Halloween is right around the corner and we have been enjoying lots of silly and fun Halloween themed books and activities. I have tried to weave in a number of activities using acorns, leaves, and pumpkins while also having fun with all of the Halloween excitement!
Preschool Science:
Pumpkin and Acorn Investigations
Before heading to our field trip last week we discussed pumpkins, their life cycle, and studied in detail our own ‘classroom pumpkin.’
After reading many books about pumpkins we discussed the life cycle of the pumpkin, and the children put in order life cycle cards as a group.
We Modge Podged pumpkins with pieces of tissue paper. They chose a pumpkin, put glue on the pumpkin, and then carefully glued a small piece of tissue paper on top of the glued area. It was a delicate art task, and they did a beautiful job! Each of the pumpkins turned out very unique!
We are still in the process of completed a class Pumpkin Investigation! More details on that coming soon!
Preschool Literacy:
Last week we read this silly story, “Where’s My Mummy?” The children thought it was so funny that the Mummy was scared of a teeny, tiny mouse after seeing all of the other Halloween creatures creeping around at night.
After this story we made these toilet paper mummies:
The children have also loved this Halloween Parody of “Goodnight Moon”
Another Halloween favorite is “Room on the Broom”
“Big Pumpkin” is another holiday favorite! Each of the Halloween characters tries to pull the pumpkin, but can’t do it. Of course the tiny bat has a great idea to work together, and they pull the pumpkin off of the vine!
You can usually find one or two students at any point in the morning reading some of the many books found around the classroom:
I pulled out the architecture blocks on our platform. For a special Halloween addition, I added small Halloween creepy, crawlers. Children worked together to build detailed “haunted houses.”
Sensory Play:
We have had a lot of opportunities to get our hands dirty with Halloween sensory play! They came into the classroom last week to find our sensory tub filled to the brim with black beans, and lots of fun Halloween items to explore!
Today the children got to make Oobleck with me for the first time! This sensory recipe is always tricky for me to perfect! It is a simple combination of cornstarch and water. But, the combination has to be just right to get the solid/liquid/sticky/drippy substance just right. If you want to make this at home, here is a link to Fun at Home with Kids. She has a great recipe for it!
We made one tray of purple and one tray of black oobleck. We were able to get the combo just right, and it was super, slimy fun!
Preschool Math:
We have been working on our counting, one to one correspondence, and using objects in our to count with every day!
We used the acorns we collected to practice our counting outside on the blacktop! Some children worked by themselves, and other children worked as a team!
I’m proud of their progress!
We have also counted pumpkin gems on the light panels. We used the dry erase markers, and they have worked on writing their numbers next to each circle.
Field Trip:
Last Thursday our class all went together to a local farm for a field trip! To prepare for our field trip, I pulled out my giant barn, barn animals, and a tray of oatmeal for the pumpkin patch.
There was a lot of pretend play around the barn, and this led to discussions about what we were going to see and do at the pumpkin patch!
We had a fabulous trip the pumpkin patch, despite the heat! We learned about pumpkins…
Slide down the slides into a giant corn pit…
Played in the corn pit…
Went on a hay ride to visit the cows…
And we even attempted a super long corn maze…
All in all it was successful first field trip! What a busy month, with more fun things right around the corner!