365 Days Outdoors: Costume Day

Yarrr, mateys! This weekend, we had lots of dress-up fun with indoor trick-or-treating and a movie at the local college. 

Earlier in the day, we searched for buried letters on the sand table. Bobo said to call him captain!

Then, we visited Guffey Acres for the second time this year for Costume Day. Bobo dressed like Robin.

And Momo dressed like Elmo. They pretended to be popcorn on the Corn Popper.

They both wanted to ride in the only Pig barrel. Thank you, Corn Policeman, for saying YES!

The giant corn box was lots of fun, as always. After dinner, we bundled up and headed to the haunted trail at  a park close-by. I'm grateful I wore my cape, so the kids could hide under it when they got spooked! Fall is my favorite time to be outdoors.

Flannel Friday: The Perfect Pumpkin

Snow White and the Poison Apple

Each year, I have a special Trick-or-Treat storytime. I dress up and coordinate my costume with my son, Bobo. This was his first Halloween! So this story is an oldie, 2008, at least for him.

The Perfect Pumpkin

By Susan Dailey & adapted by Miss Courtney

From A Storytime Year

It was late in October and I wanted my pumpkin to be perfect. I found the biggest pumpkin in the patch and brought it home. Then, I began to decorate.

I put all the pieces up on the board and ask the children which would make the best eyes, nose and mouth. Each year is a different combination as I leave it up to them.

What? You don't think the perfect pumpkin would have fish eyes? Okay, I guess we can use stars. Oh, you think a crescent nose is better than a triangle? Alright, but what will we use for the mouth, then? A heart? Yeah, you're right. It really is the perfect pumpkin, now!

The End.

The patterns are available in A Storytime Year. Check out the rest of the round-up this week.

Happy Halloween!

Sensory Bin: Fall-o-ween

What's in the Bin?

Fabric leaves

Gourds

Wooden Fall food

Foam pumpkins and ghosts

Squishy eyeballs

Stretchy skeletons

Skull erasers

Jewel acorns and leaves

Test tubes with cinnamon and pumpkin spice

Red hots

When talking with co-workers about decorating this past week, I brought up our sensory bin (for the leaves). NG didn't know what a sensory bin was, so EC explained that it's a learning tool using the five senses. That statement got me thinking! In the past, I haven't focused on taste or smell within the bin so I added a couple of new things this year.

I added smell by covering cotton balls with Fall scents like cinnamon and pumpkin spice and putting them in test tubes in the bin. I added a layer of red hots for taste. YUM!

Sensory bins are always a favorite activity during school. He sorts, builds and uses his imagination to have epic battles. We also snacked on some delicious candy and made silly faces!

Happy Fall-o-ween!
Sharing at the Kids Co-Op.

Monster Door

The Pin

I saw this pin on Play Dr Mom's pinterest board a few weeks ago. It's so cute and simple, so we did it!

Our version of the monster door

What they used(I think):

Streamers (green)

Masking tape (thick)

Paper plates (white)

Construction paper (black)

I say "I think" because the pin doesn't link back directly to the post about the door. Bobo wasn't willing to wait for me to scroll through all the posts until I found it, so we improvised.

Help, the monster is eating my brains!

What we used:

Streamers (red and yellow)

Paper plates (black- iris and eyebrow)

Styrofoam plates (white)

Wall tape (I think you use it for the corners of walls)

Band-aids (neon green, orange and purple)

Bobo loves the monster door. It reminds him of one of his favorite spooky movies, Monster House, which is on our Not-so-Scary movie marathon list. Check!

Tot School: Happy Halloween

We hit Target's dollar spot, finally!

Top to Bottom and Left to Right

Monster making craft

Monster Bingo

Gel window clings- Decorating

Teddy Bear Counting

Monster pre-writing

Monster magnetic puzzles

The Pin

We pinned it and did it!

So you know how I've been waffling with the counting bears? There's a book for that! We used the counting bears to place on the pages for this math activity. Bobo's favorite part was making a rainbow with the bears. As always, decorating is a fun activity for Bobo. He loves making our house spooky.

TGIF
Read Learn Explore
Tot School

Tot School: Pumpkins and Magnets

Top to Bottom and Left to Right

Pumpkin art project

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Fall Counting Game (with dice)

Magnet Science

Counting Bears

Pilgrim pre-writing

We have black paper plates left from last year. I thought Bobo could make a regular pumpkin or a jack-o-lantern depending on his mood. He tore up the orange paper and glued it to the paper plate. This is a simple project, you can do with about any theme (apples, leaves etc.)

The Charlie Brown book is still going strong. I'll have to hide it for awhile... We finally used the counting bears! We used the dice to play a competitive game of fill up the counter. Instead of clipping a clothespin to the Fall game board as suggested, we placed our bears on each piece. So we had to match the amount on the die to the amount on the board.

Bobo's favorite tray this week was the magnet science board. He received a magnet science kit for his birthday. It has magnetic wands and marbles. I put out the metallic chips to use with the magnets. Then, I rummaged through my desk to find other magnetic objects. This is a tray, he chose to use throughout the day all week.

Magnet monster puppet

Link up with Tuesday Tots and Tot School.

Tot School: Decorating

'Tis the season for decorating! Bobo loves to look over my shoulder as I'm pinning and choosing what he'd like to work on for the week. We've seen lots of decorating ideas, so I founds some things he made last year to put around the house. 

Pictured above (from left to right, top to bottom)

Jack-o-lanterns and mummy juice box crafts

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown sticker book

Sorting skull and pumpkin glitter foam pieces with tongs

5 senses book and activity (Totes for Tots)

Counting Bears

Fall pre-writing center

Bobo's favorite activity from these trays was the Charlie Brown book. He loves it! It has window-cling type stickers to put on each page as the story progresses. If you know of any other books like this, please leave me a comment! I need them for every occasion.

I kept out the counting bears, because I'm struggling to figure out what to do with them. Any ideas?

Bobo has been asking me to participate in his activities. "Your turn." We had sorting races with the tongs. I'm really enjoying our one-on-one time. Daddy can handle the socialization, right?

Linked to the original Tot School.

Flannel Friday: Go Away Big Orange Monster

"Big Orange Monster"

Adapted by Miss Courtney

Big Orange Monster has 2 heart-shaped, yellow eyes

and a big, red mouth

2 leafy, green ears

purple, squiggly hair

sharp, white teeth

and a long, bluish, greenish nose,

But you don't scare me, Big Orange Monster!

Go Away...

long, bluish, greenish nose

sharp, white teeth,

purple squiggly hair,

leafy, green ears

big, red mouth

heart-shaped eyes

And don't come back... until Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Check out the rest of the spooky round-up on Miss Mary's blog.
Also shared at Read, Learn, Explore.

Tot School: Halloween 2012

Bobo has been choosing lots of monster and Halloween books during our weekly library visits. I've been sorting and organizing our school supplies. Add those two things together and we've been learning with Halloween type activities for the past month. 

Pictured above (from left to right, top to bottom)

Haunted house sort with black and orange jewels and bone stones
Skeleton magnetic game from last year
Coloring books with Sesame Street Halloween
Linking toys
Alien and Robot Stickers

Bobo's greatest strength at the moment is his imaginative play. Anything can become a world full of rich characters. So when I set up activities, I'm never really sure what is going to happen. Our simple sorting activity became a battle against evil with Batman as the hero.

The linking toys became a quiver for his arrows.

Bobo's other great strength is his Jedi mind trick. This kid can talk me into anything. After looking at the Halloween book, we needed to buy white body paint. Sure! Just look how happy he is, though.

Linked up with:
Read.Learn.Explore.
Taming the Goblin's Halloween Blog Hop

WMCIR: Halloween

We are still reading Monster Mash every evening. During our visit to the library this week, Bobo chose more monster books. He chose the Halloween Book by Jane Bull. I found some make-up at Menards, they also have costumes out! Bobo dressed up like a skeleton.

Algernon Graeves wants to dress as the scariest thing possible. He finds lots of options in his attic: ghost, mummy, vampire. I love the repetitive nature of the book and the juxtaposition of scary possibilities and comical outcomes.

The only white in this book are the ghosts! It is so cool. The way the story unfolds gives the child the opportunity to guess what will happen before turning each page. Bobo's asked for this one several times this week.

See what other blogger's children are reading at Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.

Tot School: Farm 4 and Halloween

Month: October
Theme: Farm and Halloween
Dates: 10/23 to 10/29

The Lessons


D is for Duck. Bobes still loves his dry-erase worksheets. I printed lots of letter D worksheets from 1+1+1=1 to accompany our Farm theme. Once he sees the letter over and again, works with it and moves with it, he usually gets it. He can pick it out of several letters, sometimes even the whole alphabet. It is very rewarding to witness his new skills.

We borrowed blocks from grandma. They are different colors and wooden, a little faded and boast soft edges from use. Bobo used the blocks to build a combine, his favorite farm vehicle.

He hunted for letters in our alphabet floor puzzle, purchased from Menards. Then, he'd bring me the ones I called out. I printed a color sheet from Kiddiddle's halloween songbook. I signed up for the newsletter from this site as I use the songs for story time. It's nice to have activities come right to your door, instead of always hunting for them. I printed a number activity, but Bobo decided to color the pumpkins black, thus making Monsters. Then, he'd wipe it off and say, "Just a pumpkin."

I set out the Farm with Locks toy. It was a gift, and I couldn't pull it up on Amazon. Bobo worked on colors, dexterity and animal noises. It also plays a couple farm songs. If you touch the rooster it says something that sounds like "moose face," but I have no idea what it's supposed to say.


Bobo's favorite Halloween creature is a skeleton. I found a skeleton decoration from Better Homes and Gardens site and thought it would make a great activity. I put it on our magnet/dry erase board. I put it together first, so he'd see what it looked like instead of just having the pieces out. He LOVED this activity. He even got daddy involved with the heavy lifting.


Art
I found a great foam Halloween stamper set from the Dollar General. It came with a black stamp pad, but I didn't trust that it would come out of or Off of everything and everyone so I used our stamp pads. Bobo's favorite activity this week was wrapping himself in crepe paper, like a mummy, then cutting himself out with his child-proof scissors.


Play
We attended a play put on by our high school drama club. You may be wondering why I would think my 3-year-old rambuctious boy could sit through a play? The play was Miss Nelson is Missing. It was adapted from the popular picture book by the same title. Bobo didn't just sit through it, he enjoyed it. The adaptation was engaging and interactive. There were so many different ages at the performance we attended and everyone had a fantastic time.

The detective who was looking for Miss Nelson came out in the audience and approached several people. He asked Bobo if he'd seen Miss Nelson. I thought Bobo might be scared, but he just nodded his head in response. The detective asked, "Well, which way did she go?" Bobo pointed towards the back of the auditorium. The detective took of running the way B pointed. It looked like it was rehearsed. My little actor!

Haunted Trail

Each year, our parks department puts together a haunted trail. You can bring the little ones through when it is still light out for a not-so-scary haunted trail. I don't have any pics of the trail. I didn't want to blind any of the actors (zombies). Bobo wasn't too scared. We talked about everything he was seeing. He did run up and kick a giant styrofoam skull. When we went back through the trail the second time, I was prepared and stopped him from causing further damage to the prop. His favorite part of the field trip was the hill at the end. He played until it was too dark to see, then I raced him to the car. He made it about half way before asking for a lift.

Books

We had to finish up our farm books since this was the last week for that theme. We read The Farmer in the Soup by Freya Little Dale and Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type by Doreen Cronin. We started Halloween books with We're Going on a Ghost Hunt by Marcia Vaughan, Mouse's Haloween by Alan Baker, Halloween is... by Gail Gibbons, Heebie-Jeebie Jamboree by Mary-Ann Fraser, I'm the Scariest Thing in this Castle by Kevin Sherry and a few more featured below.

Play Date: Halloween

Theme: Halloween Potluck
Date: 11/4/11

I'm bringing the idea of Tot Trays to the library for our weekly play dates. Since I have a whole room to set up in and tables available, I put up Tot Tables. I also attached signs with the skills highlighted for each activity.

Large Motor: Throwing
Since Halloween was Monday, I still had all the activities from our annual party out. I put out the Jack-O'-Lantern toss and Spider toss. The children could work on throwing and aiming.


Sorting & Counting
What do you do with all that Trick-or-Treating candy your child acquired? Sort it and count it, of course. I put out the candy bucket with 2 different types of candy and 6 different colors. The children can sort it into different cups and count the pieces. Under the table, I strung a clothesline and attached different colored flannel pumpkins to sort and count.


Arts & Crafts
I had the scratch-a-design pumpkins left, so I put those out. The little ones don't necessarily understand making different shapes or designs, but they love to scratch the black off the pumpkin to find what is underneath. These are great for pre-writing and logical thinking.


Fine Motor
Stamping? I bought Halloween stampers from Oriental Trading to put in the treat bags for our party on Monday. I'm sure the extras won't last until next year, because the ink will dry. These work with Fine Motor because the children have to pull off the top of each stamper, before commencing to stamp.


Language Building
Books, of course! I put out all my story hour board books with simple words in them. I set out the magnetic board with letters on it. I intended the children to copy words out of the books with the letters. I think they came up with their own words, though. I saw several names on there!

Sensory Station


I made my first sensory bin for the library! I made a "Buried Treasure" bin, and I used sand (don't tell the custodians). I found some beautiful white rocks/beads left from a teen program and started hunting for other things to put in there. I found a treasure box, a telescope and sparkly jewels. I put in some clay tools to draw in the sand with or to dig and scoop.


Music
It's xylophone time! I have two real xylophone sets with drum sticks. I heard lots of happy music coming from the children's area, today. I put out the sheet music to "Three Blind Mice" with the note letters written in (thanks, Deb). If I practice, I may add a performance piece to story time.


Just for Fun


I set out the mats in the middle of the room with our customary box of toys. I think everyone gravitated there first before branching out to the stations. Everyone had lots of fun and hopefully met some new friends. Next week, the library will be closed for training, but come the following week (11/18) to try out some new activities!