Happy Halloween!

This week we had just as many sweet activities as we did tricky science experiments.  We started out the week making decorations for our party next week by making bat art with sponge painting. The children chose 'Halloween colors' to sponge paint all over their paper that had bats taped to it.  

Once they were done painting over the paper we removed the bats to show the shadow they made on the paper!  These are now hanging in the room ready to show off at our Halloween Party on Monday.

We worked on fuzzy monster mat this week as the children were given charts with numbers and a grid on them.  The children needed to read the number written on the sheet and then glue the correct amount of fuzzy monsters onto the grid.  

Each child did this with two separate grids.  Then, they told the teachers which number was larger or represented more.  This helps show the children the correct answer by seeing which grid is covered more in monsters than the other.

Once we were done with math we got moving our throwing arms by adding ghosts to our ghost catching spider webs.  The children took turns throwing cotton ball 'ghosts' onto our ghost webs (hula hoops with clear tape) and had a blast getting the ghosts caught in the web!

We did a lot of pumpkin decorating this week as well, only these pumpkins won't rot!  We have sent some to hang up around the house for Halloween and kept others at school to help add to our decorations for the party.  We added stickers and sparkles and drawings to our pumpkins throughout the week to work on fine motor skills and to work on our pre-reading skills when we decorated our names.

Any time we did any name activities at the tables, the children would look for their names on the blank projects laid out for them.  Each morning when they arrive they need to find their name 3 times and then this pre-reading skill is reinforced throughout the rest of the day with activities like this that require the children to find their name again.  
As most children look for their name on our attendance wall, in their cubby and for their name tags, they are looking for the first letter to find M for Mary, etc.  As they get more familiar with how their name looks, they begin to look for the sequence of letters that make up their name.  For our younger children, we do these name hunts a few times a day and for the kids who can already recognize their names, we have them practice tracing it to learn the small muscle memory in order to help them write their names better.

Candy corn is typically 'in season' right about now so we did some math using pumpkins and candy corn this week.  The children had to read a number written on a pumpkin and then place the correct amount of candy corn on that pumpkin.  Once they finished this and their teacher helped ensure they were correct, they traded pumpkins with someone else at their table and tried again with a new number.

After counting, we did some spider science with straws and plastic spiders. The children used straws to race plastic spiders across trays.  While the children counting on this as just a fun game to try to win, they were learning the affect of wind and blowing into a straw.  If you get any plastic spiders in your trick or treat bags this year, grab a straw and try it at home.  Play with the speed of the air used and see how it affects the speed of the spider; believe it or not-that's science!

We were able to work with some craft doh this week to build our small muscles and make spooky monsters towards the end of the day this week too.  The children mixed and matched and traded doh to create new colors and build snakes, worms, ghosts and other spooky things as well.  Once they dry out, with will stay the shape the children crafted it to be.

We played with pumpkin seeds this week too as we used them to graph and design Halloween based images.  Picking them up and lining them up into designated spots on their paper allows for the pincher grasp to help the children who don't work with their hands a lot outside of school in a way that isn't as messy as craft doh.  Since it is the season for these materials, we encourage you to use these items to help make stronger writers at home!

Activities like the above not only help with writing, but cutting too.  This week we worked on Halloween patterns by cutting out images to complete the patterns on the page.  For some children cutting can be stressful, so teachers cut the strip of choices out and the children merely cut the specific images apart.  This allows for more success and to build confidence in this tough activity.

We learned the purpose of a scarecrow this time of season with harvest and made our own paper bag puppets this week as well.  We always love seeing the creativity in these puppets and the pride that comes from their own design, not just copying what the teacher created.

If you follow Pirate Pete Preschool on Instagram, you saw our fun making witches brew, watching ghosts fly and more this week.  Each child was able to add an ingredient to the witches brew and then we all enjoyed watching the teachers use fire and water to make ghosts fly!

Speaking of flying, we made bats on Friday that are now flying high in our bathroom waiting to be seen on Monday at our Halloween party.  Feel free to sneak a peek at their amazing little flying works of art!

With all this talk about spooky frights for Halloween, we took some time to practice threading string by making dream catchers to hang in the rooms of our little dreaming pirates to ensure sweet dreams.  We helped explain the history of the dream catcher and that is is made to catch the bad dreams and only let them good ones fly through at night.  Happy dreaming!

We took on lots of roles this week as scientists; making magic foaming rainbows by mixing paint with vinegar in the order of colors of a rainbow and then sprinkling some baking soda into them to make them bubble and boil.

We worked on our hand-eye coordination with some large motor games this week too.  From throwing glowing rings onto witches hats and goblins to Halloween bean bag tosses and pumpkin hole in one golf we had lots of fun working the larger parts of our bodies too!

Before heading home on Friday, we did one final math review.  Each child was given a number and lots of pumpkins, full moons and grassy fields to create a harvest scene of their own to take home.  Check the number on your child's paper to see if they have grasped the understanding of the relationship between the numeral and the amount of pumpkins on their page.  If they put more or less than that number you know what skills you can work on at home to help us help them as the year continues.

What's Coming Up?

First and foremost our Halloween party will be Monday, October 30th from 9:45 - 11:00 AM.  We will start with story time in our library followed by some trick or treating around the offices in the building and then ending with treats in our classroom.  Please see the invitations that were sent home and texted to you.

Wednesday and Friday this coming week we will be talking about sports and are excited to do lots of large motor activities!

Fun events at PHS this week are the Dance Show on Friday and Saturday and the Craft Fair this Saturday.  Feel free to check out the Palatine High School home page for links to further details.