Five Tips for a Safe Halloween

Parents all want their kids to have a fun Halloween. If you follow these ten tips, your child can have fun while staying safe.

Costume safety

Make up is safer than a mask. It won't obstruct your child's vision. Make sure the costume fits properly and doesn't drag on the ground. Children could easily trip over capes or tails that hang down too low.

Light the Way

Have your children carry a flashlight or a light stick. They can point the light at the sidewalk so they don't trip. You may want to add reflective tape to costumes so your trick or treater can be seen.

House to House

Only let your child walk up to lit houses. They should not go to the door of unlit homes. Always make them walk from house to house. Cutting across lawns and running in the dark is not safe. They could trip over sprinker hoses, toys, or other objects left in front lawns.

Follow That Child

This is not a problem with young children because they expect their parents to come along on Halloween night. However, as children get older they want some independence. Let them know that you will be coming along for their safety. Follow at a safe distance behind them so you can keep them in your sight, but give them more of a feeling of independence.

Look Over the Candy

Before you let your kids dig into the candy, check it over carefully. If wrappers are partially open, discard that piece. Do not let your children eat homemade goodies unless you know who made it.

Fall Leaves

Torn Paper Collage

Supplies:

Black construction paper (8 ½ x 11)
Brown construction paper
Red construction paper
Yellow construction paper
Orange construction paper
Glue

The black construction paper will be the background for this collage. Tear red, yellow and orange construction paper into small one-inch pieces. These will be the leaves on the fall tree. Using a pencil, draw a tree trunk in the brown paper and carefully tear it out. Glue the tree trunk onto the black background. Arrange the leaves on the tree in a pleasing way and glue them down. It looks nice to scatter some of them on the ground for a true fall effect.

The black background will make the bright colors seem more vivid.

Scary Story Starters

Use the following story starters to write a scary story.

1. I saw a witch riding her broom above my house when suddenly she landed on my front lawn….


2. My best friend dared me to knock on the door of the haunted house. I knocked twice and the door creaked open slowly. A hand reached out and …..

3. It was a dark, spooky Halloween night when the strangest thing happened to me.

4. My jack’o’lantern started talking to me last night. It told me the strangest story about…

5. When a black cat crossed my path, I knew I was going to have bad luck.

6. We were driving home in the car when we saw mysterious shape hovering over our car. It stopped on the road in front of our car.

7. My science teacher mixed up a funny looking green liquid in a beaker. The liquid started boiling over the top and crawling down the side of the table. Help! The liquid was coming to life.

8. I heard the rocking chair in my living room creaking back and forth. I crept down the stairs and saw someone sitting in the chair. The figure turned around and….

Art Exercises to Imitate Georges Seurat

Georges-Pierre Seurat was born in Paris on December 2, 1859, in Paris. He attended the School of Fine Arts in Paris in 1878 and 1879. Georges studied the works of Rembrandt and Francisco de Goya.

His family had plenty of money and supported him while he worked on his paintings. His most famous painting is Sunday on the Island of La Grande Jatte. He used a new painting technique called pointillism on this painting. He place thousands of tiny dots side by side on the canvas. He liked to experiment with new ways of painting. Even though he died at a young age, he will always be remembered for his original method of painting.

Pointillism

Select a page from a coloring book. Make a copy of it. Fill in one copy by painting with large brush strokes. Fill in the second copy by painting with little dots of paint. (Q-tips work well for this). Which picture took longer to paint? Which one do you like better?

Color Mixing

Try this mixing experiment - Mix up the following colors:

- orange (red + yellow)
- purple (red + blue)
- green (blue + yellow)

Using a paintbrush, apply a circle of color to a piece of paper. On a second piece of paper, draw three circles. Apply dots of blue and red inside the first circle, dots of red and yellow inside the second circle, and dots of yellow and blue inside the third circle.

Landscapes

Georges Seurat painted many landscape pictures. Make a landscape picture of your own by cutting shapes and figures out of construction paper. Place the large objects at the bottom of the page. They will appear to be close to you. Place the smaller objects near the top of the page. They will appear to be far away.
Hold up the second piece of paper. What do you see? Does your eye mix the color for you? Can you see purple, orange and green?

SCIENCE - TRIVIA THAT ROCKS!

If you say you don’t like Science, you never studied facts like these!

The Goliath beetle is the largest insect living today. It weighs about 4 ounces and is larger than your hand.

Fleas could win the insect Olympics. They can jump 200 times their body length.

A Stegosaurus had three brains! It had one in its head, one in its tail, and one in its back. None of them were very big though.

Over 80% of all tornadoes occur between noon and midnight.

The windiest spot on Earth is Antarctica. Wind speeds can be as high as 200 miles per hour at Commonwealth Bay.

A blue whale’s heart is as big as a compact car.

The average person produces 1.5 quarts of saliva per day.

Skunks can spray their foul odor only about two yards, but it can be smelled up to two and a half miles away.

A camel has a straight spine, despite its hump.

Science Fair Time

It’s that time of year again. Parents and students don’t need to panic just because the school science fair is right around the corner. You don’t have any ideas for your project? You don’t know what the scientific method is? You’ve never built a display? Don’t worry. We’ve rounded up a selection of books that will make the process painless. Each of these selections is suitable for elementary students. Some of them have more original experiments and others have better introductions and explanations of the science fair process. There is a book here for everyone.


QUICK – BUT- GREAT SCIENCE FAIR PROJECTS by Shar Levene and Leslie Johnson, Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., 2001, paperback, $12.95, ages 9-12.

This book was designed for students with upcoming science fairs. The front section of the book has a handy section with tips for teachers, parents and students. Additionally the first part of the book explains how to make eye-catching charts, graphs and displays for your science fair projects.

Each of the twenty-six projects listed in the book have step-by-step instructions. They give ideas on how to adjust the project to the grade level of your child. Children will learn how to study the effect of calcium on bone strength or seeing if family members have the same fingerprints. All in all this is a handy reference guide. The photographs, which illustrate the book, could have been bigger and more eye-catching and several of the experiments use quite a few materials.

THE EVERYTHING KIDS’ SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS BOOK by Tom Robinson, Adams Media Corporation, 2001, paperback, $6.95, ages 9-12.

This book does not have any explanation of science fairs, judging or displays. However, it has a nice layout, simple illustrations and contains 35 simple science experiments for elementary students. The experiments are broken down into five categories: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Planet Earth, and the Human Body.

Each experiment contains the following descriptions: question, materials, procedure, what’s happening and follow-up questions. Questions such as “Why do leaves change colors in the fall?” and “How do you peel a raw egg?” are examples of the types of questions answered by the experiments. This reference book has age appropriate experiments and is a good value for the money.

SUPER SENSATIONAL SCIENCE FAIR PROJECTS by Michael A. DiSpezio, Illustrations by Derek Toye, Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., 2004, paperback, $9.95, ages 9-12.

This book does an excellent job of introducing science fair basics. The first section of the book covers: gathering information, choosing a project, keeping records, forming a hypothesis, writing a research paper and building a display. The colorful drawings will grab the attention of children.

Twenty-one different experiments are explained in this book with step-by-step instructions. Students can perform each experiment without needing too many materials. The experiments would be appropriate for upper elementary students. Some examples of experiments in the book are: 1) Stopping spoilage – stop apple from browning and 2) Going to the Light – how plants grow towards light.

365 SIMPLE SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS WITH EVERYDAY MATERIALS by E. Richard Churchill, Louis V. Loeschnig, and Muriel Mandell, illustrated by Frances Zweifel, Sterling Publications Company, Inc., 1997, paperback, $12.95, ages 9-12.

This book is true to its name. You get a wide variety of simple science projects, which really use everyday household materials. The book contains simple two-color drawings, step-by-step instructions and science tricks. The huge variety of experiments, indoor, outdoor, simple and complex will make this a very useful resource. Children will be entertained for hours using this book.

This is not a book about science fair projects but it will simplify and explain basic science concepts. Some examples of projects in this book are: 1) Take a Bubble Dancing, 2) The Talking String, and 3) Egg Graffiti.