Such a fun week!

Not to make this entire blog about my teaching, but it is where I spend majority of my time! This past week was insanity at our school. It was of course the week of Halloween and it was our huge annual Carnival on Friday. Not only were the kids excited about Halloween, they also were watching our carnival be put together each day and having everyone and anyone remind them about it. Our Carnival is huge and is a biggest money maker of the year. It brings in six figures from what I have been told and well after experiencing it, I'm not surprised! It is such a fun event for all! I chose to add to the insanity of course... if you can't beat em... join em:)

Like I posted earlier, we worked on our papier mache projects Mon-Wed. On Wednesday morning 1 of my families paid to have a live animal exhibit brought into our room for a 1/2 hour for my kids to see, touch, and hold various animals. It was really fun for them and I loved seeing how excited they got. He didn't bring sweet little furry animals though. He brought blue tongued lizards, huge cockroaches, tarantulas, frogs, and the worst was his collection of snakes. I was "cheered on" to hold the GIANT snake and so I did. Here are some photos to show proof!!

Huge tarantula... scary and gross
Gigantic cockroaches... they shouldn't even come that big
Smiling because my kids where there... I was freaking out on the inside because that thing was squeezing tight!
He told me to touch the scales because it felt beautiful... yea... real awesome - get it off of me!

On Thursday was the Kindergarten and PreK Halloween Parade. We parade through each classroom, say our name and what we dressed up as, and move onto the next room. It takes about an hour total to go into each class and then be visited by each class. We listened to "Monster Mash" while enjoying everyone's costumes:)

Once the parade was complete my awesome papier mache mom, Katie, stayed and helped me with my next 2 pumpkin endeavors. We split the kids into 2 groups, 8 kids in each group (thank god 1 went home with a fever so it provided equal groups!). I was the cooking station and she was the carving station. They spent 15 minutes with us, then we switched. With me they helped me to add all of the ingredients, mix, and pour, to make a pumpkin pie. With Katie they helped her to carve the pumpkin (of course she cut), scoop out the goop, draw on a face, and she carved it out. They loved it! We made 2 pumpkin pies and tied it in with science (mixing materials to make something), math (measuring, counting) and then science again (5 senses). There is so much you can learn from cooking and baking I just love it! I put the pies in the oven and a couple hours later before our snack time I took them out, and although they were still warm, we smothered our slices with cool whip and enjoyed:)

The kids really enjoyed this and I know they really understood what a pumpkin looks like inside and out and things it can be used for. They also could retell you how to make a pie and all of the key ingredients (ie: nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves - they know it all!)

Next week we will do our apple unit and then compare and contrast apples v. pumpkins. We will of course bake our own mini apple "pies" or tarts using a grand biscuit, some butter, apples, cinnamon and sugar. I'm so excited for these fun units!

I did take pictures of this but I am still trying to figure out how to better remove the children's faces. Until then... no pics:(