Kate's Science Classroom Cafe: Halloween Soap with Poem: Candy-free "Trick" for the Classroom

I love, love, love Halloween! From creative costume-making and scary storytelling to carving pumpkins and collecting leaves the list of fun fall activities goes on and on....BUT...I'm not a huge fan of packing our children to the brim with artificial, sugar-laden, processed junk food. Filled with food dyes (some of which are linked to ADHD) and preservatives that I can't even pronounce, your typical trick-or-treat bag will be an overflowing brew of ingredients that are enough to scare any health-conscious teacher. (Refined edible vegetable fat, Red #40, Dextrin, Maltodextrin....Does that sound like food to you?)

Don't get me wrong, I go crazy for dark chocolate. However, if you look at the ingredient list on most of those "fun-sized" halloween candy treats, chocolate and sugar are not the only thing we are filling a student's treat bag with. Now I'm a big fan of "everything in moderation," so I'm not quite ready to completely ban Kit-Kats and Snickers Bars from the party, but in attempt to help moderate the amount of junk our kiddos devour this season, I've decided to do some candy-free treats...or should I say tricks for our upcoming halloween party. And no, I don't feel like I'm depriving my kids of the "good stuff," because something tells me that when I walk around the lunch room the week after halloween, there will be PLENTY of candy.

So as part of this year's halloween party, I'm making these spooky spider soaps. Here's hoping kids use them to wash their hands before eating all of the other sweet treats they receive!

I started by cutting the rings off of some spiders that I bought at JoAnns. I liked these a little better than the dollar store rings because they have some texture and those creepy red eyes.

Next, I placed the spider in the round soap mold, face down and then melted 3 cubes of clear glycerin soap according to the package directions. (Thank goodness for those 40% off coupons I downloaded for Michaels!)

Once the spider was completely covered, I added one drop of red soap dye and did not mix it in. 40 minutes later the soap was cooled and ready to use! Note: Most of the soaps I did fragrance-free, but I did add essential clove oil to a few and they had a wonderful fall festive scent.

To finish it off, I made this fun poem to attach to each one!