Spooky Body Art

Builds on: creativity

Using kids body prints to make art is a classic activity that kids love. Not only are they creating art but the whole point is to actually get messy with the paint. How often does that really happen in a kids life?

What you'll need:

black, white and orange paint

large paint brushes

colored paper

glitter glue

fine tipped sharpies

wet wash cloth ( for washing up)

What to do: 

Spider

Put about 1 teaspoon of black paint onto a large paint brush. Have your Roo hold out their hands palm up. Paint the palm and the fingers on one hand, skipping the thumb, and place the palm down firmly on a piece of colored paper. Repeat with the opposite hand careful to line up the palm so it overlaps the first palm print evenly. Wash their hands right away so you don't end up with tiny handprints on everything. 

Once the paint dries use the glitter glue to create the web as shown and a black fine tipped sharpie to write a Halloween greeting.

Pumpkin patch

Choose brown and blue paper. Decide how big you want your patch to be and tear the brown sheet to that size in a straight line. Place about 1 teaspoon of orange paint onto a clean large paint brush. Have your Roo hold out fists this time and paint one from knuckle to first joint. Place them down on your patch firmly and then lift. Paint the fist again to make more pumpkins. Use the wash cloth to to clean their fists. 

Once the paint has dried on the patch use a green sharpie to draw the pumpkin stems and leaves. Use a black sharpie for the greeting.

Ghosts

Choose a black sheet of paper and after placing 1 teaspoon of white paint onto a large clean paint brush paint the bottom of one of your Roos feet. Have them place it down in the middle of your paper and push down on it. Remove and clean with the wet wash cloth. Repeat with the other foot. 

Once the paint is dry use a black sharpie to make 3 large spots that make the eyes and mouths. We used a white crayon to write our greeting. 

We like to include these with our Boo Bags but you can make cards with them to send to family or hang them up to decorate your home.

Sheer The Sheep To Make Yarn
Builds on: dramatic play, fine motor skills

What you'll need:

a square piece of clear contact paper
scissors
painters tape
permanent marker
1 bag of cotton balls
a low window
1 plastic knife


What to do:
Use the permanent marker to draw the outline of a sheep on the front of the contact paper. Tear 4 pieces of painters tape measuring the length of each side of the contact paper from the roll. Remove the protective paper from the adhesive side of the contact paper and place your drawing against the window, sticky side facing you. Use the pieces of tape to secure the sides of your picture to the window. Now grab your bag of cotton balls and knife and invite the kids over.

As they stick cotton balls on to the sheep you can explain that during the fall farmers let the sheeps wool grow as thick as it will go. Hand over the knife and tell them that in the spring the farmer shaves off all the wool to make thread with. Let the kids shave off the "wool". Let the kids repeat this as often as they want. When you see that either the sheep isn't sticky anymore or that the interest is waning take a cotton ball and explain that to make thread with the wool farmers pulls the wool apart to make it more fluffy and then use a machine to spin/twist the wool into yarn.  Pull the cotton balls apart as you speak and encourage your kids to do the same. Once it's nice and fluffy pinch the "wool" between your fingers and show the kids how to twist it into small pieces of "yarn".

Related Resources:

Follow the links to a yarn activity and youtube videos about wool pulling and spinning.

Farm Shapes Sewing
Wool Pulling and Spinning Video