totschool.shannons.orgShannon's Tot School

Toddler Preschool Kindergarten Elementary Arts Language Math Physical Practical Science Sensorial Pages About Me Free Halloween Picture Cards Shannon’s Printables Disclosure Policy Follow Me Need a Button? Tags 3 Star 3-Part Cards 4 Star Acorns Addition Alphabet Animals Art Balance Beads Buttons Card Chalk Child Labor Chores Christmas Clay Cleaning Clothespins Collage Colors Color Theory Cookie Cutters Cooking Corn Starch Counting Counting Bears Craft Craft Foam Craft Sticks Crayons Cutting Disasters Do-A-Dot Easter Easy Eggs Eye dropper Fall Father’s Day Feathers Fine Motor Control Fingerprints Flour Flowers Foam Shapes Folding food Food Coloring Frugal Fun Game Gift Glue Grinding Gross Motor Control Halloween Hole Punch Ice Cube Trays Independent Interview Jack-o’-lantern Journal Kool-Aid Kumon Lacing Language Letters Liquid Watercolor Literacy Logic Marbled Markers Matching Math Messy Microwave Milk Caps Money Montessori Mother’s Day Music Nature Necklace Needle New Years Nomenclature Numbers Observation Oil Origami Outside Paint Painting Paper Pasta Patterns Pencils Phonemic Awareness Phonics Physical Activity Pipe Cleaners Plastic Eggs Play-Doh Pom Poms Pony Beads Popsicle Craft Sticks Pouring Practical Life Pretend Play Puzzle Reading Record Keeping Resist Painting Review Ribbon Role Playing Salt Sand Scent Science Scissors Sensorial Sensory Sewing Shapes Shaving Cream Sink Snow Snowflake Sorting Sound Spatial Relations Spooning Spray Bottle Stamps Stickers Stringing Styrofoam Tape Thanksgiving Thread Toilet Paper Roll Tot Trays Toys Transfer Tweezers Valentine’s Day Vinegar Water Watercolors Water Colors Weaving Words Halloween Charades Sweet Pea is 8 years old. From: I was looking for some activities for Sweet Pea’s classroom Halloween party and got the idea for a game of Halloween themed charades from EasyPartyIdeasAndGames.com . Since we were going to be playing with beginning readers (1st, 2nd and 3rd graders), I wanted to make Halloween word cards that included pictures. Material: Timer (I just use the timer on my iPhone). Scissors (or make your life easier and use a paper cutter). My Halloween Picture Cards A group of willing charades players. Procedure: Print the Halloween Picture Cards and laminate if desired. Cut the pages into cards. Decide if you will be playing with teams (more competitive) or as a big group (more laid back). One Group Rules (without keeping score) Pick a person to keep track of time. Pick a player to start. Without looking that player selects a card. The timer should start the timer for 2 minutes. The player stands in front of the group and tries to act out the word on the card without making any noise. The rest of the group tries to guess what word was on the card. The first person who correctly guesses the word becomes the next player. If time runs out without anyone guessing, they reveal the answer and randomly select another person to be the next player. Team Rules (with scoring) Split the group evenly into two teams. One person from the first team selects a card and tries to act out the word or phrase without making any noise. The rest of the players on the first team remain quiet while all the players on the second team try to guess the answer. If someone from the second team guesses correctly before time runs out, then that team gets a point. If no one guesses, then the correct answer is revealed and no one gets a point. It is now someone on the second teams turn to select a card and act it out while the first team tries to guess. Repeat until everyone has had a chance to act out a card and the teams have had an even number of turns. The team with the most points wins. Observations: I figured other people might want to use the cards so I am publishing this before we actually play charades. We will be playing with the non-competitive one group rules”. I will update the post and let you know how it went sometime after Halloween. ? October 25th, 2015 | Tags: Easy , Fall , Frugal , Fun , Game , Halloween , Jack-o’-lantern , Language , Nomenclature , Reading , Words | Category: Activities , Activities By Age , Elementary , Kindergarten , Language , Physical Activity | Leave a comment Related Posts: The tiny little elves that live inside my computer think you also might be interested in the following: Introducing 3-Part Cards (and a Giveaway!) CLOSED Thank You Notes Rhyming Cups Salted Water Color Paintings Sweet Pea is 6 years old. From: I saw this beautiful technique in an issue of Family Fun magazine. Material: Watercolor paper or other sturdy paper. Watercolor paints or liquid watercolors ( Click here to see how we made our own liquid watercolors from dried-out markers. ) Paintbrushes. (These Crayola ones are my favorite paint brushes for kids.) Salt in a very small cup or bowl. Plastic tablecloth or other covering for your work area. (optional) Smock or bib for your tot. (optional) Procedure: For the most eye-pleasing results only set out 3-4 colors of watercolor paints. (See Notes From the Trenches #1) Give your tot a piece of paper and invite him to paint all over the paper. Encourage him to cover all of the white space. Meanwhile, take a piece of paper for yourself and paint all over the paper. (See Notes from the Trenches #2) After you are done painting, but while the paint is still wet on your paper, demonstrate taking a small bit of salt between your fingers and sprinkling it over the wet paint. The salt will cause an interesting pattern to appear in the paint. Repeat a few times until you are happy with the effect. Give your tot a small amount of salt and allow him to sprinkle it over his own paper. Set the artwork aside in an out of the way location until it is dry. Once dry, brush any extra salt off the paper into the sink and enjoy your paintings. Observations: After doing a couple of pictures my way, Sweet Pea decided she wanted flick her paintbrush to create splatters on her paper. This resulted in a way more messy activity than I had originally anticipated. Sweet Pea loves art projects and this was no exception. We both had lots of fun and I would recommend it for tots (and adults) of all ages. ? Notes from the Trenches If you let your tot use all possible colors, they merge together and create an unpleasant muddy brown for the finished product. I often let Sweet Pea use as many colors as she wants, but if we are making a gift or a special project, I usually limit her to 3. She never seems to notice one way or the other. I once read an excellent article about doing art activities with children, which stressed that an adult shouldn’t draw on or their child’s paper. I took a moment to think about how startling it might be if I showed someone a painting and they reached over and added their own marks to it and since then have always tried to demonstrate on my own paper instead of drawing on Sweet Pea’s work. Rating: 4 Stars * (Fun, Easy, Independent, Frugal) March 26th, 2014 | Tags: 4 Star , Easy , Frugal , Fun , Independent , Liquid Watercolor , Paint , Painting , Salt , Watercolors | Category: Activities , Activities By Age , Elementary , Kindergarten , Preschool | Leave a comment Related Posts: The tiny little elves that live inside my computer think you also might be interested in the following: Condensed Milk Puffy Paint Paint with Water Sidewalk Water Painting DIY Watercolors from Upcycled Markers Sweet Pea is 6 years old. From: I found instructions for this fun and frugal activity from Julie Finn at Crafting a Green World . Material: Several old dried-out markers in a variety of colors. Pliers. A few small glass or plastic jars with lids. (Julie suggests using old spice jars, but I had some perfect little plastic jars I had bought on clearance in the paint section at Hobby Lobby.) 3 Paper plates or pieces of paper. Tweezers. (optional) Plastic covering for your work area. (Optional, but recommended.) Bib or smock for your Tot. (Optional, but recommended.) Procedure: Let your tot draw on...