Our Halloween Bucket List

This is an activity I did with Lily 2 years ago now and I am very tempted to do something simular again this year. Here is a re visit to the activities I did a few years ago which may inspire you this halloween.

If you have heard the term bucket list, you will probably think that this post is all about the things we want to get done during halloween. But in fact this is a different kind of bucket list! This bucket list is 4 activities that you can do for halloween using a bucket. 

During halloween you can pick up some pretty cool buckets, usually the shapes of cauldrons or pumpkins, and I doubt they actually get used very much apart for the obvious thing which is number 1 on my list Trick or Treating. So I thought we would get our witch shaped thinking hat on and think of some other fun ideas. 

Here are 4 things you can do for halloween using your halloween bucket. 

1. Trick or Treating 
Of corse the first and the most obvious thing that comes to mind with using the buckets is trick or treating. Its a great way to collect all those sweet treats while getting to dress up and maybe terrorise the neighbours a little bit. But not all people can do trick or treating with there children, for example I live in a block of flats and don't know any one in the building. I wont be knocking on their doors anytime soon. So idea number 2 is a great alternative to trick or treating. 

2. Spooky Spider Hunt 
I picked up a pack of plastic spiders from the shop, you can generally get these at most stores during halloween. To make a spooky spider hunt its as simple as hiding them around the home, or maybe if you have a garden you can hide them there. You then can hide a nice treat with each spider and the spider and the treat then go into the bucket when found. You can make this spooky by waiting until it gets dark and then using a torch to hunt out the spiders. Lily really enjoyed this and we did it in the dark with a torch. I held the torch for her and had to do a lot of directing to where they were by shinning the torch on them but as soon as she saw the treat and spider she knew to put them in her bucket. 

3. Spooky Sensory Bucket 
For my next idea you will need to go and collect some bits and pieces from outside. Leaves, sticks, pieces of bark, pine cones. Anything you can find that varies in feeling. Then get some pretend cobwebs, these usually come with spiders in them. Mix up all the things you have found outside into the bucket with the cobwebs along with the spiders and then you have a spooky sensory bucket. Get your children to dare to dip there hands into the bucket to see what they can find. Its great for the young ones to feel different feelings and great for the older ones to try and collect the spiders out. You can make it even spookier by blindfolding them or putting a black cloth over the top so they can't see what they are feeling. Lily really enjoyed finding the spiders that were in the bucket.

4. Make your own potion 
This activity is great for imaginative play as well as a fun water play activity. Fill your bucket with water and then add some food colouring to the water. You can use whatever colour you want, we used green. Remember to cover up with an apron as this activity can result in getting wet! (As we found out). If you head out to some of your local stores selling halloween goodies you can find all sort that you can put into the water. I found eyeballs, bones and snakes and spiders from Morrisons. Then get a nice big spoon and your child can have loads of fun popping the ingredients into the water and stirring it all up and then spooning them back out again. Older children will really enjoy the role play part of this as they imagine themselves being a wicked witch making a potion.
Lily really enjoyed putting the items in and out of the water. 

Which of these ideas do you like the most? Do you think you will try any this halloween?