Pumpkins, Halloween, Choice Time, and Dress Up Day!

• At Large Group: 
• We learned rhymes and sang songs about pumpkins & Halloween. Their favorite rhyme this week was "Five Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate". It goes like this: 
• Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.
  The first one said, "Oh my! It's getting late."
  The second one said, "There are witches in the air."
  The third one said, "But I don't care".
  The fourth one said, "Let's run and run and run."
  The fifth one said, "I'm ready for some fun."
  OoOoOoOo went the wind.
  And out went the light.
  And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight. 

• We read and acted out the story “There Was a Little Old Lady Who Wasn’t Afraid of Anything”. They enjoyed making all the sounds from the story. This book was also available in the listening station. 

 

They used these pieces to create the scarecrow in the story.

•  We read books about Halloween and how pumpkins grow. 

They used this book as a reference to make their pumpkin faces and feelings books at choice time.

 

This one had a song that came with it. They loved the rhythm and read this book a lot at choice time.

• We had a Halloween music dance party. We danced to Dr. Jean's "Happy Everything" CD, the Monster Mash, and Ghost Busters.
• We finished our first round of "Letter of the Day". We started with the letters that were the most important to our kiddos (the ones that start their names). Now we'll be going back through and going through the entire alphabet one letter at a time. 
  

• At Small Group: 
• Our kiddos had been talking about carving pumpkins at home, so we wanted to give them an opportunity to create some at school. We put out orange paper and various shape cutouts to create jack o’ lanterns. Some of our kiddos glued shapes on, some traced shapes, and some drew their own shapes and faces.

• We counted spiders and put them in their webs. These were also put out in the toys and games area.

• We practiced our tearing skills by creating “tear”able monsters out of paper. Tearing paper is great fine motor practice for opening things at snack time.
  

• We made trick or treat bags for our goodies.
• We created a classroom book about Halloween. Each child drew a picture of what they are going to be for Halloween. 
• At Planning/Recall Time:

Some of our kiddos use it as a phone.

Some of them like to use it as a megaphone and amplify their voice.

• At Choice Time: 
• Writing: The kiddos had the option of making “Pumpkin Faces & Feelings” books where they drew faces on pumpkins and described how they felt.
• Discovery: They used hammers and golf tees to poke holes in real pumpkins. This is great for fine motor practice. We also cut the pumpkin open to explore what was inside. 

• Art: 

She asked if I could help her hang this up, I told her I would take a picture so it wouldn't dry out.

• We helped the kiddos make Frankenstein feet paintings. 

 

• We put out pumpkin pie scented play dough and made spiders with pipe cleaners and eyes. 

• We used goopy play dough and picked out googly eyes with tweezers. 

• Block Area: This was a popular area this week. It helped inspire our study for the next two weeks. Stay tuned to find out what it is!

• Toys and Games Area:

• Dramatic Play Area:

 

• Dress Up Day:

She wanted to strike a pose.

 

This is with her "invisibility turned on". When I showed her this picture she was so excited and shouted, "I knew I could do it!" It was adorable. :)

Invisibility off.

My mom came in to play for the day. :)

My birthday treat of brains.

And witches feet to take home.

• Make Time Count:
• Use car time to talk with your children. There's no phone or television to interfere. No one can get up and leave. And kids know they really have your ear.
• Plan to eat at least one meal together as a family each day. 
• Look for things to do together as a family. Get everyone involved in choosing how to spend your time together. 
• At the end of each week, spend time looking/reading through the blog with your child. You will get many more details out of them about what we do every day if they can see pictures.