Halloween Fun Day!
Hey, everybody! Today I am going to tell you what my class does each year on Halloween! We call it Halloween Fun Day, and it is LOADS of fun! We invite parents to come down and volunteer to help, and then we run a fun rotation of Halloween themed activities with parents running each station. The parents and kids all LOVE it!
We start our day off with a fun Halloween costume parade, with the children marching around the Kindergarten yard with spooky music playing, and all of the parents taking lots of photographs, of course!
I LOVE to see the children so excited in their costumes! They are definitely beautiful little people, and there is no better time to be a Kindergarten teacher than on Halloween! (The only problem is the sugared up day AFTER Halloween! Oh, no! Well, let's not talk about that right now!)
This is one of my favorite costumes! His parents told me that his big sister LOVES to dress him up, and he is very cooperative in that he will wear just about anything! He told me that he was dressed as "a nerd." LOL! I am so bummed that this picture came out blurry!
This little sweetheart came dressed up as a bee! I was sick with PINK EYE on Halloween the year that she was in my class. I was SO sad to miss the festivities!
After the parade, we bring everyone inside and sing our Halloween Song for the parents gathered there. Of course, that is one of the highlights of the day for the kids and the parents! They all love watching their kids perform for them, even if it is quite brief and informal. Its the song that we learned when we made our Halloween Book.
We also sing the Black Song, because it is spooky sounding, too.
Another great song to sing at this time is the Letter V song, which is really the same tune as the Halloween song, but with different words. But the kids don't care!
We also really like the number eight song, from the new Number Jumble DVD, because it is the Eency Weency Spider song turned into a spelling song for the number eight. BUT, we made it spooky sounding by putting it into a minor key. Just wait 'til you hear it! You can get all of these songs on iTunes or Vimeo, or on our website by the CD or DVD.
Then we give directions for all of our centers. There are four of them, but we usually combine two different short activities into one of the centers, so there are a total of five activities. We rotate through them every twenty minutes or so. I have to say that EVERY year, there have been so many volunteer helpers that I have not even had to do anything at all except for take pictures, direct traffic, and put out an occasional "fire," if you know what I mean! It's really a fun day. Here are our activities!
Trick or Treat Bag
This project is quite simple. We just give the children rectangles and squares, and the cut off the corners and glue them down to form an owl, a cat, and a moon. Then they glue on a paper that says, "Trick or Treat!" We used to do this on small lunch sized bags, but they really don't hold up well if you use them for trick or treating, so we switched to large bags from Trader Joe's that have handles on them. The children's names are already glued on ahead of time. Here is a picture of the finished bag:
Here are the cutting dimensions if you want to make this project:
2" x 2" Yellow (moon)
2½" x 2" Light Brown (owl)
1" x 1" Orange (owl feet)
2½" x 2½" Black (cat body)
1½" x 1½" Black (cat head)
We just use corner scraps for the cat's ears and tail. Since we used to make this project on small lunch bags, the pieces are probably a bit small. You could probably bump them up a bit if you wanted to.
Jack-O-Faces Poem Stick Puppets
Here are some cute little stick puppets that we make to go along with this poem:
Jack-O-Faces
"This is Jack-O-Happy,
This is Jack-O-Sad,
Now you see him sleepy,
Now you see him mad!
This is Jack in pieces small,
But in a pie he's best of all!
To make these stick puppets, each child just needs five three inch squares of orange paper and some craft sticks. The children cut the corners off of each square to form a circle, and then glue them onto the sticks. The one that is "in pieces small" has to be cut into a few pieces before it is glued onto the stick. And for the very last one, the children need two triangles pre-traced or xeroxed onto orange and brown paper to make a piece of pie. We give them "crazy scissors" to cut around the brown piece to make it look like pie crust. Since there are usually plenty of parents to help, we have them use a hot glue gun to attach the pieces to the sticks so that they will adhere very quickly. Then each child has a ziplock bag with their names already on them, and the put them into their bags and put them away.
Here is one of my students with his stick puppets. Doesn't he look pleased with himself???? The kids sure had a good time!
Boo! (The Halloween Game!!!)
Another center in our rotation is our Halloween Boo! game! I love this game, and so do the kids! It is the MOST fun way to practice more, less, and equal that I know of! You play it in a small group. But it also has cards to have the children practice sight words, color words, and numbers 0-20 as well. Plus, there are blank cards at the end so that you can change the game to whatever you want, too.
The dealer gives each child a card in turn. The children identify the cards in turn, but if they get a "special" card, they get to do something fun, such as fly like a bat, or get a treat, etc. It's always a hit!
Marble Paint Spider Webs
Another activity that the children just love is painting spider webs with marble paint! To prepare this activity, all you have to do is pre-cut some black circles out of construction paper so that they are the right size for some pie tins. You'll also need to cut some small pieces of colored paper (about 1.5 square) for the spider bodies and some little pieces for the spider legs.
Then get some marbles, spoons, and white paint. The children pull a marble out of a cup of white paint with the spoon and drop it on the black construction paper circle and roll the marble around. Then they remove the marble and then cut the corners off of the colored paper and glue it down. Then glue down eight legs on the paper!
Decorating Pumpkin Shaped Cookies
The last thing that we did on our rotation is decorate pumpkin shaped cookies! (Well, okay- they were circular! But who cares?) The children spent half of their rotation time decorating their cookie, and the other half making their marble painted spider web. The parents all donated the supplies for this activity, and also for a snack that the children had halfway through the day.
As you can tell, the children had a wonderful day- and so did the adults! We also took their pictures in their costumes, and told some "scary" stories later in the day. But I think I have told you enough for now!
Have a wonderful week next week! :)
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We start our day off with a fun Halloween costume parade, with the children marching around the Kindergarten yard with spooky music playing, and all of the parents taking lots of photographs, of course!
I LOVE to see the children so excited in their costumes! They are definitely beautiful little people, and there is no better time to be a Kindergarten teacher than on Halloween! (The only problem is the sugared up day AFTER Halloween! Oh, no! Well, let's not talk about that right now!)
This is one of my favorite costumes! His parents told me that his big sister LOVES to dress him up, and he is very cooperative in that he will wear just about anything! He told me that he was dressed as "a nerd." LOL! I am so bummed that this picture came out blurry!
This little sweetheart came dressed up as a bee! I was sick with PINK EYE on Halloween the year that she was in my class. I was SO sad to miss the festivities!
After the parade, we bring everyone inside and sing our Halloween Song for the parents gathered there. Of course, that is one of the highlights of the day for the kids and the parents! They all love watching their kids perform for them, even if it is quite brief and informal. Its the song that we learned when we made our Halloween Book.
We also sing the Black Song, because it is spooky sounding, too.
Another great song to sing at this time is the Letter V song, which is really the same tune as the Halloween song, but with different words. But the kids don't care!
We also really like the number eight song, from the new Number Jumble DVD, because it is the Eency Weency Spider song turned into a spelling song for the number eight. BUT, we made it spooky sounding by putting it into a minor key. Just wait 'til you hear it! You can get all of these songs on iTunes or Vimeo, or on our website by the CD or DVD.
Then we give directions for all of our centers. There are four of them, but we usually combine two different short activities into one of the centers, so there are a total of five activities. We rotate through them every twenty minutes or so. I have to say that EVERY year, there have been so many volunteer helpers that I have not even had to do anything at all except for take pictures, direct traffic, and put out an occasional "fire," if you know what I mean! It's really a fun day. Here are our activities!
Trick or Treat Bag
This project is quite simple. We just give the children rectangles and squares, and the cut off the corners and glue them down to form an owl, a cat, and a moon. Then they glue on a paper that says, "Trick or Treat!" We used to do this on small lunch sized bags, but they really don't hold up well if you use them for trick or treating, so we switched to large bags from Trader Joe's that have handles on them. The children's names are already glued on ahead of time. Here is a picture of the finished bag:
Here are the cutting dimensions if you want to make this project:
2" x 2" Yellow (moon)
2½" x 2" Light Brown (owl)
1" x 1" Orange (owl feet)
2½" x 2½" Black (cat body)
1½" x 1½" Black (cat head)
We just use corner scraps for the cat's ears and tail. Since we used to make this project on small lunch bags, the pieces are probably a bit small. You could probably bump them up a bit if you wanted to.
Jack-O-Faces Poem Stick Puppets
Here are some cute little stick puppets that we make to go along with this poem:
Jack-O-Faces
"This is Jack-O-Happy,
This is Jack-O-Sad,
Now you see him sleepy,
Now you see him mad!
This is Jack in pieces small,
But in a pie he's best of all!
To make these stick puppets, each child just needs five three inch squares of orange paper and some craft sticks. The children cut the corners off of each square to form a circle, and then glue them onto the sticks. The one that is "in pieces small" has to be cut into a few pieces before it is glued onto the stick. And for the very last one, the children need two triangles pre-traced or xeroxed onto orange and brown paper to make a piece of pie. We give them "crazy scissors" to cut around the brown piece to make it look like pie crust. Since there are usually plenty of parents to help, we have them use a hot glue gun to attach the pieces to the sticks so that they will adhere very quickly. Then each child has a ziplock bag with their names already on them, and the put them into their bags and put them away.
Here is one of my students with his stick puppets. Doesn't he look pleased with himself???? The kids sure had a good time!
Boo! (The Halloween Game!!!)
Another center in our rotation is our Halloween Boo! game! I love this game, and so do the kids! It is the MOST fun way to practice more, less, and equal that I know of! You play it in a small group. But it also has cards to have the children practice sight words, color words, and numbers 0-20 as well. Plus, there are blank cards at the end so that you can change the game to whatever you want, too.
The dealer gives each child a card in turn. The children identify the cards in turn, but if they get a "special" card, they get to do something fun, such as fly like a bat, or get a treat, etc. It's always a hit!
Marble Paint Spider Webs
Another activity that the children just love is painting spider webs with marble paint! To prepare this activity, all you have to do is pre-cut some black circles out of construction paper so that they are the right size for some pie tins. You'll also need to cut some small pieces of colored paper (about 1.5 square) for the spider bodies and some little pieces for the spider legs.
Then get some marbles, spoons, and white paint. The children pull a marble out of a cup of white paint with the spoon and drop it on the black construction paper circle and roll the marble around. Then they remove the marble and then cut the corners off of the colored paper and glue it down. Then glue down eight legs on the paper!
Decorating Pumpkin Shaped Cookies
The last thing that we did on our rotation is decorate pumpkin shaped cookies! (Well, okay- they were circular! But who cares?) The children spent half of their rotation time decorating their cookie, and the other half making their marble painted spider web. The parents all donated the supplies for this activity, and also for a snack that the children had halfway through the day.
As you can tell, the children had a wonderful day- and so did the adults! We also took their pictures in their costumes, and told some "scary" stories later in the day. But I think I have told you enough for now!
Have a wonderful week next week! :)
-
----------------------------------
Follow me! Did you enjoy this post? Do me a favor and share it with your friends! And follow this blog by signing up for my email updates here, or follow on Bloglovin', or follow me on TPT! I'm also on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and YouTube, too! Don't forget to sign up for our email newsletter for special deals and promo codes that you won't find out about anywhere else.
