Spooktacular October activities!!!

Spooktacular October activities!!!

   

 
It's Fall....and it's still 100* here in sunny Southern California. It's hard to get into the season when it still feels like Summer all the way into October, but I am determined to make it feel like fall! I bought some pumpkin spice febreeze, got out the decorations and of course made a trip to the dollar tree to get some fun items for our fall activities! 

So I like to go to the dollar tree and see what everyday items I can use in an unconventional way. This trip the cashier scanned chopping mats and she said, "Oh, have you used these? How do they hold up after cutting?" I said, "I'm not sure, I use them as playdough mats, they work GREAT for that!" She looked at me strange. I smiled, little did she know she made my day and I succeeded in my mission.This trip this is what I found and what I used them for:

  2 chopping mats for $1 I use these as playdough mats!!! (I use these in my preschool class as well) 

 These pumpkin decorating kits are all over the place during the Halloween season, they are essentially Mr. Potato head pieces that you put into a pumpkin to decorate them.....anywhoo...they were a dollar so I grabbed a bunch of different sets (pirate, cat, witch, Frankenstein) I bought these to play with our home made pumpkin spice playdough. 

So now I have the playdough mats and fun decorating kits....so now onto the BEST playdough you can ever make! 

1 cup flour

1 cup water

1/4 cup salt

2 tsp. cream of tartar

1 Tbls. vegetable oil 

food coloring

pumpkin spice (optional)

 

for neon food coloring  8 green + 4 pink = orange

throw it all in a bowl and mix it up, then throw it in a pan and cook on medium low until it starts to mold/form together, you will need to stir and flip the dough a few times. Let cool and enjoy.  This recipe makes a small batch, for a LARGE batch click HERE  

This was my playdough invitation in my classroom. 

I also found this insta-snow at the dollar tree, my mind started spinning and I thought it would be fun in the sensory bin with plastic spiders. 

We made the insta-snow and then added a lot more water to give it a gooey feel. Then we used food coloring to turn it orange then added a few spider rings I bought at the dollar tree.

Oh yeah.....AWESOME mad scientist goggles....THE DOLLAR TREE!!

He loved being a mad scientist! 

Here are a few other things I have been doing in my classroom. 

Counting Pumpkins (thanks Ms M.)

These are like Easter Eggs but in the shape of pumpkins. I wrote on the back of each one. On the top I wrote the number and I wrote the corresponding number in dots on the bottom half. I put them all in a bin and the kids have been dumping them out and matching the tops and bottoms!

On our magnet boards I simply cut out and laminated a few different faces and a pumpkin. I put magnets on the back and the kiddos have been making fun jack-o-lanterns.

On the other side of our standing magnet board I had the kids color tongue compressors, then I put magnets on the back of each one. A few kids have formed letters with them, others have created shapes.

And of course our beloved water beads!!! I had orange water beads and spider rings in the sensory table last week....fun fun fun!!!