Holiday Activities

I hope your pumpkin has been doing its exercises. It needs to be in good shape for tomorrow night. When you carve your jack-o-lantern at your house or care center, discuss the shapes you will use. While squares, rectangles, triangles, and circles are the basic ones, you may be able to talk about the less common ones like diamonds or ovals, too.

The trick with kindergarten readiness is to piggy-back learning onto something that you are already doing.  Making jack-o-lanterns is a perfect way to talk about shapes. You can also show your child how pictures are made from the cut-out part, or the negative space. What part of the pumpkin makes the smile, and the nose and the eyes? The hole part does.

Here’s hoping your Halloween is only positive and that these Halloween learning ideas and activities have been treats for you. Which one did you and your child enjoy the most?
Q. What did one pumpkin say to the other one?  A. Cut it out! Happy Halloween!

Doing crafts with little ones is not always easy. At the very least, it is not usually an activity that kids can do by themselves. Instead, it requires adult supervision and time. Nevertheless, making crafts helps with kindergarten readiness because children learn to plan, organize and follow directions.  The projects encourage creativity and give kids a sense of accomplishment.

I love crafts that are easy and fun for various levels of development and ages. This one is ideal. Any color of paper will do, but use white for ghosts, green for witches, black for spiders, and other colors for monsters. With help or by themselves kids trace around a hand (or foot) and cut it out. The decorating is the most fun. Turn the hand upside down and add just eyes and a mouth for ghosts.  For witches, kids can color red fingernails and glue on any color of yarn for veins. For spiders, only trace the 4 fingers and glue one palm on top of the other. Monsters can have skinny or wide fingers, nails in any color or not, with other decorations that kids can dream up. Make several and hang them in a window for decorations. Isn’t this just a quick, handy craft (tee-hee)?

At Halloween, ghost stories are traditional but extra scary. Telling stories is another way to explore and create with language, use special vocabulary, help kids practice putting events in order, visualize and imagine, and more. Kids learn to use clues to figure out what is real and what is pretend. These are all great skills for kindergarten readiness. What other kinds of stories then can we tell to and make up with little ones? Just about anything. Here’s some ideas to get you started.

Once upon a time there was a witch who had a very mixed up broom. When she wanted to fly up the broom went down, when she wanted to fly down the broom went up. One day she wanted to go visit her friend but …

Once upon a time there was a skeleton who liked to dance. He liked to shake and twirl and jiggle his bones. But sometimes he danced so hard that he just shook himself all apart. It wasn’t easy getting all his bones back in the right places. He needed an idea…

 Stories have the advantage that they can be told anywhere: on the bus, waiting in line at the check-out, making supper, even in the tub. While some people call stories a language bath, I like to think of them as a deposit in kids language accounts. The more deposits, the more experience kids have with language and the better prepared they are for learning. 

 Since it’s Halloween, maybe, could we say that stories are brain treats? (P.S. This is a photo of mini-chocolates. Mmm.)

Reading books to little ones is one of the most vital kindergarten readiness activities that you can do at home or in your care center. Currently, Halloween storybooks are everywhere, including at the grocery store.  I purchased a few for school at a dollar store. The photo shows two stories that I love to read at … Continue reading Kindergarten Readiness – Halloween Books →

With Halloween creeping closer and closer we can take advantage of the energy and enthusiasm and sneak in a little help around the haunted house. Magic Spell to Make Toys Disappear:  Abra-ca-dabra, abra-da-dear. Toys in the toybox. Make them disappear!!  (The quicker, the better and use lots of spooky oo’s and creepy ee’s when picking them … Continue reading Kindergarten Readiness – Halloween Fun →

Start off Monday with some singing all about Halloween. These songs use tunes that are already familiar: (tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star) Pumpkin, pumpkin on the ground, how’d you get so big and round. Started as a seed so small, growing ‘to a big, orange ball. Pumpkin, pumpkin on the ground, how’d you get so … Continue reading Kindergarten Readiness – Halloween Songs →

Play time is absolutely essential to children’s development. Yesterday’s blog was a quick craft for making a kleenex ghost. Today, if the same ghost isn’t worn out, it can be used in all different kinds of play activities. Maybe that ghost would like to help build a house out of blocks. Of course, it could … Continue reading Kindergarten Readiness – Halloween Playtime →

If your ghost from yesterday and the day before is still intact, here is another Halloween fun and kindergarten readiness activity. This time, your ghost needs a friend, either another kleenex ghost or one made from a bit of white fabric and elastic band–or even a small, white sock. Pour some water into a clear … Continue reading Kindergarten Readiness – Halloween Ghost Fun →

Ahh…ahh…ahh…boo!  Instead of  using a tissue for a sneeze, use it for a craft. Roll one tissue (or a bit of waste paper) into a tight ball about the size of a grape, drape a second tissue over the first and pinch it to make a neck. Wrap a twist tie around the neck and spread out the ends … Continue reading Kindergarten Readiness – Halloween Craft →