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Halloween is nearly upon us! This fun and spooky holiday are one of the most entertaining nights for kids each year: creative costumes, running around outside after dark with friends, and…trick-or-treating for candy! I have so many childhood memories of Halloween excitement, so I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of sadness when we discovered my two daughters had a dairy allergy a few years back. I didn’t want them to miss out on all the fun or feel left out while going door-to-door with their friends. Luckily, there are still some dairy-free candy options, but most Halloween treats tend to be chocolate. And dairy isn’t the only allergy out there - nuts, gluten, and soy also affect thousands of kids around you.
What is the Teal Pumpkin Project?
Thankfully, awareness of this issue has gained traction and popularity over the past few years! Have you ever heard of the Teal Pumpkin Project? It’s a fantastic initiative that focuses on the inclusion of children with special diets who trick-or-treat.
The concept is simple, and everyone is encouraged to participate:
Collect non-food treat options
Place a teal pumpkin on your porch to show people that you have available non-food treats.
We found our teal pumpkin and non-food treats in the dollar section of local stores. Some great ideas for treats are Learning Resources Counters, stickers, temporary tattoos, pencils, bookmarks, necklaces, glow sticks/bracelets/wands, bouncy balls, notepads, stencils, bubbles, noisemakers, or playing cards. Many families choose to give out non-food treats AND traditional Halloween candy, and they just have two separate treat bowls.
I can’t tell you how happy I am that awareness is being raised for children with food allergies! Even if my girls were not allergic to dairy I would still encourage participation in this wonderful project. We are constantly striving to teach our daughters about inclusion and the importance of making everyone feel special and cared about. The Teal Pumpkin Project is an easy way that families can do just that within their local communities everywhere!
Halloween is nearly upon us! This fun and spooky holiday are one of the most entertaining nights for kids each year: creative costumes, running around outside after dark with friends, and…trick-or-treating for candy! I have so many childhood memories of Halloween excitement, so I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of sadness when we discovered my two daughters had a dairy allergy a few years back. I didn’t want them to miss out on all the fun or feel left out while going door-to-door with their friends. Luckily, there are still some dairy-free candy options, but most Halloween treats tend to be chocolate. And dairy isn’t the only allergy out there - nuts, gluten, and soy also affect thousands of kids around you.
What is the Teal Pumpkin Project?
Thankfully, awareness of this issue has gained traction and popularity over the past few years! Have you ever heard of the Teal Pumpkin Project? It’s a fantastic initiative that focuses on the inclusion of children with special diets who trick-or-treat.
The concept is simple, and everyone is encouraged to participate:
Collect non-food treat options
Place a teal pumpkin on your porch to show people that you have available non-food treats.
We found our teal pumpkin and non-food treats in the dollar section of local stores. Some great ideas for treats are Learning Resources Counters, stickers, temporary tattoos, pencils, bookmarks, necklaces, glow sticks/bracelets/wands, bouncy balls, notepads, stencils, bubbles, noisemakers, or playing cards. Many families choose to give out non-food treats AND traditional Halloween candy, and they just have two separate treat bowls.
I can’t tell you how happy I am that awareness is being raised for children with food allergies! Even if my girls were not allergic to dairy I would still encourage participation in this wonderful project. We are constantly striving to teach our daughters about inclusion and the importance of making everyone feel special and cared about. The Teal Pumpkin Project is an easy way that families can do just that within their local communities everywhere!
Need some suggestions for a cavity-free, allergy-free, calorie-free holiday? Get your creative juices flowing with these treat alternatives that are great for trick-or-treaters, classroom parties, special friends, and more!
Keep an eye out
Think outside of the candy aisle and browse all around the stores you visit. Any small, affordable toy, like yo-yos, bouncy balls, and bubbles, will put a smile on kids' faces.
Let the fun continue.
Small costume elements like fake mustaches, vampire teeth, tattoos, and spider rings let kids continue dressing up, and celebrating long after Halloween is just a memory.
Cook up a witch's brew
Offer up your non-food treats with a little dramatic flair! Fill a plastic witch's cauldron with cute and creepy bug toys for trick-or-treaters. For extra eeriness, drop a couple of glow sticks at the bottom of your cauldron and stir it with a skeleton hand. Or make a party game of it by having kids use grabbers to pick up a "nasty" centipede or spider without touching it.
Practical Magic
When the spooktacular night is over, life goes back to normal. But useful items like Halloween-themed pencils, erasers, bookmakers, and other school supplies allow the experience to linger a little longer.
Add lights and sound
Add spooky chills to your party with Buzzers that make all sorts of silly sounds or recordable howls and screeches. Also, consider giving out kazoos, clackers, and glow-in-the-dark bracelets so kids can be seen and heard in the dark!
Put out a teal pumpkin
Let trick-or-treaters and their parents know that you have treat alternatives that are safe for kids with food allergies by placing teal-painted pumpkins on your porch or by your front door. Learn more here. Our assortment of counters are an excellent alternative for candy, as well!
Don't be surprised if your house becomes one of the most popular destinations every year!
Need some suggestions for a cavity-free, allergy-free, calorie-free holiday? Get your creative juices flowing with these treat alternatives that are great for trick-or-treaters, classroom parties, special friends, and more!
Keep an eye out
Think outside of the candy aisle and browse all around the stores you visit. Any small, affordable toy, like yo-yos, bouncy balls, and bubbles, will put a smile on kids' faces.
Let the fun continue.
Small costume elements like fake mustaches, vampire teeth, tattoos, and spider rings let kids continue dressing up, and celebrating long after Halloween is just a memory.
Cook up a witch's brew
Offer up your non-food treats with a little dramatic flair! Fill a plastic witch's cauldron with cute and creepy bug toys for trick-or-treaters. For extra eeriness, drop a couple of glow sticks at the bottom of your cauldron and stir it with a skeleton hand. Or make a party game of it by having kids use grabbers to pick up a "nasty" centipede or spider without touching it.
Practical Magic
When the spooktacular night is over, life goes back to normal. But useful items like Halloween-themed pencils, erasers, bookmakers, and other school supplies allow the experience to linger a little longer.
Add lights and sound
Add spooky chills to your party with Buzzers that make all sorts of silly sounds or recordable howls and screeches. Also, consider giving out kazoos, clackers, and glow-in-the-dark bracelets so kids can be seen and heard in the dark!
Put out a teal pumpkin
Let trick-or-treaters and their parents know that you have treat alternatives that are safe for kids with food allergies by placing teal-painted pumpkins on your porch or by your front door. Learn more here. Our assortment of counters are an excellent alternative for candy, as well!
Don't be surprised if your house becomes one of the most popular destinations every year!
Although its nontoxic, its not considered edible and neither is this kinetic sand recipe.
KINETIC SAND RECIPE
You can make your own kinetic sand recipe right at home with simple ingredients you already have at home.
1 cup white sand
2 teaspoons corn starch
1 teaspoon clear or white hand soap
2 teaspoons water
We don’t suggest adding food coloring to the sand, this can stain your hands or containers. If you want colored Kinetic sand, you will want to use colored sand.
Mix the sand and cornstarch together very well in the container you have to store it in, (to ensure that it does not dry out, use a container that has a tight lid/ strong seal)
In a separate container, mix the water and soap together
Add the soapy mix to the sand/cornstarch mix
Mix all together
Now, you can start adding more of the extra soapy water mix to the sand mix as needed. Mix it all together each time to ensure you are getting it all mixed and getting the correct consistency. The consistency that you like might differ from the suggested above, so feel free to add more water, little by little.
(the correct consistency is damp, but not runny. It should also hold a shape for a few seconds.
If you’ve added too much water, you can add more sand.
Please note- If you want a more moldable sand, similar to what you would get at the beach, use this recipe:
4-5 cups white sand
3 cups flour or baby powder
¾ cup baby oil or vegetable oil
Once you have made the sand, you can add in your Halloween toys! Here is a list of items I used that I had at home:
Although its nontoxic, its not considered edible and neither is this kinetic sand recipe.
KINETIC SAND RECIPE
You can make your own kinetic sand recipe right at home with simple ingredients you already have at home.
1 cup white sand
2 teaspoons corn starch
1 teaspoon clear or white hand soap
2 teaspoons water
We don’t suggest adding food coloring to the sand, this can stain your hands or containers. If you want colored Kinetic sand, you will want to use colored sand.
Mix the sand and cornstarch together very well in the container you have to store it in, (to ensure that it does not dry out, use a container that has a tight lid/ strong seal)
In a separate container, mix the water and soap together
Add the soapy mix to the sand/cornstarch mix
Mix all together
Now, you can start adding more of the extra soapy water mix to the sand mix as needed. Mix it all together each time to ensure you are getting it all mixed and getting the correct consistency. The consistency that you like might differ from the suggested above, so feel free to add more water, little by little.
(the correct consistency is damp, but not runny. It should also hold a shape for a few seconds.
If you’ve added too much water, you can add more sand.
Please note- If you want a more moldable sand, similar to what you would get at the beach, use this recipe:
4-5 cups white sand
3 cups flour or baby powder
¾ cup baby oil or vegetable oil
Once you have made the sand, you can add in your Halloween toys! Here is a list of items I used that I had at home:
Sorting activities are such a great way to develop those all important fine motor skills when Building Someone Amazing. The small muscles in their hands are worked hard when grasping and releasing small manipulatives, and also when using fine motor tools. I love putting together simple sorting trays for my 3 year old. They are easy to set up but keep her engaged, and also provide the opportunity to work on colors, numbers and even literacy too. In this blog we are sharing three fun sorting trays which have a spooky twist ready for Halloween. The trays we use are lunch trays from Dollar Tree, the pumpkins and cauldrons are from Party City, and the erasers are from Target and Dollar Tree.
Big Pumpkin, Little Pumpkin: Sorting by Size
Sorting by size is a great way to start your child with these kinds of activities. We kept things really simple and used a large pumpkin pot and a small pumpkin pot. On the tray there were large pumpkin erasers and small pumpkin erasers. My little one referred to them as Mommy and Baby pumpkins!
I always like to include a fine motor tool with sorting trays but it’s worth mentioning that I never force my daughter to use it. Sometimes she just dives straight in and uses her hands to pick up the manipulatives, other times she will use the tool. Both ways are great for her fine motor skills! Here you can see she attempted to use the Tri-Grip Tongs for the entire activity which was great. This tool is a twist on traditional tongs because it has a third prong and encourages the child to coordinate more muscles to grasp the manipulative.
My little one happily sorted the small pumpkins into the small pot, as well as the big pumpkins into the big pot. Once she was done we took the activity a little further and counted how many of each type we had, as well as how many pumpkins in total there were.
Purple Orange Green, Which Color Have you Seen: Sorting by Color
I added a dot sticker to the handles of our mini cauldrons to create this fun sorting by color activity. My daughter enjoyed all of the different spider and skull erasers, and spent her time carefully picking out the colors.
The Squeezy Tweezers™ are one of our favorite fine motor tools. They are really easy to use and are the perfect combination of a tweezer and scooper. The mini erasers were just the right size to fit inside the scoop! Once my daughter had finished sorting the erasers by color, she emptied each color cauldron and then sorted the type of eraser within each color collection. This was a great way to extend the fine motor fun, as well as sneaking in some numeracy.
Pumpkin or Witch: Sorting by Type
This one required a little more processing which meant there was more challenge in the activity for my 3 year old. She actually ended up liking it the most because she got to talk so much about witches and cats. There were Primary Science Jumbo Tweezers® available for her to use on the tray which was great for encouraging her pincer grasp.
Her task was to sort the erasers into witch themed ones which went in the cauldron pot, and pumpkin themed ones which went in the pumpkin pot. There was lots of conversation about where the cat erasers should go, with my little one making the valid point that maybe cats like to eat pumpkins. Then she remembered that the witch in one of her favorite books, Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson, had a pet cat. I love when activities prompt in depth discussions like this.
Do you have a favorite way to set up sorting activities? I’ve always found that using a tray of some sort helps to keep the activity area organized and therefore the activity itself a little more structured. These little erasers made for the perfect slightly spooky manipulatives, but sorting can be done with so many things, even everyday items such as buttons, or natural items such as leaves and rocks.
Sorting activities are such a great way to develop those all important fine motor skills when Building Someone Amazing. The small muscles in their hands are worked hard when grasping and releasing small manipulatives, and also when using fine motor tools. I love putting together simple sorting trays for my 3 year old. They are easy to set up but keep her engaged, and also provide the opportunity to work on colors, numbers and even literacy too. In this blog we are sharing three fun sorting trays which have a spooky twist ready for Halloween. The trays we use are lunch trays from Dollar Tree, the pumpkins and cauldrons are from Party City, and the erasers are from Target and Dollar Tree.
Big Pumpkin, Little Pumpkin: Sorting by Size
Sorting by size is a great way to start your child with these kinds of activities. We kept things really simple and used a large pumpkin pot and a small pumpkin pot. On the tray there were large pumpkin erasers and small pumpkin erasers. My little one referred to them as Mommy and Baby pumpkins!
I always like to include a fine motor tool with sorting trays but it’s worth mentioning that I never force my daughter to use it. Sometimes she just dives straight in and uses her hands to pick up the manipulatives, other times she will use the tool. Both ways are great for her fine motor skills! Here you can see she attempted to use the Tri-Grip Tongs for the entire activity which was great. This tool is a twist on traditional tongs because it has a third prong and encourages the child to coordinate more muscles to grasp the manipulative.
My little one happily sorted the small pumpkins into the small pot, as well as the big pumpkins into the big pot. Once she was done we took the activity a little further and counted how many of each type we had, as well as how many pumpkins in total there were.
Purple Orange Green, Which Color Have you Seen: Sorting by Color
I added a dot sticker to the handles of our mini cauldrons to create this fun sorting by color activity. My daughter enjoyed all of the different spider and skull erasers, and spent her time carefully picking out the colors.
The Squeezy Tweezers™ are one of our favorite fine motor tools. They are really easy to use and are the perfect combination of a tweezer and scooper. The mini erasers were just the right size to fit inside the scoop! Once my daughter had finished sorting the erasers by color, she emptied each color cauldron and then sorted the type of eraser within each color collection. This was a great way to extend the fine motor fun, as well as sneaking in some numeracy.
Pumpkin or Witch: Sorting by Type
This one required a little more processing which meant there was more challenge in the activity for my 3 year old. She actually ended up liking it the most because she got to talk so much about witches and cats. There were Primary Science Jumbo Tweezers® available for her to use on the tray which was great for encouraging her pincer grasp.
Her task was to sort the erasers into witch themed ones which went in the cauldron pot, and pumpkin themed ones which went in the pumpkin pot. There was lots of conversation about where the cat erasers should go, with my little one making the valid point that maybe cats like to eat pumpkins. Then she remembered that the witch in one of her favorite books, Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson, had a pet cat. I love when activities prompt in depth discussions like this.
Do you have a favorite way to set up sorting activities? I’ve always found that using a tray of some sort helps to keep the activity area organized and therefore the activity itself a little more structured. These little erasers made for the perfect slightly spooky manipulatives, but sorting can be done with so many things, even everyday items such as buttons, or natural items such as leaves and rocks.
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