Halloween and Pumpkins

What an awesome day of school!  We had so much fun with our Halloween theme this morning.  We were able to play with colored rice in our sensory bins.  We dumped and scooped and buried and made a mess!  We played dress up and explored all the different costumes and then decorated the room by cutting out decorations (note to parents: please practice more cutting at home!  Just let them cut scraps any way they want to in order to develop these very important muscles.)

 We had fun putting Halloween stickers in our notebooks and worked on those fine motor skills to get the backing off of those pesky stickers.  We also started our game "Guess My Secret Rule".  In this game there are three objects with the same characteristic and one object that doesn't match.  We identify the object that doesn't match and why.  It's a tricky game we'll be working on for most of November.

 We also did a fun drawing in our notebooks about what we are going to be for Halloween.  So much fun!

 Afternoon preschool had a fantastic time talking all about pumpkins.  We measured and scooped, weighed and floated our pumpkins all day.  We took notes about our observations and (some of us) squished pumpkin guts in our hands!

 We continued our group reading lessons which are going quite swimmingly.  I'm impressed with everyone's progress.  Keep up the good work!  For art we also drew pictures of our costumes for Halloween and each child was encouraged to write what they were going to be.  It was interesting to watch this first attempt at writing something.  They stumbled upon "sounding it out" just like we do in reading and you could hear each of them thinking about the main sounds in each word.  The pictures below show "Fairy" and "Dragon", for those of you new to decoding preschool writing :).

Pumpkin Day

We had SO MUCH FUN this morning with our pumpkins theme.  We started the day playing with pumpkin pie play dough and though it was very sticky it was a hit!  Then everyone got to pick their own pumpkin.  We washed it in the sink and then drew all over it with markers.  The fun aspect of doing that with washable markers is that you can easily wipe it off and start decorating all over again!

 We also did investigations with our pumpkins.  We cut open one large pumpkin to investigate the parts of the pumpkin (and play with the guts!).  We took turns measuring the height, circumference and weight of each pumpkin.  Then we had to see if each pumpkin would sink or float (a great way to wash off the marker so they can go home clean).

 We practiced finding the word "the" in our poem about 5 Little Pumpkins and then we danced and sung along to the song.

 Preschool B started the afternoon in two groups.  One group played Starfall Speedway with me and the other group worked on 38 piece puzzles. I love the Starfall Speedway game.  It has 4 different games in one so you can tailor it to match the needs of the child(ren) you are playing with.  You can work on letter names and sounds, sounding out CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) 3 letter words and you can work on more difficult words that include digraphs and consonant blends.  The kids love playing it and we are able to work on the one-to-one counting and turn taking aspects of playing a game.  I think we'll play this game more often now that I remember how much we all love it.

We also worked on our letter I beginning reader book from the Amazing Action Alphabet today.  That's a tricky one with that tricky 4 letter word: "sits".  Another reading group started Ready2Read Level 1 Unit 1 today.  I was so proud of them being able to move forward in their reading, they're getting it!  For our themes today each student picked a page from their encyclopedia and we worked one-on-one to mark the words they could read.  I'd encourage you to read this way through the whole page with them.  You could even pick other pages to do over the weekend and through next week if you like (no encyclopedia work in school next week).

 We continued our work on graphing today.  We pulled out the scissors and cut and glue pages.  I was proud of them for getting the hang of graphing so quickly.

 We're starting to branch out into our preschool B art format of picking what we'd like to do each day.  Today it was suggested that we paint so out came the water color paints.  They had such a great time mixing colors and making designs all over their page.

Preschool Pumpkins

Pumpkins day in preschool really is a lot of fun.  We get to explore so many different aspects of pumpkins.  We colored on pumpkins with washable markers and used washcloths to wipe them off and color them again. 

We practiced the letters we've already learned with our pumpkin spinner.  We circle the word "the" in our song Five Little Pumpkins and we played with squishy sensory bags.  For all of our awesome lesson plans and printables see our Pumpkins Preschool Pack.  

 Every child got a copy of the book "Pumpkin Town" as their first book of the year.  I love getting every child a copy of a book that we can read together.  This gives them the responsibility to turn the pages appropriately and stay along with the group.  Directionality, one page at a time, and matching the pictures to the one in my copy of the book were what we were working. As we get a little better at reading we'll also start choral reading.

 I love our science time on Pumpkin Day.  We measure, weigh, count seeds, and talk about sink and float.

 We're starting to play "Guess My Secret Rule" now.  We'll be playing it for the next few weeks. Remember Sesame Street's "One of these things is not like the other..." segment?  This is exactly the same.  We have 4 items, 3 of those items have a matching characteristic and the last one doesn't match.  We talk about which one doesn't match and WHY.  As an introduction today I used pumpkins and we had characteristics such as color, size, face/no-face.  They started to pick up on the game rather quickly but aren't quite ready to verbalize the WHY element.  We'll keep working on it and they'll get better with time.

Tot School Pumpkins

Pumpkin day is oodles of fun in tot school.  There was a whole lot of this going on all day: 

 We played with sensory tubs filled with pumpkin buckets and pumpkin erasers and orange and green rice.  There was also a pumpkin ball that kids took turns rolling to each other.  It was really fun to watch the kids as they found others to play pass with.    We also did oodles of art today.  We had white paper cut into big pumpkin shapes and used glue and tissue paper to decorate them.  We also colored all over our pumpkins with washable markers, washed it off with a baby wipe, then colored on them again!  During art time we also cut open a pumpkin.  We made the sound of /c/ (also known as the /k/ sound) while we were cutting.  When you cut your pumpkins or practice cutting at home for the next little bit practice the letter c by saying /c/ /c/ /c/ as you are cutting.

We were able to spend about 10 minutes at the end of the day outside.  They got to play with mini pumpkins outside.  It was fun to watch them take the pumpkins for rides, cover them in sand in the sandbox and pile them in the flower boxes on the play house.  We had a fantastic day.  Check out our pumpkin tot pack here!

October Tot Packs

October has already been so much fun for us at Little Adventures Preschool.  The tot packs for the month are now bundled and there is still a lot of fun to be had.  I still need to get some pictures taken care of, but they'll be coming soon!  Check out the details for the packs below:

October Tot Packs {Download all 4 October Tot Packs}
7. Safety {Download}
This pack is just full of great ideas for learning about Safety! Each pack includes links to all the books and supplies you'll need to have a fantastic time with your toddler learning about firefighters, policemen and staying safe!

Pictures and details of the completed pack coming soon!

8. Bubbles {Download}

Printables in this pack:

Introduction of letter B

Parts of a Face

Bubbles Songs

2 piece Puzzles

Primary Color Bubbles

9. Doctors {Download}

Printables in this pack:

Introduction of letter H

Naming Body Parts

Doctor Shadow Matching

Doctor Themed Songs

Location Word Book

10. Pumpkins - SUPER PACK {Download} (NOT included in the October download of 4 packs)
This pack is a SUPER pack, meaning it is so chalk full of ideas that you will not need to look anywhere else for ideas about pumpkins. There are many more activities in this pack than you will be able to complete in a week, so pick the ones you like the most and get playing!

Printables in this pack:

Introduction of letter C

Pop-Up Pumpkins

Pumpkin Clothespin Party

Matching Jack-O-Lanterns

Identifying parts of the pumpkins face

Size Sequencing Pumpkins

Pumpkin Investigations

Jack-o-lantern Shape Matching

Lacing Pumpkins

Pumpkin Play-Dough

Pumpkin Songs and Poems

This tot pack has 3 pages of activity ideas, book suggestions, and links to the materials I use. You can certainly use all or part of the lesson plans.

The printable pages include songs, matching games, drawing games and other activities.

11. Halloween {Download}

Printables in this pack:

Costume Heads and Tails

How is the Jack-O-Lantern Feeling? A mini book.

Pumpkin Seed Counting Mat

Halloween Letter Review M, T, A, S, B, H, C

Halloween Color Matching

Halloween Shadow Matching

Halloween Tracing

October Preschool Packs

Find the Year Long Theme Calendar here and follow along with us!

The preschool curriculum that is all inclusive and provides hours of fun and engaging learning!  

The "October Preschool Packs" contain 9 theme based lesson plans, a total of 263 pages of lesson plans and activity printables.  My preschooler has begged to do his "homework" because it's a wonderful time that we spend together learning age appropriate concepts!  These plans are intended to be taught in a 10 month sequence from Aug-May, though may be adapted to use individually. 

October {Download all 9 October Preschool Packs}

12. Spiders and Miss Muffet {Download}
The Spiders and Miss Muffet lesson plans and activities are such a blast!  We're introduced to the sight word "the" and get to play some matching games with it.  We also talk about long and short and continue our study of numerical order.  There is a "Spider Facts" mini book and a clip card spider with dice.  You can also play "Smack that Spider!" and play with the Little Miss Muffet printables.  There is a long path and a short path spider game (who will win first?) and a hidden letter activity.  We focus on the letter S and making all sorts of new words. 

13. Safety {Download}
I really look forward to the Safety preschool pack.  I'm always amazed that as preschoolers are taught very specifically certain ideas the ideas stick!  My kids are still asking to be excused from the table when we're done eating and we worked on that in August!  The safety pack addresses safety in crossing the street, using scissors, being in the kitchen, playing with toys and many other activities that we do every day.  They can practice the sight word "the" with a sight word money and pockets game.  We also work on colors, the vocabulary "tall" and "short", non-standard measuring and play a long path game where you have to decide what the best choice is to stay safe. 

14. Bears and Bats {Download}
Bears and Bats pulls from a couple favorite story books: "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?" and "Goldilocks".  There are manipulatives to act out both of those stories as well as sort items according to size, determine quantity equality, use Do-A-Dot markers and sing songs.  We'll also be tracing and working on CVC words.  We're learning the letter B and there is the cutest toilet paper roll craft to make a bat or a bear. 

15. Bubbles {Download}
It is a lot of fun to play with bubbles and explore the different things we can do with them.  In this pack there are so many ideas for making bubbles, using different colored bubbles to make art and even a part about washing the dishes.  The printables are adorable and so fun to play.  There is a long path game where you have to help the kids get to the bubble bath!  There are also counting and matching games, a hidden letter B art, Do-A-Dot "the", a long path phonics game, dot-to-dot and tracing activities. 

16. Helpful Kids {Download}

I'm particularly excited about the Helpful Kids pack because it is based on Bucket Fillers.  It's the idea of teaching children that we all have a bucket inside of us and if we do something nice, kind or helpful for someone else we are filling their bucket.  It's a perfect set of lesson plans for improving the peace and kindness in your school or home.  We introduce the letter H and talk about all the different things we can do that would be helpful, including how to tie our own shoes.  We continue working on the sight word "the" and size sequencing items.  The Little Red Hen makes an appearance with a recipe for bread and the "Rhyming Dust Bunnies" also stop by to make rhymes with word families that we've already learned (and some we haven't for a little added challenge!)

17. Doctors {Download}
The doctors pack is intended to help children feel comfortable going to the doctor, even if it's just for a regular check up.  We talk about all the body parts and how we can tell if they are working and growing correctly.  H the Horse from the Amazing Action Alphabet goes to the doctor when he is stung by a hornet.  There is a letter H hidden picture and "the" puzzles. 

18. Caterpillars {Download}

The letter C makes it's appearance now in our curriculum.  We learn all about caterpillars and their life cycle.  There are puzzles, size matching games, tracing and word families.  We also continue non-standard measurement and introduce the vocabulary "near" and "far". 

19. Pumpkins {Download}

Pumpkins is another fantastic day in school.  We spend the day exploring pumpkins in many different ways.  We measure their weight, height and width.  We dissect them and talk about all the parts of the pumpkin plant.  We find out if they sink or float.  The printables are great with puzzles and songs, recording sheets for the science experiments, hidden letter coloring pages, size sequencing, shadow matching and tracing. 

20. Halloween {Download}

Halloween is a very exciting time of year.  With this complete lesson plan you're ready to make the most learning happen around an exciting holiday.  There are two mini books that now feature tracing pages and coloring pages.  Make the jack-o-lantern's face match the text and trace the words in the Halloween beginning reader.  We're still comparing objects by single characteristics and developing vocabulary around different traits. We get to review the letters we've learned thus far and can trace them on fun Halloween monkey pages.  There are pages to make your own haunted house writing and add Halloween characters, we're determining which is different and practicing the sight word "the"!

**Preschool packs are lesson plans intended for a small preschool classroom or homeschool.  They are not to be used individually as they follow a year long curriculum that builds upon itself.  The themes specify what the underlying topic is that we'll be talking about with literature, in our art, and any science or social studies activities.  Reading and Math activities most often do not relate to the theme and these lesson plans are heavy in the reading and math department.  Printables expand on what we're able to cover in our 2.5 hours allotted to learn the materials and are often used as homework practice. The reading lesson plans are designed to be used with all the materials from the Amazing Action Alphabet and have been proven to teach children to be successful readers.

**Each preschool pack has 3 pages of lesson plan ideas.  Each child should be introduced to activities that don't involve something you can print from a computer, such as building blocks or painting.  These first 3 pages of lesson plans have all of the ideas that match the theme in one easy spot.  The lesson plans pages are organized by subject for easy referencing.  I've linked many of the materials listed to Amazon.com to provide you with more information about products you might want to consider using.  These packs have a lot of research behind them as I am a licensed teacher with experience teaching PreK-2nd Grade for 10 years.  

Halloween Day

We had a lot of fun in Little Adventures Preschool today.  It was the first day that our new friends I and M joined the party.  Yay for more girls in my life! 

We did this fun matching activity.  It came from the Creative Resources printables, but I'm sure you could easily make your own.  The idea was to match the pumpkins that had the same face, so we talked in great detail about the shape of the eyes, nose and mouth.

 Next we played a graphing game from 2 Teaching Mommies Halloween set.  I also sent home the printable for kids to do as homework. 

 This copy I laminated and used wet erase markers to fill it in.  The boxer costume was the winner (was rolled 10 times first).  I also laminated the dice and used velcro on all the "glue" tabs.  I wanted to be able to store it flat and it seemed to work out just fine.

 One of the things that makes preschool managable for me and makes having an in-home daycare a stress for me is clean up.  I love that I can leave our mess and deal with it right after the kids go home.  So much less stress and so much more learning can take place!  This is the picture of after art time today.

 For art today we did some drawing with pencils and tracing Halloween stencils.  We also decorated our papers with Halloween stickers.  Then we added paint to the mix.  I took the idea from Little Family Fun to use cookie cutters to paint. The kids seemed to get the hang of it and like it until they decided that finger painting was better.

 So, C (will be 3 years in January) is definately the class clown.  I was helping another child wash his hands and there was a bunch of giggling at the table.  I returned to find that he had painted his hands, face and hair with a mixture of the black, yellow and orange paint.  It took all of my control to not burst out laughing.  I would have let myself laugh if it was just us, but with 6 other kids there I knew the idea would be appealing for other kids to try if I didn't hold it together. What a nut!

 If you were wondering what a paint smock over a muscle costume looks like, here you go:

 Another activity we did today was to glue pumpkin seeds onto paper.  Some kids did designs, some kids (like C) jut did blobs of glue and seeds.

 They also had the option to use the bottle or use a paintbrush to get the glue onto the paper.

 Here is everyone working so well on putting their stickers on their papers.

 We had a very delisous snack today.  Every family provided a portion of it and all the kids were pleased with it.  I was too!  It may be the healthiest thing they eat today (bananas, apples, cucumbers, zucchini hummas and homemade lemonaid).