Halloween

On Halloween, we got to have some fall fun and we also got to bring in our costumes/wear PJs during our celebration! 

The ladies in the office all loved seeing our costumes, as did our Dragonfly Reading Buddies! Even Mrs. Mitchell and Mrs. Quinn dressed up as Arthur the Aardvark and The Pink Ladies! 

Afterwards, we had a dance party, showed off our digs in art, and then it was time to come back to class for a bit more fun before the end of the day. 

We enjoyed getting to celebrate together! Thank you to all the families who sent in snacks and supplies for our afternoon of fun :) 

Celebrating Halloween

We had so much fun celebrating Halloween with our friends and families on Friday! We started out the day with some silly morning work, and we gave Ms. Riley some great suggestions for Halloween costumes:

After Read Aloud, our friends and family enjoyed us for some fun games, yummy (and adorable!) snacks, and some awesome Halloween songs while our families got to check out our character pumpkins. Here are some pictures from our afternoon:

Thank you to everyone who celebrated with us and to all of those who made and donated treats and supplies for our party. We had so much fun, and it was the perfect way to start off our Halloween weekend! I hope everyone had a blast at the Halloween Howl and trick-or-treating around your neighborhoods. 

Happy Halloween! 

Celebrations Around The World

On Friday afternoon, we learned that many countries all around the world celebrate holidays similar to our Halloween. Some of their traditions are very closely linked to the ones we follow, and some are very different. These are the traditions we took a closer look at: 

All Saint's Day- England 

In England, they celebrate All Saint's Day to celebrate the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter and also celebrate the spirits of their loved ones. One tradition they take part in that is very similar to our Jack-O-Lantern tradition is carving "Punkies." Punkies are actually beets or turnips that get carved in the same way that we carve our pumpkins! We designed our own punkies at Center 1. 

Obon Matsuri- Japan

Obon  (also known as the Ghost Festival) is a Japanese Buddhist festival that celebrates the spirits of loved ones who have passed away. It is celebrated in August, and bright red lanterns are hung everywhere so the spirits can be guided home to their loved ones. We created our own red lanterns and talked about how it is a happy celebration because it is a spiritual family reunion! 

Dia de Los Muertos-Mexico

Dia de Los Muertos (Day of The Dead in English) is a holiday celebrated in Mexico and many other countries across the world. The  holiday is celebrated on November 1st and 2nd, and families honor their loved ones by decorating their homes with altars, banners, marigolds, Calaveras de Azucar (Sugar Skulls), and making various foods such as Pan de Muerto (Bread of the Dead) as offerings to the deceased. We celebrated by decorating our own sugar skulls with lots of bright colors! 

Halloween, or All Hallow's Eve- Ireland 

All Hallow's Eve or Halloween in Ireland is celebrated very similarly to our Halloween in the U.S. because it is where our Halloween originated from! Children in Ireland also dress up and go door to door saying "trick or treat!" and "Help the Halloween Party!" They play a game called "Snap Apple" which is very similar to our Doughnuts on a String game, where children will try to take bites out of apples that are suspended by strings from the ceiling. We played our own version of their card game, where a coin is hidden under one of three cards (or in our case, one of three bowls) and someone has to try to guess which card (or bowl) the coin is hiding beneath once the bowls are shifted and shuffled. 

Happy Hallowilloween!

We began our Halloween celebrations a bit early in 2R! Today, we learned the 12 Days of Halloween song and held our class Halloween Party at the end of the day before going to Library.

During our party, Ms. Riley along with our awesome room mom and parent volunteers provided us with healthy snacks along with a few treats to enjoy while we danced, played games, and listened to a few Halloween poems!

We started out our party with a game of Guess My Costume. Ms. Riley wrote down different costumes on index cards and taped them to everyone's backs. Everyone had to try to figure out which costume they had by asking their friends for clues! 

Afterwards, we all enjoyed a few "Pinspired" snacks along with cupcakes and goodie bags before we played a game of Freeze Dance to The Monster Mash. 

Once we were done moving and grooving, we read the class our clues to our own Halloween costumes and we took turns guessing who each of us would be. Once we were finished, we enjoyed a few poems from Calef Brown's book Hallowilloween. 

Thank you to everyone who provided food, drinks, and supplies for our Halloween Celebration. We were so glad to have a few parents join us for the festivities and share in our fun :) 

Happy Hallowilloween!