Hallowe'en Day

What a fun day we had.
Lots of families dropped by to show off their costumes and play.
Here are a few things we did today.

Costumed rubber ducks swimming in green jello.

Pumpkin carving by hammering holes.

Ghost races.

Blow the ghost balls across the table to the finish line.

Sugar cookie cutting and baking.

Songs.

Stories.

Shaving pumpkins.

A favourite - tin foil painting.

Pumpkin puzzles.

A visit with the dental hygienist.

A visit from the grade 2s to share a Hallowe'en poem they've been learning.

And look who we saw during the school's costume parade.

Hope everyone had a fun and safe Hallowe'en.

Halloween Literacy and Numeracy

Here are a few activities that we've been playing with for the past couple of weeks.

Hallowe'en story stones.

Pumpkins with numbers to match and fill.

Hallowe'en fingerpuppets to match, sort and sequence.

Fingerplays to manipulate.

Our question of the week.

Sign of the week - spider

This week we will learn how to sign spider.
Definitely not a difficult sign to learn - cross your wrists and wiggle your fingers.

We'll be singing the "Eensy Weensy Spider" fingerplay.

The eensy weensy spider
went up the waterspout
Down came the rain
and washed the spider out.
Out came the sun
and dried up all the rain.
And the eensy weensy spider
went up the spout again.

Story - Joey the Ghost

I'm very lucky to belong to a storytelling group with other early childhood educators and teachers.  We get together once a month to share stories and learn from each other.
This month Jenny quickly shared a story about a ghost that changes colours by eating food.  I've heard other versions of this story but I liked how Jenny emphasizes the spooky sound of the fridge.
So I quickly made ghosts from tissue paper and laminated them.  Then found clip art food pictures and put magnets on the back.  I made a fridge (Fright-a-dare) door from cardboard and taped it to my magnetic board and we were ready for story time.

 

It is a really fun story that quickly gets the children and families involved.

Happy Hallowe'emn

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything with Props

I love telling the story of the Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything.

It is repetitive and full of sound effects to encourage audience participation.

In the past I've used big pictures to tell the story but this year I wanted something to leave out so the kids could actually build the scarecrow at the end.  After talking to a colleague I was inspired to make these boxes.

I left them with the book lying on the floor and it wasn't long before a family started using them.

As mom read the story the children would find the pieces.  

Look how the children are moving closer to the book to get a better look.

And the boy holding the box is moving it back and forth saying 'wiggle wiggle'.

The pictures are tacked on to the boxes with velcro.

The same for the boxes with the gloves, they have extra velcro on the side of the box.

Thanks Ellie for the idea.

 

Painting Jack O'Lanterns

This week we've used a variety of materials to paint jack o'lanterns.

First we painted on tin cans.

Then we tried tape painting.

Tape is used to cover the areas you want to remain the colour of the paper.

Paint over the whole paper including the tape.

When it dries, remove the tape.

And finally today we painted rocks.

 

Spooky!

Look Who's Looking

It's me!

What fun we've been having trying on glasses 

and pretending to be someone else,

 with springy eyes,

 a big nose,

 or a nose that changes colour.

Or glasses that make our eyes look really big.

"Are you a superstar?"

"No, I'm a mom." was her response.

Parents too took turns.

I wish I had a video of the children's responses.

Lots of giggles.

Even the principal was encouraged to try on a pair.

I found it interesting this week, that the children are more interested in bits and pieces of dress up instead of a whole costume.

They're not into the ready-made-look-at-me-"I'm a princess or a dinosuar" kind of dress up.

Or maybe they are attracted to the glasses because they are usually an "out of reach, please don't touch, they can break" item.