BOO!

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

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

What do you getwhen 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 andlet children add details.

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

*You can make asimilar 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 thatare pretend.  It’s also helpful totalk about things that scare us.  Ialways talk about things that scare me, and that usually encourages thechildren to open up and talk about things that scare them.  Everybody’s afraid of something, andthat’s O.K.  Make a class bookcalled “Scary Things” where each child draws their fears and dictates or writesa story about them.

THE FIVE DAYS OF HALLOWEEN

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

3 LittleWitches

(Tune:  “Ten Little Indians”)

One little, twolittle, three little witches.

Flying overhaystacks, flying over ditches.

Slid down the moonand tore their britches!

Hi, ho,Halloween’s here!

Choose threechildren 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 OurBrew

Stirring andstirring and stirring our brew…             (Pretendto stir.)

Wooooooo!   Woooooo!                                             (Cuphands by mouth.)

Stirring andstirring and stirring our brew…             (Stir.)

Wooooooo!   Wooooo!                                               (Cuphands by mouth.)

Tip-toe.  Tip-toe.  BOO!                                         (Pretendto tip-toe.)

Witch’s Stew– How about a little witch’s stew for snack.  You will need 5 lunch sacks, 1 large bowl, Cheerios, pretzelsticks, fish crackers, raisins, M & M’s, ice cream cones.  Write “frog eyes” on one sack and fillwith Cheerios.  Write “saltedbones” on the second sack and fill with pretzel sticks.  Write “dead fish” on the third sack andfill with fish crackers.  Write“toad eyes” on the fourth sack and fill with raisins.  Write “lizard gizzards” on the fifth sack and fill withM&M’s.  Place the large bowl onthe floor and make up a story about collecting all the items for your witch’sstew.  One at a time let childrencome 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 othersnack foods for any of the ingredients.)

A "NOTE" WORTHY IDEA!

I was cleaning offmy desk and found this adorable note card idea from “Mrs. Young.”  She asked each child to draw theirpicture with a black pen.  Shereduced the size and did a little cut and paste magic to get them on half asheet of paper.  On the other halfit says, “Created especially for YOU by Mrs. Young’s Kindergarten Class of20--.”  You’ll see the open versionas 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 waslucky to be invited to sing at three schools outside of Charleston in BerkeleyCounty.  I hope the kids had asmuch fun as I did!

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

 Is this cute orwhat?  The kids all had on watchesthat said, “It’s Dr. Jean time!”

 Another school hada banner.

 Here is a book ateacher 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 isDr. Jean?”  The children alldrew a picture of a different place in their community and filled in thename.  The book ended with “Wefound her at College Park Elementary on October 4^th.”  There were little paw prints on eachpage as they tracked me down.

Thank you BerkeleyCounty!

PARENT CONFERENCES

CHEERS AND GOALS

Oh, no!  It’s that time of year when you haveyour first parent conference.  Hereare a few tips that might help you. 

Cheers andGoals

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

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

*You can downloada copy of the Parent Conference Questionnaire on my July, 2011, Parent PowerPak.

"HANDY" REMINDER!

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

THANK A TEACHER!

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

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

You know, itreally bothers me when I hear reporters trashing teachers or when I readarticles about the faults of our educational system.  Those people need to visit a school and see just how HARDall 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 inearly to help struggling students – teachers shampoo the hair of children whohave lice – teachers ask relatives to give bikes to children in the classroominstead of buying them a present – teachers buy shoes or snacks for children….  Every single day there is a teacher whois making a positive difference in the life of a child!  So instead of finding fault, startlooking for the GOOD and THANK A TEACHER!

Saturday I waslucky enough to present at the Capitol District Child Care Conference.  The teachers were wonderful and sharedthese ideas:

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

(Tune:  “Think Boxer”)

Our hands onourselves

That’s what wesee.

We keep our hands

On our ownbodies.

Own bodies, ownbodies,

That’s the bestplace

To keep everyonesafe!

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

Chick, chicka,boom, boom,

Look who’s in ourroom…

Tear brown paperfor the trunk of a tree.  Usefingerprints or handprints for the palm leaves.  Cut circles out of brown construction paper and adhereVelcro to the back.  Write theletters in each child’s name on the coconuts.  Letters are removable and can be arranged to make eachchild’s name in the room.

Authostrator  (Terrie Perkins)

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

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

There was an oldwoman of skin and bones.

         Woowoo woooooo!

She lived down bythe old graveyard.

         Woowoo woooooo!

One day shethought she’d take a walk.

         Woowoo woooooo!

She walked downby the old graveyard.

         Woowoo woooooo!

She say the bonesall laying around.

         Woowoo woooooo!

She went to thecloset to get a broom.

         Woowoo woooooo!

She opened thedoor and

         BOOOOOO!

I Like Myself(Rachelle at TOAST Albany City Schools)

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

Clean Up Song  (Amy Bielinski)

Put ‘em away.

Put ‘em away.

Put your thingsaway.

Clean it up.

Clean it up

So the next timethat

You play you canfind them.

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