Playing Dress-up for Halloween

www.fridayschildmontessori.com

We believe that every child should have the chance to

play dressing up.

And it’s easy to start your own collection of dressing

up clothes at home.

In best Montessori fashion, it’s best to have these

separate from “regular” clothes, probably in a box

as a sort of “set”.

And remember to tidy them all up and put them back in

the box once the play session is over.

You don’t have to buy special costumes to stock

that dressing up box.

Sure, there are some great costumes and props out there for children to use

alongside costumes.

Some good bought items include crowns, swords,

handcuffs, helmets, sheriff badges and pistols,

stethescopes and fairy wings.

However, you can use your own imagination to add to

these items.

Possibly, you can add old things of your own to the collection – if you used to work in a job that required

you to wear high-viz clothing

or a safety helmet and you don’t any more but you got to keep the safety gear, you can put this in the dressing-

up box if you don’t use it yourself.

This is also a respectable fate for garish high-fashion items that you once bought and now loathe and/or don’t

fit.

Also keep your eyes open at the second hand clothes shops for oddball items –

things with garish prints or that are a bit off-the-wall are great additions to the

collection.

Hats, gloves and junk jewellery can also be added. And other adult-sized things can become costumes for

children very easily

– a bit white dress shirt for an adult becomes a lab coat for a child playing doctors.

And, to add yet another creative dimension to the fun of playing dress-ups, you can make your own

costumes.

It’s about now that a few of our parents might be

thinking about making a new costume for Halloween.

Being able to use a sewing machine helps when making

a costume, but isn’t essential.

don’t let your small children operate a sewing machine just yet, as these can be

nasty if not used properly; wait until they’re a lot older

first).

You can do a lot with a good supply of stiff cardboard (cereal box thickness or

more), scissors, a glue gun and plenty of other art

supplies. 

Some of these home-made creations may only last a short while but others can

be used to boost the collection in the dressing up

box.

So what are some options for home-made costumes?

If you’re stuck for ideas, try this short list for starters:

A tall pointy hat: make a cone with one bit of

cardboard, then cut a circular brim from a second piece, using the diameter of the cone to get the width of

the brim right.

Hold it together with tons of packing tape and decorate

as you please. Suitable for witches’ hats, wizards’

hats.

Eyepatches for pirates: Couldn’t be easier: cut out a

semicircle and use a hole punch for the holes to thread elastic through.

As an alternative, get a strip of black cloth and cut eye

holes before tying this around the face, although

this is more of a ninja costume.

Old sheets: white ones go over the head with eyeholes

cut in them for a ghost costume,

or they can be folded and draped around regular

clothes to become a Roman toga (add a head-dress of leaves to become Caesar).

Or pin at the shoulders for a superhero cloak. Ripped up sheets become bandages

for a mummy.

You can also make basic tunics and robes with

minimal sewing by cutting a hole for the head in the

middle of an old sheet and pinning or sewing a

“sleeve” at the edges.

Decorate as you fancy.

Trick or Treat?

Have fun!

www.fridayschildmontessori.com