Halloween After Party And Leaves
Hi friends and families, let me start by apologizing for missing last week’s blog post! I got my booster shot and was down for the count. I’m back!
The first week of November we continued our Halloween theme and did some fun activities related to spiders, mummies, and monsters.
The kids made spider puppets in the morning and then we used the puppets during rectangle time to act out a song. The spider song we sang was a fun way for the kids practice imitating and follow-a-long with a leader, learn parts of the body, and match words to action.
Once the spiders had cleared the room, I invited a very special Witch to read a story with us. Do you know the Humbug Witch?
In our story, there once was a Witch who wasn’t very good at being a Witch; none of her spells worked, she couldn't fly a broom, her potions were a mess, and her black cat wasn’t so scary. At the end of Bah Humbug Witch we discover why she wasn’t good at being a witch, because under that cape and witchy mask it just a little girl playing pretend.
The children also loved listening to Skeleton Hiccups, There’s A Monster In My Book, and Go Away Big Green Monster. The poem we practiced was “Pumpkin Everywhere!”
We had several art projects over the last two weeks. We made a mummy, did a wax resist spider web watercolor, and made a bat painting using tinfoil balls.
The kids put their fine motor skills to work learning how to tear paper. Tearing paper is harder than you think! The kids have to figure out how to position both hands on a piece of paper while moving their hands in opposite directions to tear. Once they had enough pieces, they glued them on an outline of a mummy. The spider web reveal was a fun for the kids to make. The kids had to “reveal” the hidden spider web I had pre-drawn using watercolors. Our bat project was the first time we used tin foil in the class to paint. The kids crunched up tin foil, dipped it into various paints, and to create texture on the paper. After they had filled up the page, the kids “revealed” a bat by pulling off the template to see the outline.
We also had some time to move and groove in the classroom. The kids loved our earlier Bear hunt, so I found a Youtube video version with a monster. The video provided an outlet for all our energy and got us up running, and giggling.
This last week we talked about fall leaves and all the different colors they are turning. Our poem was “Leaves Everywhere!”(I am not sure that one made it home). It's a simple poem that is repetitive and provides visuals to follow along. My goal is to have the kids ‘reading’ the poem by the end of the week. The kids love hearing that they can read and feel so proud of their accomplishment.
We worked a little on numbers as well. I placed 8 fall leaves around the classroom with labeled one through eight. The kids were asked to find one leaf and bring it back to the rectangle. Once everyone had their leaf, I asked them to turn over their leaf to find a number. We went around and identified the numbers, I asked who had the leaf with a number one on it? The child who had the number one came up and placed their leaf on the carpet , and then, found their cup for snack. One-by-one, each kid came up and placed their leaf down in numerical order until all the leaves were lined up one through eight.
The two books we read this week were Leaf Man and Grandfather Time. Leaf Man was the basis for our project. Everyone made leaf men using a Ziploc bag, some paint, and template. The kids put the template of leaf man in the Ziploc, dumped in paint, sealed, and used a squeegee to spread the paint around. Open the bag, and viola, a painted Leaf man. MESS FREE! The next day the kids decorated the Leaf man/woman by rolling up tissue paper, dabbing it in glue, and then placing it on their project.
Last, but not least, let's talk about my magical green thumb. The class did an experiment to see if we could get a pumpkin seed to grow using a pumpkin. The pumpkin seed grew! Who knew? We also had a mystery seed and maple leaf seed from the playground, but no success. The fairy didn't visit, but she did clean off the spider webs from Halloween and tidy up a bit.
Teddie Rappaport
