Ok, so I’m really behind in posting these but I wanted to show you regardless. My students loved both of these fall/Halloween craftivities. One even spanned two weeks!
First, we did shaving cream mummies. I started by printing a gingerbread template onto dark gray paper. (If you google “gingerbread template” you’ll find tons of options!)
Then, I made a mixture of glue and shaving cream (not gel!). I put it in a big Ziploc bag and then let the student smush it around – in a well-sealed bag! Each student got a chance to help me squirt some shaving cream into the bag.
We talked about how it felt. The kids loved it! Next, I snipped off a corner of the bag so it could be used as like a pastry bag!
Then, I squeezed a bunch of little blogs of shaving cream/glue mixture all over the mummy template. The students helped me squeeze the bag, we counted as we went, and we talked about where each blob was going. “On his arm/head/foot/etc.”
I gave each student the option of using a paint brush to spread them or their fingers. Most chose a paintbrush!
After each mummy was covered, we added some eyes. I dumped my whole bag of googley eyes into this candy corn basket I have (got it at the dollar store last year in a pack of 3!). We used adjectives of size, color, and number to request which eyes we wanted our mummy to have.
The next craft is perfect for Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Fall in general (if you can’t cover holidays). It is a scarecrow and with a group of 8 preschoolers in a 45 minute session (with one fire drill thrown in the middle), it required two weeks. We did the heads the first week. We used paper plates, a hat template, some silly eyes that I made, a pink bingo dabber, and a marker.
I had a bunch of different color hats printed so students could request which color they wanted. Then they asked for eyes and glued those one. In my model, I gave my scarecrow a “silly mouth”. I let students choose what kind of mouth they wanted me to draw – silly or happy. They also got to choose whether their mouth had “stitches” or not. This is a GREAT craft for /s/ blends!!!
I used a pink bingo marker to make rosy cheeks on the ends of the mouth. Here are some finished:
The next week, we did the outfits and straw (another great /s/ blend!). I started with many different colors of overalls. For the shirt, I just cut a wide rectangle. Once it’s underneath the overalls, it looks perfect!
Each student picked their “pants” and “shirts” colors.
Here’s how it looked when put together. See? No need for a fancy shirt template!
Then, we stapled it to the paper plate heads from the previous week. This obviously required some adult help.
They were coming together SO cute – but we weren’t finished there! We added straw for the arms, feet, and hair. Hair required long yellow strips and arms and feet required short. This was a great lesson in concepts.
I added three strips of yellow paper to each area: 3 per foot, per arm, and per side of the face. We glued them to the back. Having students flip their whole scarecrow over is a great functional skill!
Here’s what the front looks like when it’s all complete! Cute as can be, right?!
You can find a template for the overalls, hat, and the eyes, plus a simple writing/describing worksheet as a freebie here!