Terrible Monster Teeth

My students really got into counting these Terrible Monster Teeth!

I found a great picture of a monster, copied it on fun colors and laminated each monster.  Each child got a Monster and some Teeth (Bugles Chips).  They had to put the sharp teeth in the monster's mouth and then count how many teeth the monster had.  Fun activity and great for 1:1 counting, and counting groups of objects!

I'm sorry that this monster I used is copywritten by "The Mailbox" but if you subscribe to "The Mailbox", this monster can be found in the Oct/Nov 2010 magazine on page 26.

Monster Mix

At one of our literacy centers in preschool, we followed a fun Halloween Recipe!  We made Monster Mix!

Each student had to follow directions in the recipe to make their own bag of Monster Mix to take home!

Our Preschool Monster Mix Includes:
Goblin Teeth (candy corn)
Witch Warts (mint chocolate chips)
Ghost Poop (mini marshmallows)
Bloody Bits (red licorice pieces)
Monster Scabs (cinnamon toast cereal)

Planting Pumpkins

For some Halloween fun, we "Planted" (and counted) pumpkins!  The kids loved it! 

This was super easy!  I googled 'garden' pictures.  When I found a picutre of a garden I liked, I copied it and printed it off with a different number 1-10 on each 'garden' and then laminated the pictures (for re-use later).  Then I bought the pumpkin candies.  Each student got 10 pumpkins, but they would have to 'plant' the  same number of pumpkins that was listed on their garden.  The students LOVED it! 

 Happy Halloween!

Skeleton Bones

One of my dear friends (and fellow teacher) just shared this idea with me and I wanted to share it with you!  Here's what she has to say about these super cute Halloween snacks:

"We made a cute skeleton in class today and I thought I would share it with you! All we used were Scooby Doo Snacks and white frosting. We made them on paper but you could do it on wax paper."

Aren't they the best?  I think kids would just LOVE to make (and eat) a skeleton!

Counting Pumpkin Seeds

Today we counted (and tasted) Pumpkin Seeds!  This is a fun way for kids to practice counting with 1:1 correspondence and also teach numeral recognition!  Just give each child a pumpkin and whatever number is on the pumpkin they have is the number of pumpkin seeds they have to count and put on the pumpkin!

Here are your Super Easy Instructions:
1. Find a cute picture of a pumpkin.
2. Make 10 copies (I copied mine on orange paper).
3. Number each pumpkin 1-10.
4. Laminate (optional - but makes it possible to clean and reuse them).

Cheesy Witch Fingers

Who doesn't enjoy eating a yummy finger or two on Halloween?  

What you need: string cheese, carrots, cream cheese.

What you do:
Each string cheese will make two fingers.  Cut your string cheese in half and with a knife cut out  a spot for the fingernail and marks for the finger joints right below the fingernail area and at the base of the string cheese (for the knuckle joint).  Then, cut your fingernails.  You can cut a thin slice of a carrot (or a thick peel) and with your knife shape it into a fingernail and attach to the cheese with cream cheese.

Witches Brooms

These mini witch brooms are a super fun!

The kids LOVED them!

What you need: stick pretzels, fruit roll-ups (or fruit by the foot)

What you do: cut the fruit into 2-3 inch strips and then snip along the edge to make a fringe for the broom brush edge. Then wet the long (uncut) edge of the fruit and wrap tightly around the base of the pretzel.

Corny Halloween Tree

This is a non-edible Halloween Tree Decoration
but the Ghosts are edible! What you need: small branch, vase, styrofoam (for vase), moss, ribbon, hot glue gun, tissue ghosts (ghosts found HERE).

What you do:
Fit the styrofoam into the vase and stick the small branch into the styrofoam to look like a tree, cover foam with moss. Attach a ribbon (if you want). Hot glue the candy corn treats to the branch. Hang ghosts from the tree with fishing twine. Easy! Fun!

Halloween Cupcakes

Just wanted to show you a little fun we had with cupcakes this year! I thought they turned out pretty cute and fun!

Monster Cupcakes: Decorated with chocolate eyeballs and gummy teeth.

Ghost Cupcakes: Wrap a tissue around a sucker, tie with ribbon and draw eyes.

Spider Cupcakes: Oreo body, licorice legs, m&m eyes.

"Devil-ed" Eggs

I saw this in Family Fun magazine and laughed, and laughed! I thought they too funny not to try myself! I think the Devil horns are such a fun and easy touch (it's just red peppers).
You can click HERE for more things to do with your deviled eggs (scroll to the bottom of the page).

Creepy Potions

For Halloween this year made these lovely potions for our 'witches lair' in our dramatic play area in preschool. The kids loved pretending to mix up potions, and stir their pretend brew while they were dressed up as witches and bats!

I just bought some of those drink shooters they sell at Target during Christmas and New Years and dumped out the contents. Then I filled each little tube with a lovely concoction and/or bug, eyeball, frog, etc. to make it more creepy!

Here are the concoction mixes:

baby oil and food coloring (they don't mix so it looks super creepy!)

Karo syrup and glitter, bugs, frogs etc (and food coloring to change the color if wanted)

Water and food coloring, glitter, etc.

DON'T FORGET: to glue the lids on nice and tight!!!! These are for pretend only! ;)

Mummy Suckers

These are so super easy to make and yummy to eat!
Here's what you need: Sugar daddy suckers, gauze, white first-aid tape, mini google eyes.
Here's what you do:
Wrap the gauze around the sucker and secure in the back with first-aid tape. Glue (or stick - I got the sticky-back google eyes) the eyes on.

Sombrero's / Witch Hats

Thanks again Tracy! What a woman! Here's a great treat for Cinco de Mayo ... Sombreros! They could also double for Witch Hats! So cute! Go to Tracy's blog to find out how to make these!
It would also be fun to fill the hats with something before attaching them to the cookie (ie: popcorn, muddy buddies, m&m's, etc.).

Pumpkin Cookies - Take 2

I usually like the simple recipes ... but I found another recipe for Pumpkin Cookies that I had to try and is quite yummy! These are a little fluffier and less dense.
Here's what you need: (I'm just going to list them since there's quite a few)
* 1 cup canned pumpkin
* 1 cup white sugar
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil
* 1 egg
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon milk
* 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
* 2 cups chocolate chips
* 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Here's what you do:
Combine pumpkin, sugar, veggie oil, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the mild and stir in. Add flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and mix well. Add vanilla, chocolate chips and the nuts. Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 10-15 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.

Yummy Crunch Mix

Here's what you need: 3 cups peanut butter Captain Crunch, 3 cups Rice Crispies, 3 cups mini marshmallows, 1 cup mixed nuts, 4-6 small packages m&m's, 20 oz. white chocolate or almond bark.








Here's what you do:
Add all ingredients (except chocolate) in a large bowl. Melt the chocolate and pour over the mixture and stir. Easy as that and you're done! This is so yummy and a great holiday treat!

Jack-o-Lantern Lunch

Here's what you need: 2 slices of bread, peanut butter, jam






Here's what you do: cut a jack-o-lantern face out of the middle of 1 slice of bread. Prepare a peanut butter and jam sandwich with the jack-o-lantern face on top. Then, cut the sandwich into a circle with a circle cookie cutter or a mason jar lid (to seal the edges).

Alternatives: for allergies use soy butter (yum). But if you have no peanut allergies and haven't tried JIF's peanut butter and honey you'll have to give it a try - so good! Use any kind of jam/jelly preferred (I know kids can be picky). I used home-made apricot for the orange effect.

Spiderweb Pizza

Here's what you need:





Here's what you do:
Place pizza crust on a cookie sheet and spread on the pizza sauce. Peel apart the string cheese and arrange pieces to resemble a spider web. Cut olives in half and slice the halves. Arrange the olive pieces to resemble a spider. Bake according to directions on the pizza crust package.

*Mini Pizzas: you can also make personal mini pizzas with frozen roll dough. Thaw the rolls and flatten. Build pizza on top of one roll and bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes (depending on your oven). Keep an eye on them!

Witch Fingers

Here's what you need: Refrigerator breadsticks dough, green food color, sliced almonds.





Here's what you do:
Open dough, separate, cut each bread stick dough in half and place on cookie sheet. Press one almond onto one end of each bread stick for the fingernail. With a knife press a few lines into the middle of each bread stick to resemble knuckle marks. Follow the directions (without twisting) on the package of bread sticks for cooking. To add the green effect (optional) you can take an egg (whisked) add a few drops of green food coloring and brush onto each dough finger before cooking. Or you can add a few drops of food coloring to milk and brush on just as they begin to brown.

Bones Dipped in Blood!

Here's what you need:






Here's what you do:
Open the breadsticks, separate and place on a cookie sheet. Cut about an inch into the middle of each end and curl the ends down to the sides of the breadstick and press down so it doesn't unroll. Bake according to the directions on the package (without twisting the dough). Dip in blood (marinara sauce) and enjoy!