Boo!
Halloween is an exciting time in the kindergarten classroom. Students and teachers are busy preparing for fall festivals and parties, gobbling up lots of sweet treats and dressing up as their favorite cartoon character. With a little ghostly inspiration, you can celebrate every child’s favorite holiday with art projects, stories and games with a spooky, age-appropriate Halloween lesson plan.
Instructions
1. Gather the children together on a large rug or individual carpet square for spooky circle time fun. Lower the lights in the classroom and play a CD of scary Halloween sounds to create a creepy atmosphere while you read Halloween books and stories to the children.
2. Use safety scissors to cut 10 large circles out of green construction paper and use a black marker to label the circles 1 through 10 and set aside. Then cut out 10 small pumpkin shapes out of orange construction paper. Allow the students to place the correct number of pumpkins on each circle.
3. Take part in a candy corn counting and sorting game during math time. Purchase 10 small pumpkin-shaped candy holders. With a black marker write the numbers 1 through 10 on the inside of the candy holders. Purchase a large bag of candy corn and divide the candy evenly among the children and place in snack-sized storage bags. Go around the table and ask the students to put the pumpkins in numerical order and then drop the right amount of candy corn into each jack-o-lantern.
4. Play ping-a-pumpkin with the class. Line 6 large pumpkin-shaped candy holders in a row at the front of the classroom. Have the children form a line at the end of the row and take turns attempting to throw ping pong balls into the bucket.
5. Make pumpkin spice playdough during groups time. Combine 5 ½ cups of flour, 2 cups of salt, 8 tsp. cream of tartar, ¾ cups vegetable oil, 1½ oz. pumpkin pie spice, orange food coloring and 4 cups water. Mix all of the ingredients together in a large saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until smooth and free of lumps. Remove the mixture from the pan and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. You can store the mixture in an airtight container when the children are finished playing.
6. Serve roasted pumpkin seeds at snack time. Spray a large baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray. Give each child a small amount of pumpkin seeds and allow them to spread the seeds out on the baking sheet. Sprinkle the seeds with sea salt and bake for 30 minutes or until toasty brown.
Tags: candy corn, candy holders, baking sheet, black marker, construction paper, pumpkin seeds, pumpkin spice