Halloween Craft and Recipe Ideas

Halloween is a wonderful time to make crafts and to cook with your children.

Here are a few links to some of my favorite holiday crafts and recipes!

Grocery Bag Pumpkins

Pumpkin Gingerbread

Pasta Skeleton

Monster Light Jug

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Family Fun

A great resource for crafts, recipes, and other fun family stuff!

Creepy Crawly :D

This week's theme at Kids-R-Kids has to do with things that are Creepy Crawly!

So check out these activities that you can do at home!

Wiggle Worm Craft.

You can find the directions here!

You can find more Creepy Crawly Crafts here

and here

Bug Snacks

Make snack time extra fun and tasting with creepy, crawly snacks. For this tasty sensory activity you can make "bugs on a log" with a celery stick, peanut butter and raisins. Make some spider cookies with oreo cookies, black licorice for the legs, and red hots for the eyes. Use a bit of frosting to hold the eyes and legs in place. You can even make a caterpillar with slices of bananas, peanut butter, small pretzel sticks and raisins. Simply spread peanut butter on the banana slices and squish together to form the body. Place the pretzel sticks to create legs and plop on the raisins for the eyes.

Dirt Sundae

Ingredients

Oreo Cookies

Instant Chocolate Pudding

Milk

Gummy Worm Candy

Directions

1. We poured the package of chocolate pudding into a gallon size ziploc bag

2. We poured in milk according to the pudding package directions

3. We let the kids shake the bag for a few minutes

4. We placed the oreo cookies in another gallon size ziploc bag.

5. We let the kids crush the cookies using a small hammer. (This was a lot of fun)

6. We poured the pudding into bowls and topped the pudding with the crushed oreo cookies and gummy worms!

It's Almost Thanksgiving!!!

I can't believe that it is almost Thanksgiving!!!! Where did November go?

What are you plans?

Are you going to go "Over the River and Through the Wood"?

Are you going to get your Turkey at a Turkey Farm

Are you going to tell the story about the First Thanksgiving?

Round up a flock of these paper-bag gobblers

CRAFT MATERIALS:
Scissors
Medium-sized brown bag
Newspaper
Glue
Googly eyes
Red balloon
Two large grocery bags
Large rubber band
Time needed: Under 1 Hour
1. To make the head, stuff the bottom of the medium-sized bag with balled-up newspaper. Twist the top of the bag to form a long, skinny neck. 2. Glue the googly eyes and the balloon wattle onto the face. 3. For the turkey's body, use one large bag. Snip a hole through the front of the bag an inch from the bottom and fit the neck into it. Then, stuff the body two thirds full with newspaper. Close the top of the bag with the rubber band. 4. To make tail feathers, cut four large half-circles from the remaining bag and then glue them in layers to the back of the body.

FRUIT GOBBLER
RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
Bosc pear (head)
Melon (body)
Cheese (beak and tail feathers)
Red pepper (snood, feet and side feathers)
Raisins (eyes)
Grapes (tail feathers)
Bamboo skewers
Toothpicks
1. Stabilize the melon body by cutting a shallow slice off the rind to form a flat base. Using a section of bamboo skewer, attach a Bosc pear head to the melon, as shown. 2. Cut a cheese triangle beak and red pepper snood. Attach both, along with raisin eyes, to the head with sections of toothpick. 3. Cut red pepper feet and set them in place. For tail feathers, skewer cheese cubes and red grapes, then insert the skewers as shown. Pin pepper side feathers in place with toothpicks.

HAVE A GREAT THANKSGIVING!!!

Vacation,Books, and Crafts!!!

Mr. Wiggins and myself have been very busy that past month. We had a wonderful extended vacation in Florida. We really enjoyed ourselves and got plenty of reading done on the beach!!! We have some really wonderful books to share with you in the upcoming weeks!!

Enjoy a Great Snack while reading "THE TRUE STORY OF THE 3 LITTLE PIGS

by John Scieszka

Pigs in a Blanket

You will each need a biscuit from a can of biscuits and one hot dog. Take the biscuit and flatten it with your hands. Try to make it into a rectangle so that it is bigger than your hot dog. After it is big enough, wrap your hot dog in the biscuit.
Place the pig in the blanket on a baking sheet. Carefully put the sheet into the oven. Cook for 10 to 12 minutes. Using the hot pads, take the sheet out of the oven. Carefully, using a spatula, remove the pig in the blanket and when it has cooled a little, eat your pig.

Paper Bag Hats
Last week we read "Caps for Sale" by Esphyr Slobodkina

CRAFT MATERIALS:
Paper bags, standard grocery size or slightly smaller
Tape (double-sided and clear)
Pom-poms, googly eyes, feathers, pipe cleaners, and other craft supplies
Construction paper
Scissors
Hole punch
Green curling ribbon
Time needed: About 1 to 2 Hours
1. Help each child gently roll down the top of a bag until it reaches the hat size she wants to wear. Have her try it on for size, pinch the brim to adjust the fit, then tape it in place.

2. Now set out craft materials for decorating the hats. Kids can make them as simple or as elaborate as they like using double-sided tape to attach pom-poms, googly eyes, and feathers.

3. For antennae, coil a pipe cleaner around a pencil, then tape on a large pom-pom. Poke the end of the pipe cleaner through the hat and secure it on the inside with tape.

4. Cut a flower shape out of construction paper. Punch 2 holes in its center and thread green curling ribbon through the holes. Use scissors to curl the ribbon, then stick the flower to the hat with double-sided tape.

BROWN BAG KITES
Grade: K-6Age: 4-12
Objectives:Identification:
What You Need:
Large brown paper grocery bag (one per kinderartist)
Strong string
Scissors
Hole punch
A number of paper ring reinforcement (the kind you use on paper in binders -- from any office supply. You could also substitute masking tape).
School glue or paste
Paint (tempera, acrylic -- whatever you have)
Crayons, markers, pencil crayons
Paper streamers or crepe paper that you can cut into strips
A few found objects (bits of paper, glitter, buttons -- nothing too heavy)
What You Do:
Begin by taking the hole punch and making four (4) holes in the top of the paper bag - one in each of the corners. Add paper ring reinforcements to the holes, or put a small piece of masking tape over the hole and poke through with a pencil. This will ensure that your holes don't tear through.
Next, cut two (2) lengths of string about 30" each.
Tie each end of the strings through a hole in the bag. The goal is to create two loops.
Next, cut another piece of string -- again around 30". Loop this new piece of string through the two loops you created and tie in a knot. This piece of string will become the handle of your kite.
You are now ready to decorate the paper bag kite using paint, markers or whatever else you desire. You can paint designs on the kite or turn the kite into a fish by adding eyes, gills and fins. You can glue different items to the kite but be sure not to load the kite down with heavy items -- or it will have a hard time staying up in the air.
Use paper streamers as kite tails and glue them to the bottom of the paper bag. You can make your own streamers by cutting crepe paper into strips. Another nifty streamer idea is to take plastic bags and cut them into strips.
Once the glue and paint is dry, the kite can fly. Hold on tightly to the string handle and run so that the wind catches the kite. When the bag fills with air it will float and flutter behind you.
As a variation, you can add a longer handle string to the kite so it will fly higher in the air.