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. In addition, we used blocks, wooden pieces and pumpkins to make fences for our pumpkins. (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 spiders out of their web. We also made spiders out of colander bowls and pipe cleaners. 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 U. We made the U sound and talked about things that start with U. 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 went over happy and sad feelings by looking at the facial features. We then heard scenarios and talked about why someone was happy and why the other child was sad.
Books we read:
Room On The Broom
The Eensy Weensy Spider
Bats- video
Room On The Broom
The Eensy Weensy Spider
Bats- video
Bat Jamboree
Clifford's Halloween
Questions to Ask
How many legs do spiders have 4 legs or 8 legs? (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, like us on upside down? (upside down)
What words rhyme with BAT? (bat-cat or bat-mouse)
Did the little pumpkin sink or float in the water? (it floated)
Questions to Ask
How many legs do spiders have 4 legs or 8 legs? (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, like us on upside down? (upside down)
What words rhyme with BAT? (bat-cat or bat-mouse)
Did the little pumpkin sink or float in the water? (it floated)
When the spider's web gets dirty what do they do? (the spider eats it)
Reminders:
Reminders:
1. Parent Teacher Conferences-Monday, Oct. 19th and Tuesday, Oct. 20th
2. Spirit Day, Thursday. Oct. 22. Your child can wear LECC shirts or orange, yellow or green shirts.
3. 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.
4. Fall Fling- November 13th
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
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
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
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| Art Fun |
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| We made spiders out of colanders an pipe cleaners. |
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| We used small crayons to trace spider webs. |
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| Look at the spider I made! He has lots of eyeballs. |
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| We recognized and matched numbers one through eight, then we clipped them onto the spider to make his legs. |
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| We experimented with water and pipes after we read The Eensy, Weensy Spider book. |
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| The students used tongs and forks to find the spiders and get the spiders into the ice trays. |
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| Look at our bat roost. |
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| The hippos enjoyed using the Halloween stamps. |
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| Hammering tees into a pumpkin was a fan favorite! |
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| Spider, spider make a wish. How many flies are on your dish? We recognized the number and counted that many friends. |
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| Show and Tell |
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| Show and Tell |
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| It was fun to build fences for the pumpkins. |
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| We used paint daubers to find the numbers on the pumpkins. |
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| We used shape sponges to decorate our pumpkins for our bulletin board. |
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| Music Fun! |
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| It floated! |
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| We made funny jack-o-lanterns. |
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| We practiced copying pyramids using small blocks. |
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| We recognized the number and placed that many bats in the cave. |
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| We made bats for our arch. |
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| We practiced recognizing and matching letters on the pumpkins. We used a hole puncher to find the letters. |
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| We also practiced letters when making this picture using letter cookie cutters. |
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| Playdoh and halloween cookie cutters |
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| We played a I Spy game. We had to find items from the a picture. |
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| We practiced writing the letter I. |
