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For our homeschooling letter W theme, I picked the seasonally appropriate word 'witch'. And what better book to celebrate Halloween and discuss the concept of witches than 'Room on the Broom'. This adorable picture book discusses the themes of kindness and friendship, as a witch is helped by a series of new pals, who she (in return) allows to join her and her cat on their adventures. But that is just the start of how these new friends help one another on a particularly stormy autumn evening! I'll not give spoiler, but I will provide you access to some of the awesome activities I developed (or in some cases, collected) just for this book! 

As you read the book, you can use this velcro activity to help children track what is happening in the story. Have your child pick out the appropriate pieces, removing them or adding them to the velcro board. The activity is a great, hands on, visual aid for comprehension. 

You can find this activity in my free subscriber's resource library.

My little one has been enjoying watching this cute Room on the Broom cartoon on YouTube. It pairs imagery with the classic book text, read out loud. 

A second fun version reads the book outloud as a song, with video graphics!

I'm making a few of these pages available for immediate download. The rest are available in my subscriber's only resource library. 

For immediate download:

And for those who have subscribed to the library, check out the newest addition to coloring pages! The letter W page is already uploaded there. 

Another subscriber's resource library exclusive, I added this activity to my busy book for independent play and learning. Simple laminate two copies, cut out the shapes from one copy, and add velcro to make your own. You can also have your child color the pages prior to laminating (for extra fun). 

What you'll need:

• 2 paper plates per hat, or two pieces of construction paper
• Markers, crayons and/or paint
• Glue
• Glitter, pom poms, or other decorative accents
• BONUS MATERIALS: If you decide to go with the paper plate option, get a hole punch and some twine, or grab some yardstick paper. Using these materials, you can make a real 'hat' that your little one can wear during playtime. 

This activity is super simple! Just cut out a witch's had shape (use the stencil below)- use one plate/piece of paper for the triangle shape, and one to make a flattened oval. Glue them into the shape of a hat, and then decorate! 

If you want to make a band, simple place the hat on your child's forehead, use the paper or twine and measure the circumference, and then tie or glue to the hat! Make sure to leave room for your child to pull the hat on and off, though.

Making magical mud is easy. It is just ooblek! If you've not made it before, the recipe is easy, and uses ingredients you probably already have in house:

• Water
• Cornstarch

That's it! You'll need a 2:1 ratio, so 1 cup of cornstarch for 1/2 cup of water (or whatever sized batch you'd like)

Want to make it extra 'muddy'? Just add food dye; you'll want to add all the colors to make a nice, gunky, brown color. 

Then, let your kids play! If you'd like, you can let them cover animals in the ooblek, too (just like the animals cover themselves in mud in the book). 

The great thing about ooblek is it really does seem magical. Defying the boundary between solids and liquids, this amazing activity is bound to get your kids thinking. 

This one isn't my activity, but head over to Tot School Resources for their Spooky Witch's Brew Science Experiment. It is a perfect complement to my Room on the Broom activities!

What you will need:

• Water
• Food dye of your choice
• Ice cube trays
• Paper or another surface to paint on
• Optional: Paint brush(es)

Instructions:

Pour water into ice cube trays. Add food dye of your choice and mix. Freeze until solid. Remove the colors you want from the trays, place on paper or other painting surface, and let the fun begin!

Looking to make the activity educational, too?

Have your child use the color mixing log and/or guide (​see resource library​) to predict what colors mixing will result in, add up how many drops of each color it takes to make a new color (and how many drops each cube has total), and ask them to label (and, if capable, write) the color words they are discussing. You can also have your child describe (verbally or in writing) the sensory experience of painting with the ice cubes.

Want access to the color mixing guide and log? Be sure to subscribe to my free resource library to get this, and many other great printables for you and your children.

Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn on qualifying purchases. My participation in this program comes at no added cost to you, and helps support this blog. If you want to learn more about my participation in this program, click here. 

As I noted inmy post about our first week homeschooling, sometimes everything doesn't get done when we want, or how we want. And that is perfectly okay! But because I didn't want us to fall behind with what letters I was planning to review each week, I made the choice cover a few letters at a time throughout the rest of September, and into October. Since I know I'll be covering the alphabet repeatedly, this felt like a good modification to make sure I could get through content I wanted to review while also being able to do other activities in October

Here is a breakdown of each of the activities we did for the remainder of the alphabet! 

You can find our letter A and B activities here.

Our calendar and story time routine doesn't vary much! Therefore, it has looked pretty much like what we did the week before. Be sure to check that out here. You'll also find a link to our daily circle time book, Shadow Boxes. We read the page related to the letter(s) of the day!

Why does the header say "mostly", by the way? Because we didn't do the calendar daily. Between early intervention therapies, doctors appointments, general life, and refusing to enforce calendar time rigidly (my kid is a toddler, remember?), it didn't happen every day. And that is okay! While I always try to do fun homeschool activities with my child daily, I never want to give the impression that I have it all together, and things run seamlessly. That isn't fair to you, the reader. That isn't real life. Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise! 

Book: 10 Little Pumpkins
Activities: 10 little pumpkins velcro activity, Fall Numbers Binder Book Activity (from the subscriber's library)

​You can learn more about the 10 little pumpkins activity here.

Books: 

• If I Were an Elephant
• But No Elephants
• The Dinosaur Who Lived in my Backyard

Dinosaur Activities:

Nat Geo Dinosaurs 101 Video​
Many kids love dinosaurs, but given they are something no human being has or can experience in person, they are also a highly conceptual topic to cover. As such, I wanted to find ways to make the content more accessible to my toddler. 

The video I'm sharing with you is geared towards slightly older children and contains larger vocabulary, but my toddler loved it! It is never too early to start exposing your child to more advanced academic content, so long as it is in a developmentally appropriate way. In this case, the video was just over 3 minutes (so, short), contained exciting imagery, and was presented in a way that made my child more interested (I played the video on my phone after reading a book about dinosaurs, and he normally doesn't have access to my content via my phone). From the time I was a small child, I loved National Geographic and PBS documentaries. I hope to instill the same sense of academic curiosity in my child!

While I try not to use screen time as a way to teach, in this case, it made a lot of sense to provide video content.

Dinosaur coloring pages:

These coloring pages can be found on the Subscribers' Library!

Dinosaur Spikes and Spots Shape Activity

We added spikes and spots to the dinosaur template from my subscriber's library (or any dinosaur coloring page). While doing so, we discussed shape and color. 

This activity is easy. All you need is a dinosaur shape, a glue stick, some colored construction paper, and scissors. Cut out circles and triangles for your child using different colored paper. Then, let them have fun decorating their dinosaur however they want!

Elephant Activities:

• Nat Geo Kids Elephants Video
• Finding elephants in eggs (sensory, language): For this activity, I placed animal counters (see the Letter Z for a product recommendation!) in easter eggs, and had my child find which eggs contained elephants!
• Elephant coloring page (see subscriber's library)
• We also had one of my child's elephant stuffed animals join us for activities, such as taking big elephant steps around the house!

Fish Activities:

Nat Geo Kids Fish Video
Colored fish matching activity.

​Letter Activities

Letters D, E, and F letter tracing/coloring pages

Craft and Sensory Activity: Tissue Paper Ghosts

Making tissue paper ghosts is easy! Just grab some white tissue paper, crumple, and glue to a piece of black construction paper (though you really could use whatever color you want)! Then add eyes with black paint or marker. If your child is a bit older, they can paint a Halloween scene on the paper first (like I did on mine).

Literacy/Letter Activities: Reading Halloween books, as well as about the letters G and H in our Shadow Boxes book. We then colored the letters G and H, and did ghost and halloween coloring pages from the resource library. 

One of our favorite Halloween books is "When the Goblins Came Knocking". It is a great social emotional story for young kids who may find costumed trick or treaters scary of overwhelming. The protagonist tells of last Halloween, when he was scared and hid, but also, of how this Halloween he is able to wear a scary costume. The last page shows the child with his scary dinosaur hood off, letting little readers know that behind those costumes are other kids. It is a sweet story that you'll love sharing with your child. 

I believe the book is out of print, but there are tons of used copies available for less than a new hardcover copy!

For the letter I we painted with ice cubes and colored the letter I (see coloring pages in the resource library). We also discussed the concepts of cold, and melting (while my little one likely didn't take in everything I told him, it is a great idea to share ideas with your toddler. They are sponges, and as long as you aren't giving lengthy explanations of high level concepts, the only thing it can do is get their little minds working!)

For Jack O Lantern we made pumpkin faces out of paper plates and black construction paper shapes (you can find that activity here), and watched Sesame Street's Making Pumpkin Faces Video. Just like all Sesame Street content, this cute music video is educational, talking about shapes and family.

We didn't spend a lot of time on letter K, but we did do the letter K coloring page from my library, and spent a lot of time with our own cats. We also did the same animal finding activity with easter eggs (see the Letter E section), but this time searched for different kinds of "kitties" (big cats).

For the letter L we collected and played with leaves (sensory​), watched a Nat Geo video about leaves changing, as well as doing the leaf matching activity in the resource library. We also did the L for Leaf and fall finds velcro activities from the resource library. We also did a number of velcro activities I put together sorting the colors we see in autumn, and discussed letters R, O, and Y for the brilliant colors our leaves turn this time of year. You can find those velcro activities in the Subscribers' Resource Library. 

Books: Shadow Boxes, Goodnight Moon, Owl Moon, Never Touch A Monster

Letter Activities: M for Moon Velcro Activity, coloring/tracing pages for letters M and N.

Gross Motor: Dancing to theMonster Mash, Monsters Bowling Game from Melissa and Doug

YouTube Video: Moon 101

Craft and Literacy: Making a Monster (from subscriber's library)

This activity is simple! Just print the pages and let your child mix and match bodies, arms, legs, and other add ons for their monster. Want to expand on the activity? Have your child tell or write a story about their monster. What is their name? Where do they live? What do they eat? Do they have a family? A job? A hobby? Are they friendly or scary? Your child decides! There are two worksheet pages (not shown) to get your child started with writing in the printables kit.

I did an entire blog post about the great pumpkin activities we've done. You can find that here.

We did letter Q along on the same day as letters O and P. How to help a young toddler learn about the concept of quiet? We practiced! We tip toed around the house, and then practiced being loud by stomping and roaring before going back to trying to be quiet. 

See the section for L above for more!

For the letter S we discussed spiders, and the difference between spiders and insects. One great way to tell them apart? Insects have six legs, while spiders​ have eight!

I'm putting up a separate post about the spider activities we did soon, so keep an eye on the blog! I'll link that here once it is live. 

We came back to 10 little pumpkins for the number ten, danced and practiced being up​ and down (through dance and song; we sang the Wheels on the Bus and did If You're Happy and You Know It (jump up, put your arms up), and painted Teal Pumpkins for the Teal Pumpkin Project. 

You can find the 10 Little Pumpkins Activity and the Teal Pumpkin activity here. 

We didn't spend much time on letter V, but we did do a bit of learning about volcanos. I look forward to returning to the letter V and doing a volcano unit in a few months, when my child is a little older!

Nat Geo Volcanos 101: 

Letter V coloring pages (see resource library)

I did an entire post about our letter W activities. You can find that here. 

We were initially planning to take our little one to the Bronx Zoo for this unit, but weather and responsibilities got in our way. Instead, we focused on doing a lot of learning about animals that might be in a zoo! 

 Books:

• Zoo: Peek-a-Flap Board Book
• Jellycat Baby Touch and Feel Board Books

Sensory Activity: 

I added wild animals you might find in a zoo to my child's sensory bin, and he had a blast playing with and labeling the different animals he found. I also gave him some salt dough I'd made, since he seemed to have been craving the smooshy texture.