Halloween Week

We took a bit of a break from our formal school lessons the week of Halloween.  Grant was off school on Monday, so we packed it with a lot of fun Halloween activities.

I read the kids this book:

 Afterward, they got to draw faces on these pumpkins I had drawn on the chalkboard.  This was a fun activity, and it also gave them a chance to draw out faces to see what they wanted their actually jack-o-lantern to look like.

Next, they used a print-making technique to make some jack-o-lanterns.  They dipped toilet paper tubes in black paint, applied them to paper, and let them dry.  Once the circles had dried, they used black sharpie markers to draw all different kinds of faces.  Once all the faces were drawn, they colored them in.
 

Grant's Pumpkins

Johanna's Pumpkins

Julia's Pumpkins

I also took them through step-by-step how to draw the pumpkin picture below. First, we started drawing the shapes in pencil, then went over the pencil with sharpie markers, and finally colored them in.

Mom's Drawing 

Grant's Drawing

Johanna's Drawing

  

Julia's Drawing

 I enjoyed seeing how different they all came out.

We also made some quick, and fun, mummy lanterns.

After lunch, we carved our pumpkin.

Eewww....

It's not so bad....

On Tuesday, it was just the girls and I again, and I read them this book:

Afterward, the girls made some spider webs by rolling around a marble that was coated in white paint on top of black paper cut out to fit inside a cake pan.  They loved doing this!

While the paint was drying, they drew spiders.

Johanna's Web

Julia's Web

(They thought they needed to draw some bugs that had been caught, so that is what all those other little things are on the webs.)

On Wednesday, the girls and I went to Grant's class, which was having their Fall Party, and I led the class through two fun Fall inspired activities.  Once we were done with that, the girls and I came home, and then got ready for Halloween night.

On Thursday, Johanna took some time to review all the letters she has learned so far.

It was a fun week, but we will be back to business next week!

Halloween 2012

We had a busy, but fun, Halloween.  The girls and I went to Grant's class in the morning, and I led the kids in two fun activities for their Fall class party.  Afterwards, the girls and I came home, had lunch, began getting ready for Halloween, packed up the car, and then went to pick up Grant from school.  From there we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house to eat dinner, and then go trick-or-treating.  

 Grant was a viking, but he had to add a skeleton hand to make it at least a little bit scary, Johanna was Spider Girl, and Julia was an emerald fairy.

 Cousin Abby was an 80's aerobic instructor. How cute was that?!

  

Johanna hanging out with Uncle Jeff.

  

What are we waiting for? Let's go!

  
Here is the pumpkin the kids and I carved based on Grant's design. It was supposed to be a Captain America theme, but the girls still wanted it to be a "cutie" pumpkin, so we added a "cutie" smile with one tooth.  We also put out the mummy lanterns we made earlier in the week.

It was a beautiful night for trick-or-treating.  Once we were done, the kids enjoyed a few of their goodies, then we changed them into their pj's and made the drive home. They all slept well that night, but Grant had a little trouble getting up the next morning for school.

J and B

The week of October 22 followed along with our regular school day routine.  I add some additional fun Halloween songs to circle time, and Johanna continued with French lessons, penny whistle lessons,and writing practice.

On Monday, I told Julia, and Johanna, the next installment of the Super Sam story.  This week they have their Harvest Festival, and Super Sam brings pumpkin cookies, and tells a story about Jack Frost.  

I also introduced Johanna to the letter J.  We talked about the sound it makes, and she practiced writing it out. 

I told her how Katie collected water in Jugs for her family, and then I read her the fairy tale, The Water of Life.

After I finished with the story, Johanna and I drew pictures in our main lesson books.

Mom's Drawing

Johanna's Drawing

 


On Tuesday, Johanna and I did a lot more fun activities with the letter J that went along with the poem in this book:

We acted out the poem, we clapped on the letters that began with J, Johanna did some juggling, we said the verse, "Jack be nimble, Jack be quick", and played a jumping game along with it, and finally we thought of some names that started with the letter J.


She also told me what she could remember about The Water of Life, and I wrote a summary of the story in her lesson book.

Since we were working with the letter J, I thought it would be a good time to show Johanna how to write her name.

The girls also helped me make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.


On Wednesday, I introduced Johanna to the letter B, by telling her the story, How the Bear Lost It's Tail.

After I was done with the story, we drew pictures in our main lesson books.

Mom's Drawing

Johanna's Drawing

On Thursday, Johanna re-told me the story of How the Bear lost it's Tail, and I wrote a summary in her lesson book.

We also did some more fun activities to re-enforce the letter B from the LMNOP book.

Hapkido Kids

Grant had been more reluctant to go to his Hapkido classes since starting school.  He explained it was because he had less playtime with his sisters.  Once he gets to his class, he really enjoys it, and he is REALLY good at it, so we didn't want him to stop going all together.  We had been thinking about starting Johanna in the summer, but thought we would go ahead and start her, then Grant wouldn't have to worry about missing playtime with her.  Not wanting Julia to feel left out, we decided to enroll her, as well, wondering how a four year old would do in the class.  

We suited them up, and took them to their first class on Monday, October 15.  On the drive there, I was thinking to myself again that Julia was just too young for this, and my thinking was correct.  While she had fun in the class, it was because she was talking to the girl next to her and rolling around on the mat, while Master Koch was instructing the rest of the class.  Needless to say, we decided to wait for another couple years with Julia, but Johanna has enjoyed her first few weeks.