Halloween Hootenanny!

We had our class Halloween party yesterday. I wanted to have it on Monday, so the three day a week kids would be able to attend. We made candy corn people (out of a paper template, not out of actual candy corn), then snacked on candy corn! In the afternoon, we had our party. The kids' costumes were great! We had a dentist, Superman, Snow White, and a cowgirl, complete with a horse that you could strap on. legs of the wearer were the hind legs of the horse. She had a pink cowgirl hat as well.

One boy's mom forgot to dress him in his costume, and he was very upset. I asked him if he wanted me to make him one, he said yes. Unfortunately, I didn't have much to work with. I finally made a costume out of two paper plates and yarn. I poked four holes in each plate, put yarn through them, then tied it so one plate was in front, the other on his back. I drew a spider on each plate and we had a Spider-Man costume. He absolutely loved it and told every parent that came in that he was Spider-Man! His mom could have saved a lot of money on a costume!

The actual party was good. I had asked the parents to bring goodies, and that they did! We had cupcakes, cookies, juice boxes, little bags of candy, as well as goody bags that had all sorts of fun treats: pencils, box of crayons, finger puppets, etc. After some eating, it was time for the award ceremony! Everyone got an award, and they all enjoyed the certificates that I printed up especially for the occasion! The party was a success!

Unsolved Mystery: The Case of the Missing Socks

Friday was a good day. However, right when it was time to leave, a mom came in to get her son, and we couldn't find his socks. They weren't in his shoes, like everyone else's. They weren't in his cubby or anyone else's cubby. We tore the room apart looking for them, even looking in the bathroom and closet!

I asked him if he threw them in the trash, he did not. I continued to look all over the place for his socks. I was beginning to doubt that he was wearing any when he came, but his mom swore he was. I finally asked him if he ate them. He looked at me, bewilderedly and told me that he did not, and why would he eat his socks? I didn't know, but I couldn't find them anywhere!

They had an appointment to get to, so they had to leave without them. I still looked around for the socks, to no avail. I was telling one of the other teachers about it, she told me that things will disappear and then reappear in a week or two. I hope so, because this has me really baffled!

Dance Party & Dinosaur Bones!

The past week, I have introduced some fun group dances in my class. For the most part, they have been a big hit! We've done the chicken dance, the hokey pokey, and attempted a modified macarena. While I was at Target yesterday, I saw a couple of kids dance music cds, so I decided to get them. They have some great stuff on there! I tried out the cha-cha slide today, which also went over quite well! I know we'll be ready for Soul Train really soon!

In other news, we have also been continuing our unit on dinosaurs. Monday, we made stuffed dinosaurs that turned out really cute! We also painted "dinosaur bones" for the big bone hunt! The bones were actually dog biscuits. Some of the other teachers thought it was a great idea, in fact, one of them wound up with the extra dog biscuits! I'm glad they were put to good use!

Today was the big event. I had wanted to hide the bones outside, but it was raining. That nixed that idea. Instead, I hid them around the classroom. I made them wait until after calendar time, snack and dance time before sending them to find the bones. I gave each of them a paper lunch sack and sent them on their way. Some of them were rather well hidden, so if I saw that someone was having trouble finding bones, I'd point them towards some others. Everyone loved it and they all got a prize for their efforts!

Dino-mite!

October is Dinosaur Month, so I have been doing some dinosaur related activities with the kids. This week, we made a dinosaur mural, made by attaching dinosaur coloring pages to a large sheet of butcher paper. We also made dinosaur hats by taking a dinosaur coloring page, cutting around the outline of the dinosaur and attaching it to a strip of construction paper. I then attached the ends together and it made a very cute hat! I got lots of compliments on the hats.

The kids really loved the dinosaur activities. One parent told me that her son talked about dinosaurs at home the entire evening after school. Next week, we are going to paint dog biscuits white, then after they dry, I'm going to hide them. It will then be time for a dinosaur bone hunt! We had a practice hunt this week, which the kids absolutely loved. In fact, they were asking me this week when we were going to have the "real" dinosaur bone hunt.

We are also going to make stuffed dinosaurs. I found the idea and thought it sounded really cute. To go along with our theme, we watched The Land Before Time. We also did more coloring of dinosaurs, and looked at a lot of dinosaur books. I also made up a song about, you guessed it, dinosaurs! While the kids certainly enjoy it, I have a feeling that I will be tired of dinosaurs by the end of the month!

Whine & Cheese

I have no idea what happened, but I had four very whiny kids today. The goofy thing is, the things they were getting upset about were things that happen every day that usually don't bother them. At one point, two of the kids were telling another kid who was crying, that she was crying like a baby. Not two minutes later, one of those kids was crying about something. It must have been something in the water! It was like that all day. By the end of the day, I was ready to cry!

Nonetheless, we still got a lot accomplished. I put a masking tape line on the floor and had the kids try different things (e.g. walking on the line, hopping on one foot, doing a somersault) to work on balance and coordination. They did like that! We also did a project where I put food coloring in bubble solution and had them blow bubbles onto a white sheet of paper. It made for some cool spatter paint designs! We finished out the day by making friendship bracelets and dancing the chicken dance.

Let's just hope the whines are gone by tomorrow!

Out of the Mouths of Babes

The kids have said several really funny things to me, without even intending to be funny. Some examples:

One of the kids said something about the 'baby beer' in the forest in the movie we were watching.

A kid said something about how he had Superman toothpaste. I asked him if it tasted like Superman, he said yes.

One of the kids told me that he was getting a new pair of sunglasses, then he was going to be a really cool dude.

Once I was asked by a kid where kangaroos live.

When I tell a story, they will tell a story afterwards that is almost identical to the one I just told.

While they were not impressed that I could identify the movement and opus of a Mozart sonata, they were very impressed that I could balance a toy cup on my head.

One kid was wearing a baseball shirt, so I asked him about his baseball team. When I asked if he was the best player on the team, he said yes. He also agreed that he was the most modest. It turns out that he doesn't even play baseball.

When I mentioned that "Mister David" and I would be going on a plane to London in December, they all wanted to come. They then wanted to know why they couldn't come on the plane with us.

Project Pictures!

Teddy Bear Puppets















United States Maps















Karo Painting
















Magic Leaf Rubbings















Food Coloring Art















3-D Snoopy

A Galaxy Far, Far Away....

The kids love to hear stories, whether they be books that are read to them, or stories told. I enjoy telling them stories, and they like them especially since I use names very similar to their names in the stories. There are a couple of stories of mine that they request several times a day. I always start off the stories with,"a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..."

Today there was one kid left waiting for his mom to get him from school. We did a variety of activities, then decided that we would read books to each other. I read a book to him, then it was his turn to "read" to me. He opens the book and says,"A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..."

I love it!

Fire Safety, Friends & Fall

This week is Fire Safety week. I taught the kids yesterday to stop, drop and roll if their clothes were on fire. They really seemed to enjoy this, after all, it was an excuse to roll around on the floor! They were eager to show anyone who happened to stop by what they had learned! Of course, one of the girls performed this technique beautifully until her father showed up. Then, she refused to do it. Oh well!

Today, in addition to reviewing the stop, drop and roll, we made fire trucks out of a really cute template I found online! The kids colored it, I cut them out, then they "helped" me glue it on construction paper. The fire trucks turned out great, and the kids really enjoyed making fire truck noises and playing with their finished trucks.

Since the theme of this month (according to me, anyway) is Friends & Fall, we made fall wreaths out of silk leaves glued to paper plates, with the middle of the plate cut out! I went to Hobby Lobby yesterday and found some beautiful leaves for a good price. While the kids were having movie time, I took out the package and was cutting the leaves from the branches. Unfortunately, I had four very curious kids, and they were much more interested in watching me wrestle with the leaves!

I felt that the finished product was really pretty, and I will hang them up tomorrow. The downside of this project was that the dye on the leaves got all over our hands! Even now, my fingertips have a bit of a yellow tint to them, even though I've washed them several times! Oh well!