Bone Soup and DIY Halloween Apothecary Cabinet

I love, love, love October! So of course, I will be sharing a lot of Halloween books and activities this month.

This week, we picked up a copy of Bone Soup by Alyssa Capucilli and Tom Knight and it was so perfect for the activity I've been wanting to do since about July! Did I mention I love October?? Anyways, this book is great! It's a fun and unique retelling of Stone Soup with a spooky twist. It's just the right amount of spooky and fun for kids. I thought it was really well done. The illustrations are really cute and the text is perfect for Halloween. I love the spooky community coming together to make something from nothing and the littlest one of all having the final solution to the problem. My girls were both very into it and we've read it a few times already.

For our activity, we made Witch's Brew using my Apothecary Cabinet Potion Ingredients.

You can simplify or amp this one up as much as you like. And because I have been wanting to make an apothecary cabinet for a Halloween decoration for years now, I decided to go all in with this. But you wouldn't have to take the ingredients out of their original containers at all if you wanted to simplify. But to be fair, my girls adored the spooky vibe and feeling like they were really making Witch's Brew. It was a great activity and we all had a lot of fun with it! If you do want to go all out, here are the instructions to do so.

First, you will need some fun glass jars. I found all of mine at Dollar Tree and they were perfect.

Next, you will need these fun printable apothecary labels. I had a little too much fun designing these. You can also print these magic book covers if you'd like.

Print on regular paper. (I highly recommend taking these to a print shop. LOTS of ink. Totally worth the 60 cents.)

Cut each label, crinkle them up so they look old, and Modge Podge them onto the glass jars.

Fill the jars with your spooky ingredients. (I have more labels than you will need for this activity, but enough to fill an apothecary cabinet if you want to use these for Halloween decor.)

Spooky Ingredients:

1 c. Snake Venom: Water and food coloring

1/2 c. Dragon's Blood: Dish Soap

2 T. Powdered Toadstool: Baking Soda

Eye of Newt: Ping Pong Balls with pupil drawn on

Spider Legs: Spider rings

3/4 c Unicorn Tears: Vinegar and food coloring

To Make Witch's Brew:

Poor Snake Venom into a large cauldron

Add Dragon's Blood and stir together

Add Powdered Toadstool and mix well.

Add Eye of Newt and Spider Legs.

Say some magic words and wave your magic wand.

Pour in Unicorn Tears...

POOF!

Your brew should change colors and bubble up.

We had SO much fun with this Witch's brew. My girls stirred it and watched how it changed over time. They kept changing their minds about what this potion would do. They settled on it turning you into a frog since it turned green. So we're going to go with that!

After we cleaned up our brew, we took turns "casting spells" on each other and turning into different animals. It was so fun. Even my 2 year old caught on. Every time it was her turn, she would say "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo...FROG!" and we would ribbit and hop all around the room to her fits of giggles. Seriously so fun.

Make sure to snag a copy of Bone Soup this month and whip up some magic!

If you made these apothecary jars and would like to get some use out of the time it took, here is my apothecary cabinet for some inspiration. I kind of love it.

I hope you have so much fun with this one! My girls and I loved it. We've made Witch's Brew twice in two days! Happy October!!

Hi! I'm Kailei 

I write picture books and am in the process of seeking representation.

I believe in books. I believe in imaginative play. I believe in hands on parenting... having fun, getting messy, and being silly with my kids. Thus FOR LITTLE READERS was born. I hope you'll jump into the fun with your kids and be inspired by something I share here. 

Why books? I believe that books open up a world of possibilities to young kids. In a book, anything is possible. Kids can find themselves in the pages and get completely lost in the story. The day we brought our first baby home from the hospital, we read her a bedtime story and never looked back. Now we can read for hours every day. I'll never tire of the wonder in her eyes with each new story. 

Why imaginative play? Kids need to be silly. They need to go on adventures. They need to navigate their world in a fun, safe place. I could go on and on about the benefits of imaginative play, but I'll spare you. Just know this: it's SO important in a child's development. 

I believe that when reading and imagination meet, magic happens. I hope to help you make that happen for your child.

Jinx and the Doom Fight Crime and Printable Super Hero Masks

My girls love to be super heroes. They love to wear their blanket capes and "fly" through the house, saving the day. So I was thrilled to find Jinx and the Doom Fight Crime by Lisa Manchev with illustrations by Samantha Cotterill. I love the simple text. I love the cute comic book style illustrations. I love that it portrays such an endearing relationship between siblings. The book is a quick read, which is great for the small attention span of my two year old. But it also has great attention grabbing text and illustrations for my ever book loving four year old.

And it was the perfect match for a fun super hero activity.

You'll find that I love doing three things with my girls: reading, creating, and playing pretend. So as often as I can make all three happen in a day, I do. And I'm not talking just getting them going and watching them play. Or starting an activity and heading to tackle a household chore. (Though let's be real... that does have to happen.) I'm talking running through the house right alongside them, belting-out-a-theme-song-at-the-top-of-my-lungs-fun. We play hard around here, unapologetically.

For Jinx and the Doom Fight Crime, I wanted something simple but fun to bring the super hero play up a notch. So I created these fun super hero masks. My girls had a blast coloring them! While we colored we talked about different super hero names, what our super hero powers would be, and how we would conceal our true identities. And when I say "we," I really mean me and the four year old. The two year old mainly exclaimed "yeah!" and "fight crime!" while scribbling on her mask. But my four year old decided that she would be Super Kidtastic with super speed. But she also said she would have a cool cell phone that would let her change super powers at any time. When I asked my 2 year old what her super power was, she said uuummmmm..... MONEY! haha! I would definitely call on her to fight crime.

To make your super hero mask, you will need:

Heavy cardstock

Scissors

Markers, crayons, or colored pencils (unless you prefer to print directly on colored cardstock)

Hole Puncher

Elastic

First, grab THIS free download, print on heavy cardstock, and cut out the masks. I find it easiest to cut out the eye holes if I first punch a hole in the center. If you don't want to color the masks, you can simply print on heavy colored cardstock. If you want a longer lasting mask, you can use these as patterns to trace onto felt.

Color the masks.

Punch a hole in each side of the mask.

Tie elastic through each hole using a surgical knot.

Super easy!

These masks aren't intended to last forever, but they are definitely a lot of fun and a quick and easy project that you can do with the kids. Paired with Jinx and The Doom Fight Crime, my girls played superheroes for an entire afternoon.

So what are you waiting for? Go Fight Crime!

Not Quite Snow White: Just Enough of All The Right Stuff

You guys. You need to stop what you're doing this instant and go pick up a copy of Not Quite Snow White by Ashley Franklin and Ebony Glenn. It is stellar. It is more than stellar. It is just. so. good. Please. Run to your nearest bookstore or library and grab this book immediately. Not Quite Snow White follows Tameika, an acting and singing sensation who dreams of playing a princess one day. But when the other kids think she might be too tall, too chubby, and too brown, Tameika must learn that she is "just enough of all the right stuff." The book has such a timely and perfect message in a world where kids need to know now more than ever that they are perfect just the way they are. And anyone can be a princess. My girls ate this one up. We read it multiple times a day. We played princesses and talked about the things that make us special. And we talked a whole lot about kindness and love.

For this book, we obviously needed to do a princess activity. We could have easily run to the dollar store to grab some cheap crowns, and they would have worked great. But we're always in the mood for an art project. And any time I can fit reading, art, and imagination into one day, I love it! So we decided to make tiaras and crowns.

Click the images below to download the printables you'll need for this week. Just download, print on a heavy cardstock, cut out, decorate, and glue together (in the case of the crown), or add some elastic (for the tiaras). We printed some tiaras on colored cardstock and some on white so that we could color them ourselves. We added some fancy sequin stickers we had on hand, and had a great time!

Now for some fun imaginative play ideas:

- Take turns being the queen/king/ruler and come up with new laws. (My four year old decreed that Peter Piper Pizza shall have gluten free pizza--she has celiac disease).

- Talk about what it is that makes a princess (kindness, love, etc. rather than body type etc.), and play princess.

- Have princess play. My girls loved performing like Tameika and being "Just enough of all the right stuff."

In all, this was a fantastic picture book. I hope you will all pick up a copy and know that you, too, are "just enough of all the right stuff."