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EARLY CHILDHOOD NEWSLETTER

 

Volume 3, Issue 19
October 10, 2005


THIS ISSUE'S EARLY CHILDHOOD NEWSLETTER THEME:

Halloween Fun


WELCOME! to Education World's Early Childhood Newsletter. Every other week, I'll share some ideas on a familiar teaching theme. Hopefully you will find a new activity idea or two -- or a new twist on one of your old favorites! Since I know you are very busy, I'll be short and sweet -- like most of activities I suggest.

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A WORD ABOUT THIS ISSUE'S THEME

Ghosts and goblins,
A princess and more.
Which happy children
Will reach my door?

Halloween is one of the most popular holidays with kids and grown-ups alike. How will you recognize this special day in your classroom while keeping the excitement at an acceptable level? Young children will surely love hearing a good Halloween story, and who doesn’t love trying a special Halloween treat? We’ve put together a “handful of Halloween” for you to use in your classroom, so have fun and happy pumpkin day to all!

Susan LaBella
Editor, Early Childhood Education Newsletter



ACTIVITY IDEAS

MAKE A SHAPE-O-LANTERN
Children can reinforce their understanding of shapes as they make these fun jack-o-lanterns. Give each child a large circle cut from orange paper. Provide children with black pre cut shapes -- half circles, triangles, squares, and rectangles. Encourage children to make a jack-o-lantern face with the shapes. As children glue the shapes onto the circles, they can name each shape they are using. Display the completed jack-o-lanterns and ask: Which ones have triangle eyes? How many squares are on this jack-o-lantern? And so on.

YUMMM!
Read to children Halloween Mice, by Bethany Roberts (Clarion Books). Then invite children to make their own Halloween cookies. Provide each child with a plain sugar cookie. Let each child spread marshmallow crème onto his or her cookie. Then place out in containers raisins, chocolate chips, or other candy or fruit bits. Invite children to use the bits to create funny or spooky Halloween faces on their cookies.

MAKE HALLOWEEN GHOSTIES
Provide each child with a sheet of black construction paper. Use a white crayon to draw an outline around each child’s foot on the black paper. Invite children to turn the footprint outline so the heel is at the top. Next have children fill in the white outline with white paint. Let children sprinkle some white glitter onto their shapes before they dry. Finally, encourage children to add eyes and a mouth to the heel area to create their own ghosts.

A GREAT BIG BOO!
Prepare for each child a white piece of construction paper on which you have drawn with white crayon a ghost shape and the word Boo! Have children paint a watercolor of their choice over their paper. Children love to watch the “magic” as the crayon images appear.

GREAT GAMES FOR HALLOWEEN
--- Let children crouch down in various spots in the room to look like pumpkins. The teacher walks around the room saying, “Pumpkin, pumpkin, round and fat. Turn into a jack-o-lantern just like that!” On “that” the teacher taps the head of the nearest child. That child then gets up and repeats the activity with the teacher until all children have been chosen.
--- Cut out from heavy paper a number of small pumpkin or ghost shapes. On a sheet of poster board draw a tic-tac-toe grid. Laminate the board if possible. Invite children to play this familiar game with the Halloween shapes.

PUMPKINS IN THE PATCH
Lay out 11 large sheets of green construction paper and give each one a number from 0 to 10. Cut out 55 orange paper pumpkins. Invite children to count out and place no pumpkins on patch 0, 1 pumpkin on patch 1, 2 pumpkins on patch 2, and so on.



ON THE WEB

Check out the following Web sites for more background and activities.

Trick Or Treat Safety
A listing of Halloween safety tips. Be sure to review them with students.
http://www.zeeks.com/440.html

Halloween Songs
You’ll find a nice selection of Halloween songs to teach your children. Sing out!
http://www.perpetualpreschool.com/halloweensongs.html

The Jack-O-Lantern We Carved
Print out this cute page to liven up Halloween pumpkin pictures.
http://www.preschoolcoloringbook.com/noline/nlhalloween2.shtml

Preschool Halloween Books
What a great display of Halloween books to share with your class. Bright full-color cover shots too.
http://www.everythingpreschool.com/themes/halloween/books.php

Boo-Ti-Ful Trees
Try making some Halloween Hearts!
http://www.kinderart.com/littles/boo.shtml