Paper Bag Pumpkin

Looking for a simple Halloween craft activity that can double as decorations on a party table? This paper bag pumpkin is simple, cute and lots of fun to make. After reading one of our favourite Halloween Books Too Many Pumpkins we got busy making our own!

What you need:

• Paper Bag
• Orange Paint
• Black Marker Pen
• Green tissue paper
• Newspaper

Instructions:

• Draw a scary pumpkin face on a paper bag in black marker pen
• Stuff the bag with newspaper or any other paper you have spare
• Paint the bag with orange paint
• Wrap green tissue paper around the top

Pumpkin Carving

Today we set aside the afternoon to carve our Pumpkin. After initially resenting the fact that I had paid $20 for this pumpkin, the learning that took place with this activity was worth every dollar! Such an amazing opportunity to use lots of descriptive words: orange, heavy, big, small, oozy, slimy. Master 4 has been very particular about the design that he wanted on the pumpkin (thankfully it wasn't too hard!) after we spent the weekend reading a number of Halloween related books.He planned his pumpkin face, talking about shapes and drawing it on a paper to plan. Before we started we weighed the pumpkin on our scales (8.4kgs ) and measured around the pumpkin using a tape measure. This brought about lots of mathematical language with Master 4.We discussed what we were going to do: measure, weigh, count. He was very excited when we weighed him and he realised that he weighs as much as two of our pumpkins!! So the three of us had great fun scooping out the inside of the pumpkin as it has a very distinct smell when cut open. Both boys enjoyed touching the rough exterior, helping to scrape the insides of the pumpkin, and collecting the slippery seeds. We roasted the pumpkin seeds to taste for afternoon tea along with a pumpkin faced sandwich I made the boys.

Activities that you can do with a pumpkin are:

• Cut different sized pieces of pumpkin and see if they sink or float?



• Weigh and measure your pumkin before and after you have scooped the contents out



• Weigh the contents of the pumkin



• Roast the seeds and talk about the change in texture before and after they are roasted



• Make Pumkin Soup, Pumpkin Bread, Pumpkin Scones

Pumpkin Pop-Up Card

I remember being on a course last year about Children's Literacy and we were told, research finds children learn less from pop-up books than they do from old-fashioned volumes illustrated with photos.It is thought that while pop-up books “may have their place as entertainment,” their “bells and whistles” approach appears to be counterproductive to learning. “When attempting to convey information to young children,” they add, “less is more.” Well yes I can see their point from a learning aspect, but in our house we love pop-up books. I don't particularly have a lot of them on our shelf, but the few we do have my boys really enjoy. Maybe it is the novelty, a change, either way they still bring ooohs and ahhs as each new page pops up.

This week for Halloween I bought a fun pop-up book called Snappy Little Spooks. The boys really enjoyed it and we decided to have a go at making our own pop-up Jacko-lantern card. Even better, Master 4 came up with the plan to make a thank you Halloween card for his little Friends who are hosting a Halloween party we are attending on the weekend.

What you will need:

a square piece of black paper or cardboard

print out of a Jack-O-lantern

Stickers

Marker pens

Scissors

Glue

Instructions:
Cut out a square using black paper or cardboard. (cardboard is best!)

Print off a Jack-o-lantern template or draw your own.

Fold your square in to quarters.

Glue the jack-o-lantern onto the bottom half of the square. Draw a small rectangle from each side of the jack-o-lantern.

Fold on the vertical line that runs between the pumpkin.

Partially cut around the pumpkin so it will lift. Make sure you don't cut over the rectangle on each side.

Open so your card is flat.

Now fold the card on the horizontal line at the pumpkin. Make certain to let your pumpkin out!

Cooking with Young Children

All young children enjoy cooking. Sometimes they like the product, but even if they don't, they always appreciate the process. It's fun to do something that is a grown-up activity, and discover that kids can do it too! I like to tie cooking projects to other themes that we are working on. E.g. Reading The Gingerbread Man. Cooking with your children teaches them so many valuable skills whilst spending time together.

Cooking teaches children:

1. Following Directions: Teach your child what a recipe is and that one must "follow the directions" in order for the recipe to work. Children learn that you must read directions and follow them in a certain order to get the result you want.

2. Simple Numeracy: Compare amounts. Are we putting in more flour or more baking powder? What is bigger, a half cup or a whole cup? How many half cups do you need to equal a whole cup? Develop his sequencing skills. Ask him, "What do we do first...second...last?"

3. Sensory Awareness: Use ingredients with a variety of textures, smells, and tastes. Let him feel the difference between rice and beans. Let him taste the difference between sugar and salt. Have him smell the differences between various spices and the sweet smell of vanilla.

4. Vocabulary Enrichment: Enhance your child's knowledge of ingredients and items found around your kitchen. Flour, sugar and eggs may seem like everyday words to you, but they are not basic to your three-year-old.

5. Concept Development: Improve your child's understanding of concepts: Hard vs. soft, liquid vs. solid, hot vs. cold, raw vs. baked, in the bowl vs. out of the bowl, fast vs. slow, etc.

6. Cause and Effect Relationships: Increase your child's ability to answer questions like: "What happens if . . . (you add juice instead of water, you use bananas instead of strawberries)?" Children can learn how adding, leaving out or changing one ingredient can change the entire product.

7. Cooperation: Improve your child's ability to work together with you and with other children. This includes waiting for his turn and having fun in a joint activity.

Heading on a Road Trip?

While the idea of driving hours with a car full of children may send shivers down the spine of even the most patient of parents, a family road trip doesn’t have to be a stressful endeavour. There are lots of games you can play with your children that will keep the "are we there yets" at bay. Best of all, they won’t cost you a thing. As you plan your road trip, make sure you take some time to plan activities and games for the small travellers in the car! Here is a list of some road trip games and activities you can play with young children.

The ABC Game: Objective is to complete the alphabet first. As you see the letters on billboards & license plates you shout out your letter and point. Once a letter has been claimed other players cannot use the same letter. Make it harder by limiting to only license plates or billboard signs.

Alphabet Signs: [A variation of the ABC game above]
One person chose the right side of the road and the other person had the left. The object of the game was to cite all of the letters of the alphabet ,in order, from a to z. You could only use a sign for one letter. The person on the left side usually had to sit sideways and read signs as they receded. The first person to z won.

Animals: Take turns naming animals from a-z. (I keep at each letter until we have exhausted all animals!)

The Cow Game: This is a car game called "The Cow Game". Works well if you are a family of four, so 2 of you take the right side of the road and 2 the left. You keep a count of all the cows you pass throughout the day. But every time you pass a cemetery on your side of the road, you lose all your points. The winner at the end of the day's drive gets a treat!

License Plate Bingo: To play this game you’ll need to bring along a few writing utensils and have paper to use for game cards. Write down random letters and numbers in your BINGO squares. As players see the letters and numbers on passing license plates they cross them off. First player to get 5 in a row wins, and it might be a good idea to keep a few prizes on hand for the lucky winner

The Banana Game: Single out yellow vehicles with the banana game. Players get points for each yellow car they point out passing. Double points are awarded for buses and larger yellow vehicles. Be prepared, this could get competitive!

Map Monitors: One easy way to keep children entertained on the road is to engage them in the process of travel. Give each child a map of your trip and allow them to keep track of your progress using stickers, coloring or something else your child enjoys.

Find 10: Occupy your kids with counting using Find 10. Choose a colour or object and keep counting until you reach 100. Try counting churches, red cars or anything else you can think of. Mix it up by giving each player a different object to find 10 of and race to see who can finish first *Younger children can be given a smaller number like 2

Listen to an E-Story on a CD : There are a number of well known stories for kids now available on E-Book

Listen to Children's Music: Get yourself some good kids CDs with familiar rhymes and songs on them a so that the whole family can have a sing-a-long.

Have some old and some new (unseen) books: Children will be content to look at familiar books for a while and also be intrigued at new ones. New books can be good when mum jumps over the back for a read along!! I also like Eye Spy Books whenever we are travelling.

Here are some of my top picks on items that will hopefully help eliminate the "Are we there yet?" question

LeapFrog: Tag: Interactive Books for Kids

Travel size Etch A Sketch and Magna Doodle.

Kid Knex Bucket of Buddies

I also like to have the kids things organised in a neat and tidy compact way when we are travelling. This way the kids can easy access their books, toys, games, drink bottles, snacks etc

My Top 100 Favourite Books for Kids!

Here is a list of my Top 100 Books for kids. Tried and tested over and over again in my house and the classrooms I have taught in over the years! I have to say it wasn't easy narrowing it down to 100.

1. The Rainbow Fish by Michael Psiffer
2. Sharing a Shell By Julia Donaldson
3. Commotion in The Ocean By Giles Andrea
4. Mrs Wishy Washy By Joy Cowley
5. Duck in the Truck By Jez Alborough
6. Farmyard Hullabaloo! By Giles Andrea
7. 1,2,3 Zoo By Eric Carle
8. The Tiger Who Came to Tea By Judith Kerr
9. Giraffes Can’t Dance By Giles Andrea
10. Night Monkey, Day Monkey By Julia Donaldson
11. Greedy Cat and The Gold fish By Joy Cowley
12. Dogger By Shirley Huges
13. Elmer the Elephant By David Mc Kee
14. Farmyard Jamboree By Margaret Read Macdonald
15. The Very Busy Spider By Eric Carle
16. The Bad-Tempered Ladybird By Eric Carle
17. Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy by Lynley Dodd
18. The Very Quiet Cricket By Eric Carle
19. The Runaway Train by Benedict Blathwayt
20. Owl Babies By Martin Waddell
21. Rumble in The Jungle By Giles Andrea
22. The Animal Boogie By Debbie Harter
23. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? By Eric Carle
24. Little Mouse, the Red Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear By Don and Audrey Wood
25. We’re Going on A Bear Hunt By Michael Rosen
26. Who Sank the Boat? By Pamela Allen
27. The Boy on The Bus By Penny Dale
28. Choo Choo Clickety-Clack! By Margaret Mayo
29. The Little Yellow Digger By Betty Gilderdale
30. From Head to Toe By Eric Carle
31. Oliver’s Fruit Salad By Vivian French
32. The Giant Jam Sandwich By Vernon Lord
33. The Tiny Seed By Eric Carle
34. The Very Hungry Caterpillar By Eric Carle
35. The Fidgety Itch By by Lucy Davey. & Katz Cowley
36. Dinosaurs Galore! By Giles Andrea
37. Dinosaurs Roar By Harriet & Paul Stickland
38. Room on The Broom By Julia Donaldson
39. The Magic hat By Mem Fox
40. Jolly Postman’s Christmas By Allan Ahlberg
41. The Gruffalo By Julia Donaldson
42. Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney
43. Stickman By Julia Donaldson
44. Shoes From Grandpa By Mem Fox
45. Pirate Pete By Kim Kennedy
46. Dear Zoo By Rod Campbell
47. Winnie The Witch By Valerie Thomas
48. Mrs Honey’s Hat By Pam Adams
49. The Big red Bath By Julia Jarman
50. The Mixed-Up Chameleon By Eric Carle
51. Dream Snow By Eric Carle
52. Grandpa and Thomas and the Green Umbrella By Pamela Allen
53. The Wonky Donkey By Craig Smith
54. What’s The Time Mr Wolf? By Colin Hawkins
55. Jasper's Beanstalk by Mick Inkpen
56. Rosie's Walk by Pat Hutchins
57. Handa's Surprise by Eileen Browne
58. Monkey Do! by Allan Ahlberg
59. My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes by Eve Sutton
60. Ten in the Bed by Penny Dale
61. Walking Through the Jungle by Julie Lacome
62. Handa's Hen by Eileen Browne
63. Funnybones by Janet Ahlberg
64. Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne
65. Night Noises By Mem Fox
66. Hamilton’s Hats By Julia Donaldson
67. Imagine By Alison Lester
68. The Light House Keeper by Ronda Armitage and David Armitage
69. Farmer Duck by Martin Waddell
70. Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? By Eric Carle
71. I Love You, Blue Kangaroo by Emma Chichester Clark
72. Six Dinner Sid by Inga Moore
73. Orange Pear Apple Bear By Emily Gravett
74. A Curious Clownfish by Eric Maddern
75. The Teeny Weeny Tadpole by Sheridan Cain
76. Old Bear by Jane Hissey
77. A Squash and a Squeeze By Julia Donalson
78. Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet Ahlberg
79. Dogs By Emily Gravett
80. Captain Duck by Jez Alborough
81. Mr. Gumpy's Motor Car by John Burningham
82. Where the Forest Meets the Sea by Jeannie Baker
83. I Don't Want to Go to Bed! by Julie Sykes
84. Aliens Love Underpants! by Claire Freedman
85. The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson
86. Tiddler: The story-telling fish by Julia Donaldson
87. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
88. There's a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake by Hazel Edwards and Deborah Niland
89. A House for Hermit Crab By Eric Carle
90. Mr Seahorse By Eric Carle
91. Possum Magic by Mem Fox
92. Wilfrid Gordon Mcdonald Partridge by Fox Mem
93. Where Is the Green Sheep? by Judy Horacek and Mem Fox
94. Wombat Divine by Mem Fox
95. Time for Bed by Mem Fox and Jane Dyer
96. Koala Lou by Mem Fox and P. Lofts
97. Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley
98. Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr and Eric Carle
99. Pancakes, Pancakes! By Eric Carle
100. Mr. Wolf's Pancakes by Jan Fearnley
     

Creating New Christmas Traditions

Whether you are a new parent looking to start your own special Christmas traditions with your new family, or experienced parents looking for a new tradition to add some fun to a tired Christmas holiday, these ideas can be for you. Spending special time with family and friends during the Christmas season is an important thing to keep in mind when considering what traditions to add to your family routine.

Christmas Eve Traditions

• Purchasing your children new pjs and allow that to be the Christmas Eve gift so that they can wear their new pajamas to bed. Although they will soon come to know what is in the package, they will continue to be excited about it. It is all about creating Christmas magic and memories.


• Watch a Christmas DVD/Carols on TV together as a family and drink hot milo with a slice of white Christmas that you made with the children earlier in the week.


• Most churches hold Christmas Eve services that include Christmas carols, reading the Christmas story from the Bible and cookies. A family service usually focuses on including the children in the congregation as well, making it a fun way to spend some time together on Christmas Eve.


• Drive around your local neighbourhood looking at all the lights


• Read 'The Night Before Christmas'. When your kids have grown and moved away, send a tape of yourself reading the book along with a beautiful copy of the book to share with their future children. A loving note in the front cover will mean so much. Christmas Photo Album- look through the previous year's album and talk about the wonderful year you have had as a family. I have a scrapbook just for Christmas and create a double page spread each year.

Christmas Traditions that I have started in my house!

• Decorate the Christmas tree on December 1st


• Spend a day at home making fun Christmas Craft with the boys


• I have a special basket I pull out each year on the 1st December and load it up with all of our Christmas books (winter and snow ones too). It is our Christmas tradition to read a book from this basket on a daily basis in the month leading up to Christmas.


• Christmas movies and music always get our family into the Christmas mood. My boys absolutely love watching the Christmas classics as well as the newer movies that have quickly become favourites. The Polar Express became an instant favourite in my house of Train Lovers! We play music throughout the day and the kids sing along both in the house and in the car! The Christmas tradition of movies and music is an easy one for kids to enjoy.


• Christmas baking is a special day with my boys. We pick a day and write it down on the calendar – Cookie Day! We go shopping together for the ingredients and come home and spend the day baking.


• Advent Calendar – Another Christmas tradition in my house, we have an advent calendar. My boys love counting down to Christmas. Each day when they check their calendar, we talk about the special meaning of Christmas and why we celebrate it today.


• Decorating the Christmas tree and putting the Manger scene together is another Christmas tradition we share with our boys. Even Master 2 can hang ornaments on the tree. My boys love checking out all of our favourite ornaments each year. They get to find a good place on the tree for the ornaments and hang them up. The manger scene is special because it gives us the opportunity to talk about the meaning of Christmas and the story of Jesus’ birth. We talk lots about this in the lead up to attending mass on Christmas Eve.


• SANTA'S NOTE - a note from Santa, in his special handwriting is pinned to the Christmas tree itself. All notes from the previous years are kept in 'The Night Before Christmas' book and re-read each year.


• Buy an ornament that reflects their interest each year. As memories fade with time, this is another great way of creating memories for both you and the kids.


• Buy a personalised ornament for each new baby born into the family. Great keepsakes for the future too. I also have a Christmas Star ornament made each year with a photo of each child on Christmas Day, I hope to give these to them when they leave home.


• Make some one's holiday very special. You and your kids can play Secret Santa to a different person every year. Or, if you choose, the same person. The idea is to pick someone who may be struggling financially or is lonely this Christmas season, and make them smile.Or, you can play the 12 days of Christmas with the chosen person or family. Each day of the 12 days of Christmas you can do something or give something special to that person. You would put the gift on the front porch or desired location. For example, on the 12Th day of Christmas, the (put your name here) family gave to me, 12 Christmas cookies. Of course, this is a secret, so don't tell!This will help your children learn the joy of giving without expecting anything in return.