2017 Half term Halloween Activities

Half term is nearly upon us so I thought I would look at what there is to do in Oxfordshire and beyond to keep the kids entertained (don't worry its only a week!).

Stowe Landscape a Gardens Halloween Trail
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/events/8ef4cbcd-3b5b-4f94-85c6-c69f139fbadd/pages/details
National trust venues all over the country will be hosting their own half term events so go check out their website for more information. I love a good trail as it really engages children in their surroundings and the activity.

Have you read any of my mini blog series? Over the last couple of weeks I have posted 6 different Autumn activites to do. These would be great to do in half term and are not costly to do. Follow the links below to explore.
Leaf Printing Pumpkin Picking Conkers Autumn Treasure Basket

Warrick castle Halloween events
https://www.warwick-castle.com/explore/halloween-haunted-castle.aspx
Warrick castle are putting on some Halloween events this half term that I thought looked good.I am going here hopefully on Saturday so expect a review blog soon.

Prepare and carve those pumpkins! If you have been pumpkin picking you now need to do something with it. Carve them, use the seeds for messy play and use the insides for pumpkin soup.

Trick or treating- now I do understand that most children will be back at school for Halloween but some have two week half terms so didn't want to miss it out of this post. Who doesn't love a chance to dress up and use some face paint.

Just a few ideas to get you started hope you have a fantastic half term.

Autumn Activities 6- Leaf Puppets

I found a great idea on Pinterest for another Autumn based activity and that's Leaf puppets.

Here's some images I found to give you an idea of how they could look.

Ideas on you will need to create your leaf puppet;

• Selection of leaves
• Lollipop sticks
• Wobbly stick on eyes
• Felt tip pens
• Glitter
• Paint
• Glue/sellotape
• Buttons
• Glitter

Hope you have enjoyed my Autumn activity blogs mini series. This will be my last one as I'm going to be writing some Halloween based blogs.

Autumn Activities 5- Make your own bird feeder

Today we are doing another craft activity, Bird feeders.
Now you could go and buy a bird feeder and the bird seed but I was looking on Pinterest and saw so many ideas on how to make your own in a creative way so may do a Pinterest board tagging different ideas.

You will need;

• Small plastic bottle
• 2 cheap wooden spoons
• Something to punch holes in bottle
• String to tie bottle to tree
• Bird feed

Recipe for bird feed;

• 1 cup of lard
• 1/2 cup of sunflower seeds
• 1/2 cup of unsalted peanuts
• 1/2 cup of dried fruit

Mix altogether and leave overnight. Put into bottle and do up lid. Punch some holes randomly three or four times on bottle. Stick the wooden spoons through the holes so it looks how it does in photo. Then tie up in the garden on a tree or branch.

Hopefully you will attract lots of different birds.

Autumn Activites 4- Autumn treasure baskets

Welcome back to Autumn Activites mini series. Today we are going to talk about creating Autumn themed treasure baskets. Previously I have done a activity of the week on treasure baskets and have linked this below.
https://nannybicester.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/activity-of-week-treasure-baskets.html

To make a treasure basket more topical and reverent to Autumn you could add the following;

• Conkers
• Different shape and coloured leaves
• Pine cones
• Any other items you find in the outdoors
• Winter vegetables such as squash and pumpkins

Autumn Activities 3-Conkers

For Autumn activities 3 we are going to go old school and collect some conkers.  To play the game you will need to collect some conkers and drill a hole in them so you can thread them onto a shoe lace.  The game requires two people and the point of the game is to take it in turns to hit the other persons conker. The winner is the first person to smash the other persons conker off.

You will need:

• Some conkers
• 2 shoe laces or string
• Drill to create holes in centre of conkers

Autumn Activites 2-Pumpkin Picking

Welcome back to blog 2 of my Autumn mini blog series. Today I'm going to talk about Pumpkin picking.

With Halloween fast approaching it would be so easy to just pop to your local supermarket and pick up a small £1 pumpkin. There is certainly nothing wrong with that and great if you need to buy a few pumpkins however why not find your local pick your own farm and choose your own?

Great to get out in the outdoors at this time of year and I'm sure the children will get so much more from doing this as they can see the origins of where pumpkins come from. Once you take your pumpkin home the possibilities are endless. Make soup or simply do some pumpkin carving(post coming later on in October).

Autumn activities 1- Leaf printing

Hi everybody it's been a while since I've posted and Autumn is now upon us so I thought I would post a mini series over the next few weeks with some ideas on what to do with your little people.

To kick it all off I am going to start with Leaf printing.
Such an easy one to do really as we all have access to the outdoors and it's an age old yet simple activity to do at home.






You will need:

• Various sized leaves
• Paint
• Brush
• Cover/table cloth to paint on
• Large paper

Method:

1. Paint one side of the leaf.
2. Press down onto paper
3. Remove to see finished result
4. Repeat.

Hope you will enjoy my mini blog series and see you next time.