Boo to YOU!

Happy October Everyone!  It's fall y'all, time for football and bonfires and pumpkins and the fun tradition of Boo'ing or Ghosting your friends and neighbors!  I picked up a few items to "Boo" our teacher with tomorrow.  A cute cup that says "You're a HOOT" I bought from Walmart for $5, embellished soap I made and her favorite candy.  

I embellished the soap bottle.  This can be done for any holiday and it's inexpensive to "make".  Here's what you need.  Bedazzled stickers - I purchased mine from Hobby Lobby.  You can usually find these in the scrapbook section or among the holiday theme items.  These stickers are currently on sale 40% off.  A bottle of soap I purchased at Kroger (they currently have lots of fall themed scented hand soaps on sale for $1). And you will need Goo Gone (I prefer the spray bottle as opposed to the squirt bottle).

 

Peel the clear label off the front of the bottle.  It comes off pretty easily in one piece as you can see below.  You can take the paper label off the back of the bottle but it is way more cumbersome and I like to keep that label on so the recipient knows what is in the bottle and can easily see the list of ingredients.

You can not see from this picture but there is a sticky residue left behind from the label that you need to clean off the bottle.  Next you need to hold the bottle with a paper towel to cover the back label  and spray a little Goo Gone on sticky residue you are trying to remove.  Rub the Goo Gone all over the front of the bottle until you feel the sticky residue starting to come loose.  Then I use a little plastic scraper to scrape the residue off the bottle.

Once you think you have scraped most of the residue off, use a paper towel to wipe the front of the bottle clean and make sure there is no Goo Gone or sticky residue from the label left behind.  Then just add your stickers to embellish the bottle.  And voila!  You have a cute holiday themed soap that cost under $2 to make.

Halloween 2011

Halloween is upon us!  I am working on my spooky house cookie supplies that I'll be bringing to school on Friday to complete the activity in class.  I'll post pictures afterwards of course:)  I happened upon this poem that I modified for public school.  As always, I am sending in the FREE Wendy's Frosty coupons.  I do this because they are super cheap (10 cents a piece), they are for a good cause (adoption charity) and they don't give the kids a sugar high in class (so the teachers still love me:).  I purchased this super cute paper at Hobby Lobby on sale for $1.80 for 25 sheets.  So, this gift cost me $4.30 total to give one to each child in a class of 25 students.  Hope your Halloween festivities are going well! 

Cheap Halloween Tradition

OK let's get something straight, I'm not a big fan of Wendy's. Their "chicken" nuggets are the worst fast food item on the planet as far as processed food goes and I really don't like their Frosty's (for some reason I think they are like drinking Vaseline mixed with chocolate syrup). However, all kids love them and every once in a while I think it's not going to kill them to have a small "treat".

SO, every October Wendy's sells these coupon books for $1. It's 10 FREE Jr. Frosty's coupons for $1 and the money goes to an adoption charity. The coupons are good until December 31st of that year. It's for a great cause and I can give a coupon to every child in an entire class for $3 at MOST. That's my cheap Halloween tradition - what's yours?

Spooky House Cookies

Today in class we are making spooky house cookies. I love this project because I work with the teacher to have the children write a story to go along with the spooky houses. Sometimes the teachers have the children write the story before I come in to do the cookies and sometimes they write the story after they make their cookie. It's a great literacy activity and it works for any grade.

Below are two examples I made, but the children are free to decorate the cookie however they wish. I learned a great tip from my Kindergartner's teacher a few weeks ago. Instead of making 20 piping bags full of icing (which is pretty messy and hard for the little ones to control), she just gave each child a plate, a popsicle stick and put a glob of icing on their plate. Then the children used the popsicle stick to spread the icing. So, I am definitely going that route today and then I plan to put each child's decorations in their own Halloween paper muffin liner (they are cheap, very cute and hold each child's individual candy decorations so they don't go rolling all over the place). Hope you have a Happy Halloween!

Christian Pumpkin

My baby boy came home with this pumpkin today and I thought it was so cute. The teacher's filled it with pumpkin seeds so it made noise (which means he never put it down:). Enjoy!

October Food Activities Fest

If you are looking for some quick food activities for your class this October here are a few...

"Indian Corn" & Nutter Butter GhostsFor the Indian Corn you use Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies, spread icing on the cookie, stick Reese's Piece's OR the new Fall Color M&M's to make the corn kernels and then add pretzel sticks (with icing) to make the "silk" at the top.

For the Nutter Butter Ghosts you melt white chocolate in the microwave and dip the cookies into the melted white chocolate (or you can just give the kids icing to spread on the cookies) and then add 2 regular chocolate chips for eyes.

Candy Corn Wreath Cookies
For the candy corn wreath cookies you use a ring butter cookie, spread white icing on the cookie and then add the candy corn. Thanks to Ms. B for the idea!!

Ghost Glass of MilkFor the ghost glass you simply use chocolate syrup to make eyes and a mouth on a plastic clear cup. Chill the cup for at least 10 minutes and then pour milk into the cup.

Orange Jack O'Lanterns from Martha Stewart website This picture is from the Martha Stewart site. You can click here for the directions. I have also in the past let the children just draw faces on the oranges and then I used a citrus peeler to remove the rind where they drew eyes, a nose and mouth. It's a lot easier - because then they can just eat the orange when you are done. But Martha's idea is super cute too!


Witches Hat from Martha Stewart website This picture is from the Martha Stewart site. You can click here for the directions. Isn't it so cute!

Goblin Cheese Ball from Food Network website

For a goblin cheese ball here is Paula Deen's recipe and photo from Food Network

Pumpkin Bracelets - you can click here to get directions and make your own!

Candy Pumpkin Bracelets

Happy Monday everyone! If you are a friend of Room Moms Rock on facebook then I already told you to go on over to http://www.eighteen25.blogspot.com/ for the "Spooktacular September". Each day a different guest blogger lists a Halloween craft. There are some fabulous ideas!! Here is one from this past weekend - Candy Pumpkin Bracelets. Are they not adorable? I whipped this out in about 5 minutes with a thick needle, non flavored dental floss, candy pumpkins and ribbon. Total cost for me was 3 bucks to buy all the supplies and I could probably make 4 or 5 bracelets from one bag of candy. You can click here to see how they are made:) What are you waiting for?