Capilano Playschool: Hallo-week

This week was our:

Mon & Wed Pumpkin Harvest Festival
Tues & Thu Halloween Party

We started the week and ended the week with making spooky Halloween Houses for our craft.
The children used their little fingers to poke out the left over pieces in the foamies before gluing them onto our square + triangle = Houses. They really enjoyed using their imagination to add which ever Halloween shapes to the houses.

We sang exciting songs and read fun stories about skeletons and pumpkins and talked about cats and bats!
I love Halloween because it exposes children to different sounds to work on language development. Even with children who have naturally developing language, it is always good to expose them to silly songs and books that let them manipulate and practice sounds with their mouths. The ghosts said “BOO!” the angry cat said “Fffffft” and the witch cackles “HeeHeeHee”

We also spent time in our last circle learning about prepositions. We moved the spider in to the pumpkin, the cat under the pumpkin, as well as beside, behind, in front and even on the left of the pumpkin and the right.

Today was the beginning of a new month. This raised amazing questions from our T/Th class even I had a tough time explaining. We noticed during out first circle that the calendar was completely empty. One child knew specifically what the new month was and delivered it with a nice hand high in the air. But he wanted to know “what comes after November?” Another child asked why we start with Sunday? And lastly, a child asked why we change the month. It gave us a wonderful chance to talk about patterns, and prediction. It was a very complex conversation to have, but they assured me they understood. I feel so proud when kids become inquisitive to ask what comes next.

Our Festivities!

On Tuesday October 30^th our T/Th class came in to celebrate Halloween. On Wednesday October 31^st the Christian program came in to celebrate all the food God helps us grow and share.
The children came dressed in various costumes that were very well planned out and extremely adorable.
We started the day with our regular routine to offer consistency, predictability and comfort to our children. We didn’t get to do craft since we used our party time to make a little something. This gave the children lots of time to play with our center and class toys, and go to the gym to run and use our gross motor skills. Before parents arrived we did a circle. In our last circle we try to do a book, a game, a song and show and share.

During our last circle the children got to buy their OWN pumpkin.
We sat in a circle so I could offer each child a penny. We talked about different things parents use money to buy. One child said “my costume” and another said “our candy for Halloween” Then; I put out as many candy pumpkins as there were children. I told the children they were not allowed to eat their pumpkin until all of their class mates had bought their pumpkins – oh the joy of teaching patience! When they all promised we sang:

"Down at the pumpkin patch, what did I see? 9 little pumpkins stairing at me! Along came _____child’s name_____ with a penny one day, they bought a pumpkin and took it away”

They really loved waiting for their turn to put the money into my penny bag, and choose a pumpkin.
After show & share we collected as a group to wait for our wonderful parents to come in and watch us sing “5 little pumpkins”
To accommodate the Christian program, I did keep the spook factor away from the song and had changed a word – the song goes:

“5 little pumpkins sitting on a gate, the 1^st one said “OH MY, it’s getting late”
The 2^nd one said “there’s a chill/ there are witches in the air”
The 3^rd one said, “but WE don’t care”
The 4^th one said “let’s run and run & run”
The 5^th one said “I’M READY FOR SOME FUN!”
Ooohoooo went the wind & (CLAP) out went the light & the 5 lil’ pumpkins rolled out of sight.

From there the parents clapped and applauded, I feel it really added pride to the children’s hard work to memorize that song – which was their favorite.
It was a lot of fun to see the children engage in activities with their families for our party. We had ghostly bowling, pin the spider on the spider web, and get the ball in the pumpkins mouth as well as pumpkin shapes for the children to decorate with stickers. The families brought healthy snacks for us to share in a buffet style.