Happy Halloween! (H, 5, Pentagon)

Our theme this week was "Happy Halloween" and we focused on the letter Hh, the number 5 the shape pentagon.

We got to compare the weather in October this year and last year. I love getting the kids thinking about what is different and the same about the two graphs. We always have such good conversation. I like this activity, because I also thinks that it makes them realize that what we do at morning meeting really does matter.

We read this week:  Scaredy Cat Splat by Rob Scotton
                               What Was I Scared Of by Dr. Seuss (Last in The Sneetches and Other Stories)
                               Curious George Goes to a Costume Party by Margret and H.A. Rey
                               Mouse's First Halloween by Lauren Thompson
                               Duck and Goose Find a Pumpkin by Tad Hills

Our question of the week was "What is your favorite candy?" This turned out to be a little tough for them to answer, they had trouble picking just one!

For our theme of the week, we actually didn't talk about Halloween that much. We did a little bit, but we focused more on pumpkins this week. I just have to say, I rediscovered that fresh pumpkin is one of my favorite smells. This of course prompted all of my kids to repeatedly come over and smell the cut open pumpkin. =]


First we cleaned out our large class pumpkin and separated the pulp from the seeds. Their faces when they stuck their hands in the pumpkin were priceless! The class voted on how I should carve our pumpkin. A silly face won over Frankenstein and sad face.

After we cleaned it out I roasted the seeds using a recipe that I found on this blog. I never would have thought to boil them in salty water first, but man, did it help make those shells nice and crunchy! My few kids who were adventurous really enjoyed them.

Each child in my class got a small pumpkin that they got to paint. I gave them white, blue and green paint and let them paint however they wanted. I love how each child does just how they want to.

I found the idea to "plant" a pumpkin from this blog. AMAZING! Just put dirt in the pumpkin and let the seeds sprout. Genius! I cut the pumpkin open and we talked about what was in there, what it looked like, what they thought about the inside of the pumpkin. Then they each got to put some dirt in the pumpkin... and we're just waiting for a sprout! (All that day they kept coming to tell me that we didn't have anything growing yet. I don't think they really believe me that it's going to take a couple weeks. =])

We had our school Halloween Parade, which is always fun, and the kids really love to show off their costumes. It's always nice to have a fun school day like Halloween.


I drew a cross section picture of a pumpkin. We talked  about the different parts and they colored it. I was sad that i forgot to save some of the raw seeds to clue on, so we used some macaroni to represent the seeds and pieces of string for the pulp.

We talked a lot this week about the shape pentagon. I couldn't find a song, so I wrote one like others that we sing to the tune of "frere jacques"

"This is a Pentagon, this is a Pentagon.

How can you tell? How can you tell?

It has five sides that are the same size,

it's a pentagon, it's a pentagon."

The kids practiced recognizing pentagons out of other shapes.

When we worked on our number activities, we practiced writing the number and word for the number 5.

I made these worksheets that reinforces the one to one concept. The kids practice writing the number and have to color a square for each picture that they see. (I forgot to take a picture =[)

We also used a color by number page with the numbers 1-5. My kids are really getting good at this, and it's only the second/third time for them! They are getting better and sitting and listening for the directions, working at their own pace. I love it!

For our letter activities, we used our handwriting sheet for the letter H,  and the sheet that helps work on letter recognition, both are from books that are mentioned in the "All About Me" post. The students also wrote in their journals for the letter H.

We turned a H into a Horse

We played Monster Munch. The kids have to feed the monster candy, but he only likes to eat "h" candy.

We freeze danced and hopped to music.

For our alphabet wall we made hummingbirds and watched this video. I watched this with my kids last year too. It has great imagery of the hummingbird up close and in slow motion. We talked through the video about what they were saying. At one point we were standing up and "feeling" the difference between eagle bird flaps and hummingbird figure 8 wing movement.

And with the H addition, our wall now looks like...

Here are the words we came up with this week!

Up next week: The letter Ii, the number 6, heart and "Farm Animals".