The Mailbox

    Many of the art projects we enjoy this month are from the magazine for teachers called "The Mailbox, Preschool Edition" Oct / Nov 1997 Vol. 3 #5

If you would like further subscription information, the address is:

The Mailbox
P.O. Box 51675
Boulder, CO 80322-1675

Fall Foliage pg. 18
Time to Harvest the Pumpkins pg. 18
 
 

    Using toilet paper tubes, cut the ends down into strips. Have children dip the tubes into black paint on a shallow plate. Press tube on white paper. When dry, add button eyes and draw on a mouth with a black marker or use black rickrack.
 
 

                                                Large plastic soda bottle
                                                Sheets of gauze
                                                White glue
                                                Wiggly eyes or black felt eyes

 

Monster Art

    This activity could just as easily be a language or emotional growth lesson. Put a large blob of paint on paper, fold over and let dry. Have the children cut out colorful scraps of wrapping paper, fold over and let dry. Have the children cut out colorful scraps of wrapping paper, material and other craft items such as colored noodles or buttons. Decorate a group monster and write their comments on the paper. This would be an opportune time to talk about what makes each child scared and start to desensitize them for a spooky Halloween. Some children think this holiday is fun, while others at this early age can be highly traumatized. Talking about their fears will help these children.

 
 

Sandwich Bag Ghosts

    White lunch bags are used as ghosts. Children cut out and glue on their black eyes, nose and mouth to personalize their creation. Hang from a string attached to the bottom.

 
 

Sandwich Bag Pumpkin Lights

    Brown lunch bags are painted orange. Eyes, nose, mouth are cut out and yellow tissue is inserted. The children were asked to bring a flashlight from home and we taped these to the bottom of our jack-o-lanterns.  We have a hallway without windows where the children took their lantern lights. We turned out the lights and sang our Halloween songs.  There were a lot of "ooo's and ahh's"  from the children.  We had to do this for several days upon the children's request.

    These ghosts were used on our Bulletin Board page.  Children cut out a simple ghost pattern and glued on some cotton balls. Craft wiggly eyes were used for a spooky creation.

 

Trick or Treat Bags

    Plain shopping bags were bought at our local craft store.  The children used sponge paint  designs to decorate their bags.

 

Halloween Masks

        Our children designed their own scary masks with scraps from our craft closet.

Pumpkins

    Each child painted their rendition of an orange circle on the paint easel.  The next day we used green finger paint and their hands to add stems with leaves. (You can also use die cut hands instead.) The children glued on pumpkin seeds to finish up this project.

 


Owls

    Below, the children started with a "simple to cut" owl pattern. We painted them light brown.  (The paint mixture was watered down and had a touch of glue so that the children could add tissue paper squares to the owl body.)  When they were dry, we cut the owls out and added "googly-eyes".

 

 For questions or detailed information please send email to:
thematic@sbcss.k12.ca.us

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