Spooktacular Pumpkins: Numbers Greater than 10

With several months spent away from the blog, I'm afraid it's gotten a bit cobwebby in here!

~sweep sweep~

~dust dust~

~cough~

~SNEEZE~

Goodness!

Experienced kindergarten teachers know what new-to-service kindergarten teachers discovered in August and September: the beginning of the school year, though exciting, is c-r-a-z-y busy.  Throw in a barrage of new germs shared by many enthusiastic children, and you can imagine how difficult it can be to find not only the time but the energy to blog once the dismissal bell rings.

The big payoff to all of the extra time and effort spent teaching, practicing and reteaching routines, rules and procedures is apparent when students and teachers alike enter the classroom one day, and can feel the rhythm and step right into the tempo of our scheduled activities.  Last week was when that magical stanza was reached by my Super Stars, and I was extremely grateful to find it ~still~ in place today, after students returned from a three day weekend during parent teacher conferences.  

With a smooth transition after calendar and story time, the Stars sat through directions, and returned to their seats to assemble large orange blobs, and black, white, green and brown construction paper into jack-o-lanterns with toothy grins.  The goal?  To fill each jack's mouth with MORE than ten teeth:

The candy corn footprints are helping us learn to count by fives (parent volunteers discovered how many students have ticklish feet!):



Has your year gotten off to a good start?  I hope so!

Let me finish sweeping the place and letting some fresh air in... I'll be back to my regular blogging routine soon!

Dramatic Play: Creature Café

Pneumonia or not, NOTHING would prevent me from setting up the Creature Café in the dramatic play center for the Stars. 

Go ahead. Place an order. I dare you.  Yes, that's "booger," not "burger," and it's no mistake.  The Stars brainstormed the types of food they thought creatures might like to order from a restaurant.  After deciding on the following categories, Soups, Sandwiches, Drinks and Desserts, it was easy and fun to think up gross menu items:

The grosser, the better!  I typed up the menu, printed, and laminated two copies for center use:

"Fingernail and Snot Sandwich...."  YUM!

Some cobwebs, bats, and Halloween colored paper lanterns give the center enough ~ambiance~ to make it feel like a big change to students.  Laminated menus, holiday cups, tableware and even "order forms" help each Super Star get into character.  The order forms are also a great way to incorporate writing, literacy and math concepts.

How do you ~change up~ your dramatic play area?

H is for Halloween Hoot Owls in Hats

As my Stars have plenty of opportunities to trace and cut at centers, it's fun to give them the chance to work on tracking, memory and assembly projects.  School volunteers cut the following shapes out of black, white, brown, orange and yellow construction paper (the large brown rectangle is 7 inches by 9 inches):

I cut a triangle and wide rectangle from an old book, but you could also use newspaper/newsprint:

After showing my students how to assemble the owl (hoo hoo, they're wearing Halloween hats!), I sent them back to their desks to see if they could remember each step:

First, we wrote our names on the large black piece of paper with a white crayon, and then flipped it over.  We drew a line with our crayon across the upper right corner and colored it in to make the moon.

Then we glued the large brown rectangle near the bottom of the page, and added the brown triangles (ears), white circles (eyes), and orange wings.  After gluing the orange triangle between the eyes, we made an AB pattern with the remaining yellow and orange triangles for the owl's chest feathers.  Using a black crayon, the Stars colored a pupil onto each of the owl's eyes.

Finally, we created a hat by gluing the newsprint/book page rectangle and triangle together and then setting them at a jaunty angle over one of the owl's ears.

What's an art project without glitter?  Using "wet" glue, squeeze several spirals across the hat and night sky.  Then sprinkle (or dump) gold glitter over the glue:

Shake off the excess glitter:

... and there you have it!

Hoo hoo!  Halloween Hoot Owls in Hats!

Trick or Treat...

Usually my aide and I paint my Stars' feet with white paint, making Halloween ghosts for classroom decor.  This year, we couldn't resist playing with the silly greeting:





White paint on the heel, yellow on the arch, and orange near the toes turned the Stars' feet into candy corn:



The giggles from the tickles were worth it!



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Happy Halloween!

We've Been Boo'd!

This cute little candle and figurine were left with a bag of sweet snacks for my Super Stars last week, along with an anonymous note letting us know we'd been BOO'D:

After the treats were devoured, the Stars decided they wanted to keep the Halloween fun going by boo'ing two more classrooms!  We assembled bags of candy and crafty materials (spiderweb, banners, foamy pumpkins and stickers) and reprinted the Boo note:

With only a few hours left in the school day, my Super Stars had to become S-n-e-a-k-y Stars, tip-toeing down the hallway, searching for two classrooms yet to be boo'd:

We found a second grade class' and our Sixth Grade Buddies' rooms empty, so the bags were quickly deposited and we made our escape!

To quote a student, "Mrs. Sommerville, we **so** boo'd those kids!"

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Want to join in on the fun?  Visit beenbooed.com or print out this poem:

The air is cool, the season fall,
soon Halloween will come to all.

Ghosts and goblins, spooks galore...
Tricky witches at your door.

The spooks are after things to do,
in fact a spook brought this "Boo" to you!

The excitement comes when friends like you,
copy this note and make it two.

We'll all have smiles upon our faces,
no one will know who "BOO"ed whose places!

Just two short days to work your spell,
keep it secret, hide it well.

Please join the fun, the seasons here,
just spread these "BOO's" and Halloween cheer!

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Include a sheet of paper with a friendly ghost illustration that reads:

You have been BOO'D! Please keep it going by following these directions:

1)  Enjoy your treat
2)  Place the BOO sign on your front door or visible in a window
3)  Within 2 days, make 2 copies of this note, make 2 treats & 2 BOO signs
4)  Secretly deliver to 2 classrooms without a BOO.
5)  Keep an eye on nearby front doors to see how far and fast it spreads by Halloween.

Going Batty

... but can you blame me?

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I'm not the only one!
~ Teaching Heart Mom created a downloadable pretzel bat and pumpkin sorting activity...
~ Handprint bats can be done by painting students' hands or by tracing them...
~ Colored paper bags (or let your students paint or color white or tan paper sacks) make bat puppetry simple and fun...

In Case You Wondered...

...*yes*... I do live with a teenage witch, Optimus Prime Jr., and a furry chicken:




(...when it's Halloween!)

I hope you had a spooktacular and boo-riffic time trick or treating!

C is for...

Cabinet full of Cubbies:


I first laid eyes on this treasure during my visit to Farmstead a few weekends ago, but in an attempt to "be good" while Dear Husband is away, I kept my pocketbook safely stored inside of my purse that evening.

I experienced NON-buyer's remorse every day after walking away from the repurposed cabinet... and I mean E-V-E-R-Y....s-i-n-g-l-e...DAY.  Hoping for a miracle, I emailed Sheila and inquired about the piece, and as it turns out, I was in for a dose of good Karma. Dear Husband bought it for me as an early birthday present.

Braving rain, a longer-than-usual drive, and after navigating unfamiliar neighborhoods, I arrived to find Craig and Sheila of Odd Folies ready to let me adopt my newest find.  Once I got it home, I was giddy as I opened each drawer, finding fun little dividers, and drawers of multiple depths:





What does a cabinet full of cubbies hold?  Crochet, candles, and cards, of course!










Many thanks to Sheila, Craig and Dear Husband for this awesome treasure!
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C is also for cupcake toppers (Vanessa created and shares them over at A Fanciful Twist)...

... and Halloween cocktails (check out the Black Widow Martini shared by Hostess With the Mostess)...

... with window clings (at Scribbit) rounding out our letter of the day!

Being Boo'd...

... can be such a *fun* experience!




Carson-Dellosa Publishing shares its teacher version of this sneaky-fun all-treats-no-tricks activity, offering both color and black and white versions of the "boo note" as pdf's here.

(Psst, they're also having a 75% off clearance sale!)

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HOW TO BOO:

It’s a fun little game that’s easy to do. You could make someone’s day and share a treat, too!

1.       Log on to www.carsondellosa.com/boo and print out two copies of the “You’ve Been Boo’d!” Ghost PDF.

2.       Prepare two Halloween goodie bags filled with treats.

3.       Secretly leave the “You’ve Been Boo’d” Ghost and a bag of treats for two teachers in your school.

4.       Pass this posting on to your teacher friends at other schools.

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~Jen at Simply Inspired shared her Boo goodie bags in a post from a year go....

~Bright Ideas shares a version large enough for an entire family (or grade level!)...

~ But the cutest You've Been Boo'd candy container has to be Frankenstein!  He was created using a repurposed Almond Roca container and scrapbook paper over at The Ice...

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Batty for Skelanimals

Target, once again, partners with awesome Halloween mascots...this time, Skelanimals.

And yes, I think the bat, "Diego," is adorable.




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~ A cute handprint bat craft idea can be found at DLTK's Growing Together...


~ 4 Crazy Kings shares a folded paper bat pattern with google eyes- it's adorable too!

My Teacher Humor, a.k.a. "It's Obvious that I'm Easily Amused"

... because I'm seriously considering bundles of these (or combo-bundles with some of each) as Halloween treats this year:





Never fear, I'll let this sugar rush pass before I decide whether or not these will be passed out to trick-or-treaters or if I'll just leave them for other teachers in the teachers' lounge...

You are what you eat.

~*wink*~

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Looking for easy and fun Halloween crafts for your students?  Head over to MyHealthySchool.com to find instructions for spiders and bats made out of egg cartons, milk jug pumpkins and ghost wind socks...

Move through the slideshow at Country Living to find the cutest candied apples and candy corn-inspired cookies....

Ramblings of a Crazy Woman shares a recipe for INEDIBLE pumpkin pie play dough...

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Not allowed to wear traditional costumes for Halloween at your school?  Why not host a dress-up day featuring characters from favorite stories, fairy tales and poems?

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Witchy Goodness

Dear Daughter had the day off from school today, so she spent time with me and my Super Stars in kindergarten. After sorting through my sticker stash, she found inspiration from an old Hallmark sticker shaped like a witch. Being a true "teacher's kid," she knew exactly where to find our school die cut machine and colored construction paper to mock up this simple Halloween art project.

While your scrap bin is the perfect place to find the bits and pieces necessary to assemble the witch, here's what we used to create the finished product above:

Background: brown construction paper (the big stuff...12X18 inches)

Face and hand: green construction paper (circle die cut- ours cuts both a large and a small circle with one punch; large=face, small=hand)

Witch's hat: purple construction paper (triangle die cut)

Hat brim: black construction paper; 3/4 inch by 6 inches

Witch's dress: purple construction paper; square die cut template cut in half to make a triangle shape. The right angle point is her rear end.

Witch's arm: black construction paper; 1/2 inch by 3 1/2 inches

Broomstick: black construction paper; 1 inch by 9 inches

Twiggy ends for broomstick: black construction paper; 1/2 inch by 4 inches, three pieces per child.

Crescent moon: yellow construction paper, drawn and cut freehand.

Use a black crayon or marker to make the witch's hair, facial features, legs and feet. Use a white crayon or dab of paint (a white-out pen works great!) to highlight the eyes, hair and legs.

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~ Martha shares I Scream Sandwitches....

~ More witchy goodness can be found over at owlsorts' post "Black and White and Dread All Over..."

When the Web Isn't Available...

...I end up hiding away making banners!

Not sure why we had "an outage" in my neck of the woods, but the down time from the Internet gave me *extra* time at my craft table.

Funny how that works out, eh?

Halloween pennants with three dimensional glitter spiders:



...and a baby banner for a colleague:







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The spider banners ended up draped across our webby branches in the foyer:

Pattern Jacks

Why not integrate some Halloween fun into a math unit on patterns?

My classroom aide cut out pumpkins, black construction paper, and streamers:



After a quick review of AB and AAB patterns, my Stars used the streamers to decorate the bottom of each pumpkin with an ABC pattern:





The black construction paper was used for triangle eyes and silly smiles for our jack-o-lanterns:







The Stars then added a short strip of green fiesta fringe (purchased at Michael's) for the stem:



Now "pattern jacks" greet us each day when we come to class!