Activity Day Cart

One day a week this term (and maybe all year) we have all our tutoring and respite sessions.  I seemed to spend all day running back and forth to the classroom to drop off one set of supplies and picking up a new set for the next session.  At the end of the day there was stuff all over and cleaning up a classroom isn't what you look forward to at the end of a busy day and week.

So I went bargain hunting online looking for a cart/trolley.  Not as easy as I first thought as I needed it to be a certain size and you'd be surprised just how many were millimetres too small. 

I found success with a cart that actually folds up when you are finished with it, which will be perfect when I don't need it (like over school holidays etc).

On our Activity Day we have:
Art with our Art Teacher

Music with The Music Bus

Science & Technology with our respite worker (who lucky for us is a Scientist!)

and in between we work on our English/Reading.

The sessions will work on the same theme per term.

Term 1 is Technology

Art = Perspective Technical Drawing

Music = Continuing learning two instruments

Science/Technology = Coding and Programming

English = Coding Books 'How to Code 1-4', 'Coding for Beginners Using Scratch'.

Term 2 is the first of our Harry Potter Themes : Herbology

Art = Focus on Plants - Drawing/Nature Journal

Music = Learning Harry Potter theme song

Science = Plant based learning and experiments

English = Book 'Herbology', 'Plants', 'Book of Nature'.

Term 3 is Harry Potter Theme : Magical Beasts

and

Term 4 is Harry Potter Theme : Potions

Having the cart means my son can get all the resources he needs for each session without needing my help.  It means I can get my stuff done too!  Which is the whole point of respite after all.  

** Note: My child has special needs and this is the reason we access respite - both for his benefit and my own **

If you are looking for where to purchase these storage items: 

Wooden art caddy is from Aldi but any kitchen condiment caddy will do.

Cart/Trolley is an Ebay purchase.

White storage boxes/tubs for books are from IKEA. 

5 Fun Halloween Activities

Here are 5 fun Halloween activities to do with your kids.

1. Make a Halloween Wreath. 

Honestly you can do so many different types! We found a pre-made Styrofoam base that was covered with black feathers at the local craft store. At just $6 it was not worth the hassle of starting from scratch LOL.  So we bought a felt Jack-O-Lantern face and some orange ribbons and added them to the feather wreath. Jack-O-Lanterns traditionally were used to ward off evil spirits (to allow the good spirits to come and visit us) so having one on a wreath at the front door is a good thing.  The black feathers remind me of crow feathers. 

2. Turn little mini pumpkins into baby Jack-O-Lanterns without any carving. 

Simply grab a black marker pen, some strong glue and a few googly eyes to add to your mini pumpkins. We ended up with a baby Vampire and a very minion looking Cyclops.  No gooey pumpkin mess and at the end of Halloween simply separate the googly eyes from the pumpkin to re use on next years pumpkins. 

3. Make an Ancestor Tree.  

This is a lovely way to celebrate the day without it needing to be 'commercial'. Historically All Hallows Eve was the night when the veil between the living world and the next was at it's thinnest and our ancestors spirits could come and visit us. It was a night to honour your loved ones who had passed from this life. Tokens (ornaments) were hung from trees to represent them and call them home.

In our house we have used a Jewellery Tree (we are light on sticks in our garden LOL) and it's a perfect size, being about 30cm tall. We then make little paper discs and wrote the names or nicknames of our passed loved ones.  Then we hung them on the tree with little ornament hooks.  You can use lockets,ribbons or crystals (or anything else you come up with).  It's a simple way for children to pay their respects to their ancestors and remember them.

If your children are worried about bad spirits coming to your home by making this tree, simply place a Jack-O-Lantern (see above) at the base of the 'tree' as traditionally they were used to scare away the bad spirits, allowing only the friendly to visit.

4. Make Halloween Treats to Eat.
Have some fun in the kitchen.  Using a basic cookie recipe and some Halloween cookie cutters you will have Halloween Cookies that you may also decide to decorate with icing.
You can melt some chocolate and using a Halloween Silicone mould (we used one designed for ice but it worked great) you have some great little chocolate treats. If you have a Skeleton mould then white chocolate looks more realistic. Then there is the good old cupcake. Easy enough and any recipe will do. You can decorate with some white fondant as a background then add either store bought icing decorations or get creative with a gel icing tube. All are easy and don't require too much effort.

5. Carve a Jack-O-Lantern.  

Ok I have to admit - I have never done this before.  I also have arthritic hands.  The combination has me daunted from the outset.  However we will be giving it a go.  We live in Australia and I fear carving too early - in our hot climate at this time of year will mean a rather smelly, yukky outcome.  So I am waiting till the day to make ours, so I am cheating in this post and adding photos of someone elses efforts!  I will let you all know how we went though, it could be a good laugh. 

There is an excellent "How to" guide that I will be using, on WikiHow.  Click here to view the link.

Or watch this You Tube clip which is very cool: 

Hope you all have a festive Halloween!