Monday 26 November 2012

Snow flakes

Always a popular craft! These are really simple too, you need a circle of white paper folded in half 3 or 4 times. You then cut small pieces from this.




When you open it up....ta daaa! A beautiful snow flake which can then be decorated with glitter, sequins or glitter glue!



These look great stuck up on windows, or hung on ribbons!

This is good for older children to practice their scissor skills, however any age can decorate the snow flakes. 

Sunday 25 November 2012

marble effect tree baubles

For this activity we purchased our baubles from "little crafty bugs" (link at bottom of page) but there are many different sites that you can buy similar from.  And if you were feeling very adventurous you could make your own using paper mache!



First we filled a tray with stripes of paint, any colours you like.

 
Then drop the baubles in to the paint.

 
Tilt the tray slowly from side to side to help the baubles get covered in paint.
We had lots of fun watching them roll around and predicting which bauble would reach the other side first!

 

 They are finished when they look something like this -

 

 
You can then sprinkle them with some glitter.
 
 
And hang them up to dry by their strings with clothes pegs!  Remember to pop something under to catch the drips!
 
 
 

Sunday 18 November 2012

Down with the Autumn freeze!

 
 
Our Autumn freeze came down this week! 
 
 
Watch this space for the winter one...!

halloween party games

Photo uploader not working today - will add the photos to each of these games later.

Pin the nose on the witch.  Same as pin the tail on the donkey really!

Dooking for apples. Bowl of apples in water.  Either retirieve with mouth, or by kneeling on back of a chair and dropping a fork in!

Retrieving a marshmallow from a tray of icing sugar without using hands. 

Decorating ghost biscuits - made in advance.  Allow children to decorate with icing and sweets of their choice. Then of course eat!

Finding the spiders in the witches cauldren to win a prize! Cauldren potion made with - jelly, cooked spaghetti, food colouring and glitter!

Friday 9 November 2012

Halloween biscuits

Mentioned before the cookie cutters that I purchased at the Good Food Show.  Used these to make some biscuits for Halloween.

Recipe is  -
  • 125g/4oz butter
  • 55g/2oz sugar
  • 180g/6oz plain flour
Cream butter and sugar then add flour.  Roll out and cut in to shapes!
Cook in oven at gas mark 5 for 20mins.
 
The children then decorated these with icing and sweeties!
 
 
And the finished ghost biscuit! They were delicious!
 

 

Halloween nails"

This is a good idea if you have slightly older children.  You can buy Halloween nail transfers  - we got ours from ebay.  Paint your nails a Halloween colour, stick on transfers and then coat with clean nail polish - easy!
 
 
If you can't get any transfers then you could just decorate your nails yourself - eg dram a pumpkin, witches hat or skull!

Witches potion - messy play!

This is a good Halloween messy play activity! We made a cauldren in the garden from plant pots - if you have an old pot or a real cauldren then that would be even better! 
 
 
 
The "ingredients" I provided were all different textures/smells/colours.  We had - paprika, purple glitter, cinnamon, pink paint, mustard seeds, rice and a few other spices!
 
 
We poured some water in to the "cauldren" and I let her add the ingredients one at a time! We discussed what they smelled, looked and felt like.  Also what affect the ingredients had on the potion in terms of colour/smell.
 
 
There was much fun had with this activity! Sang the witches of Halloween song, talked about what the potion would do!  "Turn you in to a frog" was the decision!
 
 
We added grass, leaves and flowers too, just to make it extra specially magic!