Halloween 2012

I apologise for the lack of posts over the past few weeks.  I have been so busy I just haven't had time to blog. This will also just be a quick one to show you a few things we have been doing for halloween.

We did some activities to support expressive arts and design and made some bats using PVA glue, glitter, sequins, etc.  The children that ade these are only two years old.   They used their imaginations and explored different medias and materials.

The children enjoyed getting messy painting their hands to print these handprint ghosts onto black card.  They sprinkled glitter over PVA glue for the "BOO!" underneath

And lastly these pumpkin masks...

 

 

I hope to be back soon for some more blogging!  Stay tuned :)

Hot Dog Mummies

I got the inspiration for these from the Disney Family website and couldn't resist trying them out for myself.  I adapted the recipe slightly as the ingredients in the Disney one can't be bought here in the UK.  They are so simple to make though as they only use 2 ingredients. 

I used beef frankfurters as I have 2 children in my care who cannot eat pork for religious reasons, but any frankfurter will work well.

Here's how you make them...

You will need:

• 1 can of hotdogs (I used large ones)
• 1 pack of ready rolled shortcrust pastry
• Yellow mustard to decorate.

1. Take the pastry out of the fridge 10 minutes before you start.  Make sure all little hands are clean, and then on a clean surface lay out the pastry rectangle.
2. Slice the pastry into 2 cm strips and wrap around each sausage starting at the head.  But remember to leave a space near the top for the mummies’ face.
3. Place on a baking tray lined with parchment and bake for approx. 20 minutes at 200°C, 400°F, gas mark 6 or until the pastry in golden in colour.
4. When the Hot Dog Mummies have cooled, add yellow mustard 'eyes' to decorate.



Halloween Week



We have had lots of fun so far this week with our Halloween theme.  The children have enjoyed some spooky stories such as Room on a Broom by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler.  Written in rhyme, this book is great for young readers. The repetition ensures it is accessible for small children and Julia Donaldson’s judicious use of words and phrases help to broaden little vocabularies. There are some clever play on words as well, such as the dragon saying: “I’m planning to have WITCH AND CHIPS for my tea!”  I love this book and i've never seen the children sit still for so long when we read it, or any of  the books by this author for that matter!

I provided the children with some Room on the Broom colouring sheets which they enjoyed colouring in; that is until Amelia started doing her favourite little trick; grabbing handfuls of crayons and throwing them on the floor!

To follow on with the theme of Halloween, I provided the little ones with a pumpkin sensory activity where I cut off the top of some pumpkins and the children used their hands to pull out the contents inside. They were a little unsure of the slimy texture at first, but once they got used to it they soon helped me to seperate the seeds which I am going to dry out and plant next year.

Naomi, Lauren and Alex came over to see us on Wednesday and we made some Diwali candles and decorated some halloween biscuits.  I cheated slightly as the pumpkin cookie cutter that I had ordered online didn't arrive in time, so I had to buy some shop-bought biscuits!  I plan on making some pumpkin shortbread with the children next week though!

 The diwali candles are made from salt dough which is air-drying, so we made them over two days, painting them on the second day.  We painted them with purple paint and sprinkled them with glitter before adding a tealight to each of them when they were dry.  The salt dough recipe I used can be found here.  As the paint dried, it created a crackly effect which I wasn't expecting, but they turned out quite well.

Also this week we made some hand and foot print ghosts.  The children splodged their little hands and feet in some white paint and we printed them on to some black card.  We then added some googly eyes and a ghoooooolish mouth!

We also made some pumpkin lanterns and masks.  The little ones applied lots and lots of orange paint to some lanterns and paper plates and then we added some eyes, nose and a mouth using black tissue paper.  I then added a green pipe cleaner to the top and spiralled it around a pencil to make it look like the stem of a real pumpkin.

 

Of course the children got so engrossed in painting as they usually do, so I gave them some paper and let them paint some pictures afterwards. Amelia loves to get messy with the paint and began to paint her hands and print them onto the paper and the other children followed suit.  She also managed to get some on her face, all over her jumper (despite wearing an apron) and the dishwasher was a nice shade of green afterwards too! 

I have lots more activities planned for next week as well as our Halloween party next Monday.  I will be busy decorating the house this weekend ready for when our little witches and devils turn up on Monday morning.  I love Halloween!  Stay tuned for spooky party photos coming next week.