End Of October Wrap Up.

In keeping up with tradition the kids were treated to special foods before the night of treat'or'treating. Below are witches broomsticks and monster mouths. The broomsticks we made from Pillsbury Hot Dog wraps and the mouths are apples with slivered almonds for teeth. The little mummy is a paper craft I got off the web.

Below we made mashed potato ghosts and english muffin mummy pizzas.

Of course no night of trick'or'treating is complete without costumes. DD went as a pirate princess and son went as his current favorite game characters Ratchet and Clank. Clank was hung on his back. This costume I made. Now just for those who don't know I am not a seamstress. I love to sew by hand no machines. So this was cobbled together purely from my head. I must say I am pretty happy with the results. Except next time I would make a less complex head. The head was made from crafters wire mesh wired together, filled with polyester stuffing and then I sewed in his bike helmet to hold it all in place. The chest was 'muscled' by a little soft sculpture. I sewed in panels behind the shirt part of the costume and then sculpted them with stitching. Thankfully my daughter wanted a store bought costume. The Ratchet took two and half weeks of work on and off to complete.

Our bat books were completed and we learned alot. I did have more information with the lesson I prepared but we simply ran out of time to complete. But that kind of thing doesn't bother me too much because I will simply work those ideas into a later lesson.

foam bats, echolocation, facts and baby bat mini books.

Bat wing anatomy compared to humans and birds. As well a brochure of bat facts.

We moved from that week into the week before Halloween. So I took the time to make it a literary week. We discussed folklore surrounding Halloween. The tale of Stingy Jack which the kids got a kick out of my rendition via fake microphone. We also talked about similes and then they completed their own simile pumpkin books. We looked at poetry for a bit and talked about limericks in particular. Then I had them each make up their own. Now I was impressed with DD's unfortunately DS chose to 'make his own' off of hers. But it was the idea of the pattern of AA, BB, A that I wanted to instill. So I was ok with that. I did point out that perhaps next time he could attempt a little more at originality. I do suppose it would be hard for them at their ages to not have that situation happen once in awhile since they are in the same class and usually at the same desk. All of our work for the week was put in a 'scrapbook' we made up. I bought scrapbook paper for the covers from the dollarstore and cut cheap paper for the other pages. Then we glued the work in.



DS's Cover

 


Inside DS book




Halloween math inside DD's book



Inside DD's book with her mini books on Stingy Jack, the skeletal system, creatures of the night, and her limerick.

More worksheets for DD this one was a cute one hundred chart with ghosties.



Pumpkin fractions in cauldron pocket for DD with a fun craft from the toymakers website .

What toymaker you may be wondering? Well here is the website for the toymaker.

And if you think our school sounds like fun? Well it can be. But don't let all this craftyness fool you. I am still dealing with a lot of issues. My DS is a handful and most days pushes all the wrong buttons. I think though last week we may have made a breakthrough. I am not holding my breath though. He still needs almost constant reminders to accomplish his writing. He has toned down his attitude greatly though. I hope it lasts. It can be very wearing to make it through our lessons. But as my mother loved to quote and I do now 'pound on, pound on'.  

So I end this wrap up with DD's limerick about Halloween.

This night,

something gave me a fright.

Was it a ghost?

Was it a post?

It was a scarey sight.

Not bad for five :)