Moo... It's Monday!!! Swith that candy with the Witch!!!

No matter how high I put that bowl of candy...  I can still hear it calling my name.  One more day and my kids will pick out 12 pieces and the rest will go to work with Daddy!  Not only does it call my name...  It knows the name of my kids.  Thus, my kids are sneaking candy and asking for it non-stop! 

This article will help you realize that candy is no good...

It tells us the facts:

-The average child gains 2.2 pounds of weight all because of the candy!!!  They don't tell us what the adult gains...  How many pieces have you had today.  I have had three pieces...  UGH!!!!

-"This is according to a seven-year study by the University of Colorado, which also found the average Halloween haul of sweet stuff in a single evening is 22 pounds, about the candy limit most experts recommend for one year. And that doesn't even address the parental weight gain that results from dipping into the treat basket. "

Read more...

Have you heard of the Switch Witch???  My neighbor was telling  me about this and I am thinking of doing this!  You may want to get the book below too and start this Holiday Tradition with your kids.

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!

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

More Yummy Halloween Printable Activities.

Last night, I posted the Halloween pretzel activity here.  Here's another one using Betty Crocker Halloween Fruit Snacks (found  these at Sam's Club! 46 Pouches in a box)  It is a little more advanced.  I would use it with support in grade K and 1st.  Second and Third graders should be able to do this independently.  The activity is two pages and should be printed front to back. 

Te activity looks like:

You can click here to print it.

 

For more fun with Halloween Yummies, click here!!!

 

Pretzel Bats and Pumpkins Sort and Graph

Learning is so much more fun if you can eat it!!!  The holidays always offer us lots of fun yum!  Click here to view some ideas at Teaching Heart.

A Teaching Heart visitor told me about these pretzels and asked if I could create a simple Pre-K to K level activity sheet to use with them!  Of course and here it is...

Click here to download the sheet.  I found the pretzels ad Sam's Club.  They come in a large box of 40 packs! 

You could have fun with this activity at home or at school!!!

Crazy for Candy Corn...

Halloween is almost here

goblins and ghosts, oh the fear!

Pumpkins, black cats and witches too,

Bobbing for apples and witches brew.

So jump for joy and sound the horn,

relax and have some candy corn! - Author unknown

One of my favorite things about Fall is Candy Corn... I love them. They are pretty, cute, and not to mention yummy. They are so cute that you can find crafts, lessons, recipes, and printables all dealing with Candy Corns. Now, if only they were healthy like carrots. I thought I would share some of my favorite links to candy corn fun!

Favorite READS!!



Check out the book The Candy Corn Contest by Patricia Reilly Giff for some interesting reading as well as exercises in logic. In the book, a student can't stop thinking about his class contest. Whoever can guess the exact number of yellow-and-orange candies in the jar gets to keep them all. The only catch is that each guess requires the student to read a page of a library book.

Use the picture book Julius's Candy Corn in a candy math lesson plan to teach Kindergarten students how to count to ten and solve subtraction problems. Read more:
http://primary-school-lesson-plans.suite101.com/article.cfm/candy_corn_kindergarten_math_lesson_plan#ixzz0V5e3zVRc

Candy Corn Ideas!

Check out the math fun ideas at Curious and Creative Kids.

Candy Corn Fun Recipes

These little ricecrispie candy corns are so cute and well explained here at Lick the Bowl Good!

Have a Ball with these Candy Corn Balls!

Skip to My Lou featured some more candy corn yum here!
Printables for Learning

Look at the fun Candy Corn Printables found at http://www.mrsnelsonsclass.com/

Candy Corn Art Project: Click below to download the candy corn art project.
Candy Corn Art Project (yellow) - (.pdf format)
Candy Corn Art Project (orange) - (.pdf format)
Candy Corn Art Project (white) - (.pdf format)


Candy Corn Center Activities: These center activities were shared by Trudy from ToddlerVillage. The activities include number matching puzzles, letter matching puzzles, and a color word game. Click below to download and print the center activities.
Candy Corn Center Activities - (.pdf format)

Letter "C" Candy Corn Coloring Page

Candy Corn Crafts

Candy Corn Paper Craft

Skip to My Lou shares an how to make a candy corn favor craft.

Now, go grab a handful of candy corn...

You Need to Set Your DVR for these Halloween Shows!

Monday, October 26

Nick Jr: “Haunted Halloween Playdate” for preschools airs this day, with brand-new premieres of The Backyardigans at 8:30 a.m. and The Wonder Pets! at 10:30 a.m.

Nicktoons: “Ha Ha Halloween” presents Halloween-themed episodes of Back at the Barnyard at 9:00 p.m. (ET) and an hour of The Penguins of Madagascar at 10:00 p.m. (ET). from Monday, Oct. 26 through Friday, Oct. 30 and a spooky marathon of shows on Halloween day.

Tuesday, October 27

ABC: It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown will air at 8:00 p.m.Wednesday, October 28

NBC: A new half-hour holiday special based on Monsters vs. Aliens airs this night at 8 pm. The Halloween special is called “Monster vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space.”Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Kiefer Sutherland and Rainn Wilson will be returning to voice their characters from the original film.

'Little House on the Prairie' The Halloween Dream: HALLMRK 1 Hour TV-G 4:00PM

Edible and La-La-La Halloween Treats!

I have two sweet treats to share and one la-la-la treat to share... These make great Halloween favors for a party. Also great treats for your kiddos to share with their friends at school.

Here are two sweet treats... One is a ricecrispie bar on a stick dipped in white chocolate and sprinkled with Halloween sprinkles. The other is a Nutter Butter Ghost. Just get a package of Nutter Butters, dip in white chocolate and place two mini chocolate chips for ghosts eyes... aren't they cute?

Both of my kiddos schools prefer a non-edible treat to be shared. My daughter is sharing her favorite fall, Halloween, and Thanksgiving songs. Below is the CD she will give to her friends at her school Halloween party.

Last year I shared these treats... click here!

What's your favorite Halloween favor or treat?

Graphing Fun Halloween Style

Trick or Treat? Okay, here's a treat, if you like free printables from Teaching Heart!!!



Above is a fun cut and paste graph I created first for my second grade classroom and later used it with my first grade son. You can use this in your classroom for a fun Halloween activity or use it over the weekend at home to keep your kiddos happy and busy. They won't even know they are learning important graphing skills.
First they cut out the pictures. Next they glue the pictures on their graph. Finally they answer the questions about the graph.

* Graphing for Halloween - Click Here to Download the Sheets!

Need more Halloween fun for your classroom? Try: http://www.teachingheart.net/halloweenlesson.html

Teaching Heart has great ideas for graphing...


*What is your favorite fall activity?
Free from our Graphing CDROM
Download the free printables at P1 - P2 - P3

Playing Footsie with Witchie

I saw a cute craft idea over at Ramblings of a Crazy Women... I love little crafts you make out of little feet tracings and little hand tracings. I always have my kids make reindeer's on the holidays out of their cute feet and hands. So when I ran across this craft idea, I tweaked it and made it a little different and got my kiddos to make two cute witchies from two cute footsies. Ta-da!

How to make your little Footsie Witchie...

Trace your Kiddos Foot.

Draw a hat to match (or for the older one's, let them draw the hat)

Color Both the hat and the foot black.

Cut out a green circle, Two green rectangles for arms, a red long rectangle for a stick

Use hay for the bottom of the witch's broom

Glue it all together and add eyes and a mouth. The kids had Halloween stickers and gave the witch something to hold in her other hand.

Don't forget to write your kiddos name and age on the back. Pack them away with your Halloween decor and get them out every Halloween and play Footsie with the Witchie. Put your kiddos feet on the witch each year to see if they have grown!

Hey have you read Room on The Broom yet? This would be a fun read before or after you do this craft. Here is a fun idea to match that story and that would go along with this craft.

Spooky Cookies Sort & Graph

I found something good at Oriental Trading. They are called Spooky Cookies. They are so cute and they come with a good amount in each package. My kids think they are yummy and at only 7g of sugar per package, I am happy to give them the treat. Perfect Halloween snack for graphing (K-2) and sorting (Prek-1). Of course, I made a sorting sheet and graphing sheet I will share with you. So hop over to Oriental Trading and order those cookies for your class or or a Halloween party. Not only will the kids say yummy, they will be learning too!

Print the sorting sheet

Print the graphing sheet

For more learning fun with Halloween yum, try here!

Halloween is gone & Christmas is Coming...

Halloween was so great this year. The weather was fantastic and my Darth & Minnie both had so much fun Trick or Treating. Then we ended the night at the neighbors by the fire pit. The kids watched a projected movie outside while the parents drank spiked apple cider. Great way to end a great night. It kept mommy away from the candy dish!

When I got home from the neighborhood party I was a little sad. Halloween always marks the end of my favorite season... fall ! Then starts me thinking about all the things I want to do before Christmas. Luckily I had the chance to remember fall by myself today.

My husband was away on business most of last week (including the weekend) and I felt it my right today to spend the day doing whatever I wanted while he watched the kids. I will probably try to see if I can get away with it on Sunday by reminding him that he will be away again in a few days. Anyhow, alone time was great today... I got Teaching Heart orders shipped, shopped, spent time catching up with friends, shopped, and read! While I was shopping I started to see the Halloween stuff coming off the shelves very quickly and the little store elves replacing the Halloween loot with Christmas loot. My mind started to race... Today all the Halloween stuff is 75% off, by Monday we will start seeing Christmas commercials and carols will be playing on the radio. My holiday to-do list is flashing in my head.

Make it stop!!!!

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

Get your DVR's and popcorn ready! It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, by Charles Schulz will be on ABC @ 8pm on Tuesday, 10/28 - Yep that's tonight! This Peanuts Halloween treat includes Charlie Brown finally getting invited to a Halloween party, Snoopy battling the Red Barron and Linus awaiting the Great Pumpkin. Always a holiday tradition in my house!

Go here to color a picture from the show.

Check out this one too.

How well do you know "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown? Play the Great Pumpkin trivia game to find out!

Celebrate "It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" and get into the Halloween spirit by sending an Ecard and downloading a wallpaper!

Carve a Charlie Pumpkin, like this one!

How about eating Snoopy Chow while you watch???

SNOOPY PUPPY CHOW Ingredients:
1/4 lb Butter
1 c Peanut butter
1 lb Box powdered sugar
1 lg Box Crispix® cereal
12 oz Package milk chocolate chips Directions:Melt margarine, peanut butter and chocolate chips in microwave on medium for 2 minutes or until melted; stir. In large bowl, pour mixture over cereal and stir to coat. Dump powdered sugar in a grocery bag; add coated cereal and shake until powdered sugar is absorbed. Store in air-tight container.

Hopefully you will enjoy the show tonight...

Keep Them Busy - Pumpkin Baggies

Do you see our little pumpkin hanging on the tree?

Just thought I would share a simple fun activity that will keep the kiddos busy. By now you may notice a theme with my kiddos activities... "Keep them busy so mom can sit back and watch..." Not sure if it a good parenting tip or a poor one. It works for my son because if he is busy he stays out of trouble (trouble meaning bothering his sister). Thus, mommy stays nice and happy and doesn't loose her cool. Same goes with my daughter just on a different level. Of course my favorite activities are the ones I set-up and then sit back and watch or read or type while the kiddos keep busy.

So here comes another Keep Them Busy activity...

These baggies were in sale at my grocery store. They are like the mini versions of the large leaf pumpkin bags. My six year old had a blast stuffing them and then I would hang them on the tree.

My 2 1/2 year old didn't enjoy it as much... she would rather just play in the leaves. Plus I think it involves some fine motor skills that she is not quite ready for yet... The baggies are pretty small and you have to push the leaves in while stuffing and closing the baggies. We will try again with her next year.

If you try this activity, I hope your kiddos find it as fun as my son found it. He is all about decorations and I just love how excited he gets about halloween!

It's a Ghost!!! BOOOOOOO!!!!

Boo to you! Ghosts can be scary... but the one's I have been seeing online are way cute...

Check out what my crafty friend Nancy made!! Look at those cute yummy ghosts. She made these last year. I just came across the picture and I thought I would share them. If you like them and want to make them, you can view the directions/recipe at BlissfullyDomestic.

Look at these cute ghosts too at Taste of Home.
Watch a video and learn how to make ghosts with your kiddos.

I thought these ghost cookies were cute over at No Time For Flash Cards, but the author did not.

Have you seen the ghost marshmallows around? They are hard to find... I found some at Target in September and haven't seen them since... You know how ghosts can be? Anyhow, if you do find them, you can have your kiddos sort and graph them. You can download my sorting sheet and graph here

Here is an easy ghost craft you can have the kiddos make on their own. This may keep them busy if you tell them to make enough to hang out on a tree in your yard. You can learn how to make these at Activity Village!

You know I love to tie a story into all activities! Go ahead and read The Teeny-Tiny Woman : A Ghost Story with your kids. Looking for more halloween reads, click here.