Halloween

Check out our Halloween Mountaineers Discovery session!

This week we .......

Dug for creepy crawly spiders hiding in the sand. We used magnifying glasses to decide if they were poisonous vampire zombie bugs (most of them were!).

Turned orange balloons into jack-o-lanterns with black vivid.

Made these scary looking mummies out of cardboard rolls, paper towels, and googly eyes. Look here for instructions.

Played with our orange Halloween playdough.

 

Used our imaginations and dressed up to scare each other.

Practiced our fine motor skills and created these amazing spider webs by using string and a large plastic needle.

Coloured and cut out these amazing skeleton masks. We love masks.

Made these these cute foot print ghosts.
Taking of and putting on shoes and socks is a good self-management skill to practice.

Blew dangerous and explosive bubbles with our poisonous 'witches brew'.

When I select activities for discovery I try to provide children with a variety of activities that will stimulate their imagination and give them opportunities to practice a range of skills that we may not be able to do everyday as part of our learning program.

Activities like dressing-up or taking off our shoes to make a footprint allows children to practice their self-management skills by putting on and taking off clothing, and opening and closing snaps, zippers, or buttons.

Sand, water, and playdough provide children with a sensory experience. This article explains about the importance of sensory experiences.

"Sensory experiences provide children with the opportunity to feel good about their decision-making skills - they control their actions and the experience. Self-discovery occurs as children become eager scientists. They take pride in their predictions, make observations, and respond to their findings. In addition, children learn to cooperate and work together around the sensory table. As the children work together or side-by-side, they learn to understand someone else's viewpoint. The children also have the opportunity to express themselves and become confident in sharing their ideas with others. Children need an opportunity to try out their emerging concepts about their world in a safe environment as well as have appropriate outlets for relieving tension. Pounding, squishing, feeling water through their hands are all ways of staying in contact with feelings while learning to control what he does about them."

Different art and craft activities give children an opportunity to practice skills like colouring, cutting, and gluing. They are able to practice and refine their fine motor skills like the pincer grip (part of holding a pencil), as well as their hand-eye coordination.