Bear and I gave Baby Bear more turns since this was mostly sorting practice for him, which Baby Bear didn't mind. At the end, when all the M&Ms were sorted, we each got to eat a few. It was a short, simple, yummy game that promoted a basic math skill. So, if you find yourself looking for something constructive for the kids to do with all that Halloween candy before getting to eat it, try a simple sorting game.

Baby Bear sorting some candy

After the game was over, Baby Bear wanted to use the muffin tin to balance his little figures. I didn't object... it was great for his hand-eye coordination!

More Fall Fun

Here are a few more fun fall activities for you to enjoy:

We 3 bears cut up 3 apples of different colors, and we each tasted the different kinds of apples. Papa Bear and I preferred the red apples, and Baby Bear's favorite was the yellow one.

We also tried different apple drinks like hot spiced cider (Baby Bear's was warm) and cold apple cider.

Going along with our apple-themed days, we read the book Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr. Seuss and tried to balance apples on our own heads when the story was over.

We also tried new pumpkin recipes like pumpkin chili...

And pumpkin crunch cake.

 

We also made a leaf puppet by coloring a picture of a leaf, cutting it out, and gluing on wiggle eyes and a stick.

And what would fall be without a little football?! Baby Bear enjoyed learning how to throw and catch a ball, and he thought tackling was hilarious!

Finally, the perfect transition from fall activities to Halloween activities is to make a family trip to a farm that offers a hayride, corn maze, and...

a pumpkin patch!

Examining a Squash

Until last week, my son refused to eat squash. On the day we examined a squash as one of our fall activities, he ate a big bowl full and loved it... but only on that one day. He's back to not eating it again. What was different about that day you ask? He got to be a part of the entire process of making squash. I'll let the pictures tell the story.

Baby Bear, this is a squash the way it looks when it is picked from a garden, before it's cooked.

This is the inside of the squash. Do you see all the seeds?

How does the squash smell?

How does the inside of the squash feel?

Now let's place the squash in the dish so it can be cooked.

(Nearly 1 1/2 hours later) Look, Baby Bear! Our squash is cooked! Let's stir in a little butter, sugar, and cinnamon.

Mmm, yummy squash!

And that is how I got my Baby Bear to eat squash, at least for one day. I may need to get him to help me cook veggies more often!

Acoustic Autumn Painting

Have you ever heard The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi? It's beautiful. I remember playing a couple of excerpts in high school when I played in the symphonic band. When I was planning our music times for our fall unit, I knew I wanted Vivaldi's "Autumn" to be a part of that time. Also, seeing as how Baby Bear and I were going to spend a lot of time talking about the colors of the changing leaves, I figured painting with fall colors during one of our art activities made sense. I decided to combine these music and art ideas into one activity. Baby Bear painted hues of red, yellow, green, orange, and gold as one of the more famous pieces of music from the Baroque era filled the air around us. Beautiful music met beautiful hues for one simple, fall-time activity.

Fall Mosaic Tree

I really don't understand the rush for parents and teachers to talk about fall and do fall activities with young if the evidence of fall's arrival is not around them. If I'm going to talk about fall with my 2-year-old, I want to make sure he can actually see what I'm referring to. That's why I waited until a couple weeks after the official first day of fall to start fall activities with my son.

The first fall activity we did was a fall mosaic tree. It was VERY simple yet fun, and it turned out pretty cute. All I did was print a picture of a tree without leaves, have Baby Bear help tear fall-colored construction paper into little pieces, and let him glue the pieces to the tree. Aside from getting a cute fall tree picture to hang on the refrigerator, this was great for Baby Bear's fine motor skills, too, as he placed the construction paper pieces (leaves) onto the tree a little at a time. We'll definitely be using this technique to do a Halloween craft this week!

This is what the tree looked like before we glued on all the leaves.

Baby Bear using his glue stick to add some leaves

The finished product. The glue stick didn't actually work so well as many of the leaves fell from the tree when I lifted the paper after Baby Bear finished (great for discussion, though!). So, we went back with some gold glitter glue and restuck the leaves later that day. I think the gold ended up making the picture look even more fall-like, though.