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!! 

Introducing Colors to Young Toddlers

Well "Baby" O is a litle over a year now and even more interested in everything than before.  I know that she is young, but I want to begin working on colors with her.  I think that I am going to spend about a week or two on each color.  I'm not going to do any crazy colors right now like turquoise or magenta, but instead start with the basic red, blue, yellow and more on to still basic colors from there.

 Choosing the colors was the easy part, but deciding what activities is a little bit harder.  Some of the simpler activities that I am thinking about doing are:

- jello jigglers in the color we are talking about

- wearing a piece of clothing in the color

- playing with that color Playdough

- playing 'hide & seek' with some beanbags of the color

- sorting items of that color such as our ball pit balls 

 

I am going to try being ambitious with some activities.  I know that they might not work or may need a lot of assistance from me, but we are going to give it a try.  These possibly harder activities are:

 - ripping paper of the color

- putting stickers of the color onto paper ("Baby" O loves stickers)

- finger painting

- decorating colored paper shirts

- something with pom-poms

- something with paint swatches

 

I know some or all of these items may not work, but we can at least try.  When the time comes for me to begin my color weeks I will post about all of the exact individual that we try.  I am going to continue looking for new activities and ideas are always welcomed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



And so it begins!

Hi! I’m Kelly a semi stay at home mom of a beautiful daughter (Baby O). Through my teaching experiences and my own research, I have realized that the best time to teach children is when they are younger. The younger the better!  Young children are so observant to the world around them.  Everything is new and I love the look of wonder they get.  It seems like Baby O is always discovering something new, even if it is a toy she has played with several times before.  That toy may look different from a new angle or make a sound she didn't know about.  Because I love the look she gets when I just let her explore, I have decided to look into the Montessori method of teaching.  I began researching the Montessori method of teaching and am going to implement so many of its aspects into my daughter's life. Not everyone in my family understands these concepts or thinks they are necessary which is why I am being this blog. I want to share various learning and teaching concepts and ideas that I found to incorporate into her life. I am also planning on including party tips since we have one about every month as well as fun crafts for both you and your children (again most of my family thinks I'm nuts for putting so much thought and effort into such simple things, I love it what can I say). I am trying to supply the best for my family whether that is natural toys, organic and healthy food or just my time and love. So keep in touch and follow me on my journey of creating a healthy, happy and educated family.