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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.
October has so many great opportunities for integrating themes into the curriculum with fun experiments. Kids especially love any opportunity to be “scientists.” Kick-off some Halloween fun with this exciting Monster Mixing Potions experiment!
Bring the thrill of the Halloween season to life with the opportunity to make “potions!” This is the perfect activity for any primary or elementary-aged student. The suspense will have them on the edge of their seat!
In order to begin, you’ll need to gather the items below:
Start by allowing the kids to get creative decorating the cups with monster faces. Look to the book Go Away, Big Green Monster! by Ed Emberley for inspiration. It’s a classic and it sure won’t disappoint! Give the monster faces plenty of time to dry before doing the experiment.
Once they are ready you can decide whether you will reveal the “potions” (experiment materials) needed or not. Students can observe, smell and make predictions if you’d like them to. Place as few or as many drops of food coloring as you’d like at the bottom of the cup. After, sprinkle about a teaspoon of baking powder over the coloring. Pour the vinegar into a small bowl and allow students to combine the “potions” using the eyedroppers.
I love that Learning Resources created a product that enables students of all ages (3+) to use tools that allow them to truly feel like a scientist. These jumbo eyedroppers are perfect for experiments and fine motor sensory play in the classroom. They are easy to use for tiny hands and fingers and hold quite a bit of liquid, which worked well for this experiment!
After the vinegar is in the eyedroppers, allow the kids to carefully and slowly drop a drip or two of the vinegar into the cup and observe the reaction of the potions combining.
They can gradually add more vinegar and baking soda as needed. Be careful of the surfaces you choose to do the experiment on. Take a look at the chemical reaction below! Students will be roaring with laughter and erupting with questions once the reactions take place.
Just a quick note, you’ll need about ¼ cup or so of vinegar to elicit a potion with a reaction as seen in the pictures above and below. Also, I recommend placing the cup on a tray for easy cleanup!
Enjoy the thrills of this Monster Mixing Potions experiment!
October has so many great opportunities for integrating themes into the curriculum with fun experiments. Kids especially love any opportunity to be “scientists.” Kick-off some Halloween fun with this exciting Monster Mixing Potions experiment!
Bring the thrill of the Halloween season to life with the opportunity to make “potions!” This is the perfect activity for any primary or elementary-aged student. The suspense will have them on the edge of their seat!
In order to begin, you’ll need to gather the items below:
Start by allowing the kids to get creative decorating the cups with monster faces. Look to the book Go Away, Big Green Monster! by Ed Emberley for inspiration. It’s a classic and it sure won’t disappoint! Give the monster faces plenty of time to dry before doing the experiment.
Once they are ready you can decide whether you will reveal the “potions” (experiment materials) needed or not. Students can observe, smell and make predictions if you’d like them to. Place as few or as many drops of food coloring as you’d like at the bottom of the cup. After, sprinkle about a teaspoon of baking powder over the coloring. Pour the vinegar into a small bowl and allow students to combine the “potions” using the eyedroppers.
I love that Learning Resources created a product that enables students of all ages (3+) to use tools that allow them to truly feel like a scientist. These jumbo eyedroppers are perfect for experiments and fine motor sensory play in the classroom. They are easy to use for tiny hands and fingers and hold quite a bit of liquid, which worked well for this experiment!
After the vinegar is in the eyedroppers, allow the kids to carefully and slowly drop a drip or two of the vinegar into the cup and observe the reaction of the potions combining.
They can gradually add more vinegar and baking soda as needed. Be careful of the surfaces you choose to do the experiment on. Take a look at the chemical reaction below! Students will be roaring with laughter and erupting with questions once the reactions take place.
Just a quick note, you’ll need about ¼ cup or so of vinegar to elicit a potion with a reaction as seen in the pictures above and below. Also, I recommend placing the cup on a tray for easy cleanup!
Enjoy the thrills of this Monster Mixing Potions experiment!
Adam and I are always looking for activities to do with the girls, and there’s plenty of learning and fun to be had this Halloween. It can be as simple as counting and sorting Halloween candy, drawing a spooky picture, or making a paper plate spider web. The learning is always there – you just have to look for it!
1. Pumpkin Coloring Contest
Get out the crayons, print out this pumpkin picture, and watch your little artist’s imagination come to life! Points for the silliest, spookiest, and most creative pumpkins.
2. Paper Plate Spiderwebs
Fall trees aren’t just full of leaves – they’re also full of spiders! Garden spiders are most active in the fall so you’re likely to see more of their elaborate, beautiful webs in the trees in autumn, too. Join the fun and spin your own spider webs out of a paper plate!
Cut the center out of a paper plate.
Let your kids color the outer edge of the plate with beautiful fall colors like red, orange, and yellow.
Using a single hole puncher, punch 12-14 holes around the edge of the hole.
Tape one end of a length of yarn to the back of the paper plate and wrap tape tightly around the other to form a ‘needle’.
Demonstrate how to weave the yarn back and forth through the holes to create the web, then hand the plate over to your child.
Once, the web is spun, remove the pin from the end of the yarn and tape that end to the back of the plate, too.
Add a pipe cleaner spider for the perfect fall finishing touch – cut four black pipe cleaners in half and twist to create an eight-legged creepy crawly!
3. Frankenstein Fun
Start with a blank sheet of paper, then guide your kids, step by step, to draw Frankenstein’s head. Instructions are below:
Draw a large rectangle, short sides up and down, long sides on the sides, to form the head.
Add a rectangular ear on either side of the head.
Add a zig zag line just below the top of the head to make hair.
Draw two parallel lines coming out of the bottom of the head to form the neck.
Add the start of another rectangle beneath the neck to form the top of the body.
Draw two circles for eyes and two half circles inside the circles to form pupils.
Add rectangular eyebrows at an angle over the eyes.
Add a rectangular mouth.
Using the bottom of the mouth as the base, draw three triangles, then connect the pointed tops of the triangles to the top of the mouth’s rectangle to form teeth.
Shape a nose between the eyes and the mouth
Once the outline of Frankenstein is complete, kids can go crazy with details – add bolts, scars, etc. Outline the creation in Sharpie, and color him in with crayons, colored pencils, markers, even watercolor paints. You’ll be surprised how differently each of your children’s drawings are!
4. Spooky STEM Sculptures
Put all that Halloween candy to good use, with STEM sculptures! Use candy pumpkins and toothpicks to create STEM structures designed to introduce early math and science principles like gravity, balance, angles, and more. Younger kids can try building a simple tower with a three-pumpkin base supporting a single, floating pumpkin. Challenge older kids to create a taller tower, pyramid, spiral, or spider web!
5. Skeleton Puzzle
This double sided skeleton puzzle not only makes a great Halloween activity, it’s also a great way to teach your kids about the name of bones! It also makes a great front door decoration to help greet your trick or treaters.
Adam and I are always looking for activities to do with the girls, and there’s plenty of learning and fun to be had this Halloween. It can be as simple as counting and sorting Halloween candy, drawing a spooky picture, or making a paper plate spider web. The learning is always there – you just have to look for it!
1. Pumpkin Coloring Contest
Get out the crayons, print out this pumpkin picture, and watch your little artist’s imagination come to life! Points for the silliest, spookiest, and most creative pumpkins.
2. Paper Plate Spiderwebs
Fall trees aren’t just full of leaves – they’re also full of spiders! Garden spiders are most active in the fall so you’re likely to see more of their elaborate, beautiful webs in the trees in autumn, too. Join the fun and spin your own spider webs out of a paper plate!
Cut the center out of a paper plate.
Let your kids color the outer edge of the plate with beautiful fall colors like red, orange, and yellow.
Using a single hole puncher, punch 12-14 holes around the edge of the hole.
Tape one end of a length of yarn to the back of the paper plate and wrap tape tightly around the other to form a ‘needle’.
Demonstrate how to weave the yarn back and forth through the holes to create the web, then hand the plate over to your child.
Once, the web is spun, remove the pin from the end of the yarn and tape that end to the back of the plate, too.
Add a pipe cleaner spider for the perfect fall finishing touch – cut four black pipe cleaners in half and twist to create an eight-legged creepy crawly!
3. Frankenstein Fun
Start with a blank sheet of paper, then guide your kids, step by step, to draw Frankenstein’s head. Instructions are below:
Draw a large rectangle, short sides up and down, long sides on the sides, to form the head.
Add a rectangular ear on either side of the head.
Add a zig zag line just below the top of the head to make hair.
Draw two parallel lines coming out of the bottom of the head to form the neck.
Add the start of another rectangle beneath the neck to form the top of the body.
Draw two circles for eyes and two half circles inside the circles to form pupils.
Add rectangular eyebrows at an angle over the eyes.
Add a rectangular mouth.
Using the bottom of the mouth as the base, draw three triangles, then connect the pointed tops of the triangles to the top of the mouth’s rectangle to form teeth.
Shape a nose between the eyes and the mouth
Once the outline of Frankenstein is complete, kids can go crazy with details – add bolts, scars, etc. Outline the creation in Sharpie, and color him in with crayons, colored pencils, markers, even watercolor paints. You’ll be surprised how differently each of your children’s drawings are!
4. Spooky STEM Sculptures
Put all that Halloween candy to good use, with STEM sculptures! Use candy pumpkins and toothpicks to create STEM structures designed to introduce early math and science principles like gravity, balance, angles, and more. Younger kids can try building a simple tower with a three-pumpkin base supporting a single, floating pumpkin. Challenge older kids to create a taller tower, pyramid, spiral, or spider web!
5. Skeleton Puzzle
This double sided skeleton puzzle not only makes a great Halloween activity, it’s also a great way to teach your kids about the name of bones! It also makes a great front door decoration to help greet your trick or treaters.
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