Five Little Ghosts

I am a big fan of all the 5 Little ________ finger plays and poems that are out there. I always do the 5 Little Pumpkins for Halloween. The kids can do the motions with the story and it's so cute! But something new came into my world today....Ash brought the 5 Little Ghosts home today and I loved how his preschool teacher did it so every kiddo had an actual ghost. (Although they just have one so that doesn't really work for 5 hmmmm.....maybe I'll work on this idea more for next year....but it's cute for this year and he's happy. See what happens when you are a crazy person and get wrapped up with these things!?!)

Here's the poem:

Five little ghosts flying through the door,

One flew away and then there were four.

Four little ghosts spooky as can be,
One flew away and then there were three.

Three little ghosts drinking Halloween brew,
One flew away and then there were two.

Two little ghosts having lots of fun,
One went home and then there was one.

One little ghost is a real superhero,
Went to help a friend and then there was zero!

The ghosts were made with 2 paper towels. One is balled up and the other is wrapped around it and tied with a piece of yarn that is taped the the poem. The faces were drawn with sharpies.

*I forced my poor husband to hold the ghost. Ash is already in bed and I couldn't really justify getting him up just because the pictures I took of him earlier this evening didn't turn out. These pictures aren't really great either, but I won't press my luck any further.

Halloween Pencil Toppers

We were feeling crafty after making our pom-poms spiders so Gray and I decided to make some Halloween pencil toppers.

We had some left over foam Halloween shaped bead thingies from a Halloween garland kit that the boys did; some orange pipe cleaners, and again my fav. a hot glue gun.

First we wrapped the pipe cleaner around the pencil.

Then we put a dab of hot glue on the back of the foam shape and pressed the pipe cleaner into the glue.

Then Gray thought they needed a little pirate. So we glued some pirate jewels on each topper.

The really cool thing was how both boys played with them for the longest time! They were like little pencil puppets. Who would have thought something so simple would be so fun!?!

Pom-pom Spiders

I have have been given two of these from students in my class and I thought they were so cool and knew that my boys would LOVE to make their own.

So I rummaged through our craft supplies and found:

big pom-poms, black pipe cleaners (mine were already cut in 1/2 from another project), sticker wiggle eyes, pony beads, and my glue gun.

 First the boys stuck their wiggle eyes onto their pom-poms.

Then I glued their legs on. (It's hot glue and burns are no fun!)

Then the legs were bent into their desired position.

Then I realized that I needed to hot glue the eyes on after all. Oops!

To add a little something to them the boys strung pony beads (orange, green, and purple) onto the legs. I was so impressed with Ash he did his all by himself! Nice fine motor skills, Ash!

Halloween Trick-or-Treat Bags

Oh my goodness! The Idea Room has some really cute trick-or-treat bags you can make for your little goblins! I think I know what I'm doing this weekend!

Witch Wreath

This is the cutest witch wreath ever! Ride your broom on over to Lemon Tree Creations to get the details on how to make your own.

How to Draw a Spiderweb

Gray asked me how I would draw a cool spiderweb. He had been testing different ways and hadn't come up with "the one". So I sat down and gave it a few tries...finally I got the cool stamp from Gray here is how I did it.

How do you draw your cool spiderwebs?

Halloween Crazy Crayons

I am obsessed with making these! I just love that you can make those inevitable broken crayons into something so cool even my oldest wants to use them! For my special Halloween blend I didn't restrict to just black & orange but instead added grey, white, yellow, peach, yellow orange, and orangey red.

I first placed my crayons in hot water and let me soak off their wrappers. I love how easy this makes getting the wrappers off! Seriously, they come right off.

After I dry them off, I pop them into a plastic bag.

Then I take them out to the garage and let my boys pound away. Breaking the crayons into smaller pieces. I like to keep them a little chunky because I think the crayons come out with a cooler marble look.

Then I pour the pieces into this silicone cookie mold. I don't use this guy for anything but crayons because there is a weird waxy residue that I have no desire to ingest. I put my oven on 325, pop them in the oven, and wait for them to melt.

Once they are melted and look marble-ish I take them out and let them cool.

Once they are cool I just pop them out of the mold. Sometimes I lack patience and try to pop them out too soon. The crayons crack, I mentally scold myself for being so impatient, and pop them back in the oven to get melty again. Seeing the error of my ways I wait patiently for them to be cool and they turn out just fine. *More importantly no one knows that I messed them up the first time!

Now my kiddos can enjoy their cool festive Halloween Crazy Crayons!

Block Party

Last night I had some friends over from my mom's group for a little block party. We all made these cute Boo! blocks. It was so much fun I can't wait to host another one...maybe a Thanksgiving-ish one. What will they say? If you have ideas please share! If you have made something similar send me a message I would love to see what you've done and post your creativity on my blog!

Here are a few Boo!s from last night...

Don't Eat Frank

I have never heard of this game before and being in the classroom I've seen a lot of games. Love the name! Love the cute boards! Thanks Idea Room for sharing!!!

Spooky Kid Drink Labels

These labels from Centsational Girl are SO fun! My boys would love to sip on Poison Punch! Fun beverages for Halloween get togethers...check!

Spider & Skull Jars

You will need:
glass jars *I used some vintage canning jars
sand
mini skulls
black spider rings
scissors

I had found these jars over the summer with my favorite treasure hunting friend, Carrie. To make them summery I had picked up some glittery sand (Shocking that I had to get glittery sand, I know!) and artfully poured some in each jar. This was my summer sofa table centerpiece. I had put them away for the season, but after completing my skull chandelier I wanted to use my extras somewhere. Any reason to put out something with glitter! So I pulled out the summer jars and turned them into glamorous spooky jars.

I simply plopped the skulls in the jars, arranging them with a spoon when they fell funny.
Snipped the ring off of some spider rings (Ash has a love/hate relationship with spiders right now. He loves them but hates how they kind of freak him out. Therefore we had to purchase a big bag of spider rings, which have found themselves scatter all over our house, and check on all the spiders that reside around our porch. Mostly we are making sure that they are not coming into the house....but that's a future therapy issue for another day.) and carefully used some scissors to place the spiders on the skulls just the way I wanted them. *Scissors work fabulous as long tweezers if you are careful not to pinch too hard. We lost of few limbs due to a helper who wanted to do the spider part. Poor Gray was concentrating so hard on getting them in the exact spot I told him that he forgot not to squeeze the grips.

Pop on the lids add a few more spiders to the outside *I just snipped little slits in the ring part to attach to wire on lid. Tada! Another simple Halloween project.