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.

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

• Storytime Idea ... read "Where the Wild Things Are" by Jon Sendak
• Make several monster cutouts in several different colors (The Mailbox, 2006-2007 Yearbook Preschoo, pg. 201 has a cute monster ready to copy). Cut out several different foods from magazines or ads. Place monsters and food on the floor. Tell the kids that the monsters are very hungry, then name a particular food a particular monster wants, but change the beginning sound. For example: "The green monster would like to have some dananas." Let the kids pick the food the monster wants and place it on his tummy.
• Listening Teeth ... Give the kids a simple monster cutout face with a large mouth (a blue circle with purple horns, eyes, nose, etc) and a napkin with Bugles corn snacks (teeth). Say a simple sentence, like "The monster is hairy." Repeat and pause after each word. Encourage the kids to place one tooth on his monster for each word he hears. Then count the teeth on the monster.
• Make 2 monster cutouts with 2 different paper colors. Attach them to popsicle sticks. Introduce them to the kids as "Beginning Monster" and "End Monster". Tell them that one only knows how to say the beginning of words and the other only knows how to say the end of words. Say several words and let the kids combine the segmented words to figure out what the monsters are saying (ex: pre-school, can-dy, foot-print, car-pet)
• Make a cave out of a cardboard box. Make several cards with rhyming clipart (one card has a pie, one card has a tie ... one has a bell, one has a shell, etc). Place the rhyming clipart cards in the cave and let the kids tiptoe to the cave and quietly pick out 2 rhyming words before the monster comes back to check in!