Little Busy Bodies Preschool
Newsletter
October 24 & 26, 2011
Dear Preschool Parents,
Halloween is upon us and the children are SO excited! I can remember how magical holidays seemed as a small child. In an attempt to bring that same magic and joy to the fall season, we read two festive stories this week.
The first story we read was "The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything," by Linda Williams. It’s a great Halloween story although it doesn't have the word Halloween anywhere in the texts. An old lady sets out to gather herbs and spices, nuts and seeds. On her way back, she encounters two shoes, but she tells them “Get out of my way, you two big shoes! I’m not afraid of you,” and she keeps on walking. She also comes across a pair of pants, a shirt, two gloves and a hat. For each consecutive article of clothing she encounters, the little old lady responds in the same way, which allows for lots of repetition and action. The children LOVE to join in the storytelling of this book! Each article of clothing makes a sound as they try to scare the old lady: “…Two shoes go CLOMP, CLOMP…the pair of pants go WIGGLE, WIGGLE…the shirt goes SHAKE, SHAKE…the two gloves go CLAP, CLAP…the hat goes NOD, NOD…and finally a scary pumpkin head goes BOO! BOO!” After a while, the old lady begins to walk faster and she becomes more afraid. She takes off running for home. Once at home, she overcomes her fear and finds a happy solution. The items that have tried to scare her become a scarecrow in the little old lady's garden. The children used actual articles of clothing as well as poster pieces to help retell this story. This activity is always a winner with the children.
The second story we read this week was “The Teeny Tiny Ghost,” by Lynn Munsinger. This was a new read for me this year and a keeper for sure! Meet the teeny, tiny ghost and his two teeny tiny black cats. He attends ghost school where he is trying, unsuccessfully, to learn the ropes of haunting. He howls and he yeowls, boos and whoos but he consistently succeeds only in scaring himself silly. One night, he hears some suspicious knocks and noises at his door and sees some spooky lights and shadows. He wants to hide, but when the teeny tiny black cats get scared, he rises to the challenge, faces his own fears and lets loose with his best, bone-chilling BOOO!!! to scare away the spooks. A wonderful revelation results! After reading this story, we did a listening craft activity where each child made their own ghost. I usually try to stay away from the adult directed projects where everything is pre-cut and basically done by the adult. However, these were too cute! Plus, I felt that this activity was quite beneficial in teaching a few things: listening, following step-by-step directions, using a glue stick (it’s more difficult than you’d think), and discussing shapes, sizing and colors.
REMINDER
*KING/ QUEEN OF THE WEEK SEPT. 2nd & 4th: Rome…Don’t forget snack!! I will take care of snack on Monday, October 31st due to our Halloween party.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
*NOV 4-Preschool Make-up Day
*NOV 18-Preschool Make-up Day
*NOV 21 & 23-NO SCHOOL THANKSGIVING WEEK
THINGS TO COME
*OCT 31-HALLOWEEN PARTY…Come in costume!!!
*NOV 2 & 4-Colors
THANKS TO THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO OUR WORD WALL!! KEEP THE WORDS COMING! J
Have a good weekend! Sincerely,
Amber
