Vampire Jello Sensory Play

I know it's a little early for some people, but we're already getting in the Halloween spirit a bit around here! We did a messy sensory play using cherry jello the other day and when trying to think of a theme for it we thought of red and blood, and then our minds went straight to vampires! 

To make it I first cut some bats from black craft foam, they're definitely less than perfect but they served their purpose just fine.

I made the jello according to the package directions for the quick method, and before putting it in the fridge to set I stuck in the craft foam bats and the plastic vampire fangs. As you can see once the jello had set most of the bats ended up being on the top instead of within the jello like our magnetic letters and numbers have been in the past, so it wasn't much of a search for the bats or anything like that.

We just love getting into jello, it's so messy and cold and fun and great to take outside when it's hot out to cool off with. I recommend putting down a plastic table cloth from Dollar Tree that you can just throw away afterwards or shake off. That's what I've done in the past, but this time I just used a towel and wished I had used the table cloth again!

The idea of vampires might be scary for some kids, but ever since my daughters second Halloween we've had Halloween parties and she helps pick out the decorations and she isn't afraid of any of the stuff and that's because we make it fun instead of scary. You can see in this picture the delight in her face as she dug into the bloody vampire jello play we made! I think it's definitely good to do stuff like this with kids from the time they are toddlers so they won't be afraid.