Halloween is just around the corner and I am always waiting until the last minute to decorate, but I wanted to share with you some cute, EASY crafty decorations you children or students would love to make to help you decorate you classroom, home, or even RV!
The best part about the
Jack-o-Lantern Balloon activity is that you only need 2 materials. A
balloon and a marker. We used a dry erase marker because it was big and
fat... good for my 3 year old to grip versus the skinner permanent
markers I had on hand.
You can choose any size orange balloon to do this. I said orange because... well that's the color of a traditional pumpkin, but your kids my want to be more creative and make green Frankensteins or witches, white ghosts or mummies, or purple monsters! Let the creativity go WILD!
Wit my little one, I had him tell me what shape he wanted the eyes, nose, and then for the mouth he told me he wanted a frown with flat teeth. (Good way to develop descriptive vocabulary as well as practice his shapes!) When I did this activity with my kindergarteners, I would first create a Jack-o-Lantern balloon with my students. I cut out various shapes of eyes, noses, and mouths and put them in a lunch sack. I called on different students to pick one out of the bag. They would trace the shape they picked to help us create a class Jack-o-Lantern. Then, I would let each student decorate their own. If they got stuck and didn't know how they wanted to create the mouth or other parts, they could refer back to the shapes in the lunch sack. These were fun to hang all around the classroom!
Coloring in the shapes helps develop his hand-eye coordination skills, but he actually added a step on me... He always does! He decided to add a few more details on his own like glasses, tears, spit coming out of his mouth, and he turned his nose into a car. Can you see the wheels coming out of the right side of the rectangle?
The Ghost Windsock activity is another easy and fun activity! All you need is a white foam sheet, a black foam sheet, some crepe paper (white and orange), pen, wiggly eyes, glue, ribbon, and a stapler or tape. We also used some sparkle filler to jazz it up a little!
I had a ghost pattern that I created when I did this activity with my kindergarteners. I just drew the design I wanted on a file folder and then cut it out to use as the pattern for them to trace. Sticker wiggly eyes are the best, but a dot of glue works too. If you put the staple through the mouth area of the ghost, you can cover it up with the mouth when you glue it down.
I usually use a stapler to attach everything together (crepe strips, the back of the foam, the ribbon), but if you don't want your children to use the stapler, you can have them tape the crepe strips down and tape the foam together in the back and use tape to secure the ribbon. In the classroom, I had my students create a pattern with their crepe paper. Some would lay out orange, white, orange, white across the black foam. Others would do orange, orange, white, orange, orange, white, etc.
Like I said before, these activities are perfect for the classroom, home, or perfect on the awning of your RV if you're schooling on the road. We happen to be home for a couple of weeks, so ours is hanging on the porch, ready to spook some Trick-or-Treaters!
Have a wonderful and safe Halloween everyone... where ever you are!
God Bless Your Learning Journey ~
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