Whole Child Development
For the truly brave preschool teacher or parent, looking for a creative art project, I present bubble painting!! This can be a messy project, but very unique and with many opportunities for developmental growth. Directions first, benefits later.
Here’s an activity I think I picked up in a phonemic awareness book once upon a time. You begin by telling the children you have a friend who wants to be an invisible man, perhaps as a Halloween costume. (You may need to explain what “invisible means”.) Show a picture of a person (stick figures are ok) or just a face, if you’re working with younger children, drawn on a chalkboard or dry erase board. This man is not invisible at all! Tell the children that if they want to make part of the man invisible, they have to say the rhyming word. Give a few examples. If you or the children say “pies”, you erase the eyes. If you say “farm” erase an arm. Accept nonsense words (“gegs” rhymes with legs) as rhymes. Rhyme production is more difficult than rhyme recognition, so for younger children, you would say the rhyming word and give two options for the part to be erased (rhyme recognition). “What if I said “south”? Would that be the mouth or the eyes? South-Mouth, or South-Eyes?” For older children, you might say, “What word rhymes with arm?” (rhyme production)
Photo by phillip13.
I mentioned before that a pumpkin’s greatness is in part due to its hollowness. We’ve talked about floating pumpkins, pumpkin drums, and of course, Jack-o-lanterns, but perhaps best of all, a pumpkin can be hollowed out to create a bowl! You can use a cleaned out pumpkin to hold pre-made food, such as soups or a casserole, or you can actually cook in the pumpkin shell as well! Here are five festive ways to turn your gourd into a gourmet dish!
As you and your children are exploring the properties of pumpkins, you discover that the fact that they are hollow is one of their best characteristics. You find this out as you dig out their seeds and make Jack-o-lanterns. You realize it’s importance as you send even enormous pumpkins floating on water. Another great way to utilize the hollow property of a pumpkin is to use it as a drum!
Laura Numeroff is perhaps best known for her “If You Give a…” series (“If You Give a Mouse a Cookie”, “If You Give a Moose a Muffin”, etc.). Ten Step Guide to Living with Your Monster is lesser-known, though just as great. This whimsical spin on monsters explains how one should select and care for a pet monster. This book is perfect for dispelling monster fears as it exposes them for the silly characters they really are!
Laurie Berkner has a great monster song that just compels your little monsters to get up and dance! You can download Monster Boogie on iTunes, and you can listen to it with a little animated video on YouTube here. One of the great things about Laurie Berkner’s music is that you almost instinctively know how to dance to it just from the elements she uses. At the beginning, the music is staccato, and so we march with our scariest monster faces. Then during the boogie/wiggle chorus, we dance and wiggle as only a silly monster would. Often the roar at the end is the favorite part! Music and movement activities are great for transitioning, building large motor skills, as well as enjoying the creative and interpretive aspects of music. As an extension, you can have the children create drawings of a monster party with all their favorite monster characters boogying down!
For more favorite fall activities, click here!
Big Pumpkin
Piggie Pie by Margie Palatini is the perfect non-Halloween, Halloween book. It’s not specifically Halloween themed, but it is a creative combination of a grouchy, hungry witch and some sly pigs who use costumes to avoid becoming ingredients. As you read this story with your little ones, really play up the voices and point out the details in the pictures. With particularly young children, you may need to explain that the pigs are dressing up in order to trick the witch. From there, you can easily make connections with their own dress-up experiences, on Halloween or otherwise.
I would make a note of two things here. The end of the book ties this story in with the Big Bad Wolf from the Three Little Pigs. Very young children will have a hard time making that connection. You can help this connection by being sure that the children are already familiar with the story of the Three Little Pigs through previous activities, or you can just glide over it. It’s not a critical element in the story. Secondly, the witch does get upset several times in this book and basically throws a tantrum. Take the opportunity to teach social skills by pointing out her behavior and what is and isn’t appropriate behavior. It’s easy to point out undesirable behavior in a witch because, afterall, she is a witch. Don’t detract too much from the story, but if you’re seeing some similar behavior in your own children, you might give them the opportunity to be the expert and make suggestions for a better course of action for the witch. They may later realize these suggestions work for themselves as well!
This, my friends, is a work of art. And a fantastic display geometric/mathematical prowess. And it’s the sweetest pumpkin face I’ve seen in a while because it was made by one of my darling boys!
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