Halloween Playdough

Monkey plays with good old playdough about once a week. He would do it more often but I find that if it's more of a special activity (as opposed to one that is always available) then his play is richer and it keeps his focus and attention for a much longer time. At school I usually make homemade playdough (or parents send it in) and I have been wanting to do that with Monkey, but he has quite a few tubs that he got as gifts so we are using those first. Homemade playdough is very easy to make and you can make it seasonally appropriate using glitter, food colouring, and different scents. One day we'll get to that. For now, here is my Halloween playdough activity!

Supplies: playdough, straws, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, playdough tools

I laid everything out in the table for Monkey. He was interested but I could tell he wasn't really sure what to do. Usually when he plays with play dough he has a specific set of toys and tools that he uses. Now for the first time I've given him something different. So I stuck a few things in to show him that is was okay. 

 

As you can see he jumped right in after that. A little reassurance was all he wanted from me. 

He enjoyed making these monsters. Whenever a creature has more than two eyes he just loves it. 

Happy Halloween!

Mar

Ghost Footprint Halloween Cards

Our Thanksgiving cards were a big hit with the friends and family we sent them to so with Halloween right around the corner I knew we had to do another card.

Supplies: construction paper, envelopes, white paint, paint brush, Halloween stickers, markers 

First I cut the construction paper in half so that it would fit in the small envelopes I already had. 

Then we got the boys ready to do some white footprints that we could make into ghosts. Their daddy helped with this part, it's doable with one person but easier with two!

As you can see Monkey wanted to paint his own foot, which he did for the first few and then I took over. It ended up that him sitting on my lap was the easiest way for us to do the footprints. 

Peanut sat on my husband's lap while I painted his foot. I couldn't get any pictures of this because we were trying to go as fast as possible! 

Once the footprints were dry, I wrote the message on each one and added the eyes and mouth of the ghosts. 

Then Monkey used the Halloween stickers to decorate each card a little more. 

Then we mailed them, which may have been Monkey's favourite part of this activity. He loves going to the post office!

Happy Halloween!

Mar

Chalk and Water Alphabet

Now that Monkey knows all his uppercase and most lowercase letters, I want him to start learning how to write them. He's not really ready for, or interested in, holding a pencil but there are tons of other ways to "write" letters that are appropriate for a three year old and fun, too. 

I got the idea here: http://pyjamaschool.co.uk/learning-letters/

Supplies: chalkboard, chalk, paintbrushes, water 

First, I wrote out the alphabet on the chalkboard.

Then Monkey used the paintbrushes and the water to trace over ("erase") the letters. 

I did have to remind him to trace over the lines and not just scribble all over but he got the hang of it. 

While he was painting each letter he would say, "goodbye!" or "see ya!". 

After finishing the alphabet, he asked to do his name. I gladly wiped off the board and wrote his name a few times for him to do, too. 

Mar

Animal Bath

Monkey has had a bin of farm and safari animals in his room for about a year. He's recently been pulling it out often to play with the animals after basically not touching it at all, so I thought it would be good to do some activities with those animals while he's really interested in them. 

I got the idea here: http://whereimaginationgrows.com/toddler-animal-washing-sensory-play/

Supplies: water, bucket, toy animals, dish soap, spray bottle, brushes, cloth, sponge 

We did a car wash in the spring and it was a big hit. I'm sure I've said it before but you can't go wrong with water play. And it doesn't hurt that the toys get a little cleaner, either. 

Monkey helped squeeze the dish soap into the bucket before I filled it with water. 

Maybe a bit more than I would have used but I'm working on giving him (some) control and independence. 

Now everything was ready to go. 

I always love watching Monkey in those first few seconds when he's diving into an activity. Today he was so particular about getting started. I thought he would pick each animal up one at a time and wash it, but instead he took each animal and found a spot for them in the water first. Even when I think I know what he'll do, he goes about it another way. I love it! 

Once all the animals were in their bathtub, he started washing them. 

Each animal got a scrub from the sponge, cloth, or brush, and then he washed the soap away with the spray bottle. 

He liked using the brushes and the sponge, but the spray bottle was definitely his favourite. 

I wonder what toys I can convince him to clean for me next? ;)

Mar

Autumn Leaf Art

On the Thanksgving long weekend we spent some time up at the cottage. The trees were all brightly coloured and lots of leaves had already fallen to the ground. We took a little walk down the road and collected some leaves to use for an art project.

I got the idea from @busytoddler on Instagram. 

Supplies: leaves, paper, markers, glue

I started by drawing a tree trunk and branches on the paper. I wish I could have printed something of the internet but I wanted it to be bigger than 8x11. So here is my extremely sad drawing of a tree in autumn. 

Of course Monkey said, "Wow Mommy!" At least I can still impress him... for now. 

Monkey was super excited to get to use the glue again. We quickly talked about where he should glue the leaves, since we had picked them up off the ground and we were doing autumn art. Then he got to work. 

There isn't too much to this activity, it's really just some gluing practice, but it's nice to have the natural material from the outdoors to work with. 

Monkey was very thoughtful about where to put each leaf.

Despite my awful tree trunk I think it turned out pretty cute!

Mar