Our Halloween Pumpkin Parties were both huge successes!  Thank you so much to everyone who was able to help make this day so great.  This was the smoothest, least-crazy Halloween I have experienced thus far in my teaching career... so Thank You!   

Here are some photos of the children completing Halloween Stations, which were run by our fantastic volunteers.  We had the following stations: ghost bowling, pin the nose on the jack-o-lantern, colouring masks (created by Megan's mom), making slim (supplied by Gabriella's mom), cookie decorating & snack, making Halloween necklaces, creating a stand-up witch, and completing a life-size skeleton puzzle (lent to us by Tommy's family). 


I hope you enjoy the photos! 

Morning Class Photos

Afternoon Class Photos

I'm sorry afternoon class, Jenn and Jenny had to run stations so there are not very many photos :( 
 
After exploring the bean ghost and bean pumpkin math materials through 'Halloween Designs' (see earlier post), we used them to create the basic AB pattern.  We began talking about patterns when a leaf-pumpkin pattern emerged on our October calendar, so most of the children are just becoming familiar with the idea of a pattern.  I am very proud of how well the children did creating their pumpkin-ghost patterns!  We will revisit patterning throughout the year. 
 
Each month we complete a self-portrait to hang above our 'bean names'.  Drawing self-portraits allows the children to work on their pencil grasp, drawing skills, and helps them learn the names of their facial features (eyelashes and eyebrows are tricky ones to remember).  
 
Last week we each coloured our own set of 'Tribles'.  The Tribles are five fuzzy little creatures with different facial expressions.  We use our Tribles pictures to help us talk about our feelings.  Verbalizing our emotions in appropriate ways is something we will continue to work on throughout the year.  If you would like a copy of the Tribles to use with your family please let me know, I would be more than happy to send home a family set for you to use!  
 
The children were given 'math mats' and beans painted to look like pumpkins and ghosts.  I instructed the children to create a 'Halloween design' on their math mat using these materials.  Creating designs allowed the kids to explore these math materials while having a sense of purpose.  The photos below are of the children working on their designs and of their completed designs.  After the photos were taken the children had to sort their materials into two piles - ghosts and pumpkins. 
 
This was too precious not to pass on!

"Grandma is going to pick me up and then we are going to "Bunny" Doon mall.  Then Grandma and Grandpa are going to get their "flea shots". 

I giggled about this all night!  Hope it brought a smile to your face :) 
 
Thank you to XinLin, Justin's mom, for washing our dress up clothes over the weekend! 
 
The class looked at photographs of trees and discussed where the leaves actually grow on them.  We found leaves grow at the ends of the branches, and not on the tree trunk.

The children were then given a tree and red and yellow paint.  Their instructions were to finger-paint yellow, red, and orange leaves to their tree.  First, we completed the yellow leaves.  Next we added the red leaves.  Lastly, we did the orange leaves - the children excitedly discovered that when yellow and red are mixed together, they create the colour orange.  Some students also painted leaves falling off the tree as well as leaves covering the ground.   
 
Here are the collages the morning students created using their fall walk 'nature treasures'! 
 
Today we enjoyed a lovely fall walk.  We started in our playground area, looking for items on our list (different coloured leaves, a pinecone, twig, rabbit, squirrel, and flower).  The children coloured each item as they found them.  
When they finished finding all items, they received a paper bag to put 'nature treasures' in.  We walked around the education building collecting items and observing rabbits and squirrels.
We then came inside and the children created a nature collage - which can be found at the end of the slideshow. Enjoy!