October Crafts
I wanted to create some fun crafts you and your little can do together this month. Each craft has been designed to support our other speech tips and activities that will be shared in relation to our Clothing and Costumes Theme this month.
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October Crafts + 1 Fun Song
As you browse through our arts and crafts activities, you’ll see explanations for how you can use each to practice speech and language at home.
I will share ideas for each of our 3 practice levels:
Explorers - Children who communicate with gestures; they haven’t said their first word yet
Pioneers - Children who say between 1-50 ish words
Builders - Children who are putting 2+ words together
Plus, I have a fun song to share with you at the end of this post! I didn't make it up (I'm a 1/10 when it comes to musical abilities) but it’s a pretty popular kids songs and you can use the song to support language development at home!
We’ll email you a free PDF version of the October Crafts + Song printouts using the form below ↓
Arts & Crafts
1. Mask Craft
Making simple masks is such a fun activity for toddlers! I’ve included several animal masks you can decorate with stickers, crayons, glitter or paint - cut out - and play with. There are also some masks that you can print off and use right away. Optional - glue popsicle sticks or strips of an old cardboard box so you can hold them up to your face.
Explorer - You and your explorer will decorate your masks side by side. Encourage your child to copy your actions - You make dots, and watch for them to copy making dots. Then make a scribble, and see if they follow suite. Once you’ve decorated the masks, hold the mask to your face and make the appropriate animal sound. for the animal. Watch for your child to want to copy holding the mask to their face, and you might even listen for your child to try to copy the animal sound.
Pioneer - Choose between two masks your child can decorate - “Do you want to be a DOG or a PIG (as you show them both)?” As you make your masks side by side, comment on what you’re doing, “I’m coloring the nose” “I want the black marker” etc. Once your masks are finished, let your child choose from the 2, “Do you want to be a DOG or a PIG?” and take turns holding your masks up to your face. Get silly and have fun making animal sounds and pretending with your masks.
Builder - Encourage back and forth conversation by asking simple questions when making your masks. You may ask, “What color is your lion?” Or “What part of the face are you coloring? The eyes or the ears?” Then once your masks are finished, take on the persona of your animal mask and talk about it: Run really fast in place and say, “I’m a lion, I run so fast!”
2. Dot-A-Dot Craft
These simple coloring sheets are a fun way to practice new skills and new words with your toddler. I love the Dot-A-Dot paints which you can find at Target, Walmart, or Amazon. You can also use markers, crayons, or finger paint to complete this activity.
Related: Getting Dressed Activity for At Home Speech and Language Practice
Explorer - Start out with your Dot-A-Dot paints in a cup or tray wherever you plan to paint. Unscrew the lid for your toddler and show them how to use these paint markers if they’ve never used them before. Watch for your child to copy you dot painting and let them have fun. Once your child is copying your actions (painting with the Dot-A-Dot markers), there will be lots of opportunities to ask for help with these markers because they have screw on lids. When you are opening or closing the dot markers, practice the baby sign for “help” or “open”. It usually takes a bit of repetition and practice for toddlers to learn new baby signs, so do your best to stay motivated and practice at least a few days in a row to help your little one learn.
Pioneer - When painting with your pioneer, you’re going to name the piece of clothing you are painting. The key is to repeat one or a few words as many times as you can while you’re painting. Now you’re not going to just say, “Pants, pants, pants, pants, pants…” You want to sprinkle your key word to keep it fun and describe what’s happening— “Let’s paint the pants. I will put blue on the pants. Look! Blue pants! Now let’s paint the pants with yellow. Blue and yellow pants.” It’s also a good idea to talk about other pants (or whatever clothing you’re painting). You can talk about the pants you have on and the pants other people may be wearing. The goal is to be repetitive while painting, and then try to mention the word again in another context or later in the day.
Builder - The goal when painting with your builder is to encourage them to put words together in new ways. You can encourage toddlers to use new word combinations by giving them lots of examples as you talk about what you’re doing. Describe the clothing as you paint it - “blue pants” - OR- talk about how you’re painting - “let’s paint fastttt” okay “now paint slowww” (Dot-A-Dot paint will splatter if you go fast but it’s fun as long as you don’t mind getting the area messy - for a cleaner activity you can also use crayons). Incorporate simple questions, like “What color do you want?” and “Should I use red or blue?” to encourage question answering and asking. You can also mix in descriptive words, like top, bottom, next to, and on top to describe where you’re painting. The key to great practice is creating moments of silence between your comments to create opportunities for your little one to create short sentences of their own!
Song for October
1. The Costume Song This is a super fun song that has tons of adaptations. For this activity you are going to fill in the blank with the name of your costume your child is wearing - this can be a fun way to get lots of use out of their Halloween Costume. If they are dressed up in their Halloween costume, you can fill in the blank with Superman, Cat, etc.
You can also replace the Costume with their name if you don’t celebrate Halloween. Or you can sing the song to your toys have have the toys preform the actions as you sing along - for example, you might sing “Baby Doll, Baby Doll” or “Puppy, puppy” for a stuffed animal.
The Costume Song
Costume, Costume, turn around,
Costume, Costume, touch the ground,
Costume, Costume, reach up high,
Costume, Costume, touch the sky,
Costume, Costume, bend down low,
Costume, Costume, touch your toes,
Costume, Costume, go to bed,
Costume, Costume, rest your head,
Costume, Costume, turn out the lights,
Costume, Costume, say "good night".
Explorer - Sing and dance with your child, watch for them to copy your actions
Pioneer - Watch and listen for your child to copy the actions and start to fill in some of the words of the song
Builder - Once you’ve learned the song, take turns changing the lyrics and choosing your own actions!
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