My super power of spider-sense tells me that it’s time for the week of the spider! Halloween is creeping around the corner, but we will be closed on October 31. That means we’ll be having our Halloween party early on Thursday, October 27. Children could come with their costumes, a Halloween-themed outfit, or a willingness to try on one of our costumes for a group picture. (Participation not required.) Check below for a summary of our activities and meals this week. As always, we welcome your participation and/or questions!
Unit Theme
Spiders by Early Learning Success
Books
- The Itsy Bitsy Spider by Iza Trapani
- Anansi’s Party Time by Eric A. Kimmel
- Me and My Dragon: Scared of Halloween by David Biedrzycki
- The Little Green Witch by Barbara Barbieri McGrath (re-telling of “The Little Red Hen”)
- The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle
- National Geographic Readers: Spiders by Laura Marsh
- Are You a Spider? by Judy Allen
- Ms. Spider’s Tea Party by David Kirk
- Tea Party Rules by Ame Dyckman
- Hands are Not for Hitting by Martine Agassi
Fingerplays, Rhymes, and Songs
- Little Miss Muffet
- A spider song to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
- The Itsy Bitsy Spider
Centers
- Sensory: green rice, spiders, tweezers, webbing, magnifying glasses in sensory bin. Sensory bottle with spiders and webbing in it.
- Playing with a stuffed spider
- Making and playing with felt Jack O’Lanterns
- Sticky webs
- Searching for the color green
- Dramatic Play Area:
- Witch costume
- Creating a “cobweb tunnel” (with our play tunnel and a blanket covered in printed cobwebs)
- Draping our large cardboard box in spiderwebbing
- Spider hats
- Reading Corner: See books above for what will be in the “READ ME” bin
- Feltboard foci: Itsy Bitsy Spider, Jack O’Lanterns
- Arts & Literacy: Focus this week on storyboard templates, chenille sticks, pompoms, construction paper, chalk, tape, glue, tempera paint.
- Completing a KWL on Spiders
- Drawing and painting webs
- Looking in our environment for “D, d” and objects that start with the letter
- Creating a story sequence book about Anansi’s Party Time
- Constructing a spider from a variety of materials
- Spiderweb cutting strips
- Spider hats
- STEM:
- Looking at pictures of spiders and spider webs
- Counting spider legs and eyes
- Comparing and contrasting a 2D circle and a 3D sphere
- Clothespin spider legs,
- Matching quantities of spiders to a written number,
- Skip-counting spider puzzles,
- Roll-and-draw spider game,
- Spider-web lacing card,
- Music and Movement:
- Halloween music,
- Trumpet music,
- Green dancing scarves
- Pretending to be spiders and doing spider crawls
- Physical activities from CATCH
- Scarf dancing
- Marching in a numbered circle and stating the number the child lands on when the Halloween music stops
- Nutrition:
- Assembling a savory spider snack,
- Assembling a fruity spider snack,
- Discussing all the forms of sweet potatoes we’ve eaten so far this month with the addition of our Jack O’Lantern fries,
- Discussing how our meals match up to MyPlate
- Other:
- Halloween safety discussion
Themed Days
- Music Monday (listening to trumpet music at lunch)
- Tea Party Tuesday (at snack time)
- I Wonder Wednesday (finding out what we still wonder about spiders)
- Thoughtful Thursday (answering thought-provoking questions at lunch)
- Reflection Friday (talking about everything we learned)
Menu
| Monday | Breakfast | French toast bagels, pumpkin cream cheese, frozen mixed berries, milk |
| Lunch | Chicken breast, dinner roll, homemade chunky cranberry and apple relish, romaine salad, milk | |
| PM Snack | String cheese, fresh broccoli with ranch | |
| Tuesday | Breakfast | Cereal, bananas, milk |
| Lunch | Scrambled eggs with mushrooms, English muffins, apricot halves, milk | |
| PM Snack | “Spiders” made from round crackers, peanut butter, pretzel sticks, and raisins | |
| Wednesday | Breakfast | Whole wheat toast with jelly, potato skillet, milk |
| Lunch | Pasta with ground beef, pasta sauce, homemade low sugar applesauce, romaine salad, milk | |
| PM Snack | “Spiders” made from apple halves and grape quarters | |
| Thursday | Breakfast | Cereal, canned pears, milk |
| Lunch | Grilled cheese “Sand Witches” with celery broomsticks, “bloody” tomato soup, Jack O’Lantern sweet potato fries, milk | |
| PM Snack | “Pumpkins” and “Broomsticks” made from clementines with celery stick stems and pretzels in cut string cheese | |
| Friday | Breakfast | Whole wheat toast with peanut butter, apple slices, milk |
| Lunch | Tuna salad on whole wheat bread, frozen vegetables, crinkle cut carrot chips, milk | |
| PM Snack | Red bell pepper strips with ranch dressing, whole wheat crackers |