Skeleton jigsaw

As part of our skeleton learning I found a jigsaw that was very simple as there is only 6 pieces. So I cut them up and Dylan arranged them and stuck them on black paper.

He wanted the skeleton to look like his waving . 

The link for this template is ...

There's a game to it where you roll a dice and each number represents a body part.

Sarah and Dylan 3.6

Ten non-carve mess free pumpkin ideas

1. Pumpkin hat parade

2.Googley eyed pumpkin

3. Beaded pumpkin

4. musical pumpkin

5. Chalky pumpkins

6. Bandage and plaster removal

7. Pumpkin plaster 

8. Poorly pumpkin 

9. Polishing pumpkins

10. Pumpkin foam name peel

Halloween science

Here are some Halloween science ideas that we are going to consider doing this month.

1. Sink snd float experiment witches couldron

I thought you could do this with candy or bits of nature collected or even general household items.

Easy experiment does the item float of sink ??

2. Twig/nature skeleton

I have seen a brilliant nature skeleton and really want to try and do it this year if we get chance.

3. Magnetism ghost

To do this you simply attach string to a paper clip and the opposite end Sellotape to a surface. You then attach the paper lip to a paper ghost. Using a magnet you can make it look like the ghost is floating.

4. Make slime

There are many different ways to make slime. When I do it I will update this post which I liked best.

5. Balloon rocket ghost or witch on a broom stick

A balloon rocket is basically a balloon attached to a straw which is threaded on a wire (fishing wire works best). Decorate the balloon to look like whatever and blow it up the let it go and it should move along the string.

6. Density potions

Mix liquids with different densities such oil, treacle , water and syrup they seperate when mixed and it looks good.

7. Make various luminaries to explore light

Using tin cans pierce them to allow light to shine out of them. 

8. Pumpkin float or sink

To investigate if different parts of the pumpkin float or sink.  Also various size pumpkins.

9. Chromatography

Draw a Halloween picture on filter paper and add a drop of water and watch the colours seperate.

We will probably try a pumpkin first.

10. Mixing potions 

Sodium bicarbonate and vinegar is always good fun.

11. Ice play melting

I have bought some Halloween ice cube trays and made milk ghosts and orange pop pumpkins. Not sure what they will come out like.

12. Static electricity ghost

To make a ghost out of tissue paper or grease proof paper may work. Rub it with a plastic ruler and it should stand up with the ruler.

13. Shadow puppets 

Halloween themed puppet show. I got a template and ued them to make the puppets. 

14. Rolling pumpkins

You could talk about kinetic movement energy and investigate the mass and how fast they roll down a ramp.

15. Creepy crawlies magnifying glass 

To have an insect hunt to try classify the bugs.

16. Inflating ghost / pumpkin

This is done by releasing carbon dioxide tk inflate a balloon attached to a bottle 

You can do this with baking soda and vinegar or yeast and warm sugar water.

17. Egg smoke bombs 

To explore diffusion as the egg shells filled with talc and smashed the talc diffuses and spreads out .

19. Fizzing pumpkins

We tried this with sodium bicarbonate and vinegar as well as effervescent vitamin C tablets and warm water.

20. Ghost rockets

Decorate a bottle as a ghost and add a mento style mint to fizzy pop like lemonade or come . Turn it upside down and the reaction will force the bottle up.

21. Halloween light table 

To place led lights in a box and have a variety of Halloween objects to explore.

22. Bouncy goblin eggs

Fizzing and foaming pumpkin fakers

We had lots of oranges in the fruit bowl that had been their for a while so I decided to test the new pumpkin carve set and do some Halloween science too.

So we carved a face into an orange.

We added a vitamin C effervescent tablet and then Dylan squirted the orange juice onto it.

This is what happened.

We practised sucking up more juice .

Then we tried the baking soda and vinegar.

Great fun. I thought the orange effervescent tablets would foam more orange but there was just a little fizzing the baking soda was better. We will try orange food coloring next year.

Dylan 2.11

Beaded pumpkin

As part of our non-carve pumpkin fun we decided to use beads. For this we used the small pumpkin.

I placed double sided sticky tape on the pumpkin and left Dylan to stick the beads on.

This was a totally fun activity although it can be used for colour and numeracy learning at a late date.

How?

I can ask him to count the beads , add and subtract.

I could ask him to match the colour sequence with beads on a piece of paper or simply using crayons/felts.

I could also use it as a threading activity but these beads are too small for Dylan's tiny hands.

I could ask him to rearrange the beads in a certain sequence ie the rainbow.

Again another quick and easy activity but supervision is required as the beads are a chocking hazard.

Dylan 2.11

Googley eyed pumpkin

A good way to decorate pumpkins without mess and looks funky.

I simply placed double sided sticky tape tot he googley eyes and my two year old put them

Where he wanted.

Moving them around develops fine gross skills further. 

Dylan 2.11

Pumpkin mad hatter!

This was a totally off the cuff activity inspired by my sons hat on the dining room table as we did other activities

I think we needed a bigger pumpkin but it was still very funny trying on hats ourselves and making the pumpkin into different people.

This has sparked a new idea to do other dress up items like glasses, moustaches, scarves and ties.

This encourages imaginative play and role playing characters. Great fun and very easy to do. Give it a try.

Dylan 2.11

Chalky pumpkin

This activity was quick and easy but wasn't that impressed with how well it worked,

Maybe as we polished it first it redipuced the quality of the chalk drawn on.  However Dylan seemed to like this and it was after many other pumpkin activities too.

An extension of this could be to paint the pumpkin with chalkboard paint first.

Dylan 2.111

Musical pumpkin

We had been reading a book for the VBC that is called animal music. So the instruments were out as we role played to book. So they gave me an idea to use the pumpkin as a percussion instrument a drum.

Away he went using the xylophone like a symbol on a drum set.

He enjoyed this so much he told everyone about it days after.

I thought you could play a game using labeled pumpkins by asking them to hit a certain pumpkin.

You could also do an experiment listening to how it sound different when hollow p, filled with water or a different size.

 Dylan 2.11

Pumpkin plaster removal

After the plaster sticking activity and the dr check-up the removal of these plasters and bandages can be an activity practising fine motor skills. I can also prepare him for removal of plasters when he allows us to out them on him. 

Dylan's skills in this type of activity have improved really quickly. He even works out the best method of extraction.

Dylan 2.11

Plaster pumpkin

During the pumpkin check up doctor Dylan noticed a mark that he said was a cut and to put a plaster on. I had to open them and he put them on. He has got much better at handling plasters. He is a nightmare to get to have a plaster on so hoping this will help. I have a bunch of old plasters that I kept for craft purposes.  We also had a few of the new coloured plasters I bought to motivate him to wear one when he needs one obviously not as a fashion statement. 

After he had finished he did more doctor type checks from the previous activity.

He loved this and even more he loved the removal.

Dylan 2.11

Squirty cream pumpkin

This started as pretend medicine and ended up pasting the squirty cream all over.

He wasn't very keen to get the cream on his hands as he is funny like that.

But soon forgot about it and enjoyed it.

Dylan 2.11

Pumpkin check-up

Dylan loves his doctor set and was very excited to use it on the pumpkin.

We have a doctors set of the usual apparatus. So he went through the typical motions of a check-up.

Obviously he had to use his imagination  for things like the ear check.

This lasted quite long and developed into other activities such as -

Pumpkin cream pasting 

Pumpkin plaster placing and removal.

Pumpkin bandage placing and removal.

Dylan 2.11

Pumpkin polishing

After cleaning the pumpkin of the felt from the last activity, I gave Dylan a polishing cloth to make it really shiny.

Simple activity that also teaches about chores like washing and polishing.

Didn't last long, we did this last year too he still liked it. But he was more interested in what was coming next....... Pumpkin check-up.

Dylan 2.11

Pumpkin name peel

It had been a while since our last pumpkin activity of drawing and foam name sticking. So we cleaned off the pumpkin ready for the next one. Then I thought this is a valuable fine motor skills activity plus recap on the last activity of name recognition. 

This activity can be done straight after or leave it on show for a while.

Dylan 2.11

Halloween sensory tub

 

I have seen many different sensory tubs or bins and never really been sure whether I could make one just as good or that my son would be interested. I love Halloween season so I thought why not give it a try.

The look on his face and the amusement he got was mad! 

What was in our tub?

Red split lentils

Black beans

Halloween chocolate balls

Pumpkin scoopers

Baby milk scoops

Toy spider, wolf, pumpkin scarecrow from bob the builder

Orange net bag 

Glow torch

Glow stick

Toy pumpkin

Mini pumpkin

Containers

Black lace

I know random but I tried to cover all senses and improvised with what I had in.

First time using one but we still played as well as practising making letters, numbers and shapes. We talked about textures, colours and size. Burying the glow torch or spider was amusing.

I have kept it to play with tomorrow. I will certainly try it again.

Dylan 2.11