Week 3 and More Halloween Fun

October 27th was a Wednesday. It was the day after the ward festivities and the parade at the Library (I think I forgot to mention that. Reed and Eve wore their costumes (or most of them) all day because in the morning we had a library parade and at night we had the ward party). It was also the day that I was in charge of preschool.

The theme was Halloween - fitting, of course. I had lots of ideas and finally narrowed down what I was going to do. I was a little anxious about how it would all go, but it turned out great!

The kids played until every body showed up. Then, they all sat on my Veggie Tales table cloth (from high school) and we did songs and finger plays. We did a scarecrow finger play, a pumpkin song, and a counting Halloween song. Then, I told "The Chocolate Chip Ghost." The kids got really into the story. I let each child hide a ghost. Then, when the mom ghost was looking for her ghosts, each child found the ghost they had hidden. It worked like a charm! (I forgot pictures of the ghosts - I will have to do that. They turned out cute!)

After our stories and songs, we had a snack. We ate apples and cut out jello into Halloween shapes. It surprised me how many of the kids did not want to try the jello at first. I think almost all of them have had jello before, but just not in that form. So, it took some coaxing, but most of them at least took a bite of the jello.

After our snack, it was craft time - making skeletons. I cut out the skeleton bodies and glued them onto black paper. Then, I put double-sided tape on the skeletons and cut up a bunch of straws. From the straws, the kids could put the bones on the skeletons. Then, they chose borders and could decorate with stickers.

Next, we had play time. These kids just love to play! It is fun how they are all at similar developmental levels. They seem to like similar things and act in similar ways. That is a pro and con, for sure. But, it was fun seeing them play together.

My sample skeleton

The kids' skeletons - not bad!

Jello Jigglers - always fun

Apples - yummy!

After a while, I called the kids over to read a book about Halloween. I learned some interesting stuff about it. The one I definitely never heard was about where the name Jack-o-Lantern came from; it came from a man named Jack who was mean and stingy. It was said that when he died he could not get into heaven, so he put a light in a turnip and wandered around. So many random ways that we get names for things.

After our story, we decorated gluten-free cupcakes and ate them. They turned out to be pretty tasty! I made the frosting (so I knew it was gluten-free) and we ended up having enough jello and cupcakes for each mom to have one as well. It was a fun little preschool Halloween party!

Decorating the cupcakes

It is serious business

Eating - not so serious, but delicious

Later that night we had more Halloween fun carving our pumpkin! We changed it up this year and did circle eyes and had both teeth on the top. We are getting crazy with our Jack-o-Lanterns! :)

Reed loved putting the cut pieces back into the pumpkin.

Eve thought it was fun to try and eat the cut up pieces. :)