Word Girl Halloween Costume

This is my favorite Halloween costume that I made for the girls.  It was fashioned after the PBS show WordGirl. In the pictures below you will see WordGirl and her sidekick Captain Huggy Face as they take to the streets to trick-or-treat in a neighborhood near you!

 These two superheros fight evil with word power. My girls love the PBS show WordGirl.

 I used yellow felt and cut out a super hero cape.

 For WordGirl a basic red long sleeve T-shirt and red leggings did the job. I cut the yellow emblem and belt out of felt and glued it onto the shirt. The belt buckle is a circular piece of cardboard wrapped in foil.

 For Captain Huggy Face I used a blue sweatshirt and sweatpants. I glued a yellow felt lightning bolt onto the front.  I made fake shorts with red felt and glued on the belt the same way as the WordGirl costume. The shorts tie around the waist, which is hidden by the cape.  I used a red stocking cap for both costumes, but CHF has yellow felt ears glued on and an antennae made out of foil that is held on with a rubber band.

Linking up with:

Word Up!

Toilet Paper Pumpkin

Here is a great last minute craft idea for decorating just about any part of your house. Plus, this cute little pumpkin would be good to place on the back of the toilet seat, just in case you run out.

-Take a roll of toilet paper and give a little smoosh.
-Take a Fat Quarter and start stuffing it into the center all the way around.
-Secure with a twig pushed into the middle and add ribbon to decorate.

These toilet paper pumpkins can be left out until Thanksgiving too. We made this cute craft at MOPS, you can find more toilet paper pumpkins here.

Dr. Suess Goop - 2 Ways

This recipe is perfect for little hands and only requires two ingredients: water and cornstarch.

Goop 1
You'll Need:
Water
Cornstarch
Orange food coloring
Directions- Mix the water and the cornstarch in a bowl. The new mixture behaves like a liquid and the a sold.
The girls enjoyed watching their spiders slowly sink, but if forced they would stay close to the top. I would use this recipe with younger children.
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Goop 2:
You'll Need:
2 cups -White Glue
1/1/2 Cups -Warm Water
4 TBSP. -Borax
1 Cup- Cold Water
food coloring- orange

This GOOP is very similar to Silly Putty and it won't stick to your hangs. You can keep it fresh by storing it in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. 

Mix glue and water in a separate bowl and borax and cold water in a separate bowl. Mix 2 bowls together and add food coloring or tempera. Stir well, then kneed. Store in air tight container. Do not use near carpet as it's glue
I posted about this second recipe a few weeks ago. Now you can see the difference between both of them.

Vocab Builders

Here are four Halloween books that we enjoyed this weekend.

Corduroy's Trick or Treat, Haunted House, Boo Who?, and Happy Halloween- Picture Me.

We worked on making words with letters t, a, p, s, n.  I drew three rectangles for Olive to place the letters.

 To help build on the story words that we are learning with Wordly Wise K, Olive matched the vocab words with the pictures.  I also had her point to the word I said and then pick the correct photo.

We are currently reading Little House in the Big Woods, by Wilder. When we come to a word that she questions, we write it down on an index card, and add it to our "word box." We review these words weekly by learning definitions and using them in a sentence.

Hand Bats

These little hand bats make cute keepsakes. Trace your child's hands onto black construction paper and cut them out. Then allow your child to design a bat head in any shape they wish, add googly eyes, and triangular bat ears. We started doing this when Olive turned 2. It's so fun to pull the hand bats out from previous years and look at how they have grown.

This idea came from our local kid's museum. Musings Of Me also makes cute little bats like this, but with paint

Recycled Bats

Take a toilet paper roll and wrap black construction paper around it, glue on the bat wings, googly eyes, and add a nose and mouth. We strung our bats from the stair railing and they look super cute. Plus, it's always nice when you can recycle those cardboard rolls, enjoy!

Pumpkins + Parts and Easy Costume Ideas

We had such a fun time decorating our miniature pumpkins with Mrs. Potato Head parts.  I started the holes on Jem's pumpkin so she could easily push her favorite parts in.  It was a lovely day to just sit on a picnic blanket and bring life back into an old toy!

Here are some fun costumes that the girls "decided to wear" over the years.

 Little Indians: I purchased the head piece and made the dress with brown felted cotton and sewed on the fringe. It was super easy to make and slipped over their heads. This was my favorite 20 minute costume to sew.

 Tinker Bells: They wore their pink leotards from dance class and green capri leggings. I purchased the wings at the $1 store and the green fairy skirt.

 Japanese Girls:  Olive loves Mulan and wore her Disney costume and Jem wore these cute Japanese pajamas. I pulled their hair back into a bun and stuck chop-sticks through it.

Angelina Ballerina: Last year Jem had a change of heart the day of Halloween and wanted to be Angelina Ballerina. She wore a pink ballet leotard with a tutu, white leg warmers, ballet slippers, and I taped paper mouse ears onto a headband.