http://www.fridayschildmontessori.com/blog/costumes-ahoy Every home should have a dressing up collection. Stock your collection with old clothes of your own, items found in second-hand shops and a few bought props. You can also make your own costumes very easily, even if you’re not much good with a sewing machine, e.g. conical hats out of cardboard – old sheets have a range of uses.

1. Playing Dress-up for
Halloween
www.fridayschildmontessori.com

2. We believe that every child should
have the chance to play dressing
up.

3. And it’s easy to start your own
collection of dressing up clothes at
home.

4. In best Montessori fashion, it’s
best to have these separate from
“regular” clothes, probably in a
box as a sort of “set”.

5. And remember to tidy them all up
and put them back in the box once
the play session is over.

6. You don’t have to buy special
costumes to stock that dressing
up box.

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

8. Some good bought items include
crowns, swords, handcuffs,
helmets, sheriff badges and
pistols, stethescopes and fairy
wings.

9. However, you can use your own
imagination to add to these items.

10. 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

11. 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.

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

13. 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.

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

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

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

17. It’s about now that a few of our
parents might be thinking about
making a new costume for
Halloween.

18. Being able to use a sewing
machine helps when making a
costume, but isn’t essential.

19. 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).

20. 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.

21. 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.

22. So what are some options for
home-made costumes?

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

24. 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.

25. Hold it together with tons of
packing tape and decorate as you
please. Suitable for witches’
hats, wizards’ hats.

26. Eyepatches for pirates:
Couldn’t be easier: cut out a
semicircle and use a hole punch
for the holes to thread elastic
through.

27. 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.

28. Old sheets: white ones go over
the head with eyeholes cut in them
for a ghost costume,

29. or they can be folded and draped
around regular clothes to become a
Roman toga (add a head-dress of
leaves to become Caesar).

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

31. 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.

32. Decorate as you fancy.

33. Trick or Treat?
Have fun!

34. www.fridayschildmontessori.com