Fall Hodge Podge 2010 Blog Hop!

Halloween is only a few days away?  Have you had some Halloween fun yet?  Today I had  six of my daughters friends and nine adults over for some fun.  While the kids colored, did a craft, and played; the moms enjoyed good conversation and some treats!  It was a fun way to start a busy Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of Halloween fun.  I hope you have a safe and fun Halloween!!!

Here are a few links that caught my eye and thought they were worth sharing...

Yes, I am watching what I eat...  but when I cheat, I may have to make this Caramel Apple Trifle

Ahhhh, more yummies...  Monster cupcakes.  Aren't they cute?  You can learn more here!

I had planned to do this...  but I hated saving these milk jugs.  I HATE clutter.  But they are very cute. 

Fun and some learning.  Pumpkin letter matching is shared by The Activity Mom, here!

 

 

Are these edible eyes awesome or what?  You can learn more at Family Fun!

 

 

Ramblings of a Crazy Women shares this skeleton...  So stinking cute with the forks! 

I love using the book, There was an Old Lady that Swallowed a Bat during this time of year.  You can see some ideas for it here.  Superheros and Princess posted this great Halloween Lunch to go along with the book.  Check it out!
 

Kindergartener's Three R's shares a fun oridinal number activity:

There are so many awesome recipes for this time of year out there...  Tatertots and Jello made an awesome collection here!  

First Grade at Last share Spooky Shape Up.  It is a math game you can make at home with an egg carton!

Happy Halloween!!!!

October... What are your kids reading this month???

Reposting!  It is October!  I love October... It is usually the perfect month! Not too cold yet in the Burgh and it is just usually pretty with the mums (my favorite flower) and the orange pumpkins against the blue sky. The cool air rocks... still haven't put on my winter shoes yet or a coat. Hoping I can wear my sandals till November.

I am officially ready for fall. I put out the Halloween/Fall decorations. My kids are at that perfect age, they go crazy over the decorations. I can hardly wait to decorate for Christmas. I love how excited they get over the littlest things. Example being, my daughter saw a pumpkin plaque hanging from our garage light and you would have thought she saw cows flying or something. It is just too cute to see how happy a little decorations can make kids. Do your kiddos get so excited about Halloween too?

One thing I do for the major holidays is collect books that suit the theme of the season. I taught for many years and owning Teaching Heart awards me with many free books from authors, so I have a great collection of books for Halloween/Fall, Thanksgiving, Winter/Christmas, Valentines day, and St. Patrick's Day. Many of the books my son has heard year after year for the seven years of his little life. One thing I do to make the book special is I pack the books up by theme with my holiday decorations. So when the books come out the kids are thrilled to see them. You would think I laid 100 new toys in front of them. They go through each book on their own and get so excited about seeing them. I keep them separate from the other Halloween books and ask they they too make sure they put the book back in the Halloween bucket.

I highly recommend that every mom and dad (teachers too - but I know most do) pack up their books into seasons and only share those special seasonal books during the holiday season. My husband the other day did not realize I had been doing this for years and said to me a few weeks ago, I can't find the Polar Express book on the book shelf... Duh, it only comes out on the holidays honey! He looked at me and said, "That is sad, it is such a good book." My thought, it wouldn't be nearly as special if we read it all year long. We don't watch Christmas shows until a month before Christmas and that is why they are so special. Same goes with books. Maybe you already pack your seasonal books up and only share them during their designated season... But, if you don't, you should try it and watch how excited your kids get over books!

If you need ideas of great Halloween/Fall books, please click here. The link takes you to my page on Teaching Heart that is filled with the BEST books for the season. It also has a few ideas to match some of those books. Enjoy & happy reading!

Moo... It's Monday!

Let's talk about plateaus!  Because I have been stuck on a diet one for several weeks and quite frankly is sucks and is so frustrating.  It's like my body won't let me go where I want it to go.  I get two pounds away from a 26 pound goal and I go up three pounds the next week.  Loose those three pounds and then gain them back.  I am on a plateau that feels like a yo-yo of sorts.  With 30 more pounds till my goal weight, it seems like Mt. Everest!  In about two months I will be at a year of changing my body.  I have to remind myself that I am down two dresses sizes, I can see muscles I did not know I had, and my scale is reading a number that is 20-24 pounds lighter than where I started... but I guess I thought it should read a 40-50 pound loss by a year.  UGH!!!

So when something isn't working and I am ready to fight it AGAIN, I go back to my favorite friend...  Google Search.  I read many articles on plateaus.  This one made the most sense...  It gives tips of how to break out of a weight loss plateau... 

1. Exercise with more intensity or exercise harder

So this year I went from walking to running in 10 miles without stopping...  My intensity has come to a plateau since finishing my last six mile race.  I know I need to do sprint intervals...  That is my solution to intensity...  No to make me do it???  hmmm...

2. Do a different exercise at least every 3 weeks...

Still doing boot camp and that changes everyday...  The intensity has picked up too since I started with a new instructor... 

3. Do your exercises longer

So I exercise 5 X a week for at least 45min each time...  So I am going to try and add 15 min. to each session.

4. Do your exercises more often

I guess there is no law that says you can't exercise more than once a day... Although I often tell myself that.

5. Workout twice a day

Like I said above.  This will be a challenge... but I will try!

6. Beat your last weight loss workout (do better than your last workout)

Ugh

7. Make sure you're eating right to lose weight

8. You need to eat less

Yeah, I know!

9. Get your Carb, Protein, and Fat ratios in check

A little science!

13. Be patient

Yeah, it's been a year... 

So, I raise my water bottle and plug on...  Mini Goal by Christmas is 10 pounds and under that weight my body won't let me get to.  I am armed with tips and a new goal...  I should get a good kick in the butt next weekend when I am trying bridesmaid dresses on.  Last time I wore a bridesmaid dress, I was a size 8 and 40 pounds lighter...  OY!

Boo Bingo!!! Free Halloween Printable

Getting ready for a preschool or Kindergarten Halloween party?  Then you need to download these fun Boo Bingo Halloween cards and calling cards that I recently put together to share. 

You can click here to download the files in PDF.

For more fall teaching ideas, click here!!

Halloween Gyphs

"Glyphs are non standard way of graphing a variety of information to tell a story. It is a flexible data representation tool that uses symbols to represent different data. Glyphs are an innovative instrument that shows several pieces of data at once and requires a legend to understand the glyph. The creation of glyphs requires problem solving, communication, and data organization." Learn more about Glyphs at Suite101: Glyphs for Kids: How to Create Glyphs

 

A Huge Halloween High Five to Kim Koehler at kckoehler12@yahoo.com for sharing this Halloween Glyph!

Here is the key for the haunted house. I do either a haunted house or a scarecrow each year. I recently had students who did not participate in Halloween, so we made scarecrows that year instead of the houses. I have the key and worksheet in Word with the neat font too. So here it is here: It is a pretty complicated glyph that I do with my third graders.

black house means I am a girl, brown house means I am a boy

tall door= I have pets, short door= I do not
skinny door= I have a computer, wide door= I do not

tall chimney= I have blonde or red hair, short chimney= I have black or brown hair
skinny chimney= I wear glasses, wide chimney= I do not

yellow moon= 8 years old, white moon= 9 years old

The number of windows equals the number of hours I go trick or treating

The number of ghosts represents my brothers and sisters

The color of my sign tells the month of my birthday

The bats flying around mean nothing but Halloween fun!

*** You can change any of these to fit with an all Halloween theme or any other questions you think of. I also have the kids put spider webs on it, but don't have any on my sample. I show them how to put the webs on using my sample and then take them off to store it. It is pretty beat up from being around for a few years, but still gets the idea across pretty well.

For More Halloween Lessons, click here!

You can find a Pumpkin Glyph here!  It is from http://www.kidscount1234.com/ ..  This site also shares a Haunted House Glyph.

Another Pumpkin Glyph!

Below is my favorite Glyph resource...

Spookly The Square Pumpkin

Meet Spookley - the friendliest square pumpkin in the patch! He's not your ordinary pumpkin. Spookley is different from the rest of the pumpkins.  All of the other pumpkins teased Spookley until he proved that being different can save the day!  Kinda like a Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer for Halloween.   ;) 

Click Here for a Spookly Coloring Book in PDF

Spookly Maze, Word Game, and Word Search Activity Sheets!

Other ideas:  Pick out rhyming words in the story.  Talk about shapes, sizes, and colors.  Patterns with different colored pumpkins. 


Watch the story here. 


Here's a super easy treat to share after reading the book.  Spookly Marshmallow treats!  Just dip the mallows in orange candy coating and top with a green tick-tac.  Attach this printable to your treat and you are ready to hand out Spookly!

  Above is the printable for the tags.  Click on it and then print!

Making Magic With Room on the Broom Lesson Idea

My kids love the Halloween story, Room on The Broom. It is about a friendly witch that has knack for losing things. Still she always finds what she has lost with a help from a friend. In return for finding what she has lost, the witch always lets the finder hop on for a ride on her broom. From a parents prospective, I love how this book teaches that acts of kindness only do you good. Towards the end of the story the witches broom breaks and she finds herself facing off with a Dragon. Luckily with the help of her friends she is saved from the Dragon. The witch then does a spell that makes a new broom... Her old broom was a junker and this broom is a Limo of Brooms.

From an educators point of view... this book is awesome: it has lots of rhyming and lots of repetition. It is a great story for retelling too.

Below are two videos that show two ways I have used the book. This is a great book for a parent to share at a Halloween party.

The first video shows how I introduce the book to my kids or my students.



The second shows how I create a magic spell like the witch did in the story. The kids LOVE this part and really think it is magic! Lots of fun... All you need is a cauldron, black construction paper, pictures of a Lily, cone, bone, and twig, and a spoon.



You will also need a treat to appear at the end. These broom pens would be my first choice... but you can do pencils or you can some sort of fruit snack. I suggest you place all of the treats in a gallon sized ziploc bag. This way you can pull them out all at once after you say the spell.








Click here for coloring sheet to match the book.

Moo.... It's Monday!

It's October now...  The month of any candy bar you want in "fun size".  Makes you feel like you can just have one and since it is mini, it doesn't really count...  So you buy the package of your favorite mini candy.  Mine would be a Kit-kat or Twix.  You put the bag of little gems up high so the kids can't reach them and tell yourself, "one a week won't hurt!"  or you put them in your candy jar on your desk for your student helpers and occasionally you may have one.  Do you really only have one?  If you do, I don't believe you! 

Being dead honest here...   those silly little fun sized bars are MY enemy.  They are colorful and cute staring at me as I make my way through the grocery store with my cart of veggies, fruit, and other variety's of clean foods...  I have to walk down that aisle and look at the pretty little fun sized bars so I can torture myself with what I won't allow myself to buy.  The Devil pops on my shoulder and tells me, "if you grab a bag of little Kit-kat's and stick them under the bags of organic spinach, no one will know... "  The Angel with a Halo made of organic yellow peppers whispers, " Except maybe your hips won't be such a "fun" size when you make your way through the bag in a week...  and if Grey's is on, that bag of fun may be half gone before the first half of the show."   Yep, the Angel is right.  It's best to leave that stuff on the grocery shelf and off my hips. 

Here are the calories for some Halloween candies:

Nestle’s Crunch - Fun Size 3 bars=210 calories
Peanut M&M’s - Fun Pack 2 bags=80 calories
M&M’s - Fun Pack 2 bags=180 calories
Snicker’s - Fun Size 2 bars=160 calories
Milky Way - Fun Size 2 bars=150 calories
Kit Kat - Fun Size 2 bars=100 calories
Hershey Chocolate Bar - Fun Size 1 bar=90 calories/ 5grams of fat
Reese’s Cup - 1 cup=80 calories
Butterfinger - Fun Size 1 bar= 100 calories
Twix - Fun Size 1 bar= 80 calories
York Peppermint Pattie - 1 pattie=70 calories
Twizzlers - 1 treat size pkg= 45 calories
Almond Joy - 1 snack size bar = 90 calories
Milk Duds - 1 treat size box = 40 calories
Butterfinger - 1 snack size bar = 100 calories
Milky Way - 1 snack size bar = 90 calories
SweetTarts - 1 treat size pkg. = 50 calories
1 Tootsie Pop - 1 pop = 60 calories
1 Tootsie Roll - 1 small roll = 13 calories

Note: Calorie content is based on 1 serving of Halloween snack or fun size packages, not full size servings found in the candy aisle.  Taken from here.

Read Don't Let Halloween Do Your Diet In

Check out Evil demons and curses live in Halloween candy. Just ask Pat Robertson