Pumpkins, Bats and Candy Corn -- Oh My !!

It's October and Halloween is just around the corner. I can't help be excited for autumn, I am truly a sucker for seasonal changes. Right now hanging from my ceiling are these adorable pumpkins. This was a new project for me and it took a few trials before we got it right but they turned into a great art piece for the room.

 
The kids completely enjoyed using their small motor skills (these skills will help later when it comes to writing and drawing!) stapling and cutting the leaves for the top. The prep work was super easy with cutting the strips of construction paper. This was a project we did in small groups (2-3 kids at a time) as they need some help with the stapler and getting the paper to bend correctly. Everyone started off with one piece of paper for the middle section (which remains straight) and stapled out alternating sides. It worked best when we stapled the middle strips first and worked out way out this tactic definitely helped the outside strips bend better. At the end we cut off the excess paper from the bottom and glued on some leaves to cover up the staples. These look adorable hanging from the ceiling, it's an inside pumpkin patch!
Materials: Orange & Green Construction Paper, Stapler, Scissors
Time: About 5 minutes per pumpkin (once you get the hang of it! )


This second project I wasn't too sure about until I did it. Sticking with our classroom Halloween theme I wanted to do something for the wall in out library area. The kids painted some big black pieces of paper, printed across the paper in bright pink is " We're Batty About Books ". I used this bat project to put some art on the wall. It turned out much cuter than I expected. -- I haven't taken a picture of the wall yet, i'll put it on my list of to-do's for Monday.

On a piece of construction paper have the kids make two hand prints. Use your imagination for which medium to use. My classroom used black paint, however ink, glitter paint, puffy paint... they're all good options! We did our hand prints on a half sheet of construction paper, glued the bat face down and then mounted it on another piece of construction paper. These bats are now happily flying on the wall over our "Batty About Books" library! It was a super easy and simple project that turned out great!
Materials: Construction Paper (two colors), Paint, Glue, Pre-Cut Bat heads
Time: 10 Minutes per child