Save money at Back-to-school sales and give school supplies as Halloween candy alternatives

Hello friends of the Omschool! I'm so excited! As much as I'm sad to see summer go, Back to school is one of my favorite times of the year! It deserves a celebration all it's own. But I'm also cognizant of the fact that everything costs more and back-to-school shopping is no exception. As mom to a large family and now Omi to a much larger crew, I'm all about saving money. So back to school sales are a great way to cut costs not only on BTS items but also gift giving occasions. Repurpose school supplies for Halloween Trick-or-Treat giveaways, Christmas stocking stuffers, party prizes, birthday presents and more. As for Trick-or-Treat, it's high time to start thinking outside the candy wrapper anyway. Here are 70 Halloween candy alternatives you can pick up cheap as you do your back-to-school shopping. Non-candy treats are perfect for kids  on special diets. Teal Pumpkin Project participants, use this list of treats for diabetic candy-free alternatives for kids with food allergies and ADHD.

 All or these items can be found for $1-$2 per dozen or less. Shop for back-to-school at Walmart, Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, Target, Dollar General, Aldi and Meijer. Check Oriental Trading catalog. Shop bulk and clearance bins and shelves at party supply stores for inexpensive birthday prizes. Look for tax free days and free shipping on BTS purchases at Amazon and other online vendors. 

Give school supplies as Halloween candy alternatives. Give pencils, rulers, drawing compasses,  markers, scissors, mini-markers, mini stampers, crayons, glue sticks, scissors, pencil sharpeners, tape, mini  staplers, notebooks, books and folders. Give craft supplies instead of Halloween candy. Kids love  cheap craft sets, activity booklets, mini paint sets, decorated pens, scented pens, gel pens, play dough, goop, putty and colored pencils.

Give birthday party prizes for Trick or Treat. Children's favorites are: adjustable rings, navigational  compass, key chains, fake fangs (very popular), slide flutes, Chinese handcuffs, tops, mini kazoos,  party poppers, noisemakers, yo-yos, glow bracelets, slide puzzles, mini games, finger puppets, fake  fingers, finger gliders, mini puzzles, ring toss games, squishy eyeballs, glow-in-the-dark insects, plastic toy animals, toy soldiers, toy cars, ball and jacks sets, snap bracelets, prisms, bracelets, necklaces, puzzles, squirt guns, squirt rings, whistles, kaleidoscopes, sticky hands, harmonicas,  paratrooper toys (with plastic parachutes attached) and growing creatures in capsules (these look like pill capsules and when put in water, expand).

 Need super cheap Halloween giveaways for large crowds of kids? Give out balloons, stickers, Band Aids (seriously crazy popular), temporary tattoos, spider rings, friendship rings, bouncy balls, bat rings,  jumping spiders, Comparison shop and you'll find cheap prizes cost about the same as candy. 

And when choosing Halloween candy alternatives or any toy prize giveaways, think more educational and less cheap landfill fodder. School supplies are perfect to this end. So are prisms, musical instruments like kazoos and harmonicas, kaleidoscopes, gyroscopes, plastic animals and insects. The little paratrooper toys, Chinese handcuffs and expanding pill capsule creatures help demonstrate physics principles to simple object lessons too. 

Love to you all and best wishes as we head back to school for another adventure filled year! 

Blueberries for Sal and Mystery in the Night Woods lesson plans with free printables

Hello friends of the Omschool. I've got great news that I'm very excited to share! We're going live! (or virtual live). Starting this week, my grandkids and I are going to begin doing lessons collaboratively on Zoom. We're doing multi-age, cross-curricular, STEM and social studies heavy units based around classic literature. We begin by reading Blueberries for Sal (youngers) and Mystery in the Night Woods (upper elem). You are welcome to join us! I'll be recording some of  our sessions for Youtube. Hear is our itinerary of lesson plans. 

further recommended reading:  

Time of Wonder

One Morning in Maine

Green Eggs and Ham

Teddy Bear Picnic

The Biggest Bear

Mousekin’s Golden House

all Mousekin books

Smokey the Bear books

Lesson plans:

·         Spelling words: can (canning), jam, blueberries (and other berries), Mother, Bear (bare), hill, little, pail (pale), winter, summer, crow, stump, Sal (pal, call, ball) child (wild), tremendous

p  practice one way each day

·         Write poem with rhyming words

·         Book discussion 

·         (BFS) Comparison/contrast of kids’ lives then and now chart. What they have that we don’t and what we have that they don’t  (toys, cars, homemade things) 

·         (Both) Hibernation, animal habitats, animal-human interactions 

·         (BFS) Grammar: onomatopoeia Plink, kerplunk, kuplink, boom, crash, smash, munch, caw (Read The Bells, EA Poe, my poem)

·         (both) Nature hike (look for animal signs, fur, slime trail, prints, eggshells, nests, scat, owl pellets, fossils, rocks) GA and O Here’s a rock guide and see below for animal tracks. https://miningmatters.ca/resource/rock-identification-guide and here’s a scat guide Scat-Identification.pdf (gross, I made myself sick)

·         (BFS) Make a recipe from blueberries (jam, pie, canned blueberries, muffins, salad, flag cake, soup, BBQ sauce) (O for ideas, GA)

Ø  (BFS) Write recipe and add to family recipe book. An easy one would be fruit flag salad with blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and white cheese cubes. Or fruit kebabs with blueberries, strawberries and white cake or cheese cubes.

Ø  (BFS) Plant parts chart: list across top (root, stem, leaves, flower, fruit, seeds) then cut out or draw pictures of different fruits and place in categories. 

Ø  (Both) Stuffed animal graph (collect animals and place them in rows to show what animal group they are: insect, mammal, fish, bird, reptile, amphibian (O then GA)

Ø  Hide and Find. Make a treasure map showing where to find the bear and blueberries she has hidden, or a map for FS to get off the island and back to his tree.

Ø  Make toys for babies and toddlers with found objects (like Sal’s canning rings) 

Ø  Write to Maine tourism board for free travel info or search Google to find a secret link to a free travel brochure you can download. (IT)

Ø (both) Make clay animal tracks or play animal tracks matching game animaltracksposter.pdf this can be colored, cut and assembled or just printed for reference. Here are flashcards https://explorationamerica.com/free-printable-animal-tracks-explorer-id-cards/ Kids should discuss in their group meeting differences between each animals footprint, whose are webbed, whose show nails, etc. Teach term scat.

Ø  (both) Make animal puppets from scraps.

MITNW

Ø  Words: mystery, night, woods, weasel, squirrel, owl, bat, badger, toad

Ø  Nocturnal/diurnal animal chart

Ø  Act out story

Ø  Read aloud, round robin

Ø  Character web (how each relates to each other)

Ø  If/then or cause and effect choices flow chart:

Ø  Character traits of each

Ø  Make a hearing aid like the ear horn

Ø  Tree chart of who lives where, food chain

Ø  Research animals: badger, flying squirrel, bat, snowy owl, weasel (mink, ermine) stoat, bullfrog

If/If/ then or cause and effect chart. If FS had seen Miss Owl as a friend, not a possession. If he had respected her. If  he had not kidnapped her. If he’d allowed her free choice to be with him. If she had been angry and not forgiven him. If Weasel had worked with FS not betrayed him. If FS had not made good his bad choices. Where did FS start going wrong and where did he correct it? And how? What was FS’s major character flaw and how did he, if ever, correct it? Which events were caused by FS’s pride? Seven deadly sins. 

 

Extensions

Ø  Art (pen and ink drawing)

Ø  Caldecott medal

Ø  Maine travel exploration

Ø  Animal scat sorting game with free printable animal scat 

 

Supplies list

·         Blueberries

·         Book copies

·         Clay or playdough

·         Ingredients for whatever recipe they choose with berries

·         Folder

·         Calendar or planner (tons to print online)

·         Two notebooks or five subject (will be reused)

·         Tweezers, zip bags, gloves, magnifying glass

·         Cellphone would be nice

·         Recycle bin scraps to make animal graph, plant graph, toys for littles

and maps (let them spill coffee on maps and crinkle to look old, lol)

·         Paper for plant parts chart

·         Markers

·         Magazines to cut scraps

·        Cardboard

·        Tape or brads

Scissors