Ghost Footprints and Felt Pumpkins

I totally just realized that I never got around to sharing last month's construction paper project or this other fun idea. Oops. I guess its better late than never, as they say.

This construction paper project really classifies more as a painting project though.

This idea came from my short stint working as a pre-school teacher's assistant a few years ago in Georgia. My friend, Erin, was the teacher for the two year old class and we had fun doing this with them. So, this was something I was really looking forward to doing with the kiddo this year.

Super simple to do (aren't they all) and super cute. The only thing you might have issues with depending on your kiddo's temperament is if they'll allow you to paint the bottom of their foot.

The kiddo has started to display a little bit of sensory agitation and doesn't like to get messy. Great motivation to use utensils when eating...not so great when it requires a little bit of messy fun for an art project. I'm not worried though, as I know its pretty common to go through this phase. Fortunately I was able to paint the bottom of the kiddo's foot without fuss (I used a sponge brush and white washable tempera paint) and got her to make a cute foot print.

After we let it dry, I gave her several options on which googly eyes she wanted to put on her footprint ghost. Silly me didn't think that displaying all the eyes would indicate to her that she could put all the eyes on her piece of art. :) Suffice it to say, she had a lot of fun putting all the eyes on. She pointed where, I squirted the glue, and she placed them how and where she wanted them. I think it turned out pretty cute!

Another project we did that the kiddo really enjoyed was her felt magnetic pumpkin.

I took a roll of sticky-backed magnetic sheeting (found at Michael's). I cut out the shape of a pumpkin and stuck on some orange felt in the same shape. Then I also cut out various jack-o-lantern face shapes stuck a piece of the magnetic sheeting on it along with a piece of velcro. The magnetic sheeting kept the pumpkin on the interior garage door and the face pieces could be put on the pumpkin (held by the velcro) or the door (held by the magnetic pieces). Seriously, something so simple really kept her entertained and it was fascinating to see the variations she came up with.