Halloween Activity Bins

I wanted to give "Baby" O some Halloween activities, but finding things for a 1 year old can be a little tough.  Then I thought back to when I create her sensory bowl, which she stills plays with.  I looked through my Halloween bin from when I taught Pre-K and found lots of things that I could use in one way or another. 

This is the main idea of what items I used to create fun, entertaining and educational activities for"Baby" O.

First, I added a 2 sets of Halloween cups.  We stack them and knock them down, put items into the cup and nest the cups.

The second activity was a pumpkin basket filled with spiders and a scoop.  We scoop the spiders, put them into the cups or the basket, count them and so on.

Of course "Baby" O is never without books.  We have both board books (pictured) and what we call "Mommy's Books" which are paper back and she is not aloud to play with yet since she has ripped a few already.  She loves to just sit and look at the books and sometimes reads them to us.

Another activity was a little felt basket filled with cookie cutters in Halloween shapes.  We talk aboutthe different shapes, sort them, stack them, make patterns and so on.

This activity was another pumpkin basket filled with mini stuffed pumpkins.  The pumpkins are 2 different sizes so we sort them by size, make patterns, stack or attempt to stack them, throw them into the basket and so on.

There is not much, but this is the start of our Halloween dress up stuff. We will have to add to this activity over the years.

This is just a large furry spider that we play with.  It's legs are bendable so we create different positions for him.

Our last activity is Halloween stuffed animals.  We don't do much with these as far as sorting or anything, but we make them talk and dance.

"Baby" O has enjoyed all of her Halloween activities.  Sometimes I let her choose which she wants to play with or I give her a single basket for more quiet individual play.  Something that I did not take a picture of are her musical balloons.  I filled orange balloons with things such as beads, rice, pasta and so on.  After I blew them up I drew faces of them to make jack-o-lanterns and strung them up with green ribbon.  When she hits them they make different noises and she has a blast with these. 

With Halloween here in just a few days I need to come up with some fall/Thanksgiving activities for "Baby" O.  I gave away a bunch of items for Thanksgiving last year that I am know wishing I didn't because she could play with them, but oh well.  We can just start from scratch. 

Happy Halloween!! 

Book Wish List

I love that Baby O has so many people in her life that want to buy her things.  The problem is that she can only wear so many clothes and our house is not big enough to they keep up with the toys at the rate they are now.  Now if they want to get diapers then by all means get as many as you want!  I also try to push books since they are something that we will always have.  It was brought to my attention by my mom that it is hard to buy book for Baby O because she is unsure of what we already have.  I am an elementary teacher and have been adding to my book collection since high school so I understand how it can be difficult.  It was because of this that I stated creating 'Baby O's Book Wish List'.  It is a list of book or book series that I would like to add to our collection.  Right now it is a 4 page list and I keep adding to it as I think of books.  Not only is it helpful to our family by letting them know what books would be nice to get, but it also help me since I always think of book I want to get, but ever remember.  The list has a mixture of books, there are ones that I loved as a child (Clifford, Little Miss/Little Mister), ones my parents loved (Curious George), ones that students have loved (Where The Wild Things Are) and just one that I want to add (Chicka Chicka Boom Boom).  Take a look at our list as of right now and feel free to add any other books you think would be worth getting.

Baby O's Book Wish List

It Looked Like Spilt Milk - Charles G Shaw 

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly - Pam Adams

Stone Soup - Marcia Brown

Good Night Gorilla - Peggy Rathman

I Am Not Sleepy And I Will Not Go To Bed - Lauren Child

Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom - Bill Martin Jr

Go Away Big Green Monster - Ed Emberley

When Sophie Get Angry – Really, Really Angry . . . - Molly Bang

Love You Forever - Robert  N Munsch

Once Upon a Potty For Her

The M&Ms Counting Book - Barbara Barbieri McGrath

Press Here – Herve Tullet

On The Night You Were Born – Nancy Tillman

The Going To Bed Book – Sandra Boynton

That’s Not My Monster – Fiona Watt

Everyone Poops – Taro Gomi

The Mitten – Jan Brett

The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark – Ken Geist

The Night Before Father’s Day  - Natasha Wing

Someday – Alison McGhee

I Love You More – Laura Duksta

Along Came You – Karona Drummond

Guess How Much I Love You – Sam McBratney

I Love You Through and Through – Rossetti Shustak

How Do I Love You? – Marion Dane Bauer

Federick – Leo Lionni

The Way I Act – Steve Metzger

I Love You, Stinky Face – Lisa McCourt

The Night Before Mother’s Day – Natasha Wing

Goldie and the Three Hares – Margie Palatini

Goldilocks and the Three Bears – James Marshall

This Is The House That Jack Built – Simms Taback

Jack’s House  - Karen Magnuson Beil

What Do You Do With A Tail Like That? – Robin Page

BOOK SERIES:

** Start with the first book in that series **

Eric Carle Books 

Cheerios Play Books - Lee Wade

‘If You Give A Mouse A Cookie’ Series - Laura Nummeroff

‘Rainbow Fish’ Series - Marcus Pfister Herbert

‘Harold and the Purple Crayon’ Series

‘Pinkalicious ‘Series (Purplelicious, SilverLicious, Goldilicious) - Victoria Kann

‘Llama Llama’ Series - Anna Dewdney

“The Pigeon’ Books - Mo Willems

‘David’ Books - David Shannon

‘How Do Dinosaurs’ Series - Jane Yolen

‘Froggy’ Series - Jonathon London

‘Maisy’ Series - Lucy Cousins 

‘ Berenstain Bears’ Series – Jan and Stan Berenstain

‘Biscuit’ Series – Alyssa Satin Capucilli 

‘Spot’ Series – Eric Hill

‘Curious George’ Series – H.A. Rey

‘ Little Critter’ Series – Mercer Mayer

‘Magic School Bus’ Series

‘Green Wilma’ Series – Tedd Arnold

‘Fancy Nancy’ Series – Jane O’Connor

‘Corduroy’ Series – Don Freeman

Little Scholastic Series

* Especially the Hand Puppet Books

‘Clifford’ Series – Norman Bridwell

‘Amelia Bedelia’ Series – Peggy and Herman Parish

Little Miss and Little Mister Series – Roger Hargreaves

It's Earth Day!!

Yay!  It's Earth Day!  I know it is not the most exciting day of the year for everyone, but I do think it is a pretty important day, especially with children.  We need to teach our children to take care of the Earth from the start.  I'm not saying that my husband and I as the most Eco-friendly people ever, but we try our best.  We recycle more than we throw away, we are always giving old clothing and items to Goodwill to be reused and we have awesome skylights and big windows so the light are not on often.  We were actually quite happy with our recent electric bill, it was $30 if that (he does all the bills).  If it is even a little nice outside, the windows are open and the heat/air is off.  Baby O is still a little too younger to really understand Earth Day and the 3 R's, but I still talk to here anyway.  When she gets a little old she can help me sort things into recycle, gather items to donate and plant new flowers and trees outside (that might be more Arbor Day, but oh well).  Below are the Earth Day books that I have for Baby O and I'm sure as she gets older we will have more.

Our Earth by Anne Rockwell
Curious George Plants a Tree by H.A. Rey
It's Earth Day! by Mercer Mayer

We also made our Earth Day breakfast.  Greek yogurt with granola and organic berries.  It was so good!!  Baby O cannot eat yogurt or berries yet, but she kept staring at it so I'm sure when she is able this will be a favorite of hers as well.

That's all for now.  Remember to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!!