Halloween Traditions Archives

Spider Parachute STEM Challenge

October 20, 2021 By Deirdre

Spiders balloon or parachute using parachutes they have woven themselves. This spider parachute STEM challenge explores creating a parachute for a paper cup spider. Children will be asked to explore different materials that connect the spider to the parachute. They will also explore two different types of parachutes.

This STEM Challenge set includes the following:

Spider Heads to Attach to the Cups
Directions for Constructing the Spider
Directions for Completing the Challenge
Design/Recording Page

Getting Started with the Parachute STEM Challenge

Downloading the Parachute STEM Challenge Set

The Spider Parachute STEM Challenge set is a PDF. When you download it, you will need to open it with a PDF reader. Acrobat Reader is a popular reader that you can download to use. You probably have it on your computer already.

Spider Parachute STEM Challenge Set Download

Gathering the Supplies

The following supplies will the needed to complete the challenge.

Scissors
Cupcake Liner
Coffee Filter
Tape
Straws
Popsicle Sticks
Black Pipe Cleaners
Printed Spider Faces
Paper Clips

Building the Spiders

Children will need to follow the directions on the directions page to put the spiders together. After reading over the directions, some children may have better ideas for the spider’s face and feet. It is perfectly okay for them to create their own version of the spider.

The way they decide to construct their spider and parachute will need to be illustrated on the design/recording page.

Conducting the Challenge

The challenge asks children to try dropping the spider with each of its parachute combinations three times. There is a section on the design/recording sheet to share how the spider and its parachute land.

If they keep landing on their side, you can try adding a few paperclips to the open end of the cup. It can help it to land with the spider standing up.

Fun Halloween Books for Kids

The links below are affiliate links.

Shake Dem Halloween Bones– What fun storybook characters have when they attend a Halloween party. This book is filled with rhythm and fun. You may want to get up and dance after reading this book.

The Runaway Pumpkin– When a pumpkin breaks from its vine, it rolls through a farm encountering many of the farm’s animals. This book is written in rhyme. The rhyme seems to speed up as the pumpkin does.

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything– Despite having many things chasing her a little old lady on a walk remains fearless. Children will love the unique things that chase her and how she deals with them.

Who’s There on Halloween?– Children will love following the rhyming text to find out just who is there on Halloween. I think parents reading this book to their children will too.

More STEM Challenges

Peter Rabbit STEM Challenge- Building a Fence

Building Plastic Egg Parachutes

Accepting Unwanted Candy and Sorting

November 2, 2011 By Deirdre

When I was little my sisters would sort out their candy and pull out all the Snickers for me. It wasn’t out of the goodness of their hearts or because they didn’t like Snickers. It was totally about finding a cheap birthday gift for meMy birthday is two days after Halloween and candy was a wonderful gift to give and get. I really loved Snickers back then.Regifting candy seems to run in my family. After gathering candy with the little boy next door while trick or treating JDaniel decided to do it too.

Before JDaniel could regift some of his candy, he had to sort through it. JDaniel started digging through his Halloween bag on Tuesday morning and started sorting them into piles. The idea was all his own.
The first sorting project involved sorting out the candy he likes into a pile with the remaining candy being things he doesn’t like.He really doesn’t like anything with peanuts in it. The Snickers, Peanut M&M’s, and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups ended up in the don’t like pile. ( I tried to guide him away from candy with peanuts when he was selecting candy while trick or treating, but we still ended up with some.) Who gets the candy he doesn’t like? Dad gets them. JDaniel informed my husband that he can take them to work to give to his friends that don’t get to trick or treat. Once the icky candies had been placed on my husband’s work laptop, the sorting began again. This time the candy was sorted by type. JDaniel wasn’t sure what some of the candies were. We had to give him a brief explanation of what candy was behind some of the wrappers before they could be placed in the correct pile.

There was a candy bar pile, candy in bags pile, skinny candy bar pile, skinny bagged candy pile, and so on. He did an amazing job of sorting and resorting the candy until he felt they were in the right place. I was invited to check his pile selections frequently. This took about half an hour. He is nothing if not thorough. When he was done with the “good” candy, he started hiding it all over the kitchen. I encouraged him to keep them all in his trick or treat bag so we would know where it was. Thankfully he finally gave in and said that that would be good.

This post is linked to Alphabe-Thursday on Mrs. Matlock and Mama Kat’s Writing Workshop! It is also linked to my Halloween Traditions link up. If you haven’t had a chance to link up your recipes, crafts, costume pictures or posts on tradition and memories, please do. The link will be open until Nov. 4th.

Muffin Tin Monday-Halloween

October 31, 2011 By Deirdre

Happy Halloween! We had a spook-tacular Halloween muffin tin meal at our house! JDaniel had pumpkin chili served in a cornbread muffin. He helped cut out apples in a pumpkin shapes. We made pumpkin pie dip for the apples. There were pumpkin orange carrots, orange American cheese sliced into pumpkins and sweet potato tater tots from the frozen food section at the store.

In previous weeks I have featured tins that included more holiday shapes. This week I decided to feature really healthy Halloween foods. Guess what? JDaniel really enjoyed them.

I have included links to the recipes in the paragraph above. I hope you will try they out.

Oh! I didn’t include sugar in my chili!

What are you having for your Halloween meal?

This post is linked to Muffin Tin Monday and my Halloween Traditions link up. If you haven’t had a chance to link up your recipes, crafts, costume pictures or posts on tradition and memories, please do. The link will be open until Nov. 4th.

The History of Halloween at Our House

October 27, 2011 By Deirdre

Mama Kat lists several topics to write about in her Writer’s Workshop each week. One of the ideas for this week was 22 things you have done.

My list of things we have done is going to focus on things we have done for Halloween at our house or the history of Halloween at our house. I am going to tell you a few things have done each year since JDaniel was born.

First Year

Dressed my 7 month old son in a pumpkin costume.

Had my husband and I dress like farmers.

Left my mom at my house to pass out candy while we wheeled JDaniel in his stroller around the neighborhood.

Read the book Redeeming Halloween by Kim Wier and Pam McCune to start thinking about how we wanted to celebrate the holiday.

Decided to pass out baked goods and/or candy to neighbors whose homes we trick or treated to as a way to reach out to neighbors. We passed out cookies with the a message wishing them a blessed Halloween attached to the bag.

Second Year

Had two cute costumes and had JDaniel wear both to different events.

Took JDaniel to a nursing home to attend a Halloween party for seniors and toddlers dressed as a lion’

Started the tradition of carving JDaniel’s pumpkins the day before Halloween.

Learned that he doesn’t like to touch pumpkin pulp.

Dressed him as a dinosaur for a library event and for trick or treating.

Bought a reusable Halloween bag with Frankenstein on it to use as a trick or treat bag.

Started trick or treating with the family next door

Ran from the front of our subdivision with a wet dinosaur when it started pouring.

Third Year

Had JDaniel decide that he didn’t want to wear the costume I bought at a consignment sale.

Decided that his choice of a Dalmatian costume was a great choice.

Coveted the ability one of my friends had to make super cute Halloween cupcakes.

Took JDaniel to Nevin’s farm to go on a hay ride and select a pumpkin.

Discovered my husband could eat as much of JDaniel’s Halloween candy as I could. If I was going to sneak Snickers, I was going to have to do it when we came home from trick or treating.

Fourth Year

Let JDaniel pick out his own robot costume.

Paid full price for a Halloween costume.

Had a robot running around the house in early October when the costume came in.

Tried to make pumpkin soup my family would eat twice.

I hope you enjoyed our family history of Halloween.

What are some of you traditions?

This post is linked to my Halloween Traditions linkup, Mrs. Matlock, and Mama Kat’s Writing Workshop.

Does Your Halloween Candy Call to You?

October 26, 2011 By Deirdre

If you buy Halloween candy early when it is on sale, you might bring temptation into the house.

If you hide it in the closet near the computer where you spend time blogging, you maybe able to hear the candy call to you.

If you open the bag to have just one piece, you may create a way for your hand to go into and out of the bag easily.

If your hand goes in the bag repeatedly, the amount of candy in the bag goes down quickly.

If you try to sneak into the candy bag and don’t look to the right and the left before crossing to its hiding place, your son might be slyly watching you.

If your son sees that you now have candy in your hand, you may have to reach in and grab a piece for him.

If you son knows where the candy is hidden, he might tell your husband.

If your husband and son know where the candy is hidden, they might have a candy feast when you leave them alone to run an errand.

If your family has a candy feast, you may find that there is any empty plastic bag in the hiding place.

If all the Halloween candy in your house has been enjoyed two weeks before Halloween, you may have to go to the store and buy more.

If you have a new stash of Halloween candy, you may have to find a new hiding place for it and keep it sealed.

If you here the candy calling to you, you may need to push it further into its hiding place and avoid it like crazy.

I hope you don’t have an early candy intake issue at your house. We haven’t struggled with this at our house before.

This issue may not have come up before because, I have always kept the bags sealed and spent time away from my hiding place. The hall closet was not a good place to hide it this year.

This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday!

Halloween Traditions Link Up

October 24, 2011 By Deirdre

Welcome to the Halloween Traditions Link Up! I look forward to visiting your posts and taking in your Halloween costumes, Halloween foods, Halloween crafts and traditions or memories.

There are link ups below for your posts . Each family friendly or child related post linked up will need to have a Halloween Traditions badge or a link at the bottom of it pointing back to the Halloween Traditions Link Up. Please don’t link up more than two posts for each area.

Here is the badge:

This link up will be open from Oct. 24^th and ends Nov. 2^nd

Halloween Costumes

Halloween Recipes

Halloween Crafts

Halloween Traditions and Memories

Please take a moment to visit some of the other links after adding yours!

Muffin Tin Monday on Sunday- Tricky Treats for Lunch

October 23, 2011 By Deirdre

Last week’s meal had some untouched foods. This week’s Halloween meal is filled with foods JDaniel liked.

A tortilla with a melted oozing bat shape was the first thing JDaniel took a bite out of.

Then he headed to the sweet potato tater tots. We have tried sweet potato french fries before, but never tater tots. They were really yummy.

Next he had June Clever Nirvana’s Super Easy Pumpkin Soup with Bonus DHA. He wasn’t a huge fan, but did say that it tasted so much better than the pumpkin soup we have made before. I am a huge fan. I ate two bowls for lunch! Yum!

Finally he had apple crisp that was leftover from an event I had to bring a breakfast item to earlier in the week. We were all happy to see that one of the two dishes of apple crisp I made had some left in it. We all love it.

This post is linked to Muffin Tin Monday.

Halloween Zucchini Casserole Recipe for Mummy

October 12, 2011 By Deirdre

It was such fun to put together this zucchini ricotta casserole and put a mozzarella mummy on top. Both the casserole and the mummy were so easy to put together and both were yummy.

Zucchini Ricotta Casserole

Ingredients

2 pounds of zucchini sliced into thin disks

1 carton ( 15 ounces) of ricotta cheese

1 egg

1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs

5 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese

1 1/2 teaspoons of Italian seasoning

1 jar ( 28 ounces) of tomato sauce with vegetables

1 1/2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese

1 block of mozzarella cheese

Directions:

1. Steam zucchini cut into thin pieces for 5 minutes over boiling water. Then drain it and pat it dry.

Combine ricotta, egg, 3 tablespoons of bread crumbs, 3 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese and Italian seasoning.
Coat a 13 x 9-inch baking dish with a baking spray.
Pour 1/3 of the tomato sauce on the bottom of the dish.
Layer bread crumbs, zucchini, ricotta cheese mixture, and then mozzarella cheese.
Repeating the layering.
Cover the last layer of mozzarella cheese with tomato sauce.
Sprinkle the remaining bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese on top.
Place foil on top of the casserole and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
Using person-shaped cookie cutter cut man out of mozzarella cheese.
Slice the mozzarella man into narrow strips.
Place the mozzarella man onto the casserole along with a few cheese scraps and bake it for 15 additional minutes.

Serves 12.

This recipe is based on one I found in Taste of Home’s America’s Best Church Super Recipes Cookbook.

This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday, I Love Fall Foods and the Mommy Club!and will be linked to my Halloween Traditions link upon October 27th when it starts.

Halloween Party Ideas- Crafting a Pumpkin Salad

October 6, 2011 By Deirdre

I thought it would be fun to do a Halloween craft with food. JDaniel and I headed to the Fresh Market salad bar and I had him select foods he would like to try. We would use those foods to create a Halloween salad.

We ended up with a variety of foods. Some were brand new and others were old favorites.

I placed all the ingredients in an ice cube tray and showed him how to create a pumpkin face using some of the ingredients in orange pepper slices with celery stems.

The tray contains edamame, chickpeas, pumpkin seeds, red cabbage, yellow squash, fried wonton strips, mushrooms, celery, uncooked corn, carrot shavings, cauliflower, pineapple, raisins, and cheerios. This Halloween salad was a fun way for JDaniel to try new foods.

Then he started to create faces of his own while taste-testing the ingredients. JDaniel said that the wanton was filled with many holes that looked like many eyes. I thought that was a great idea.

He didn’t finish everything. We ended up wrapping the tray with the remaining food up with plastic. JDaniel said he wanted to do it again at dinner time.

I was happy to see that he tried many of the new foods. The chickpeas and wantons have become a new favorite.

This post is linked to Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop, It’s Playtime, Adventures-In-Mommyland and will be linked to my Halloween Traditions link upon October 27th when it starts.

P.S. The Halloween Traditions link up event will include four link-ups. They are Halloween Costumes, Halloween Foods, Halloween Crafts, and Traditions or Memories. I look forward to seeing what you come up with for this link-up that begins Oct. 24^th and ends Nov. 2^nd.

If you like this Halloween activity, here are some more Halloween activities to explore with your children.

Halloween Bat Craft

Halloween Number Puzzles

Back to School Traditions Thank You and a New Traditions Link Up News

September 14, 2011 By Deirdre

I want to thank all of you that participated in the Back to School Traditions link up! It was wonderful to be to see all the first day of school pictures and to learn about your traditions.

Back to School Traditions is the first of a series of fall link ups I will be offering.

The next traditions event will be Halloween Traditions. The event will include four link ups. They are Halloween Costumes, Halloween Foods, Halloween Crafts and Traditions or Memories. I look forward to seeing what you come up with for this link up that begins Oct. 24^th and ends Nov. 2^nd.

During the Halloween Traditions link up period I will also be hosting a giveaway for the reader with the scariest purse. So, you may want to snap a shot of your purse now just encase you think you will win, but you might get the urge to clean it before the end of October.

There will be similar categories in the Thanksgiving and Christmas link ups later in the fall!