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.

Special treats:

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!