Hi Everyone,
It was really great for everyone to be back together this week. And such a fun week it was! We discovered early on, that it was “Halloween Week,” instead of “Halloween Day.” All week long, we have been singing Halloween songs, chanting Halloween poems, playing Halloween oriented games and dressing up in fun costumes! We hope you have enjoyed the children’s “Halloween Songs and Poems” Book. On the occasion that you may be hearing a Halloween song, we hope that this book will provide you with the lyrics you are looking for.
In this newsletter, we would like to review some of the activities the children participated in last week. In addition to Mrs. Atwater’s need to take some time away from school, we experienced some technical challenges with our computers. Last Wednesday, right after we read Fire Fighter Fred’s story, from Letterland, we heard a knock at the door. Firefighter Fred (Ray’s dad, Jeff) was standing at our door, dressed in full fire fighter gear. Jeff is a volunteer fire fighter for the Lenox Fire Department. We learned that firefighters wear 80 pounds of protective gear, have a very bright flashlight, walkie- talkies, and help people in many different ways. The children had a chance to try on his helmet and jacket to feel how heavy the gear is. Jeff answered lots of questions about fire safety and handed out red rulers and junior firefighter stickers, which we laminated and we are turning them into badges. Thank you Firefighter Fred for a fantastic visit!
Also, last week, the children decorated black bats with glitter, explored the pumpkin spice playdough, continued to decorate the “Not-a-Box”, enjoyed Pizza Friday Lunch and had a fun time playing in both classrooms. One day we played inside with our Kindergarten friends! Last Tuesday was our wonderful trip to Ioka Valley Farm! For some of our friends, the bus ride was just as exciting, as it was their first trip on a bus. We all enjoyed selecting pumpkins, riding on the spooky haywagon, learning about different seeds, and playing on the playground. Feeding the animals was also a hit! Thank you to everyone who helped out on this memorable trip. You can see a slide show of our trip on the main MyBcd site.
This week, on Monday, the children were introduced to a Math game, which included five little pumpkins. Five small plastic Jack-O-Lanterns are filled with one to five pom-poms each. The pumpkins are numbered “1 to 5.” We also introduced a flannel board Jack-O-Lantern match game and we invited the children to decorate the classroom using our reserve of Halloween decorations and/or their own creations.
One of the most involved projects of the week was making our Dancing Jack and Jackies. This involved the children following the proceeding instructions:
- Trace the pumpkin stencil.
- Cut out the pumpkin with scissors.
- Glue on the eyes, ears and mouth using black pre-cut triangular, rectangular and square paper shapes.
- Fold strips of black paper accordion style.
- Glue the black strips of paper on to the pumpkin for arms and legs.
We have dangled these dazzling dancers in our classroom for your enjoyment. We hope you enjoy the exhibit!
On Tuesday, we joined Kindergarten for a Halloween story, “The Big Pumpkin.” While we were singing and chanting some Halloween songs and rhymes, someone noticed something green and orange dancing out by the wall! It was the Pumpkin Fairy! It seemed to beckon us to follow it as it danced up passed Barrett Pond and Cole Soccer Field. It was a little shy and kept quite a safe distance ahead of us. As a group, we followed it to and through Mike’s Trail. As we rounded each corner, we would spy a glimpse of her orange skirt. Low and behold, the path we were traveling opened up to Maxymillian Field, located behind Mr. Lindenmaier’s house. The Pumpkin Fairy was right in the middle of it, doing leaps, pirouettes and lots of fancy twirls. Scattered about the field, were, what seemed to be, hundreds of tiny pumpkins. The Pumpkin Fairy had left them for us to find! Once we had gathered all of the pumpkins, we re-grouped and retold stories of what had just happened. We also wondered where the Pumpkin Fairy was off to, as she seemed to just disappear! On the way back to our classroom, we bumped into Mrs. Reid, Mr. Gore, Mrs. Hilliard, Mrs. Arienti, and even Mr. Frantz! None of them had seen it. The children were very excited and told each person we bumped into what had just happened. Madame Whalen and her French class shouted from their second floor window in Ryan Hall that they had seen it, but it just disappeared! It was quite unbelievable. Mrs. Atwater went into the classroom to retrieve something and she returned with a beautiful statue of the magical Pumpkin Fairy. Perhaps it was left behind to remind us of her visit!
On Wednesday, the children took a vote to decide which eyes, nose and mouth we would carve into our big pumpkin. They chose to make bubble eyes, a rectangle and rectangular shaped teeth. We placed a tea light in the pumpkin and enjoyed an enchanting Jack-O-Lantern while we listened to our Halloweeny stories for the rest of the week. As a special treat, before lunch, Davey and Ms. DelCarpine, from the Development Office, performed the “Thriller” dance that they participated in with 85 people in Great Barrington last weekend. We have been hearing about this fun event for a long time and we were finally able to see it! Davey and Ms. DelCarpine even taught Preschool a few of the zombie struts!
Thursday was quite the party! The children were thrilled to share their costumes and see what one another was wearing. We saw fairies, a knight, a rock star, a cheetah, a Jesse doll, an elf, a giant pet spider, a race car driver, Obi Won Kenobi, a vampire, an Indian Warrior, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Kermit the Frog, a police officer, a zebra, a clown, a fried egg, a witch and Spiderman. After reading our Halloween Morning Message and singing some Halloween songs, we ventured out to parade in and about all of the offices and classrooms on our BCD campus. Everyone was very surprised to see us! Once back in the classroom, the children enjoyed fruit, raw veggies and dip, Halloween cupcakes and cookies, mango pie (Indian style), popcorn and cider. We could barely move for French and Music! It was fun playing in our costumes all day. We should probably do this more than once each year! Thank you for all of the yummy treats!
On Friday, the children made ghost puppets, Halloween sticker collages and glow-in-the-dark chalk drawings. They also enjoyed snacking on left-over treats from our party on Thursday. We also enjoyed playing with the Halloween games and trying on costumes from our play-clothes collection. After snack, Second Grade joined us for Peer Reading. Mrs. Atwater read a beautiful hand made book, illustrated by BCD parent, guest teacher and PA member, Doria Polinger. It was a story about a Jack-O-Lantern house. As Mrs. Atwater read, Miss Guerette followed the witch’s process of cutting two doors and a window to make a winter home for the witch and her little ghost friend. At the end of the story, the children were surprised to see that when opened, the house became a jack-o-lantern! We also took some time to show them our Halloween decorations and games and talk about what we planned on dressing as for Halloween. Later in the day, we watched the Lower School children parading through Albright Hall, donning their crazy costumes.
On Wednesday, we met Golden Girl, from Letterland. She likes the color green very much and she even has green sunglasses. She has her very own go-cart and she has quite the green thumb. Growing a vegetable garden in her greenhouse is one of her favorite things to do. Golden Girl also has a goat who will probably try to eat her green grapes. As you can see, we are mainly focusing on “G’s” hard, /g/ sound. Next week, we will meet Harry Hat Man.
Some of the Books we have read over the past two weeks:
- Three Little Witches, by Sharon Gordon
- Halloween has Boo!, by Harriet Ziefert
- Witches Four, by Marc Brown
- Halloween Mice!, by Bethany Roberts
- Clifford’s Halloween, by Norman Bridwell
- Halloween Party, by Kathy Feczko
- The Stubborn Pumpkin, by Laura Geringer
- The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything, by Linda Williams
- Scat, the Witch’s Cat, by Geraldine Ross and Kurt Werth
- Shake dem Halloween Bones, by W. Nikola-Lisa and Mike Reed
Important Reminders:
- Please replenish your child’s supply of extra clothes, some children only have shorts and socks.
- Young children need a variety of foods and plenty of them! Please feel free to pack more food in your child’s lunchbox than you think he or she will eat. We never know when a child will want just a little more to eat for snack or lunch. We want to ensure that everyone has a full and content tummy!
- Water bottles are encouraged, as we can refill them when needed.
- Please remember to take rest items home and launder them often.
- Older students have outdoor time until 12:40 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Please wait until that time to allow Preschool children to play on the playground, as this is the only time they have to be outdoors during their busy day.
- Please remember to remove wet shoes and boots before entering the classrooms. This way our floors will stay dry. Thank you!
Dates of Importance:
Happy Halloween and enjoy your weekend!
Ellie and Joni
