Monster
I think I may have promised you that our Monster Math was going to be the last monster activity for a while but as you will see my kids are simply nuts for them so who am I to stop the fun? I got the idea for the muck from a pin I saw of this post by Lisa Murphy aka the Ooey Gooey Lady! I knew we had to make a muck sensory tub and I was so glad we did. My son loved mixing the muck and as you will see after my daughter woke from her nap she too got right into the much and made some monsters too.
- Gather your materials. The muck is super simple and requires only shaving cream and cornstarch. We added sun chenille stems I cut in quarters and a wide array of googly eyes that were sent to us from craftprojectideas.com . The other must have is a tub. I am not mess phobic but even I thought it got messy ( corn starch spreads ) if you are doing this inside you will want a tub to keep it contained.
- Start by spraying your shaving cream in. My son loved doing this and refused to let me have a turn .
- Next we sprinkled a little cornstarch and mixed
then dumped the whole thing in and wrote some letters in the muck. 
It took some working to get it thick enough to mold but soon enough we could make balls. 
- Added the chenille stems and eyes and made some monsters.
- My daughter woke up from nap and being too short to reach into the tub I helped her mold some balls and put them on a paper plate for her to customize with chenille stems and googly eyes.
- Next my son got busy making a monster muck fort . The stems are guns and goo blasters, the eyes are bomb detectors and the muck is radio active.
So what I am saying is that this is a fantastic sensory activity that sparks one of the most important types of play kids need – imaginative play. They worked peacefully for what seemed like ages until the chenille stems ran out.
- So we cut some more and the play continued.
Monster Books
The Monster Princess
Molly’s Monsters 
Creepy Monsters, Sleepy Monsters
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If you are a regular reader you might be a little sick of monsters by now. Sorry , we are just completely into them this year. Monsters are a theme both my 2 year old daughter and my almost 6 year old son both like so yeah I am exploiting it a little…or a lot! Here are a whole list of monster activities for kids that are fun, creative and educational.
Paper Bag Monster Craft
M is For Monster Craft
Paper Roll Frankenstein
Monster Math Tray
Box Monsters
Monster Blocks & Memory Game
Messy Monster
Letter Monsters
Foam Frankenstein
Math is probably my son’s favorite subject right now and I am running with it. This monster math activity took 2 minutes to set up and could be used over and over . No need to buy anything other than paper and googly eyes! I like making simple tray activities like this that I can have ready for him at the table in the playroom to do after school. They are educational and appealing but not so long that he gets overwhelmed after a long day of school. As you will see my toddler demanded she get in on the action too, luckily this was easy to adapt to her level as well. For a fun variation check out how you can use dice for even more monster math over at Inner Child Learning.
- Gather your materials. You will need some bright paper, googly eyes, a pencil ( if you want to use the monsters more than once) , and scissors. I also had a small cup and cookie tray to keep everything contained.
- Start by folding your paper in half and cutting out the shape of a monster. Best part is that they can be detailed or a blob , not need for extraordinary artistic skills!
- Next write simple math equations on the monster. If your child isn’t up to equations yet just do numbers. You can also do shapes and have your child place the eyes on the shapes. I used markers for the photos but If you want to use this more than once you can use pencil, or laminate the monsters and use dry erase markers.
- All ready – now add a math wizard!
He loves this . I love that while doing math he is also working on fine motor skills that he needs for writing.
- After he did addition we flipped it over and did some subtraction.
He loved it too!
- ” I do it TOO!!!” To make it toddler friendly I only used the largest eyes, and wrote simple numbers on the monsters.
My daughter still needed a little help as I thought she would but she was ecstatic to be doing big girl math with her big brother. All I know is she begged to do math. Let’s keep that spirit going right?
Monster Books
Check out our round up of monster books for some reading after your math!
What could be better than a fun and educational game that your kids like and you can also use as Halloween decor? One that you can make really easily and also sparkles! Lucky for you that is exactly what we made and will show you how to make. Thanks to Mod Podge for sending me just what I needed to make these monster blocks. They were a cinch to make and will do double duty working as a fun toy by day and as funky Halloween decorations after my little monsters go to bed.
- Gather your materials. You will need some wood blocks (ours were cut to 2 1/2″ x 2 1/2″ x 1 1/2″), pictures you want to use (download ours here), Mod Podge Washout For Kids, Mod Podge brush applicator, scissors, a wood file or sand paper, some paper plates, and my favorite material: sparkle Mod Podge.
- Start by cutting your wood blocks. My husband makes a rare appearance and somehow made exactly what I envisioned even though my description was far from exact.
- File down the sharp edges and sand so they are smooth enough for kids to handle.
- Cut your monster pictures out, apply a thin layer of Mod Podge on the wood, and apply the picture.
- Apply another thin layer on top. Let dry overnight.
- My son couldn’t wait for the final sparkle layer. We played, and he pummeled me at memory before I added the layer of sparkle Mod Podge.
- Add the sparkle – this dries fast! As soon as I saw how much it sparkled, I started thinking of all the other crafts we can make with this. Expect great things! Let it dry for at least a day before playing. If it gets tacky (ours was not tacky at all) Mod Podge suggests applying a clear acrylic sealer after the Mod Podge cures.
- Time to play. As soon as I showed my daughter the finished monster blocks, she couldn’t wait to play. I showed her where all the pieces were, flipped them over, and she surprised me with how many she matched up. Her excitement with each match was adorable to watch. Also, the big blocks were perfect for her hands. Many other match or memory games are on cards, and while she can flip the cards over, sometimes they get tricky and frustration ruins the fun. That didn’t happen with these monster blocks.
I love monster crafts and so do my kids. My daughter is all about googly eyes right now and since she has stopped putting everything in her mouth I am excited to let her use them. This monster craft was a blast to make and I have some tips to make sure that there is ample alphabet learning involved too. This is the 15th post in our popular Alphabet For Starters series which is all about playing and learning letters in fun simple ways.If you are looking for a more traditional approach to letters we have our Letter Of The Week series as well.
- Gather your materials. You will need some paper, scissor, contact paper, foam letters ( ours are stickers but I left the backing on ) and googly eyes. You might also want some painter’s tape to keep the contact paper on the table.
- Start by folding your paper in half and cutting out a monster shape. Then cut the middle out .
- Peel the backing off the contact paper and place it sticky side up on the table. Place the monsters on it.
- Invite your kiddo to the table and create! As you can see she was instantly interested.
- As she chose letters she naturally named them or asked what they were called. At this point she knows all her uppercase letters but will still ask me sometimes. Usually I say some outlandish thing like ” It’s Mama!” and she will say ” No you Mama, dis is W! ” I only do that if I know it won’t confuse her. She giggles and it’s a game where she gets to be the smarty know it all which for a toddler that gets bossed around by pretty much everyone including a smarty know it all brother it’s a nice feeling to have.
- Picking up the googly eyes off the flat table is tricky and I placed them like that on purpose, it forced her to really use those fine motor skills to pick them up and place them on the monster. I loved that she put one in the inside of the Q!
- At one point she asked me to do it so instead of just packing up or doing the craft myself as per her request , I grabbed a few letters and said ” Which monster do you want to put the P on? ” That was enough for her to keep going. Don’t push it if they are done though. I could tell she wasn’t done just wanted to tackle it together.
- Once your monster ( or monsters) are done you can simply cut them out and display or sandwich them with another piece of contact paper.
- Display. I love that one of her monsters spells out rad , a word I use way more than I should !
