Everyday Life Learning: Trick or Treat Busy Bags
We’re that family. The one that offers anything but candy on Halloween Trick or Treat night.
Why? Have you read about all of the damage sugar does to our bodies? I know it tastes good and all but I’m really just looking out for your overall well-being. Not buying it? Well, it’s true. Here’s something else to consider the next time you need to take that phone call or finish that project for work – you can thank me when you can turn to a highly engaging, fun, independent activity for your child to do! Key words being:
• Engaging • Fun • Independent
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.
This glow in the dark skeleton guards the Halloween busy bags until the trick or treaters arrive to claim them.
No tricks, just treats here!
Consider co-authoring a shared experience centered around creating trick or treat busy bags that will outlive the temporary blissful satisfaction of a piece of sugar-filled candy. Remember, this is a shared experience – which means our screens are away and we’re investing time with our children. It’s a win, win, win.
They get their attention and power buckets filled, you’re prepared for trick or treat, and you’ve got a go to activity that was co-designed with you and your child.
Get those minutes you need in your day and the thanks from the parents of your trick or treaters for not contributing to the sugar crash!
Leveraging Everyday Life Learning by Creating Trick or Treat Busy Bags
Empower & Validate the Decision Making Process by Starting with WHY
Let your child in on the project by starting with the purpose of the project. You might consider saying something along the lines of…
Support the Process of Independent Decision Making by Offering Choices
It’s quite possible that the vastness of choice could be overwhelming to a child or perhaps their silence is the sheer excitement of thinking about Halloween! At any rate, a strategy that helps support children in making choices is to narrow the choice to set up successful decision making. Think of several acceptable choices ahead of time. Offer the choices and then step back so that your child can step up and truly experience the decision making process for themselves. When we allow our children to make decisions and they see their thinking in action it sends a signal to them that their thinking is valued, which over time leads to trust and connection with the person who validates their decision making. Here’s a few examples of sentence starters that set up children as the decision maker by offering them choices to consider:
Here are just a few questions to get collaborative conversations going in your playdough experience that can leverage and extend engagement in true learning:
Map out the Process which Strengthens Executive Function
Creating a plan together is important work for our brains! Learning to move through a process from part A to B is a lot of what life really is (get up, eat breakfast, brush my teeth, etc.)! In shared experiences, we often discuss a plan and then write it down to help us keep track of it (when worked on across several days the list helps us refocus). When we work through a process we are strengthening the executive function centers of our brains. This is the part of our brain that serves the brain in orchestrating focus, attention, task completion, much like the conductor of a symphony guides all the individual musicians to play as one group.
ProTip
Create a checklist that matches the literacy level of your child. Our example here is co-authored. Reilly was set up for success in this experience by giving her the chance to add the parts of the list that she is currently working on in her literacy journey (printing numbers). She added images to each step rather than words. This way we are both reading the checklist in ways that set us up for equal opportunities of success.
Get the How To template for new writers
Strengthen Fine and Gross Motor Muscles
There are so many muscles in our hands that need strengthening. Tearing and opening the packaging of your treats is an opportunity to workout those muscles! Peeling stickers is another excellent opportunity to work on coordination, focus, and fine motor muscles development that are used for everyday life such as brushing your teeth, holding utensils to eat, tying shoes, turning the pages of a book, and eventually penmanship.
Counting Collections
Together, Reilly and I shopped and selected the items for our trick-or-treat bags (another great opportunity to exercise the decision making process). After we gathered items from around the house and purchased our items, we chose to sort them and count them! We look for opportunities to count any time we can get them!
Check out more about counting collections and supporting mathematical thinking both at home and in school from my friend, and math consultant, Danielle Moore at Teaching One Moore. And then…get counting!
Make your Mark!
Writing doesn’t always have to be pen to paper. What about stamp to paper? Many children have the ability to name the letters of the alphabet before they are fully able to print them with their fine motor skill development.
Stamping letters is a great opportunity to validate a child’s emerging understanding of language.
A child’s name is very important to them and often one of the first concepts they grasp as emergent readers and writers. Even if children have the fine motor coordination to print their names, stamping is a fun alternative and perhaps even a bit more efficient depending on the time allocated for the project.
ProTip
Keep a paper towel or cloth nearby that you can use to clean the stamps between colors to add a little longevity to your ink pads. If you’re in the market for stamping supplies, we like this ink pad set option and these letter stamps. Have fun adding to your collection to leverage literacy!
Leveraging Literacy To-Go!
Here’s a list of the items we selected for our trick or treat busy bags with links where you can find these or similar items to encourage developing literacy skills.
Blank Books – to write stories, sketch, add stickers.
Pencils – to write and sketch your story!
Pens – to write and sketch your story!
Stamps – to add to your notebook and work on that fine motor muscle development
Mini Notebook – to collect ideas (or stickers) on the go.
Stickers – to enhance pages of your notebook, to help tell your story, to add to a letter you’re sending to a friend, all while developing coordination, focus, and fine motor muscle development.
Tattoos – for fine motor development when peeling the paper, choosing location, and applying water. Excellent opportunity to move through a process with quick results!
Black Cat Mini Puddy – work those fine motor muscles! Great addition to a calming corner.
BONUS
Stickers, Stamps, and Stationary Stations
We have stickers and stamping kits ready to go at home. We use these stackable bins to help keep us organized (thanks to organizer extraordinaire, Leslie Tracy) so that anytime, we can find our materials to stamp or sticker until our hearts are content! We often add stickers and stamps to letters we send to friends – because we love receiving mail in return! These bins make it quick and easy to grab and get a few items to add to our travel bins to keep us engaged while on the go.
Your turn!
What is your go to for Halloween treating? Do you have an activity or tradition you’d like to share? Hashtag us #RWTReneeHalloween!
