Halloween Week... Boo!
For me, Halloween has never quite lost its luster. But admittedly, with kids this ghostly
holiday evokes an entirely new level of enjoyment. Haakon at two and a half, has really started enjoying these celebrations.
I have rather enjoyed him proudly stating, “I’m a chef and Nessy (as he
has aptly named Innes) is a lobster. I’m
cooking her!” In celebration of this truly enjoyable
holiday, our learning topic was (drumroll please) … Halloween!
There are nearly an unlimited number of parties, parades, and
events of all sorts to attend for this holiday and we try to do as much as we
can (especially since you want to get as much wear out of those costumes as
humanly possible) leading up to, and during Halloween week.
Our learning activities were
the following
Letter Review: We
used this week as an affirmation of learning our letters so far (M, T, A, S, B,
H C). We trace letters and checked
letter sound comprehension.
Halloween Color
Matching – Purple, White, Black and Yellow.
When we do color matching I use Velcro on the colored image and on the
color sheet. Haakon and Innes like the
sound of removing Velcro items. From http://littleadventurespreschoolblogspot.com.
Rat Counting – Using
squishy rats, Haakon counted rats in a pumpkin.
We also incorporated counting in our sensory activity as well.
Tracing – Haakon
traced lines to get the trick-or-treaters to their houses to help writing
preparedness.
Games and Activities:
Find the witches hat
– Haakon really enjoys searching. I
simply hid witches hats around the house and he searched for them.
Halloween sensory bags
– In ziplock bags, I placed Halloween items; skeletons, pumpkins, rats, bats, and spiders. I filled one bag with
glitter (not completely) and one with green pudding. I superglued the bags closed. Haakon was instructed to find and count the
Halloween items. Innes just enjoyed squishing,
squeezing and the colors.
Spooky Science Punch
– I concocted the “brew” using equal parts lemonade, lemon-lime soda, and grape
juice. Haakon added lime Jell-O (in
powder form) and added it to the brew.
He called it ‘eye of newt”… I think from one of the books we read. It fizzled and fizzed like crazy. We discussed what it looked like. He got to taste it and describe the taste as well.
Mummy cupcakes -
Haakon decorated cupcakes to look like mummies.
If you’re Betty Crocker and want to make the cakes and icing from
scratch, go to town! It really boiled
down to a decorating kit I found at Target to make these cupcakes a
reality. I imagine if you could find
edible eyes and some of those sweet/sour gummy rolls you could create these delicious treats. Haakon loved the decorating!
Bobbing for Apples
– I just enjoy this activity. The kids
love water (and apples) so why not let them go to town!
Pumpkin Carving –
Pretty self explanatory and a staple of Halloween. The “guts” of the pumpkins are so much fun as a sensory experience. Haakon told us he wanted a “happy”
pumpkin. His wish is our command… kind
of.
Art Projects
Monster making – We did a few things here. Both Haakon
and Innes made monsters from pom-poms, eyeballs, and pipe cleaners. Their imagination was their only limitation.
Monster masks –
We received a wonderful gift from my mom with some fun Halloween activities,
stickers, and the like – "Sticker Doodle Boo".
We made monster masks, created monsters with stickers. Both kids love stickers so this was great.
Toilet Paper Roll
Mummies – Using toilet paper rolls, cut cheesecloth and eyeballs we made
mummies.
Books:
The Spooky Smells of Halloween
Bearenstein Bears Halloween
Room on the Broom
Little Critter’s Halloween
Clifford and the Halloween Parade
I’m Not Scared
Trips:
Public Library
Halloween Party – We made pirate hats, played lots of games, got tattoos
(of the temporary nature), and decorated cookies here. So much fun!
Trick-or-Treating – This
was our first Trick-or-Treating experience.
Truthfully, so much different than I remember as a kid – perhaps just
being in a different place. Either way,
I think our church’s Truck-or- Treat will be the ticket next year.
Some occasions warrant
special goodies. I try to limit the
amount of sweets they get (pure juice make the kids go wild). I suppose moderation is the word.
Witches Brooms – Made with string cheese and pretzel rods.
Cute snack for Halloween.
Halloween Hot
Chocolate – Made with 2 cups of milk, ½ cup of white chocolate chips, and
green food coloring. I added
marshmallows and gummy worms for flair. My
husband is a big fan of mocha – so I added this to his coffee. Gross-looking but good.
Jell-O Brains – Made from the lime Jell-O in the Science Punch.
Jack-O-Cuties – We
drew Jack-O-Lantern faces on clementine’s.
They called them little pumpkins!
This week was structured a bit differently. I grouped like items together –
Monday – Halloween Bags/Witches Hat Search/Counting
Tuesday – Mummy’s/Letters
Wednesday – Monster’s/Library/Tracing
Thursday – Pumpkin Carving/Counting
Friday – Letters/Halloween!!
Saturday - Bobbing
for Apples
I have left off Sunday because, to be honest, I need a
recovery day. Plus we have a Birthday
party, (I punctured the tire on my car while trick-or-treating) have to have the tire
patched, and I’m pretty sure I have 16 loads of laundry to do. Oh and my library books are overdue… ugh I
have no milk. This cannot be the correct
way to do things!
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