Halloween ~ Crafty Fun!

We've been having all kinds of Halloween inspired fun over the past couple of weeks. The very clever mummas that I work with in our micro school put together an awesome array of crafts for the kids to have a go with.

I'm fairly certain that none of these are anything new and can all be found online via a simple google search but I wanted to gather them all in one place and share some pictures with you all any how.

Halloween luminaries in recycled glass jars with battery operated tea lights. These are as simple as painting a jar with the colours and designs you wish or possibly using tissue paper with clear drying pva glue. The cute mummy is literally bandages and some goggle eyes. Simple, fast and they look so damn cute lighting up the coffee table.

Spooky black egg carton bats!

Simply cut up the egg carton leaving 3 egg holders intact, paint black, add fangs, goggle eyes and a string to hang it from.

The kids had so much fun with these and every single one looked completely different. You may need to hunt google for some skeleton head images but the rest is completely up to your imagination!

Cut up Q-tips and glue in any way you wish your skeleton to look.

Oh these delightful little Rock Monsters, anyone remember these?

Oh my I loved my little rock group like you wouldn't believe and when I saw these I just feel in love all over again. I was definitely 10 again for a few moments and I think I might've talked about my rock group love far too much that day ;-)

These couldn't get much easier, smooth rocks from the craft store, sharpies, decorate to your heats content and then hot glue on to a base board of some description.

This Pop Stick Haunted House craft is probably the most detailed of all the crafts but gee it looks fabulous and the mum that tackled this one did an awesome job as it was quite time consuming and used lots of hot glue...careful of those fingers!

It was a windy afternoon for the kids trying to put together these milk bottle ghosts but they did look rather cool all hanging there in the breeze.

Simply trim the milk bottle in half, draw your faces with a sharpie, attach streamers to the bottom and a piece of string to the top and hang.

Ok so technically not a craft but still a bunch of fun. This is such a great sensory activity, the kids will either love it or they will really dislike it. My younger two can't get enough and the ingredients make it such an easy thing to put together.

This particular slime is Oobleck, you can find the recipe for this all of the net.

I detailed our Halloween Themed Poems the other day if you'd like to check out how to put those together visit this link.

Milk bottle light up monsters are another delightfully simple craft but they do look fabulous all lit up in a dark room. Would be great to decorate a party with.

Simply decorate the front of a milk carton with sharpies and your scary face of your choice. Cut a hole in the back where you can feed through a short piece of battery operated fairy lights and you're done!

I was actually quite surprised how eager the kids were with these toilet roll halloween characters, from mad scientists to dracula and everything in between. All you need is a bunch of paint, some coloured paper, maybe a few other decorative bits and pieces. Lay it all on the table and let the kids go at it!

Of course no Halloween celebration is complete without food. Again the same principle as above, a whole delicious looking banquet of edible decorations were placed on the table, but what everyone did with them was completely up to them.

The more we get into Halloween the more I see why everyone enjoys it so much!

Have you been getting your Halloween on this week?

This post is linked to Expedition Homeschool Halloween Party Link Up

Happy Homeschooling,
Kylie

Blast Off - Paper Plate Alien Spaceships

I wanted to start off our Space Unit with something fun and simple, but would grab everyone's attention and this definitely did the trick.

Such an easy craft to put together. I simply picked up a couple of different sized packs of paper plates and bowls from the supermarket. Layed out paints and an array of collage items and let the kids go at it.

Whilst they created we listened to a couple of audio stories and I read some of our introductory space themed picture books (I'll try to review those down the track).

After the paint and glue dried, we pushed a hole through what would become the top of the spaceship and threaded in a long piece of fishing line.

We decided the easiest and quickest way to attach the bottom was to staple the pieces together on the smaller ships and to sticky tape the odd shaped ones, like this one above here.

They look super groovy flying through our little universe in the corner of our room. Plus it has certainly sparked the kids curiosity, they've done nothing but talk space since we began!!

Art Class - Triorama's, A Tutorial

Our home school art group have a current focus on landscapes. This particular week they have worked on Triorama's. A trinagular diorama, aren't they just super cute.

B seems to have a thing for Sydney and in particular the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, he has used these icons in the past for art inspiration.

K, of course created the cutest the little fairy habitat, that I am sure any fairy would be willing to move into.

The kids have been working on various versions of Triorama's since they took this class. It is such a simple concept that they can complete independently from beginning to end. I guess that's why love it and the fact that it is such a flexible activity that will fit into any theme you choose.

I thought I'd show you how to make one. I bet your kids love them too. :-)

To begin you need a sheet of A3 Sketch Pad Paper, the heavier the better,

You need a square, so fold one corner over to the opposite edge, so you have a triangle on the top folded piece, as pictured above.

Cut off the excess rectangular piece that sits along the edge of the triangle.

Open it out and you have a square piece of paper, folded so it is showing two triangles.

You need to see four triangles so fold the large square corner to corner the other way,

So that when it opens you now can clearly see four triangles.

(please read right to the end before going any further with this)

Choose one of those folds (doesn't matter which one) and cut along it, stopping when you get to the centre.

When you have finished cutting, slide those triangles over each other, this will become the 

base of the Triorama.

Those two triangles need to be glued together, to form the base. Use enough glue to hold them but not too much or the bottom will buckle. As you can see has happened in the Fairy Triorama above.

And that's it. Simple.

However be sure to stop prior to cutting and plan your Triorama's layout. You will need draw/colour/paint your background first. Once the background is complete you can then move ahead with the assembly of the triorama. 

When creating the little 3D pieces, such as the Sydney Opera House or the Toadstool, leave a flap across the bottom of the piece when cutting it out. Fold that flap backwards and glue it to the triorama so that it 'pops' out.

Idea's for these are endless. Glue four back to back together to create a scence or a mobile. B thought he could continue with his Australiana theme. It could work well with seasons, one triorama for each, or anything you can come up with really.

Have fun!

Printable Russian Nesting Dolls

For a print, cut and colour activity these are really quite cool. K put them together (with Grandma's help) during a recent sleepover the kids had.

An easy way to get some math into an activity and the kids won't even realise. Just have them measure the strips needed for each little doll (a printable template is available also)

They nest in together quite nicely.

Printable Russian Nesting Dolls can be printed from Activity Village.

Valentine Geometric Paper Quilt

Thanks to Mathwire we've been creating Valentine Geometric Paper Quilt's. Granted the only link to Valentines Day is the fact that we used red and pink paper, but they sure do look rather pretty.

I even got to join in on the fun. We each completed three 3x3 grids and put them all together to form a large quilt pattern.

These larger collaborative pieces are something that (often) homeschooled kids can miss out on so it was fun to work on something together and have a larger display on the wall.

In fact they worked together so well that they created a 'dinosaur' image within the quilt, can you see it?

What Valentines fun are you having in your home this year?

Happy Homeschooling,
Kylie

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Visit Our Worldwide Classroom's profile on Pinterest.   This posted is linked to   Dear Homeschooler Valentines Theme

Open Ended Art: Paper Mosaics

We are a little on the late side with sharing our Paper Mosics project, but I have been a bit off colour this week.

I really liked how Susanna's kids did theirs on black card so I dug mine out of the cupboard for this activity. Anyway, without further ado here are this weeks creations.

I cheated slightly and bought pre cut paper, @ $1.99 a packet it was well worth it!

K5 loved this, in fact after she finished her butterfly she proceeded to use the remainder of the mosaic paper and black cardboard and covered it in mosaic squares. Not quite what I had in mind for the leftovers but oh well, she enjoyed herself!

B7 still hasn't finished his. I think he realised that he was probably trying to get in too much detail with his dinosaur. The paper squares just weren't small enough.

To see other paper mosaic creations visit Teaching My Little Bookworm.