Looking for Halloween Projects to Keep My 3 Yr Old Busy

I have 4 year twins. last year, i cut tissue paper (diff colors) into small squares. gave them each a bowl with alittle glue and water mixed together and a paint brush and a pumpkin. They would sit for a long time and "paint" their pumpkins with the tissue paper.

Most stores have the little pumpkins right now. You can pick up a few and then paint faces on them or decorate with construction paper or foam sheet cut-outs for eyes, nose, mouth, yarn for hair, etc. Once you are done you can display them inside or out.

familyfun.com has a ton of ideas that you could adjust to be age appropriate.

some of my favorite halloween projects:

-paint the bottom of his foot white and press on paper-instant ghost. For a spider, paint the palm of his hands and only 4 fingers(not thumb), press on paper over lapping palm prints, fingers on each side.
-spiders can be made out of construction paper. fold legs accordian style. Stretch out cotton for webs
-Ghost out of kleenex or paper towels stuffed with a couple cotton balls.
-paint with halloween cookie cutters
-create a scene using haloween stickers
-decorate a pumpkin using mr./mrs. potato head items
-glue pumpkin seeds on a pumpkin cutout
-make orange or black playdough
3 cups flour
1 cup salt
1/3 cup oil
colored water as needed.
mix 1st 3 ingredients then add water a little at a time to
desired consistancy
-cook up spaghetti noodles, add a little oil and chill, take out later to play with "brains"

I'll let you know if I remember anything else.

puffy pumpkins-

mix a bottle of glue with about 2-4 cups of shaving cream (you might have to experiment with the amounts), color it orange, and use it to paint a pumpkin shape with a paintbrush. Once it dries, it dries poofy like puff paint. Kids love the texture and the fun with shaving cream.

shiny leaves/pumpkins -

paint leaf or pumpkin patterns with Karo syrup/light corn syrup colored with fall food coloring colors. Paint very thinly because it takes a long time to dry. Once they're dry they are very shiny and pretty.

Try www.enchantedlearning.com Some of the projects are free so you don't have to pay the membership fee. Just click on Halloween and get some ideas. My boys loved the Turkey made out of their hand and foot shapes we did a few years back.

we like to get halloween stickers and make a picture with them. we color a back drop with crayons amd fill in the rest with stickers.

This is what I will be doing with my 3 yo son in the next couple of weeks for Halloween.
1) Decorating his own Halloween Trick or Treat bucket with foam decorations. I went to Michaels the other day and bought purple, green, and orange sand buckets for $1 each. Then I bought some Halloween themed foam decorations for about $2 a pack. Since my kids will both be pirates this year, I bought pirate themed decorations. I'll give my son a small glue bottle and will let him decorate his own (of course we will be doing this outside so the glue mess won't be all over my carpet). While he decorates his, I will be decorating one for his baby sister.

2). My son loves to help me make stuff in the kitchen. So this year for his preschool class will be making Halloween shaped cookies. I bought the cookie molds from Michaels too. Then I bought a bag of organic, allergen free cookie mix from Henry's Marketplace (there are a few kids in his class with allergies). My son is good at helping me crack eggs into a bowl, mixing stuff, and is already looking forward to putting the orange and black sprinkles onto the cookies. I got the sprinkles for $1 from the dollar bins at Target.

Have fun with your projects!

I have a three year old and she really likes cutting and gluing as well as painting, but not coloring. Why not cut out large shapes in poster board of holiday items (pumpkins, ghosts, bats, etc.) and let your son cut up pieces of colored paper and glue them onto the shape to decorate it. You could paint or draw the face on the item so that it actually looks like a ghost, but your son will have a blast just cutting any shape out of paper or styrofoam or whatever you have laying around and glue it on.

My son's pre-school teacher sent home this recipe for silly putty. I made it for him and it's really easy and he loves playing w/ it. This is something you will have to make for him and then your child can enjoy. The most obscure ingredient is borax.

CLEAR GLUE GAK...aka. Silly Putty

ingredients:
1 Cup hot water
1 1/2 teaspoon borax (non toxic)
2 Cups clear glue
2 Cups warm water
1tsp liquid watercolor (optional)
procedure:
1. Mix 1 C hot water and 1 1/2 tsp. borax until dissolved. set aside.
2. Mix 2 Cups glue and 2 C warm water together in plastic bowl.
3. Using a metal spoon, slowly pour borax mixture into glue mixture while stirring quickly. Stir until the mixture leaves the side of the bowl. Gak will be sticky.
4. Knead until gak is not sticky. The more you work w/ it, the easier it will be.

If you make it w/out water color, kids will love to draw on it w/magic markers. It's even fun to cut w/ scissors.

My two and four year old just did paper mache over balloons. When they dried we painted them into pumpkins, jack-o-lanterns, Jack Skeleton, monsters, etc. They are adorable. We also painted flower pots to hold the balloons and they look great on the mantel.

Check out the website - thirtyhandmadedays.blogspot.com
or Family Fun magazine

Hello J.,

You live sounds like mine! I am involved in MOMS Club and I am also an Area Coordinator for 6 So. Orange County Chapters. Plus, my son just started preschool this past Sept and I am the President of the Boosters for the school, I run my own business, my son is involved in Tumbling Classes (which will end in 2 weeks and he will then start up Mommy and Me cooking class till the holiday break) Plus, I am working with my city to clean up a park in my neigborhood, like actually designing the park and all. So when I read your question I was thinking gosh that sounds like me!

Anyways, I just did this project with my son right after his nap today. Its the Footprint Ghosts that I saw someone else reply with. Although instead of just using a black marker for the eyes, I purchased the goggley eyes from JoAnn's. My son is using this project to send the Grandparents, Godparents and a few special friends Halloween cards. So, not only did we have fun with paint on the bottom of our feet, I also let him walk on our patio so he has his little feet print on the concrete, which can be easily hosed off. But, he will also all the stamp and some halloween stickers to the envelope.

My son is 3 and loves to put stickers (any kind) on paper, he doesn't like to color the paper just put stickers on it.

Hope this helps,
M.

BATS - stuff a black sock with crumpled up newspaper. Tie a black string around the end. Glue on black construction paper bat wings on the back, and google-eyes and a red mouth on the face and hang up-side-down with the string when all the glue is dry! Every Halloween we still hang up our bats that my 9 year old son made when he was in preschool!

How about cuting out a Halloween shape (lrg pumpkin) and putting it in a shirt box with squirts of orange, purple, black paint and a few marbles and he can go crazy shaking it up. leaf shapes with fall colors looks great too!

we make "creepy Hand popcycles"

You get rubber gloves (with no powder in them)
we used water but you can use any drink.
Poor in the liquid and tie it up with a rubber band. (we added red food coloring to make it look creepier :)
Put in the freezer

When you peel off the glove you might break off a finger or two but that makes it fun too.

For thanksgiving, we've gone on a walk and collected things, rocks, leaves, acorns... then when we get home, I write "Happy Thanksgiving" or "Give Thanks" in glue and then they put their treasures over the glue. Just make sure the rocks are little!! We hung the sign down our stairway.
Or a string of ghosts out of kleenex and hang them together.

kids domain is a great resource for themed crafts, coloring sheets and other cool things for kids of all ages.

Here's a cute fall one we do every year....cut out a simple, large leaf shape out of construction paper. Then go on a nature walk! Collect berries, leaves, seeds, flowers, etc. Then come home and let your son glue them on the leaf. After it dries he can add marker or crayon decorations if desired. It is really pretty hanging on your wall. Also the old favorite of fall leaves and some crayon shavings pressed between two sheets of waxed paper and ironed together (by Mom). Then punch a hole, add a string and it's a window decoration! A cute one for display but it doesn't require much crafting is...Foot print ghosts! Get a large piece of black construction paper. Paint the bottom of your son's foot with white paint and help him to make a few foot prints on the paper. After the foot prints dry, add black marker eyes and mouth. You can write BOO! with white crayon too. Of course handprint Turkeys are easy and adorable. (Paint his palm brown and each finger a different color for the feathers, press on construction paper, add eyes, gobbler and feet later) You can even make a Thanksgiving card for each grandparent with the handprint turkey on the front. Write a little rhyme or a message inside. They will LOVE it! We did that last year and they RAVED about it! Have fun!