ABC, as easy as 123.

ABCs are so important for kids to learn and understand. Of course they learn at school, but at home is where you can really help them get the concepts that eventually lead to reading.

Letters have been a main focus for our 4 year old for the past year or so. He is going into kindergarten next year, as a freshly turned 5 year old, one of the young ones. 2 years of preschool have taught him a lot about how to act in a classroom setting, sharing, picking up, and of course the pledge of allegiance. He loves his friends and his teachers, who are the sweetest ladies in the world.

I had been getting a little nervous as he nears kindergarten, and has shown ZERO interest in letters, numbers, writing, or drawing. Our oldest always loved to draw, and write, where Charlie would rather set up all of his action figures into a neighborhood and then play with them,. He is a really imaginative player. He also loves to make up stories and tall tales. They are just so different, which means they become interested in things in different ways. The things that grabbed Jack's interests may not grab Charlie's. So we had to get a little creative when it came to letters and writing.

We have been reading Baby Einstein's, ABCs of Art, about 4X a week for over a year now. We did this with Jack,when he was in preschool, and he picked them up pretty quick. We read each letter and look at the picture on the page to represent it. In the last 6 months,Charlie has been remembering some of the letters, but then he would forget them and remember others. We reached a milestone last week when he read EVERY LETTER in the book. But reading that book was definitely not the only tool we used. There are so many helpful resources out there, fun and imaginative things that make learning fun.



Some friends gave us, They might be Giants, Here come the ABC's, video/cd, for one of the kids' birthdays. There are songs about different letters that are catchy, fun, and hilarious. Alphabet lost and found makes you want to dance. This was really helpful because i could remind Charlie, BIG FAT......(and he would think of that song)....W! It was probably this video that sparked his recent interest in letters and writing.

I have been sitting down a few times a week and practicing writing letters of the alphabet with charlie. This was frustrating at first, but I tried to make it fun. He could draw something that started with the letter A after writing it. This encouraged him to think creatively about letters and connect a letter with a picture. We only did a few letters at a time and then tried to repeat them the next day.

ABC cookies with Hunter & Charlie, originally uploaded by cocomama1.

Back in December I dug out my alphabet cookie cutters, surprisingly they were all there. Charlie had a playdate with his friend Hunter and we made the entire alphabet in cookies! They got to roll out the dough, pick out the letters in alphabetical order and cut them out. We never got to decorating them with frosting, but they tasted good anyway!

Now Charlie can spell and write his own name. He sees letters he recognizes everywhere, and we often play the which letter is this game (Charlie writes a letter in the air and asks me which one it is).

Jack on the other hand is reading chapter books! Reading is the next hurdle after learning letters and it is another slow going process. Repetition and patience are the things to remember when helping your child read. Every night before bed we read to the boys, then it switched to us helping Jack read an easy reader, then he read it himself with a little guidance and now he is a fairly confident reader. I remember being encouraged to SOUND it OUT, but at Jack's school they recommend not doing that. They want the kids to recognize the words and look at the pictures in the books and figure it out that way. I have to admit, I have been known to help him sound the words out, but I try to stick to the same thing they teach at school in order to be consistent. It is crazy to look back to Jack's reading level a year ago and compare it to today, he has improved so much!



Flat Stanley was the first chapter book he read. There are some big words in it, but with our help he got through it. Now he is on his fourth Flat Stanley book! We always discuss what happens in each chapter because I want him to really understand what he is reading and not just zip through the words.


It has been a long road learning ABCs and now reading, but it has been fun and interesting. Each child learns differently and it is important to find what interests them and to go in that direction.

Andy Warhol- Picture Person Project

boys testing out my art project for picture person, originally uploaded by cocomama1.

Today I went to my son's kindergarten class as Picture Person, to talk about Andy Warhol. There were lots of artist's we could pick from, as Picture Person, and Andy Warhol was NOT one of them. I wanted to do him anyway, because he is one of my favorite artist's and my son really likes him too. So i searched around town and ended up calling our local museum, Lakeview. Even though they did not have a copy of the print I wanted, they were very nice and printed me a good color copy of the print, Grevy's Zebra, along with some info on it.

For the project, I wanted to let the kids decorate their own Zebras. I traced a simplified version of the Zebra onto a thin piece of cardboard, then using am exacto-knife, I cut out a stencil. After the stencil was done I used white acrylic gesso and painted the image onto black paper.

Once the copies were dry, I let the kids test out their some different things on the paper. They tried multi-colored chalk, bright crayons, glitter glue, and bright colored puffy paint. Everything worked well except for glitter glue. Crayons showed up best on top of the white lines. The puffy paint really added a lot to zebra, traced along some of the white lines. We made sure and did the paint last. For an added texture effect we took a comb and went over some of the lines.

Here is the end result. The kids in my son's kindergarten class really enjoyed this project!

Halloween Party Room Mother Chair

Monday night was the Room Mother meeting at my son's school. I had volunteered to be a room mother, though not HEAD room mother, since it our first experience with kindergarten and class parties, etc. So I met the head room mother and the other room mothers, and I am really happy with our group. They all seem pretty laid back and fun. We started discussing the Halloween party and asked if anyone wanted to be the chairperson for it. My friend Aimee nominated me, she knows I go crazy about Halloween. I accepted and now I need to start researching some games, easy projects, and other fun ideas for the party. I am super excited, because as I said, I go bonkers for Halloween. (I am putting out my decorations this week!)

We have about an hour for the party, including the costume parade

Here is a list of things we need for the party~

• candy/treats for the treat bags
• supplies for games
• supplies for crafts
• halloween music
• halloween book/story
• healthy snack/drink
• halloween plates and napkins
• decorations?
• coloring pages (someone else will have to print/copy, my printer is having issues)
  

I already have a few ideas on some projects~

(from Family Fun.com)

Spider Pops

CRAFT MATERIALS:
	Black pipe cleaners
	Lollipops
	Googly eyes
	Glue
Time needed: Under 1 Hour

1. Holding all four pipe cleaners, center them at the base of the pop and wrap them around the stick once so there are four legs on each side.
2. Bend the pipe cleaner ends to form eight feet.
3. Glue on googly eyes.




Stage a spooky scene by assembling a colony of these winged creatures made from miniature pumpkins and craft foam.

BAT-O-LANTERNS CRAFT MATERIALS:
	Black acrylic paint
	Ornamental (miniature) pumpkins
	Black and white craft foam
	Hole punch
	Glue dots
	Black duct tape
	Toothpicks
	Wooden skewers
Time needed: About 1 to 2 Hours

1. Cover your work surface with a drop cloth or newspaper, then paint the pumpkins. Allow them to dry completely. (DO THIS AHEAD OF TIME!)
2. For each bat, snip two identical eyes from the white craft foam and use the hole punch to make pupils. Adhere the eyes to the pumpkin with glue dots.
3. Cut matching pairs of ears and wings from the black craft foam (our wings are about 6 inches long). Attach the ears by taping a toothpick to the back of each one, leaving about 1K inches of the toothpick exposed, then inserting it into the top of the pumpkin.
4. Finally, tape a skewer to the back of each wing, leaving a 2-inch point exposed, and push it in place.
at your child's school party or to visitors on Halloween -- fun and festive treat bags like the one below will surely do the trick.
i love this craft, but would it be dangerous to have skewers on the bus ride home? Maybe we could put the bats in a bag and place them in their bookbags.



Scarecrow-head bag/treat bag

CRAFT MATERIALS:
	colored markers
	lunch-size paper bag
	white crayon or chalk
	goodies
	stapler
	raffia
Time needed: Under 1 Hour

1. To make one, simply use colored markers to draw scarecrow-style facial features onto a plain brown lunch-size paper bag.
2. Use white crayon or chalk for eyes and teeth.
3. Fill the bag with goodies, then staple the top closed, adding a bundle of raffia for hair.

Mummies/spoons

Party guests are sure to get wrapped up in this activity: crafting mini mummies to take home as favors when the festivities are over.

CRAFT MATERIALS:
	Wire snips
	Wooden craft sticks
	Wooden craft spoons
	Glue dots
	1 square yard of muslin torn into 1-inch-wide strips (this should be enough for at least 7 mummies)
	Small googly eyes
Time needed: Under 1 Hour

1. With the wire snips, trim 2 craft sticks to 2 1/2 inches for the arms and 2 more to 3 inches for the legs. Attach an arm and a leg to each side of a wooden craft spoon (or plastic spoon) using 1 glue dot per limb.
2. Stick the end of a muslin strip to the skeleton with a glue dot and wrap the rest of the length around the wood, using another dot at the end. Wrap 4 or so more strips around the skeleton in this way. Use glue dots to attach googly eyes.



And a few ideas for games~

Which is Witch Game

Use this quiet game to settle the throng before refreshments at a party. The outcome will tell you which partier is the most clairvoyant.

WHAT YOU NEED:
	Cauldron (a bowl)
	Walnut shells (one fewer than the number of kids)
	Green or yellow paint
	Tally sheet
	Pen
	Witch's hat

HOW TO PLAY:
1. Halve and hollow out the walnut shells. Paint the inside green or yellow (one color inside each shell).

2. Players sit in a circle, in the center of which is a cauldron with seven walnut halves (for a party with eight children) lying flat-side down inside it so no one can see the colors. The person who is "It" wears the witch's hat for dramatic effect. All the others pick a walnut half, keeping the color a secret. From his seat in the circle, "It" tries to guess the color of each child's walnut. As he goes from player to player, he gets help from the walnut holders, who try to help him psychically "see" their color by thinking hard about it (green, green, green...). After he guesses, right or wrong, each walnut holder reveals her color to him. An adult or older child sits nearby to tally up the number of rights, and then the game starts over with the next "It." When each player has had a turn at being "It," the player who had the power to "see" the most colors correctly wins.

Mummy Wrap Game

Twist your guests into a frightening frenzy with this simple game that has kids writhing with delight.

WHAT YOU NEED:
	White crepe paper(Toilet paper)
	Spooky music

HOW TO PLAY:
1. Divide the kids into teams of two and give each pair a roll of white crepe paper. Instruct one member of each team to race to wrap his partner, mummy-style, at the sound of the music (play something devilish, such as "The Monster Mash"). Kids must use up the whole roll, avoiding the head and wrapping arms separately from the torso.

2. Once wrapped, the mummy hops to a finish line, holding his arms to his sides and trying not to break any of the wrapping.

3. Award the winning team, reverse partners' roles and then start again with fresh rolls of crepe paper.
(not sure if we have enough room in the class to do the race, but maybe we could do it in the gym.)

I Went Into a Haunted House: Students sit in a circle. Student A says "I went into the haunted house and saw a witch". Student B contines: "I went into the haunted house and saw a witch and a black cat". Continue around the circle...

Pass the Pumpkin: Ss sit in a circle. Provide a plastic pumpkin for children to pass while the teacher beats on a drum or plays some music. Children pass the pumpkin to the tempo of the music. Alternate between fast and slow. When the music stops the child who has the pumpkin stands and takes a bow. Continue.

Pass the Vampire Bat: Supplies: one straw for each child / bat shapes cut out of tissue paper. How To Play: Divide the class into 2 teams and line up each team. Sts pass the tissue bats down the line, teammate to teammate, by inhaling and exhaling on the straw to hang onto or release the ornament. No hands! The first team to successfully pass the bats up and down the line wins! (TP: V: bat, straw, line up, pass. AA: Before the game you can get the students to make the tissue bats).


Who am I Ghost?: Blindfold one student. The other Ss stand in circle around the blindfolded student. Spin the student around and then stop him/her facing another student. S says "Whooooooo (like a ghost). Who am I?". The blindfolded S must guess who that student is and call out his/her name.

Treat ideas~ (from teachnet.com)
One of my room helpers brought this treat for our Halloween party. Take an orange and cut the top off as you would a pumpkin. Scoop out the inside as best you can. Then add chunks of fresh fruit. Put the top piece back on and put a wooden stick in the middle for the stem. Draw a jack-o-lantern face on the outside. My room helper put each of these in an individual baggie with a plastic spoon. The children just loved these!!!

Witches Brew~ adorable
This activity works well in the month of October. On the first of the month, bring in a large, black pot that resembles a witches' pot. Inside the pot there is a slip of paper that reads: "I am the Witch of the West and I am out gathering ingredients for our halloween brew." On designated days, place the bags containing ingredients in the pot. The ingredients should be placed in a pot, inside a plastic bag so that no smell escaped. Place plastic bags within brown paper lunch bags and have appropriate names printed on the outside of the bag. On Halloween, empty all the bags and stir the brew.
We could do this at the party, one of the room mothers could be dressed up as a witch, and could do this all at once, and then fill each child's cup with some. healthy and FUN!
1 C. Blood Drops - Red Hots
1 C. Owl Eyes - Peanuts
1 C. Cats Eyes - Peanut M&Ms
1 C. Chicken Toenails - Corn Candy
1 C. Colored Flies - M&Ms
1 C. Butterfly Wings - Fritos
1 C. Earthworms - Corn Curls
1 C. Cat Claws - Sunflower Seeds
1 C. Ants - Raisins
1 C. Snake Eyes - Chocolate Chips
1 C. Cobwebs - Triscuits
1 C. Lizard Gizzards - Shoestring Potatoes
1 C. Bat Bones - Pretzels
Taken from Open the Door for Reading

I am totally open for ideas and suggetions! If you are an experienced room mother, let me know what has worked for you, or what hasn't! Feel free to use any of these ideas for your own parties!