Pumpkin Word Wall

Fall is here! And so are all the delicious pumpkin foods. Here's our Pumpkin Word Wall to kick off our Pumpkin Unit.

The words were:
- seeds
- beta-carotene
- fruit
- jack o lantern
- orange
- heirloom
- Fall
- pie
- North American

as you can see all the words pertain to pumpkins and do their job of teaching about them when I comment on the words as I have my daughter repeat them.

The pumpkin cut outs were a pack from Dollar Tree last year!

Halloween Bath

It's officially Fall and Halloween is right around the corner! It's to get into the holiday spirit. What could be a better way to do so than to setting up a Halloween bath for your little one? My girls eyes lit up when she saw this.

First I made the jack-o-lantern balloons. I blew up orange balloons from Party City and then used a black Sharpie marker to draw their faces. After those were ready I started filling up the tub. I added several drops of black food coloring to color the water. Black and orange, very Halloweeny! On the walls of the bath tub are craft foam Halloween themed shapes that I bought at Dollar Tree. Just a dollar for a two spiders, two witch hats, cats, and ghosts.

If you want bath paint to compliment this bath here's my post on Halloween bath paints.

Another idea to decorate the walls if you don't have Halloween craft foam cut outs but you have black and orange crepe paper is to tape some up in a pattern.

Halloween Bath Paint

Here's our Halloween bath paints! I put them all in a muffin tin so my daughter could use them all as she pleased. The left side of the muffin tin was our Candy Corn Bath Paints (white, orange, and yellow). The other side was just general Halloweeny colors (green, purple, black). To make each one I just used a bit of shaving cream from Dollar Tree, and a few squirts of the appropriate colors of food coloring. Mixed together with a makeup brush and given to my daughter with said makeup brush to create with. It made beautiful bath art!

Eyeball Squish Bags Contained Sensory Play for Halloween

My daughter loves squish bags! I made these last year for one of the favors given out at her Halloween party. They were very easy to make and I thought they were super cute, and extra squishy!

Take a look.

What kid wouldn't love one of these?

What you'll need to make them:
-Sandwich sized Ziploc bags
- Clear hair gel (can purchase this at dollar store)
- Food coloring, whatever colors you want. I only have pictures of orange and blue, but I also made neon green, yellow, and pink/red. I tried to give kids their favorite color.
- I added a few squishy eyeballs to each bag. They are relatively cheap, about $2 for 12 of them. Not bad. They're at Party City every year around Halloween time. Here's a link also for all you online shoppers

I promise you, kids will love these! You probably won't be able to resist playing with one yourself.

Toddler Book Club: Apples

Fall is almost here and since we went apple picking the other day I went ahead and set up a toddler book club based on apples for my daughter and her friend. 

My daughter's friend is a bit younger than her so we only read the little board book in front "Apple Farmer Annie" it's about a girl who has her own apple farm and sells her apples and talks about things she makes with them. Informative, short, and fun for kids. The other books we had were "Apple Picking" "Apple Pie ABC" and "The Life Cycle of an Apple". The ABC one is great for most toddlers to and the life cycle one you can just look at the picture of the life cycle and discuss that. "Apple Picking" is a longer book, but my toddler loves to hear it too! Plus I think setting out a few books on the subject adds to the cuteness of it all.

I set out some pretend apples and some little red and green apples that we sorted into their colored groups. We also played with apple pie play dough and cookie cutters.

Recipe for Apple Pie Play Dough:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of all purpose flour
• 1 cup of water
• 1/4 cup salt
• 1 TBSP vegetable oil
• 1 TBSP lemon juice
• A few squirts of red food coloring
• Several good shakes of cinnamon 

Step 1: Stir all ingredients together in a pot with a wooden spoon.

Step 2: Put the pot over medium heat on the stove and stir continuously with the wooden spoon until it forms a ball.

Step 3: Once it forms a ball transfer it over to a bowl, let it cool for a bit and then knead it until it is not sticky anymore!

Last, but not least I cut up a real apple and showed the kids the core and the seeds (also known as pips). Then we used the apple halves to do apple printing, which I think I've made a post on before!

Oh, we also ate apple slices dipped in sunflower seed butter. Yum! 

Healthy Red Dinner

If you're doing colors of the week units or just looking for cute healthy ideas for dinner here's one that's all red themed! Kids will delight in seeing a favorite color on every part of their meal. 

In the first section there is one ravioli from the Lobster Ravioli sold at Trader Joe's. In the second section is a few strawberries sliced up. The third section has a piece of bread cut in the shape of a heart with roasted red pepper hummus spread on it. Very healthy with lots of different nutritious benefits in each section and it's adorable. Would look so cute in a bento box, which I can not wait to get!

Letter M Sensory Bin

If you do letters of the week with your tot then adding a sensory bin with things that start with that letter is a great way to make the learning stick! Here's our Letter M Sensory Bin:

As you can see, the base material was marshmallows. Then I added in some things that started with the letter M, as well as a magnetic letter M and a block letter M to show the letter itself. I added a felt Madeline doll, a Little People character named Micheal, a maraca, two mice from a board game, a large coin for money, a pretend muffin, and a musical note I cut from black paper.

Painting with Asparagus

As I've said before we love painting with things other than paintbrushes. We get real creative with what we use too and often use parts of fruits and/or vegetables that would otherwise just be thrown away. Next time you're making asparagus and cutting off the ends you won't be using give them to your child with some paint and paper! Couldn't be more frugal and entertaining.