Chit Chat and Small Talk: Quick Last-Minute Halloween Activities

October 30, 2012

Quick Last-Minute Halloween Activities

Need a quick last-minute Halloween activity but don't have much time to prep? I've got a couple of great ones!

Here's one I've been using A LOT over the past couple of weeks. I found some great Fall dot paint sheets at 3dinosaurs.com. The Fall Pack Extras has a variety of apples, leaves and pumpkins; the pumpkin is the one I used the most and is pictured at left.
So what did I do with it?

1. I printed and laminated it and used it as a play dough mat. I used orange play dough to make little balls, and gave them to the child one at a time after saying targeted words or phrases. The kids promptly smashed them on the mat! Many of them tried to cover the entire pumpkin with a layer of smashed play dough. Fun for them, and a great way to get many reps in a short amount of time.

2. I printed it out and used it with dot paints for several different purposes. As an articulation activity, I glued small pictures above each vertical row. The child would say the word and make one dot with paint for each dot in the row. I also used it as a categorization activity. I wrote category names above each row and had the child name 4 items in each category, making a dot for each item named. Here's an example of one I used:

Here's another fast and easy Halloween craft: Mummy Lights!

I saw this one on Pinterest, and just had to try it! There was no website linked to the picture, so I don't know who to credit on this one, but it was easy enough to recreate by myself. Here's what you need:

Gauze strips cut into 3-4" pieces, a jelly jar, wiggly eyes, tape and a tea light candle. You can use this target any articulation sound you want by giving the child a piece of gauze after saying target words or phrases. The child I worked with today requested "Sticky tape" twice for each gauze strip, because we are working on /st/ in two-word phrases. The child uses the tape to attach the gauze to the jar. All you need is a small piece of tape at each end. After the jar is completely covered, simply glue on wiggly eyes (and a smile, if you want your mummy to look more silly than scary). Then put the candle inside. That's it! Look how ours turned out: