Halloween {Monster} Day

So, my husband and I just got home from a vacation on the East coast. My mom came and stayed with our kids. They had a great time and didn’t even notice that we were gone. I left our Halloween week preschool plans and she was wonderful and did them all with the kids. Thanks Mom!!

 

• Read “Happy Birthday, Frankie” by Sarah Weeks
  1. My kids think this book is hilarious. I liked it too. A little girl tries to put Frankie together, using the song “The head bone’s connected to the neck bone…” but she finds out it’s harder than she thinks to get him put together in the right order
• Read “My Monster Mama Loves Me So” by Laura Beck
  1. If you’ve never read this one you should. A cute little monster mama story.

• Preschool Journal Halloween Page
  1. Practice writing “Monster”
  2. Draw a picture of a monster!
  3. Stick monster stickers all over page. If you’re looking for monster stickers, Amazon has some here.

• Monster Math … inspired by Oopsey Daisy’s Monster Pack
  1. Cut a mouth shape out of a small paper plate.
  2. Staple it to another small paper plate.
  3. Have the kids color their monster and decorate him with googly eyes. 
  4. Have a dice and a bowl of monster food (candy corn, M&M’s, blocks, army men)
  5. Roll the die, identify the number and feed your monster that many pieces of food.

• Monster Memory Match
  1. Print 2 copies of this great game board here
  2. Cut the monsters apart.
  3. Spread all of the cards out on the floor upside-down.
  4. Play a game of Monster memory match!

• Monster Eyes in Rice
  1. Fill a bin with rice. I think I actually grabbed barley from the bulk section. It worked great.
  2. Add a package of googly eyes and mix into the rice.
  3. Print out this cute monster outline. Click here to download.
  4. Let the kids search through the rice to find the eyes. 
  5. Place the eyes on the large monster outline!

   

• NOTE: Because Grandma is fun, she also added a few coins in the rice that the kids could search for

• Play Monster Mash
  1. OK, not everyone will be able to do this, but I remember playing this game when I was little and loving it. So I checked e-bay and now I have this fun game to play with my own kids! You can also get used games on Amazon here.   
  2. Another fun monster mix-up game here. Print 2 copies and have the kids copy the monster you create & vice-versa!

 

• Play Don’t Eat (Monster) Pete … my kids love this game!
  1. Print this cute, cute game board from The Teacher Wife.
  2. RULES:
     • Put a candy on each monster (candy corn, M&M, whatever)
     • Send one of the kids out of the room
     • Choose one monster to be “Pete”
     • Have the child come back into the room.
     • They eat one candy at a time. If they start to grab the “Pete” candy, the other kids shout “Don’t Eat Pete!”
     • Refill the board and start again
• Monster Mouth Snack
  1. Cut two apple slices
  2. Spread with peanut butter
  3. Add lots of monster mini marshmallow teeth
  4. Add grape eyes.
• Monster Face Pizzas … so cute from Oopsey Daisy

          

• Monster Pops
  1. These monster pop makers are so cute.
  2. Make a favorite green monster smoothie and freeze.
     • Our Favorite Green Monster Recipe:
       1. Mix vanilla yogurt, frozen strawberries, 1/4 cup frozen OJ concentrate, ice cubes, 2 handfuls of fresh or frozen spinach, 1 cup of milk and 1 tsp. vanilla in a blender.
       2. Pour into monster pop molds.
       3. Freeze.
  3. Or simply fill with apple juice and freeze for a yummy snack.

Make a Family Post Office

 

We don’t live very close to anyone in our family. We get to see grandmas and grandpas and cousins every now and then, but not nearly enough. My 3-year-old loves writing letters and drawing pictures. She is always asking for an envelope and a stamp so she can send her picture to Grandma or an uncle or cousin.

So, I decided to put together a Family Post Office. It was simple to do and I love that the kids can see their cousins and grandparents and send them letters more easily now! Here’s how we did it…

1. Print a Cover

• I found a 1” binder we already had and printed out a cover and side thingy  
• I love free printables, so if you’d like to use the same cover and spine label, just click HERE to download!

2. Add a pencil pouch

• Snap a pencil pouch right inside the front cover.
• Put big and little envelopes in the pouch.
• Add several different stamps.

3. Add paper and cards!

• Fill the left front pocket with blank paper and some different blank cards the kids can pick from.

 

4. Address Pages

• Find a picture of each family/person in our family.
• Add their address on the right side (mine are blurred out, but they’re there!)
• NOTE: I love that if the address changes, I can update and just print out that one page.
• Put the pages in plastic page protectors.

5. Back Cover

• On the back cover, I taped an envelope with a “How-To” address the front and where to put the stamp.
• There’s a little sticky note pad at the bottom … sometimes my 3 or 5-year-old will tell me what they want to say and I’ll write it out for them so they can copy it.

7. That’s it! … For now, it sits on the counter by our tin bucket filled with pencils, little scissors and a stapler. My kids know they can use these anytime they want to. They are quite the little creators.

8. Mail your letters!

• The last thing my kids do after they address the envelope and put a stamp on is to run it out to the mailbox and put the flag up.
• So exciting! Especially when the mailman brings a letter back to them!

Fancy Preschool {Manners}

This preschool day with our friends was so much fun. The kids loved it. I loved it. It was so fun to see them enjoying themselves so much. Thanks Camie for a fun day!

Our preschool day focused on Manners and it was Fancy!

• Read “Fancy Nancy” by Jane O’Connor
  • So cute: I have two boys first, and then two girls, so I’m just learning about these Fancy Nancy books and I love them. Nancy decides her family is not fancy enough, so she brings out the accessories and they go out to a fancy meal.

• Read “Tea for Ruby” by Sarah Ferguson … and activity kit here
  • Manners: Ruby lets everyone know that she has been invited to have tea with the Queen. They all give her reminders about her manners. Cute story, especially the ending. Love the illustrations too.

• Please and Thank You Song … we watched this cute Barney song.

• Dress Up Fancy!
  1. Pull out all of the dress up clothes, glasses, shoes, necklaces, purses and dress up fancy!
  2. The girls loved dressing up. We had fancy ties and jackets for the boys, but they liked the “superhero” capes the best Whatever makes you feel fancy!

  

• Decorate Fancy Crowns & Tiaras
  1. Give each of the kids a blank crown (or tiara for the girls!) Just cut them out of cardstock or find blank crowns like we used at a craft store like Michaels.
  2. Use Do-a-Dot markers and stickers to decorate your crown! The kids really enjoyed this.

• Have a fancy tea party!
  1. Camie was amazing and pulled out the glass plates and goblets. Oh, did the kids think that was special and fancy!! The fancy snacks were displayed on fancy dishes and they even had fancy pudding parfaits with whipped cream and sprinkles (just like Fancy Nancy!) I didn’t get very good pictures, but the kids were loving it What a fun party!
  2. Remind the kids to say please and thank you.
  3. NOTE: the glass goblets are from the dollar store!

Mortimer’s Christmas Manger

My sister introduced me to this book quite a few years ago and it is one of our Christmas favorites each year!

• Read “Mortimer's Christmas Manger” by Karma Wilson … this sweet little mouse is tired of living in a cold, cramped, creepy hole in the wall. So he ventures out at Christmastime and “what he finds is wonderful!”

 

• Make a candy cane mouse!
1. Use this simple pattern from Martha Stewart.
2. Trace & cut out on felt.
3. Assemble and add eyes and a felt or pom pom nose with craft glue.
4. Insert a candy cane for the tail!

 

• Nativity finger puppets … in the book, Mortimer makes room for himself in the nativity set displayed on the table.
1. Print out these free nativity finger puppets from Craftaholics Anonymouse!
2. Cut out, fold and tape each one.
3. Color!
4. Insert little fingers and have fun re-telling the story of Baby Jesus.

 

• Brown Paper Bag Gingerbread House … at the end of the story, Mortimer finds a sweet new house just his size.
1. Print out this cute gingerbread house from Making Friends (you can print in color or black & white!)
2. Use as a great coloring page.
3. Or color, cut out and glue to the front of a small brown paper bag.
4. Fill the bag with treats or a small gift.

Mouse Count

I’m determined to do more activities based on books. I love it when we can pair a children’s book with fun activities. They become some of my kids favorite books! I love the mouse books by Ellen Stoll Walsh. They are simple and teach the concepts in such a fun, playful way. Use for M = mouse, S = snake or N = numbers!

• Read “Mouse Count” by Ellen Stoll Walsh. Available here!

• Snake Sock Puppet & Marshmallow Mice … Use these to count as you re-tell the story!
  1. Make the “Easiest (I promise!) No-Sew Snake Sock Puppet” … see the tutorial below.
  2. Gather 10 large marshmallows (not the huge, ginormous campfire kind they have now, unless you want really large mice!)
     • NOTE: If you want real-looking mice, I found these small, felt ones here (a dozen). Cute!
  3. Draw a simple mouse face (ears, eyes, nose, whiskers) on each marshmallow.
     • NOTE! Use food-safe markers or be careful not to eat the mice afterwards!
     • ok, so this was actually kind of a pain and I didn’t do it. I just left the marshmallows blank
  4. Optional: Write numbers 1-10 on each mouse if you want your preschooler to practice number recognition too. Otherwise you can just practice counting.
  5. Also need a clear, glass jar.
  6. In the story, the snake catches the mice and puts them, one at a time, into his jar. He counts each one he puts in.
  7. To Play: Put on your snake sock puppet. As you read the story, have your snake also pick up the marshmallow mice, one at a time, and put them in the jar … counting each one as you go! If you numbered the mice, the snake will have to search for the right one before he puts it in the jar. In the end, they escape! And you can play the game again

	You’ll need: 1 long striped sock 2 small safety pins 2 googly eyes glue (I used super glue)
	1. Put the sock on your hand with the heel on your knuckles. Push the sock toe inside to form a mouth.
	2. Reach inside and pin the left side of the toe to the left side of the sock. *See?! You pin it all the way through… 3. Repeat with the right side. This keeps the snake’s mouth nice & secure.
	4. Glue on the googly eyes. I love how they instantly have some personality You’re ready! Easy, right?!

• Snake & Mouse Race … I wasn’t planning on this activity, but my kids thought it up and it was fun!
  1. Scatter the marshmallow mice at one end of the room.
  2. Place the empty jar at the other end of the room.
  3. Have the kids wear their snake sock puppet and start by the jar.
  4. Run to the mice and “gobble one up” then run back and put it in the jar.
  5. Take turns catching the mice until the jar is full!

• Narration and Art … I love these! They always end up so cute.
  1. Read “Mouse Count” (unless you just read it for the activities above)
  2. Ask your preschooler to tell you the story.
  3. Type the story they tell you & try to get it word for word.
  4. Print out their story and let them illustrate it. Or have them glue one of their ripped paper mice (below) on the page for their cut paper collage!
  5. NOTE: I’m going to keep these in a binder with the other “Narration & Art” stories we do.

 

• Ripped Paper Mice … recreate the mice from the story.
  1. Point out the illustrations in the book. They are created with paper … a cut paper collage.
  2. Let your preschooler tear paper into shapes. I tried to talk my 3-year-old into brown or grey, but he chose green, his favorite color
  3. While they tear, cut out 2 arms, 2 feet, 2 ears and a tail.
  4. Let your preschooler glue these on to make a mouse.
  5. Add googly eyes!

Snack Idea: 10 mini marshmallows + 10 cheese cubes (count them!)