Witches Cauldron Sensory Play

The girls have been reading a lot of Halloween books from the local library and our own collection in the lead up to the big event. Their favourite ones are all about witches and in particular they have been enjoying The Witches' Supermarket by Susan Meddaugh.
Today I set up a mini 'witches supermarket' for the girls sensory play activity and it was a bit of a hit. Some of our 'ingredients' might be a bit too icky for some, there are lots of different yucky and not so yucky things you could include.

WE USED:

* cauldrons 

(ours were $1 from Hot Dollar but you could use anything; a bowl, bucket, empty plastic container)
* mixing spoons
* witchy ingredients
we had: 
slime (instructions here)

eye of newt (chickpeas)

worms (cooked spaghetti and black food colouring)

snails (cooked pasta shells and green food colouring)

maggots (rice)

The girls were very excited to play at being 'witches'.

A few cauldron essentials.

This activity provided a great imaginary and sensory play experience, lots of different textures to mix and squish.

Whenever we do messy play activities we set up a 'wash up station' nearby with warm water and a towel that the girls can use when the messiness gets a bit much.

Green Jelly Slime

As part of our Halloween activities I wanted to make the girls some 'slime' to use for sensory play. They aren't very fond of the cornstarch type so instead we tried making some using jelly, water and a blender. It turned out really well, the consistency was perfect and very very slimy!

WE USED:

* jelly (mixed and set)
(I made up a bowl using two packets, one green and one clear)

* water

* blender or stick mixer

(use with caution around kids!)

We made the jelly the night before and then in the morning just scooped it straight into the blender.

We gave it a quick blitz with the blender and then added water before mixing it further. We kept adding more and more water until we had the consistency we wanted.

We found that the jelly slime would solidify a little bit after sitting so it took us a few goes to get it just right. We used two packets of jelly and added around 1 1/2 cps of water all up.

Green jelly slime ready for some witchy play time.

Painted Witches Hats

Halloween is still a bit of growing event in Australia. 
It's not something I ever remember being around when I was growing up, except for on US television shows, and last year was our very first experience with Trick or Treaters.

The area we live in now appears to be quite into the Halloween spirit which is something I'm quite delighted about since our girls seem to love it. They love the bats and the lanterns and the 'spookiness', and they both have a special fascination with witches.
We are yet to go Trick or Treating ourselves but we still like to dress up and play Halloween games at home (and answer the door for all the little ghosts and princesses who knock!). The girls wanted to be witches last year and this year is no different, so we decided to personalise their witches hats in preparation for Wednesday!

WE USED:

* dress up witches hats
(ours were $2 each from BigW)
* old newspapers
* paints (we used acrylic)

* craft glue

* glitter/sequins/buttons etc...
* brushes 

First I stuffed the hats with newspaper so they would stand up straight and be easier for the girls to paint.

Then they got to work with their acrylics, craft glue and decorations.

This was after they had finished painting, once it was dry they used glue to attach all sorts of 'interesting' things.

I love the little details, like these eyes on top of Squeak's hat,

and these buttons on Bubble's.

Our Moth Has Emerged

Our little moth has finally emerged from his cocoon! 

He must have been super quick about it because one minute he wasn't there and the next there he was, hanging out casually as though he appeared by magic.

The girls were exceedingly excited, there was a lot of photo taking and squealing going on. 

Bubble realised it was our moths birthday so they made a card and left him some treasures :)

Bubble coloured in her moth template to look like 'Mothy' (even temporary pets need a name at our house).

Once it got dark we took the habitat outdoors and gently transferred him to the outside of it, being careful not to touch his wings. 

The girls sat watching him for a long time until he was ready to fly away into the night and do mothy type things.

We carefully cut open Mothy's cocoon to have a look inside.
The girls were very interested to see the fine silky bits holding the leaves together and the hard little case inside that was the caterpillars skin.

We put them into a petri dish so we could examine them easier.
Bubble was particularly intrigued by the skin the caterpillar had left behind and reading about how it turns into a goo before becoming a moth or butterfly. 

The girls have learnt so much about caterpillars, butterflies and moths from this experience, we'll be on the look out for more cocoons and chrysalises so we can do it all over again!

Caterpillar Habitat

About a month ago the girls and I visited our local nursery where they both picked out some herb plants for our kitchen. We potted them when we got home and Bubble and Squeak have been looking after them each day, watering and trimming them. All of the plants seemed to be thriving except our coriander.
I couldn't work out what we were doing wrong, no matter what we tried it seemed to be disappearing before our eyes. About two weeks ago though we spotted the problem - a bright green and very fat caterpillar!

We spotted him just before bath time so decided to leave him in peace until later that night and then put him out in the garden. When we returned though we found him hard at work making himself a cocoon;

So we changed our plans and have created a little habitat for him in our science corner. We did some research on the net and discovered that our little green caterpillar would most likely be a moth, so the girls are very excited to see what it will look like when it emerges.

The girls are intrigued and asking a million questions, so we've been using this as an opportunity to learn more about butterflies and moths; their body parts, life cycles, what they like to eat and where they live.

We've dug out all the books we have about caterpillars, butterflies, moths and insects. Next library day we are hoping to find some more to add.

Bubble and Squeak both made pictures of what our caterpillar looked like and we will make some of the moth when he emerges as well.

The girls had fun making some of their own creations too.
Bubble's of course was rainbow coloured and I love that Squeak used lots of different materials on hers (crayons, textas and pastels).

We've been adding a new 'interesting fact' to our wall each day.

We will update when our little friend has finally emerged and take some photos before we let him go outside!

Faraway Tree

I love creating things for Bubble and Squeak to enjoy, but one thing I love even more is when they create something themselves.
We've been listening to Enid Blyton's 'Faraway Tree' in the car lately, the girls both love the CD's which are read by Kate Winslet. 
We don't have a book to go with the discs yet but we talk about what we think the Faraway Tree looks like and Bubble likes to come up with her own little stories.
Today I discovered her busily constructing her own version of the Faraway Tree using things from our craft box. She had taped together toilet rolls as the trunk of her tree, used pop sticks as branches and green bottle lids as leaves.

Originally she had been using a pencil to make holes for the pop sticks but I helped her make slits in the tubes with a craft knife instead.

I love the way she taped the lids straight onto the pop sticks!

What an amazingly creative little Faraway Tree :)

Sequencing With Sticks & Stones

This game is very simple and another of the girls favourites when we're out at a play ground or park. You can use anything that is lying around that you can collect a few of (sticks, leaves etc...) and often the collecting part becomes an entirely separate activity of its own.

WE USED:

* any found items you can find a few of in the natural environment.

for example: sticks, leaves, stones/rocks, empty cicada or snail shells, gum nuts, seedpods, different types of grasses, flowers, shells, gravel, bark.

First make groups of your found objects. Today we collected sticks, stones and leaves for our game.

You can then use your objects to create sequences, as simple or as complicated as appropriate for your child.

Bubble (5) is quite good at this game and can solve pretty complex sequences independently, for Squeak (3) I make the patterns much more simple and we verbalise their order together out loud.

We often end up with sequences that go on forever! Well, almost :)