BOO!

What kind of pie do ghosts like to eat?  Booo berry, of course?

What are the birds giving out for Halloween this year?  “Tweets!”

What do you get when you take the inside out of a hotdog?  A hallow weenie!

Handprint Art – Trace around children’s hands and feet on white paper.  Glue to black construction paper and let children add details.

Ghost Busters – Cut ghost shapes out of white paper.  Write letters, numerals, words, or whatever skill you want to reinforce on the ghosts.  Staple ghosts to a bulletin board and let the children identify the information as they swat the ghosts with a fly swatter.

*You can make a similar game from a file folder.  Glue a hand to a craft stick and use to swat the ghosts.

Scary Things – Halloween is a good time to talk about things that are real and things that are pretend.  It’s also helpful to talk about things that scare us.  I always talk about things that scare me, and that usually encourages the children to open up and talk about things that scare them.  Everybody’s afraid of something, and that’s O.K.  Make a class book called “Scary Things” where each child draws their fears and dictates or writes a story about them.

THE FIVE DAYS OF HALLOWEEN

Although Halloween is weeks away, here are some “boootiful” and “spooktacular” ideas to scare up some smiles and fun in your classroom!!  I realize that some people think Halloween is bad and evil, but to me it’s just an excuse to dress up and have fun.  It also gives children the opportunity face their fears and discern real from pretend.  An interesting thing is when asked, “What was your favorite holiday growing up?” most adults will say that (after Christmas) Halloween was the most fun.

3 Little Witches

(Tune:  “Ten Little Indians”)

One little, two little, three little witches.

Flying over haystacks, flying over ditches.

Slid down the moon and tore their britches!

Hi, ho, Halloween’s here!

Choose three children to be witches and act out the song.  Make brooms by rolling up several sheets of newspaper.  Tape.  Cut down 8” from one end and fluff.

Sitrring Our Brew

Stirring and stirring and stirring our brew…             (Pretend to stir.)

Wooooooo!   Woooooo!                                             (Cup hands by mouth.)

Stirring and stirring and stirring our brew…             (Stir.)

Wooooooo!   Wooooo!                                               (Cup hands by mouth.)

Tip-toe.  Tip-toe.  BOO!                                         (Pretend to tip-toe.)

Witch’s Stew – How about a little witch’s stew for snack.  You will need 5 lunch sacks, 1 large bowl, Cheerios, pretzel sticks, fish crackers, raisins, M & M’s, ice cream cones.  Write “frog eyes” on one sack and fill with Cheerios.  Write “salted bones” on the second sack and fill with pretzel sticks.  Write “dead fish” on the third sack and fill with fish crackers.  Write “toad eyes” on the fourth sack and fill with raisins.  Write “lizard gizzards” on the fifth sack and fill with M&M’s.  Place the large bowl on the floor and make up a story about collecting all the items for your witch’s stew.  One at a time let children come up and dump the contents in the bowl.  Stir with a spoon as you sing the above song.  Serve in ice cream cones.  (Hint!  You can substitute peanuts, miniature marshmallows, or other snack foods for any of the ingredients.)

A "NOTE" WORTHY IDEA!

I was cleaning off my desk and found this adorable note card idea from “Mrs. Young.”  She asked each child to draw their picture with a black pen.  She reduced the size and did a little cut and paste magic to get them on half a sheet of paper.  On the other half it says, “Created especially for YOU by Mrs. Young’s Kindergarten Class of 20--.”  You’ll see the open version as well as what it looks like folded in the photo below.  What a great idea for notes to parents, thank you notes for school volunteers, etc.

Hint!  These could be run off on cardstock, seasonal colors, or plain white paper.

HOORAY FOR BERKELEY COUNTY!

Tuesday I was lucky to be invited to sing at three schools outside of Charleston in Berkeley County.  I hope the kids had as much fun as I did!

The teachers all made me feel so welcome that I wanted to share these ideas with you.  If you ever have visitors to your school, I’m sure they’ll feel as appreciated as I did.

 Is this cute or what?  The kids all had on watches that said, “It’s Dr. Jean time!”

 Another school had a banner.

 Here is a book a teacher made as a take off on “The Cool Bear Hunt.”  It’s called “We’re Going on a Dr. Jean Hunt.”  Each page had this repetitive question, “Is Dr. Jean at restaurant, store, etc.?  No!  Where is Dr. Jean?”  The children all drew a picture of a different place in their community and filled in the name.  The book ended with “We found her at College Park Elementary on October 4^th.”  There were little paw prints on each page as they tracked me down.

Thank you Berkeley County!

PARENT CONFERENCES

CHEERS AND GOALS

Oh, no!  It’s that time of year when you have your first parent conference.  Here are a few tips that might help you. 

Cheers and Goals

Give children a piece of paper.  Have them fold it in half and write “Cheers” on one side and “Goals” on the other side.  On the “Cheers” side encourage them to draw pictures of three things they have learned that make them feel proud.  (Older students could label these and younger students could dictate descriptions.)  On the “Goals” side children draw pictures of three things they are working on.  Again, they can write sentences or dictate goals to the teacher.  Having this and other samples of children’s work is a great way to start a conference.

Another strategy that I used as a teacher was the “Parent Conference Questionnaire.”  Ask parents to fill out a form similar to the one shown and bring it to the conference.  If they show up empty handed, simply smile and give them another one to fill out before you get started.  This will guide the conference starting with the positives and working through areas the child needs to work on.

*You can download a copy of the Parent Conference Questionnaire on my July, 2011, Parent Power Pak.

"HANDY" REMINDER!

When I visited my daughter a few weeks ago I noticed that she had several things written on her hand in ink.  I had forgotten that I used to do the same thing!  When you have a classroom of children, parents, colleagues, schedules, plus personal responsibilities you can’t keep everything at the front of your mind.  But, you can write it on your hand with a pen and that way you won’t forget.  You don’t have to write a complete sentence – usually a word or two will do the trick.  They might think it’s a tattoo for some alien clan at the grocery store, but it will wash off with soap and water.

THANK A TEACHER!

Last Friday I flew into Albany and I arrived early enough to do a free concert.  (Katie read about my offer on my blog and took me up on it.)

WOW!  Was I impressed with the Balston Spa School District!  They have more great projects and programs going on for children than I’ve ever seen!  One thing that really amazed me was how well behaved the children were.  They are doing something called PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention and Support) and it’s working!   I don’t usually promote commercial programs, but if your school has issues with classroom management and behavior you might want to check it out.

You know, it really bothers me when I hear reporters trashing teachers or when I read articles about the faults of our educational system.  Those people need to visit a school and see just how HARD all of you teachers are working!  And the children are doing their very best as well!  Nobody is slacking off!  Everybody is hard at work – with their “heart” at work.  Teachers come in early to help struggling students – teachers shampoo the hair of children who have lice – teachers ask relatives to give bikes to children in the classroom instead of buying them a present – teachers buy shoes or snacks for children….  Every single day there is a teacher who is making a positive difference in the life of a child!  So instead of finding fault, start looking for the GOOD and THANK A TEACHER!

Saturday I was lucky enough to present at the Capitol District Child Care Conference.  The teachers were wonderful and shared these ideas:

Our Hands on Ourselves  (Rhonda Haynes, Albany YMCA Child Care Center)

(Tune:  “Think Boxer”)

Our hands on ourselves

That’s what we see.

We keep our hands

On our own bodies.

Own bodies, own bodies,

That’s the best place

To keep everyone safe!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!  (Melissa Allen, Albany, NY)

Chick, chicka, boom, boom,

Look who’s in our room…

Tear brown paper for the trunk of a tree.  Use fingerprints or handprints for the palm leaves.  Cut circles out of brown construction paper and adhere Velcro to the back.  Write the letters in each child’s name on the coconuts.  Letters are removable and can be arranged to make each child’s name in the room.

Authostrator  (Terrie Perkins)

Terrie was reading to a group of children one day and they were discussing the author and illustrator of the book.  It happened that was the same person, so a little boy came up with a new word – AUTHOSTRATOR!  Don’t you love it?

Terrie also shared this Halloween chant where the children add the “Woo, woo, wooooo,” after each verse.

There was an old woman of skin and bones.

         Woo woo woooooo!

She lived down by the old graveyard.

         Woo woo woooooo!

One day she thought she’d take a walk.

         Woo woo woooooo!

She walked down by the old graveyard.

         Woo woo woooooo!

She say the bones all laying around.

         Woo woo woooooo!

She went to the closet to get a broom.

         Woo woo woooooo!

She opened the door and

         BOOOOOO!

I Like Myself (Rachelle at TOAST Albany City Schools)

After reading a book called I LIKE MYSELF each child picks out a favorite body part and Rachelle takes a super close up picture of that body part.  On an 8” x 10” piece of paper write “I like my ____” on each picture.  Laminate and hang together to make a quilt or class book.  Children learn to track print and are motivated to learn to read words.

Clean Up Song  (Amy Bielinski)

Put ‘em away.

Put ‘em away.

Put your things away.

Clean it up.

Clean it up

So the next time that

You play you can find them.

Clean it up…(Continue singing until children have finished cleaning up.)