Halloween fun!

Happy Friday!  What a busy week it's been!  We had Parent-Teacher Conferences this week, so the kids were only at school three days.  It's always so busy and stressful preparing for conferences, but well worth it when you're able to talk to each family.  I had a great turn out and loved visiting with the parents and sharing their child's progress.  

I have to start with a confession, so bear with me as I ramble a little.  On Tuesday I got out the water beads that I told you about in my Monster post last week.  Well, when I opened the containers of beads and started dumping them out I immediately noticed a strong swampy smell.  They smelled bad, really, really bad!  I rinsed them in water and hoped that would help, but it didn't really.  So, yes, judge me if you want, but the kids still played with them and didn't seem to mind the stank wafting off of them.  But, Mary (my fantastic paraprofessional) and I couldn't let it go, so we rinsed them more, washed them with dish soap, rinsed them more, put some of our district approved cleaner on them, and rinsed them some more.  Good news--by the afternoon they were starting to smell better.  I guess the bad odor could just add to the monster goo/Halloween effect? 

We also played with the magnets and pipe cleaner pieces again.  Luckily there were no surprises when I got them out.  :)

We made jack-o-lanterns this week and I love the way they turned out!  On Monday, the kids mixed red and yellow paint together and painted a piece of paper.  Tuesday they drew a pumpkin shape on the paper and we cut out the morning class' pumpkins and the afternoon class cut theirs out.  Then, I gave them a strip of white paper that they snipped into pieces for the teeth.  Once they cut out their teeth, we gave them the rest of their face pieces and let them assemble their jack-o-lanterns.  Before we started assembling them, we looked at pictures of jack-o-lanterns and discussed the different emotions they had.  When they'd finish their jack-o-lantern, I asked them to tell me what emotion their pumpkin had and we wrote that on a slip with their name.

During circle time, the morning class identified and matched shapes.  We had a pile of shapes face down and the kids picked one and then told me what shape it was.  Then, they looked through the pile of shapes that were face up and found the match.  They also had to problem solve how to match up the crow's wings so that they were going the right way.

The afternoon class had pumpkin seeds with either a letter on a number on it that we placed in a pile face down.  The kids picked one and told me if it was a letter or number and then identified the letter or number.  This was a really hard concept for them!  Several could label the letter or number but couldn't tell me which category it went in.  We'll definitely be practicing this more!

Ms. Mary (our speech therapist) stopped by for a language group on Tuesday!  She read Inside a House That is Haunted by Alyssa Satin Capucilli.  The kids helped her retell it and act it out.  Then, they practiced how to trick-or-treat.

On Wednesday, we read The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams.  I read it to the class once and then each child had a part in the story to help retell.  After reading it twice, we went to the table and they cut out the six pieces of the scarecrow and, while looking through the book, they glued them down in the sequence that the little old lady saw them.

Next week we're continuing our Halloween theme and having Pumpkin Fun Day on Thursday!  I hope you all have a great weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!

~Beth