PUMPKIN CARVING AND PUMPKIN COOKIES

THURSDAY 

The children arrived to find a skeleton was occupying  bathroom number 3 and had one of the  pumpkins on his lap while sitting on the toilet.  This created a lot of excitement and laughter in the class.  The children decided we needed to decorate the bathroom for Halloween.  

 We made a giant spider for our haunted bathroom. Friends helped each other cut the spider out and staple the legs on before hanging it from the ceiling.

After creating pumpkin faces yesterday the children had a clearer idea of what  type of face they wanted me to carve on our pumpkin.  We voted, of course, on what types of eyes, eyebrows, nose, and mouth it should have.  

We also voted on our choice of book.  Today they had to choose between Frankencrayon by Michael Hall and The creepy pair of underwear by Aaron Reynolds.  

 The creepy pair of underwear won with ten votes.  Another landslide victory.  

QUESTIONS

Can you remember whey the creepy underwear were happy, and why they were angry?

What shape eyes, nose and mouth did we carve on our pumpkin?  

Did it look happy, sad, angry or silly?

FRIDAY - COMMUNITY DAY

SURPRISE! We changed the dress up to a doctor's surgery. The doctors were busy examining the body.  Deciding where the organs should go and bandaging broken bones.

Students found one of the sensory tables had been filled with a strange orange substance.  Is it a liquid or a solid?  Push or hit it quickly, and Oobleck acts like a solid.  If you slowly move your hands in the substance, it acts like a liquid.

Green bubbly water, bottles and eye droppers was available in the other sensory table.  Using eye droppers is another way we help children this age build their pincer grip and hand and eye coordination.

At the big art table we made pumpkin cookies.  Measuring out all the ingredients before mixing them together and adding my favorite ingredient, the chocolate chips.  Gluten free, vegan pumpkin cookies with chocolate chips.  Delicious!  

At the end of the day Mr Andrews told us the story of  Abiyoyo .  A folk tale from South Africa.  Abiyoyo is a giant and the story tells of a how a little boy helped get rid of the giant.

A lot of children were excited about Halloween.  Prompting my question:

What is Halloween?

Brooklyn: It’s when you put on costumes.

Kaia: It’s in 3 days. No, tomorrow!

Ren: When you go trick or treating.

Eli: It’s a thing when you put up Halloween decorations and you go trick or treating.

Lucy: When you put on scary costumes.

Livio: It’s a special kind of day when you put on costumes and you go trick or treating.

Charlotte: When you go outside and you eat candy.

Annie: When you put on your costume and go trick or treating with pumpkin buckets.

Jenna: When people put on costumes and they go outside to wear costumes.

Max: When the scary monsters come out.

Ms. Small: Are they real or pretend?

Max: They're pretend.

QUESTIONS

How did the little boy get rid of Abiyoyo?

Can you remember what costumes your classmates will be wearing for Halloween?

PUMPKIN FACES

 As children entered the room we had a chinese shadow puppet show play on the whiteboard               called  Mouse and cat.

Inspired, the children created more puppets.  Taking turns to be the puppeteers and the audience. 

Halloween cookie cutters were out for students to use with the playdough.  I sampled a lot of delicious bat and pumpkin cookies.

Each child was called over to the big art table to create a pumpkin face.  What type of face will it be,  happy, sad, angry, surprised, or silly ?

We offered two books by Lisa Jahn-Clough  for voters.  We counted four votes for Simon and Molly plus Hester and seven votes for Alicia's best friends.

Ms. Small: What makes a friend a friend? How do you make a friend?

Charlotte: You tell them your name.

Livio: You could say, I’m Livio. Would you like to play with me?

Ren: I can say, Hi, can I play with you? But what if they say no?

Ms. Small: What is our welcome rule?

Charlotte: Everyone can play with each other

Max: If someone wants to play with you, you can’t do anything mean.

Brooklyn: If you want to play with someone, you need to tell them.

Eli surprised the class at the end of the day by joining us on the playground.  I think I am correct in saying he will join us permanently starting tomorrow.  

Everyone is so excited!

QUESTIONS

What type of face did you decide to give your pumpkin?

What happened in the mouse and cat shadow puppet show?

PUMPKIN SEEDS

 Using ten frames we counted all of our pumpkin seeds.  I requested that each child count at least ten seeds.  Most of the class counted more than ten and were excited to see our final number.  

Our grand total was 657 pumpkin seeds

Shadow puppet making is a new station.  We wrapped white fabric around the loft and attached a flashlight to shine on one side of the fabric.  

Friends traced around and cut out animal shapes.  They taped the animals to  popsicle sticks and tested them out in the shadow room.

The books we were voting for today were Strictly no elephants by Lisa Mantchev and Simon and Molly plus Hester by Lisa Jahn-Clough.

We had 6 people vote today.  Strictly no elephants won with 5 votes. 

QUESTIONS

Can you remember one of the 'P' words that was added to our list today?

How did the little boy and elephant deal with being excluded from the pet club?