Hippo Headlines

We began the week having fun with ghosts!! We did an experiment involving spinning ghosts. The children voted on which ghost they thought would spin. We counted and compared the numbers. Then the class discovered that the ghost with the paper clip and arms folded in opposite directions was the one that spun! Each child brought a ghost home. Try holding the ghost from different heights and letting it go to watch it spin. We also used shaving cream to write our HWOT letters and thought of words that rhyme with the word BOO. After reading, Ghost's Dinner, we played with different colored water using ice trays and pipettes, matched ghosts feeling cards, sat and spun on the sit and spins like spinning ghosts and colored ghosts using different colored markers. We then asked what their ghosts would eat and drink, just like in the story. During gym, we made a ghost pyramid and rolled our bodies to knock it over. (sensory, fine motor, gross motor, letter recognition and formation, rhyming, sensory)

We also used candy corn to practice positional concepts and we used play-doh and spaghetti straws to string spider rand bat rings. Everyone had fun going on a pumpkin letter hunt in the hallway! We also signed in to what we liked the best.....bats, ghosts, or pumpkins. We then counted and compared the numbers. In addition, we matched pumpkin shapes, made a jack-o-lantern out of tangram pieces, sequenced the steps in making a jack-o-lantern and sequenced pumpkins 1-8. (recognizing letters and numbers, comparing, shapes, matching, fine motor, sequencing)

On Wednesday, we had fun learning and playing with skeletons through puzzles, play-doh and bones (straws), making letters out of bones (Q tips), counting bones (Q-tips), using skeleton arms to grab eye- balls, breaking bones (cutting white paper strips) and connecting bones ( PCV pipes). We learned some important facts about bones such as they are used to support our body, our thigh bone is our largest bone, and the tip of our nose and earlobe do not have bones. (problem solving, letter and number recognition, one to one counting, cutting)

On Thursday, we explored monsters and discussed how they are not real. We read a few monster books, made monsters with playdoh and noodles, traced letters on our monster board and sorted monster eyes. In addition, we made monsters using a spoon and paint. We painted on one side of the paper, then folded the paper over and rubbed it. It was fun to discover our monsters as we unfolded the paper. We also wrote in our journals about what we likes best....spider, pumpkin or a ghost.

The students enjoyed feeling and cutting green cooked spaghetti noodles. The students also washed little pumpkins with soap. Our sensory table contained water beads and large goolie eyes. (fine motor, safe behaviors, sensory, following directions)

Our letter of the week was C. We went over the sound and things that begin with this letter. As we made this letter and all the other letters we have learned, we focus on starting our letters at the top! The students traced this letter as we watched our video about the letter C! During our 2nd Steps lesson we learned angry, scared and surprised feelings and how we can tell how someone is feeling based on their facial expressions.

Questions to Ask Your Child?

What color did the ghosts turn when they drank chocolate milk, from our book, Ghost's Dinner? (brown)
What did we wash using a toothbrush? (pumpkins)

What did we hunt for in the hallway using our clipboards, bats or pumpkin letters? (pumpkin letters)

In our book about a skeleton, did seeing the skeleton in the mirror get rid of his hiccups? (yes)

What is our biggest bone, the thigh bone or the hand bone? (thigh)

Is milk or juice good for our bones? (milk)

Do we have bones at the tip of our nose and in our ear lobes? (no)

Books We Read:

Big Pumpkin
Ghost's Dinner

Skeleton Hiccups

Go Away Big Green Monster

Their Was An Old Monster Who Swallowed a Tick

Reminders:

1. Magic House-Friday, Oct. 23rd from 6:00-8:00. It is free and only open to LECC. No need to RSVP.

Parents and children under 2 are free. Children over 2 are $12 in advance and $15 at the door.

2. Halloween parade at LECC at 9:30. You are welcome to come and watch. Your child may wear their costume to school. Please no masks and wear gym shoes because we have recess and gym.

5. The LPA is hosting their Fall Fling event Friday, November 13th from 6-9 at the Budweiser 703 club at Busch stadium. Funds raised at the event support teachers’ classroom funds for the entire school year. If you only attend one LPA event this school year, make it this one! Can’t find a sitter? We’re partnering with WashU grad students to help make connections. See the link below for tickets and more info. Fall Fling 2026

Next Week: More Halloween activities

Things to work on:

Continue working on self help skills. (putting coat on when the weather gets cooler, fixing sleeves and zipping. When we wear coats, we will practice the "hippo flip" to put them on. We put the coat on the floor and have the students stand by the tag, hood or collar. The student puts their arms in the sleeves and flips it over their head and on the coat goes!! The student then tries to get the zipper first without asking us for help. Once they try and are having trouble then we can help. Also work on teaching them to fix their sleeves that are inside out! We say to put your hand in your sleeve, grab the end of it, then pull it out hard so it is not inside out anymore.

Enjoy the pictures below! We had such fun learning, exploring and being together!