Pumpkins! Spiders! Bats!

Hello Everyone!

Wow! We had such a fun filled week with Halloween activities, bats and spiders!!   We painted and decorated pumpkins for our bulletin board using shape sponges.  Everyone enjoyed pounding golf tees into pumpkins.   The hippos also sang songs about 5 pumpkins sitting on a gate and the witch's brew.  On Wednesday, the hippos guessed if a pumpkin would float or sink in water.  We discovered it floated! In addition, we made funny jack-o-lanterns at the easel.  We also used a hole puncher to punch out letters on a pumpkin and paint with letter cookie cutters. (goals: fine motor, following 2 step directions, shape recognition, recognizing letters, making predictions)

We began the week learning about bats and transforming our arch into a bat cave with black butcher paper.  Our hippos listened to a few videos about bats.  It was fun to look at pictures of bats in a bat cave and the different parts of a bat.  During center time, we made bats and hung them in our bat cave upside down!  We also made pyramids based on our bat book, Bat Jamboree. In addition we placed bats in a bat cave by recognizing a number and placing that many bats in the cave. (recognizing numbers, meaningful counting, fine motor, answering questions, matching)

The children also loved learning facts about spiders, from our friend, Sammy the spider. We constructed white PVC pipes to make spouts for the Eensy Weensy spider after we read our book.  The hippos enjoyed pouring water through the pipes.  The students found little spiders in sand using tongs.  We also used clothespins to match numbers and give our spider 8 legs! (one to one counting and recognizing numbers).  The hippos sorted spider rings and used tongs to get them out of their web.  We also made spiders out of colander bowls and pipe cleaners. In addition, we made spiders out of our handprint! Our sensory table contained different Halloween items that the students had to find from the chart. (sensory, fine motor, matching)

Our letter this week was the letter C.  We made the C sound and talked about things that start with C.  During gym time, we played "Spider, spider make a wish...how many flies are on your dish?"  Each student was given a number and counted that many students and that student was then the new spider and so on. (gross motor, letter and number recognition, one to one counting, following 2 step directions, letter sound and formation)   

During our 2nd Steps lesson, we learned that when we get mad, we should use our words and never hurt anyone when we are angry.

Books we read:
Room On The Broom
The Eensy Weensy Spider
Bats- video

Bat Jamboree

Clifford's Halloween


Questions to Ask
How many legs do spiders have? (8 legs) How many planets are there? (8)
Do spiders have more eyes that we do? (yes, 6-8)
When do bats sleep? (during the day)
How do bats sleep? (upside down)
What words rhyme with BAT? (bat-cat or bat-mouse)
Did the little pumpkin sink or float in the water? (it floated)

What job did you do this week? (calendar, electrician, door holder, weather, line leader, caboose, bell ringer)

Reminders:

Monday 10/20 No School

Thursday 10/23 Spirit Day-wear LECC clothing or LECC colors (orange, green, purple)

Sunday 10/26 6:00-8:00 Halloween at the Magic House

Wednesday 10/29 Theis Pumpkin & Market, 14101 Creve Coeur Airport Road

Thursday 10/30 Wear your costume to school-no masks and wear gym shoes for outside time

Friday 11/7 Fall Fling 6:00-9:00 Tropicana Lanes

Things to Practice At Home ********
When we begin to 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 the 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.  We will 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.  

Next Week:
More Halloween, Skeletons, Ghosts and Monsters

Finding spiders and using tongs to place them in 
the ice cube trays.

Getting spiders out of the spider web.

Giving the spider legs by matching and naming numbers.

Learning how to draw a spider.

We made spiders using colanders and pipe cleaners
as the spider legs.

It was fun to paint our hands to make a spider.

After reading Eensy,Weensy, Spider, the students
experimented with pipes, funnels and water

We practiced counting with our spider game.

We mixed colors to make orange.

It was fun to roll golf balls to make a spider web.

Does a pumpkin float or sing?
It floats!

As a class we practiced sequencing how to carve a pumpkin.

We played with beanie babies during music.

Weighing pumpkins

The students built with blocks, wooden sticks and pumpkins.

We made pumpkins using shape sponges.

We played a number matching game. Our other
friends hammered tees into a pumpkin.

We had fun using wooden sticks in music class.

Look at our bat roost!

Show and Tell

Show and Tell

Show and Tell

We counted bats and put them in the bat cave.

The fifth graders came for a visit. Harry has a brother 
in 5th grade.

Sydney has a sister in 5th grade.

We made bats for our bat cave.

We made pyramids based on our bat book.

We made silly faces on our pumpkins.

Black playdoh and halloween cookie cutters.

Everyone loved to hammer tees in the pumpkin!

I Spy sensory. The students looked for the objects 
on the orange card.

We painted with our HWOT letters we have learned.

It was fun to using halloween stamps.

The students picked a letter out of the bag, found it
on the pumpkin and hole punched it!

Building the letter I.