Halloween Party

One of my favorite things we did at our Halloween Party was to make Pumpkin Necklaces. We used Walnuts that had been spray-painted orange with some green felt on top as a pumpkin and the kids made patterns with our green and orange noodles as they strung them on the string. I was impressed by the patterns I saw them making, their ability to string the noodles on, as well as their interest and concentration on this activity.

Mrs Kathleen the "Nice" Witch. The kids were very serious about these costumes and made sure I didn't take off my hat for ANY reason!

Decorating our Treat Bags

Jack Sparrow

Anakin

Snow White

Tinkerbell

Our Characters: I was required by the children to call them ONLY by their character's name.
We had the lovely "Rapunzel"

Making Ghost Suckers

Doing a "Candy Walk" with the letters and numbers we have been learning so far in preschool. The fun with this was that unlike a normal "cake walk" when someones number or letter was picked they got to pick out a treat for everyone!

Bats

For Snack the kids got to prepare their own Stellaluna fruit stick using the favorite foods of Fruit Bats. We discussed patterns and they had fun creating their own.

During the week of Halloween we had a blast learning about bats and reading the book "Stellaluna" (I think has been the definate favorite of all the books we've read so far in preschool). We learned about how bats are nocturnal, how they sleep hanging upside down, and how they have special eyes that allow them to see in the dark. In preparation for our Halloween Party at the end of the week the kids each decorated a bat that we cut out and hung up in our classroom. They also made their own "Stelluna Stick Puppet" and had a blast at free play time playing "Stelluna" with their puppets. They all have Wonderful Imaginations!

Pumpkins Pumpkins!

After gutting our pumpkins the kids enjoyed getting to paint them and add glitter!

During our pumpkin week we also made some "stain-glass" pumpkin decorations to take home.

Our Fourth Week in October was All About Pumpkins. We cut open the pumpkins we got from the pumpkin patch and the kids pulled out all the seeds. Before cutting into them we predicted how it might feel inside a pumpkin, what color the seeds might be, and which pumpkin would have the most seeds. It was hard and messy work and while they were a little hesitant to touch all the slimy stuff they were very brave and got their seeds out!

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip!

Arriving at the Pumpkin Patch.

(If you notice at the end of this post we have a picture at the same table...but you can tell we are a little drained of energy!)

With our Pumpkins and Farmer Phil. He taught us all about organic produce: how he doesn't use any chemicals on his plants and how the pumpkins are a little lighter in color due to this. The pumpkins we picked are the best ones to use in pumpkin pie.

On the Tractor Ride

The kids were pretty facinated by this big tractor so we took a picture by it before we entered the corn maze.

Visiting the Animals.

Farmer Phil brought out some food for the kids to feed to the goats.

They all LOVED getting to pet the rabbit

The Geese and the Duck were very LOUD which just cracked the kids up after the got over the initial shock of the honking!

Ready to eat our snack and go home! I told them to all "lean in" so I could fit them and their pumpkins into the picture and laying their heads on the table was the end result. Although I will say that had it not been only a 10 minute car ride home, we may have had a few sleepers!

What a fun day!