Magic Halloween slime

For magic slime you need - shaving foam, paint and glitter.

Mix up the foam and paint using a spoon, then sprinkle glitter on top.  I put it in a disposable baking tray - this helps to contain the mess and also is a nice reflective surface.

I added in a few toys from the play dough box but toys are not necessary.  Some snakes/spider/insect toys might be another good idea!

We played with it squishing it between fingers, making patterns on the table, hiding toys in the slime and exploring all the shapes we could make.

When finished I put the tray and toys in the sink and rinsed.  The table cloth and apron went in a cold rinse wash in the machine and came out sparkling clean.  This is not suitable for very young children who will put the foam near their eyes or in their mouth.  Also remember shaving foam may sting cuts.

Pumpkin decoration

Decorating pumpkins in a way that is easy for toddlers.

We got these adorable munchkin pumpkins from Sainsburys

A large baking tray and apron helped to contain the mess!

We used paint, paintbrush and glitter.  

Lots of fun and mess!  A very pretty pumpkin that lasts longer than traditional carved ones and won't go mouldy so fast!

Tissue paper pumpkin

Very easy one - drew a basic pumpkin shape and we ripped up tissue paper and stuck it down.

Wolf leaf craft

Nearly Autumn again - my favourite time of year for crafts! Today we went out for a walk to collect some leaves, we chatted about leaves falling off the trees and sang the leaves song. 

"Autumn leaves are falling down 

falling down, falling down, 

 Autumn leaves are falling down on the ground!"

To the tune of London Bridge. 

I got sent the idea for this cute craft by my friend, she saw it on  http://www.teachingideas.co.uk!

We stuck the leaf on a piece of paper and decorated with paper and googly eyes to make this wolf/fox.  Very easy and I think they look great!

Hedgehog printing picture

This is a bit of a different take on the one we did before -Hedgehog potato printing

Printed out some pictures of hedgehogs and mixed up some brown paint - good opportunity to chat about colour mixing.  (Red and green = brown)

Used black/pink for nose, ears and feet.

 

We used mini craft sticks to print spikes on the hedgehogs back.

Pre-school word activity

This was a simple, fun activity I made up for 4 year old who was interested in letters, writing and sounds.

 

I used white paper cute in to squares to write the letters on.

 

I folded a piece of card in to 4 and drew 4 rhyming things on it. 

We then worked together to stick on the letters to make the names of each object and then colour the in. 

Free summer ideas - outdoor crafts

Summer can be a tricky time to keep the kids entertained without spending loads of money!

We went to this local loch (or lake!) and fed the ducks.  We went for a walk round, chatting about the birds and flowers we saw.

 

After that I set the children a challenge.   I gave them 10 minutes to make a duck collage using materials found outside.  This is what they made - 

 

I also challenged them to  write the word quack using whatever they could find -

 

For younger children you could ask them  to build a campfire or collect items of different colours.