Posts Tagged ‘Halloween Costumes’

Celebrating Our Environment

Thursday, April 21st, 2011

Tomorrow is Earth Day! In honor of Mother Earth, here is a compilation of posts Parentella has done about the environment.

  • In Our Schools:

The Science Club at Bloom High School in Illinois is doing amazing things in terms of teaching students to be leaders in environmentally friendly science.

Parents and teachers communicating online helps protect the environment while simultaneously increasing learning time.

The Alliance for Climate Change offers free seminars to schools teaching about global warming and how to stop it.

Teachers may want to consider a “school supplies closet” where kids can donate leftover supplies for the next class coming in.

  • Food

Bento box lunches are not only fun for kids, they are good for the environment, too!

  • Fundraisers:

Recycling programs at schools not only bring in money, the kids that run them learn important leadership skills.

Fundraisers at schools should reflect our values, and one of our values should be protecting the environment.

At one school, re-selling used prom dresses made the school a lot of money while saving the girls a lot of money, too.

At another school, re-selling used Halloween costumes also brings a lot of money to the school, while simultaneously saving parents money on new costumes.

  • Crafts & Books for Kids:

Earth Day flower craft & “Let’s Celebrate Earth Day” book

Spring Sun Flower Craft & “One Little Seed” book

Recycle used strawberry baskets into fun and useful baskets.

For back to school, make your own book covers out of grocery bags.

Make your own Halloween costume rather than buying pre-made.

At Christmas time, recycle old boxes into fun crafts.

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Compiled by Christi Grab, Parentella’s Editorial Director and author of  The Unexpected Circumnavigation: Unusual Boat, Unusual People Part 1 – San Diego to Australia.

3 Tips to for Green Halloween Costumes

Friday, October 15th, 2010

Halloween is my family’s favorite holiday; we love to get dressed up in costume and decorate our house for trick-or-treaters. But Halloween can be a very plasticy experience unless you make an effort. Here are some ideas for making Halloween a little Greener this year.

Pumpkin with green band around center

Costumes are easy to make, even for the least crafty among us. I encourage you to resist buying new costumes this year. One idea that can even benefit your school is holding a Costume Swap as a small fundraiser. Simply ask everyone at your school to donate the costumes their kids aren’t going to wear anymore, then set up a place to hang them up where they can be seen and purchased, and then sell them for a small fee, like $5 – $10 each.

Costume rack photo from MV Elem

For anyone who’s been shopping lately, you know that even $10 is a great price for a new (to you) costume – so it’s a bargain for the shopper, it’s re-using instead of purchasing new, and it’s an All-Profit fundraiser for the school. A mom at a local school ran this last year and raised $300.

If you’re in the mood for a little extra effort this Halloween, making a costume can be a lot of fun. Pick out some old clothes that were destined for the thrift shop or trash can and instead, get creative. Feel free to cut them up or paint them. One costume you can make is to be a Jackson Pollock painting and simply splatter the clothes with multi-colored paint, then let dry before wearing. Or you can shred the clothes for the ragged look, or glue on props for an endless number of costume ideas.

Easy Green Costume ideas - oversized paper bag head

me and my husband dressed as Black-eyed Peas for Halloween

This is me and my husband dressed as Black-eyed Peas for Halloween

A brown paper bag can become a super-sized mask. And cardboard boxes have many, many uses as costumes, from a Knight’s suit of armor and shield, to a robot, to angels’ or fairies’ wings – and don’t forget the aluminum foil, which easily turns plain cardboard into shiny metal.

You can find other ideas at GreenHalloween.org.

Sarah Auerswald is the blogger behind MarVistaMom.com.

Halloween Costumes on a Budget

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

If you’re like me, you do pretty much everything on a budget–and Halloween is no different.  Between the costumes, candy, decorations, and party favors Halloween can become pricey.  Halloween costumes don’t have to break the bank though. With an open mind and some time, you can create or find the right Halloween costume for any budget.

This year my 7 year old daughter wants to be a germ and my 3 year old wants to be a princess.  Luckily, we already have 3 different princess dresses and a multitude of crowns and play-jewelery.  For the germ we bought 2 pieces of neon green poster board and cut it out in identical squiggly circles. We then attached two pieces of yarn to the top to drape across her shoulder. She is going to wear green or yellow sweats underneath it.

By scouring the internet, I have compiled some of my favorite frugal Halloween costume ideas:

The Dollar Stretcher has created a list of 11 fast and frugal costume ideas, including my favorite, “The Nerd”. Here’s how Lisa Norris suggests creating a budget-friendly nerd:

“…Too small pants, shirt buttoned up wrong, hair slicked back, old pair of glasses with tape, white socks, BIG book to carry under his arm. Cost was ZERO.”

The Budget Diet shares 5 no-sew homemade Halloween costumes, including an Identity Thief and (my personal favorite) Pippi Longstocking.  Each costume is easy to make. Chances are you already have most of the items in your house, and the rest can be bough for very little money.

In search of more great ideas, I also consulted Twitter and Facebook on the subject of frugal Halloween costumes.

@Kidgrade: we are going to do a costume swap this year, 12 girls pulling out all of their old costumes and mixing matching and swapping.

@LoveisBestRX: Yep–have the kids put them together themselves, using stuff from the dress up trunk. It’s a winner for us, every year!

iVillage.co.uk has also compiled a great group frugal costume ideas from their readers, including my personal favorite the M&M bag made out of poster board.

If you find your child must have a store bought costume, follow the suggestions on Helium.com and do some retail research online to find the best price available on their desired costume.

Do you have any frugal and fun costume ideas?  Share them with us here!

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Amanda Henson is Parentella’s Community Manager and owner of High Impact Mom, a socially aware mom-blog. As Chief Executive Mom at High Impact Mom, Amanda encounters all sorts of madness while she goes to bat for teachers as local PTSO secretary, corrals two busy daughters, manages a successful social media marketing company, and occasionally even finding time for a date with her husband. Sometimes she even lives to blog about it. Amanda is a social media addict, a compulsive volunteer, and devoted mama…she might also a little bit crazy.