Halloween

I like the magic and mystery that surrounds Halloween, and, again inspired by the amazing book "Forest Fairy Crafts", had lots of fun creating these witches, wizards and warlocks. You can easily make each one individual and unique by using different coloured yarn for the hair, or different shaped sequins, different coloured sequins, special patterns, embroidered stars, whatever your fancy and whatever you have the energy for doing.  Making each one unique is the fun part. These ones are more time consuming to create than the fairies, because there is a bit more sewing involved with the coats and hats, especially if you decorate with stars or sequins. But I still managed to make 9 of them in less than 2 days.

I made the cauldrons a few years ago (I actually made them for St Patricks Day, as the pot at the bottom of the rainbow) but they double up perfectly for use as witches cauldrons.  They are numbered, so children can put that many items into the cauldron (good for number recognition and 1-1 counting).

The frogs are made out of green fimo modelling clay.  I made them about 5 years ago, to go with the song "5 Little Speckled Frogs", so that children could make them jump on and off the log as they sang the song.  

I made the ghosts and pumpkins using a dough made of 2 parts cornflour and 1 part PVA glue (although I ended up putting in probably at least another cup of cornflour, because it was really sticky).  Just mix all together in a bowl until it starts to form a dough that you can mould with.

 I shaped the ghosts and pumpkins, let dry overnight, then baked in the oven at about 120 degrees Celcius slowly for an hour or two to let dry completely, before painting them.  I didn't paint the ghosts, just used a black marker to dot on the eyes and mouths.

This one is my favourite witch.  I think I shall call her Clementine, and I have written a little Halloween poem about her.

"Come in, come in", says Clementine,
Welcome to my cafe.
I hope you enjoy the menu,
I make it fresh each day.

Today's special is the B.L.T.
It's Bat, Lizard, and Toad.
It's juicy, crunchy and tasty,
Freshly squished today on the road.

The soup of the day is Spiderleg Soup,
Served with Warts on Toast on the side.
Or, if you prefer, there is Eyeball Stew,
Which is tender and chewy inside.

I have a wide selection of pies in the warmer:
Snake & Kidney, and Mince & Fleas.
The Potato Snot Pie is delicious,
With a crusty texture that is sure to please.

For the sweet tooth, I have a Parrot Cake.
My own secret recipe, you know.
But for a real special treat, try the Chocolate Log,
Complete with slaters and slugs below.

If you're thirsty, try one of my refreshing wee's.
The Green Goblin's does wonders for you.
A Mango Snake's wee is light and tasty,
And you should try my Slime Milkshake, too.

When it comes to dessert, it's hard to go past
A Mice Pudding, or Citrus Fart.
The Skeleton Crumble is served with ice cream,
And topped with a peppermint heart.

So come in, place an order, do sit down.
You'll be pleased that you came here too.
If you have any complaints, please see me in the kitchen,
And you'll be put into tomorrow's stew.

by Sally Pugh


I wrote a little Halloween Song too:

A Witches Cat
Tune: A Pizza Hut or A Ram Sam Sam (both are the same tune)  

A witches cat, a witches cat
A spooky old skeleton
And a witches cat.
A zombie, a zombie
A spooky old skeleton
And a witches cat.

Actions: 
witch - make the shape of a witches hat on your head
cat - hold up your hands like claws
spooky old skeleton - shake your body
zombie - put arms out in front

by Sally Pugh

If You're Happy and You Know It - Halloween version!
I made this one up spontaneously with the children at mat time - the kids helped with ideas of what to do.

If you're happy and you know it, fly your broom
If you're happy and you know it, fly your broom
If you're happy and you know it
And you really want to show it
If you're happy and you know it, fly your broom

Other verses:
Skeleton - If you're happy and you know it shake your bones
Ghost - If you're happy and you know it say oooooooo (use a spooky voice)
Zombie - If you're happy and you know it, be a zombie hold out arms in front of you!)
Bat - If you're happy and you know it, flap your wings
If you're happy and you know it, shout boo - BOO!

Counting Monsters
Tune of 1 little, 2 little, 3 little Indians.  This can be changed to anything - monsters, vampires, zombies, ghosties.

1 little, 2 little, 3 little monsters
4 little, 5 little, 6 little monsters
7 little, 8 little 9 little monsters
10 little monster boys and girls.

10 little, 9 little, 8 little monsters
7 little 6 little, 5 little monsters
4 little, 3 little, 2 little monsters
1 little monster boy and girl.


Click on the link for more of my teaching resources

Ahoy me hearties!

The children at school began showing an interest in pirates, building pirate ships in the block corner, talking about pirates, pretending to be pirates... so that weekend I made some pirates for small world play (using the amazing "Forest Fairy Crafts" book, by Lenika Vodicka Paredes and Asia Curry).  I ran out of black felt for the pirate hats, so I used cotton for bandanas instead.  I love how individual you can make them - every pirate is unique. Whitcoulls were also having a clearance sale, and I found this cardboard pirate ship to colour and assemble for only $2, which was perfect! I also found a crocodile game in an op shop for only $2, so the crocodiles quickly became part of our new Neverland.

I found a little goblet at the local charity shop for 50c for putting treasure in; and some children's junk beaded jewellery which I used for the treasure.  

I gave the pirates sword shaped cocktail sticks which slotted nicely into their pipecleaner hands. However, when the children began to play with them, the swords were the first things to be removed!

Small world play is wonderful for developing the imagination; creative play; oral language; story telling; processing their ideas; making sense of things. So much learning happens through play, and children need to be given the time to delve deep into unhurried, unstructured play.

I painted a table to resemble a treasure island, and placed little cardboard treasure chests in various positions. There was a basket of gold coins (cut from gold card) and counters with numbers on. The idea was to turn over a counter, look at the number, and put that many gold coins into your treasure chest.

The treasure chests were made out of coorugated card, using the treasure chest that came with the pirate ship as a template.  Using corrugated card meant that the top of the chest rolled over easily without creasing the thick cardboard (when I tried making it using thick card, it cracked and creased.)

 A pirate treasure map board game I made.

I got this idea from the always amazing Stimulating Learning With Rachel's blog post on pirates.  Draw a trail on paper (I used A5 sized paper) and children peeled and stuck stickers along the trail. Great for fine motor skills, tracking, and being able to follow a given line. It was surprising to see who could do it and who just put stickers all over their paper.

Other things we made and did as part of our interest in Pirates...

Eye patches
Telescopes and binoculars using recycled materials, as well as pirate ships and boats to float in the water trough and watch as they disintegrate...
Folding paper boats
Made a large pirate ship out of a cardboard box
Skull & Crossbone flags
Treasure hunts
Walked the plank (one of our teachers drew a shark in chalk on the carpet, and children had to jump over the shark)
Cardboard swords
Treasure maps
Stained paper and ripped the edges while it was wet, to make it look old. Let dry and draw treasure maps on them.
Pirate stories

Game: Portside Pirates (otherwise known as Captain's Coming!)

The Pirates Arr Back in 2018!

Well the Pirates theme has come around again, and my centre manager (who is amazing and so inspiring and always pushes me to grow) was inspired by listening to Nigel Latta comparing children to pirates, and how a pirate mindset helps children to be resilient, and she wanted us to do a pirates theme for the month of June, to help build resiliency. So I began thinking. And I thought that this time around, it is so much more than just doing Pirate themed activities - we actually want to change children's mindsets.

So I did some research into the roles on board a pirate ship, and came up with positive attributes for each role, that were positive learning outcomes for children. I also created a pirate illustration, for each role. (Thanks to my niece for letting me use her felt pens!) The idea was that each week, we would focus on one role, and practice those attributes during that week. Then the next week, we would go up to the next role, until eventually becoming Captains.

The children have been super enthusiastic about being pirates, and they tell me about which pirate we are up to, and what they have to do, such as tidying up, being brave, using their words, and trying new things. They ask me, "Which pirate are we up to this week, Sally?" and they proudly show their parents which pirate role we are focusing on. They can't wait to be Captains! I have had super positive feedback from parents too, who say that their children are doing these things at home, too, and talking about pirates and being helpful at home. It was amazing to see a huge and immediate change in a particular child who would get upset easily and make a big scene about a little thing, to then going "Arr, shiver me timbers, I got me finger wet!" and going on with their day without any further fuss.

Children have been bringing in pirate books from home to share, and asking their parents to read their pirate books to them at bed time.

Pirates adhere to a Pirate Code (a code of conduct), so together we created our own Pirate Code, which the children all had input into, and then they helped to write it out.

They decided the consequence for not following the Pirate Code, was to "Walk the plank" - which meant the wayward Pirate would have to walk away, and go play somewhere else.

I created alphabet and numeracy pirate themed resources, to support children's literacy and number knowledge. The Comicstrip app on the iPad is fantastic, and comes with pirate stickers, which I used to create these with.

 Pirate ships and treasure chests to match up with each other (upper and lower case).

 Treasure chests and maps to be matched up with each other (numbers and corresponding dots).

Tens frames. I filled treasure chests with gold pieces (circles of yellow paper) which children put on the tens frames. I don't have to teach children how to use these - they can figure it out themselves. But it helps to build familiarity with them, so that they already know what to do, when they use them at Primary School.

Table set up using the treasure chests, tens frames, and gold and clear pebbles.

Book display. The tamariki absolutely loved "The Wreck of the Didley" and every day children sit in the book corner reading it, and saying "We die diddley die diddley die diddley die. And we died diddley died diddley died!" I love listening to them tell the story as they turn the pages, and make up their own story as they look at the pictures.

Sensory Play: Sand trays to create patterns, sand gardens, whatever they want. 

Treasure maps. Children painted the paper with teabags and watery brown paint first, and then the next day they were ready for map making.

Pirate ship, port holes, pirates and an anchor. The port holes were made by sticking a piece of tacky clear-seal over one side of a cardboard circle with a hole cut out of it. Children then ripped up blue paper (for the sea); blue paper (for the sky); and cotton balls for clouds, and put it on the sticky paper. I then covered it with another piece of tacky clear-seal to enclose it, and trimmed it to fit.  

We were very kindly given this fabulous pirate ship by a friend of my centre manager's (and myself). My pipecleaner and felt pirates are still going strong even 3 years later! I keep bringing them out when they pirate theme rolls around again, and then I take them back home until next time. It is definitely worth putting in the effort to create resources that can be re-used and re-used for years to come, and that provide hours of play.

I spent a happy Sunday at home making this game. It was one of those ideas that when you get them, you get super excited about and can't wait to get started making it. I had spent the Saturday at a craft market, which gives me time to think. And I began thinking about pirate matching games. But then I thought, rather than matching things that are the same, there is a real cognitive skill in being able to match up things that go together - and it is an important literacy skill that forms part of the foundation for learning to read. So I began talking to other market stall holders about pirate things that would go together, and I came home with a huge list. So on Sunday I began making that list. The parrot I made last because I didn't know how I was going to do it - I ended up looking in my photo albums for a photo of a macaw, and used that to create the parrot, and I am stoked with how it turned out.

Anyway, this is my list of things that I made to be matched up with each other....

canon and canon ball (both made from felt)

pirate ship and jolly roger (made from craft foam and cork)

feather and parrot (made from felt)

Compass and map (made from toilet roll; gold paper)

Telescope and stars (made from paper and craft foam)

Hat and eye patch (made from felt)

Ships wheel and Pirate (wheel made from curtain ring and pipecleaners)

Treasure chest and treasure 

Plank and skeleton

Anchor and chain (made from craft foam and paperclips)

Life buoy and island (made from small curtain ring and felt; island made from felt, with pipecleaners for the trees)

Of course, these items can be matched up to different items - there is no right or wrong answer, but children need to be able to articulate why it goes together. For example, the map could go with the island, because the map is a map of the island; or the map could go with the treasure chest, because it shows you the way to the treasure. The pirate could go with the pirate ship; or the pirate and pirate hat, because he wears it; or pirate and parrot, because the parrot sits on his shoulder. There are so many things that can be matched up with a variety of items. That's what makes this game so fun, because it requires thinking and discerning, comparing and classifying.

Click on the link for more of my teaching resources

100 Days of Christmas: Toilet Roll craft

I have previously blogged about making a mobile using toilet rolls, but as I made this particular one with the 100 Days of Christmas in mind, I wanted to add this one too.  I tend to create through play - playing with ideas and materials. It is through pushing things around my desk, rummaging through my boxes of stuff, and playing around with ideas on paper (brainstorming) that I come up with ideas. Of course, Pinterest is great for additional inspiration as well.   

 You will need:

Toilet rolls
Christmas Paper
PVA Glue
scissors
glitter

Cover your toilet rolls in Christmas paper.

 When dry, cut your toilet rolls into a spiral.  You can either cut it into one long spiral, or cut out two spirals. You may want to practice on plain uncovered toilet rolls to figure out how you would like to do it.

Coat the uncovered inside of the toilet roll with glue.

Sprinkle glitter onto the glue.

If you want to make your spiral bi or tri-coloured, just put glue on one section, and sprinkle with one colour of glitter. Then spread glue on the next section, and sprinkle the second colour of glitter over it.

Tap excess glitter onto a piece of paper, and pour back into the glitter container.

Make a hole in the top of the spiral, and tie a piece of thread through it for hanging. Hang your spirals from a stick or piece of doweling to make into a mobile.