Crispy Fruit Are The Perfect Creepy Treat For My Preschool Class' Goody Bag This Year #crispyfruit #halloweentreats #snacks

Every year I struggle with what kind of sweet treat I can add to my preschool class goody bag but NOT this year.  I am giving them Halloween themed Squishes because they LOVE them, bubbles, pencils and Crispy Fruit in a really cute jack-o-lantern goody bag that I stocked up on two years ago from a discount store after Halloween. 

CrispyFruit by Crispy Green are all-natural go-to snacks made from just one ingredient: 100% pure fruit. They’re crunchy, delicious, portable, and available in handy 4-packs (each with four single servings in one pouch). It’s the guilt-free Halloween hero. They come in 7 delicious varieties like my personal favorite mango, plus apple, pear, tangerine, pineapple, banana and strawberry.

This treat is a favorite for my family and I love that it is allergy free, has no added sugar and no preservatives.  

It is perfect for grab and go, I always have one in my purse or  tote because working two jobs sometimes I only have travel time between to snack on something and this is super easy. 

You can find them in most supermarkets in the produce section and amazon

I cannot wait for Halloween and I know my class are going to love their good bags. 

 

 

My Class’ Favorite Halloween Books

 For the past three years my PreK class has loved hearing my collection of Halloween books. Their favorite ones are listed in this order. 

My class is only 3.5 and some don’t remember their last Halloween as they were too young so I make a point to point out all the things in the books that can seem scary but in actuality aren’t. A great book for that is Pete The Cat Trick Or Treat. It is a lift up book which is really fun for this age. Pete gets scared often but  soon realizes that they scary things aren’t scary at all.

1 - 

10 Timid Ghosts - They love! Even my new class after hearing it once asked for it every day since. We talked about the story the first time and I made sure to point out that all these “scary” things weren’t in the house because it was only the tricky witch trying to scare the ghosts out of their house so she could have this beautiful home all to herself. They love the last page where they see the ghosts handing out Halloween candy to all the kids in their costumes. 

2 -

Where’s The Witch - I thought this book was too young for this age until I read it to my class 3 years ago. They love it! It has lift up flaps and the last page has a mirror. The class loves when I walk around the circle and show them their faces after reading where are you? There you are!

3 -

Pumpkin Magic - This book has the Jack o’ Lanterns we leave on our doorsteps getting together under the magic of the moon. The Rhymey words and the silly graphics are perfect for giggly kids. 

4 - My newest book is The Good, The Bad, and The Spooky - featuring The Bad Seed from Jory John’s bestselling book collection. I LOVE reading Jory John books to my class.

Any books you read to your kids are going to be great. Kids mostly want our time and attention and reading gives them that plus if you are using open ended questions and reading it to them enough they learn it and can help you read.  So good for them. It gives the confidence and they feel like such big kids! 

Dollar Tree Sensory Bins For Preschool #preschool #autumn

The class is loving these sensory bins. I got the container, beans, and bones from Dollar Tree. The Skeleton arm tweezers are from Monster High that my daughter had years ago. In the second bind all of it is Dollar Tree. The bin, hay, leaves, acorns, insects are all from Dollar Tree.

 

Eye Ball Drop #Dollartree #halloweenactivity #preschool

I grabbed two skeleton hands, a bucket and two packs of eye balls from Dollartree to make my class an Eye Ball Drop Game. Using a paper towel roll and showing them how to use the two hands they loved dropping the eyes into the toilet paper roll. It is so good for their hand eye coordination and gross motor skills. 

The plastic bucket around the little mummy bucket is because at first all I heard was eye balls hitting the floor. This was much easier for me to ensure we didn't lose all our eye balls and they were ready for the next child to try it out.

Nap Time Isn't For Kids

Why is it that toddlers never want to sleep during nap time? I mean who doesn't love sleep?

As a preschool teacher I want to nap after lunch. The light go off making the room darker, the baby lullabies go on, your mat and blanket are on the floor allowing you to shut down for two hours yet four out of five are wide awake fidgeting and crawling around their mats while I fight the urge to fall asleep. 

Little weirdos! They have no idea how lucky they are.

Making Dandelion Play Dough

 A yard full of dandelions means it is time to make some Dandelion Play Dough for my preschool class to play with. 

It was really easy and my class loved playing with it. 

We picked a basket full of flowers. Get rid of as much of the green from the flower that you can. 

We put them in a blender with a little bit of water and puréed it. 

Then I added water, flour, salt, oil and cream of tarter. 

And work it until it is the consistency of play dough! 

Birthday Cake Homemade Playdoh and Sensory Bin

This Friday I will turn 55 years old. Since most birthdays in the past 25 years have gone under acknowledged I have decided that I will celebrate with my daytime kids. My class of 10-12 2-3 year old toddlers make me happy and I want them to celebrate with me. 

Yesterday we made a birthday cake handprint and today we are doing homemade birthday cake Playdoh and sensory bin all from Dollar Tree.

The Playdoh Recipe - everything from DT except the Cream of Tarter which they didn’t have)

3 cups of water

1/4 cup of salt

1 Tablespoon of Cream of Tarter

1/4 cup of oil

1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

2 cups of boiling water

1 whole container of sprinkles 

Mix all dry ingredients 

Add boiling water, oil, extract and mix until combined. 

Don’t add the sprinkles until cooled.

Note: I started with 2 cups of flour as per the recipe but ended up needing a whole other cup to get to the right consistency. Stick with it. It took a while.

The Sensory Bin was all DT supplies

2 packs of beaded necklaces

1 bag of Basket filler 

1 bag of styrofoam beads 

1 bag of tinsel (basket filler) 

1 pack of birthday candle

Letter A - Ants In The Pants From Teachers Pay Teachers.Com

This week we worked on Letter A for my preschool class. 2 years olds are funny. 2-3 year olds are by for my favorite age to work with an were probably my favorite age to parent my own. They are old enough to teach, and baby enough to still want you to "mommy" them. Working with 10 to do an art project requires lots of patience. It makes for an interesting day. You need to be hard, soft, mommy, teacher, friend and comic all at the same time. My class loved this project.

The kids did a fabulous job. We added the legs and antenna but them did the rest! I think they look adorable. 

Update of Handsome - 1 Month Into the School Year

From the beginning, I met with some people who thought my holding my son back from Kindergarten was only going to make him suffer in the future. Either he would be bored next year in Kindergarten or teased by classmates who remembered that he was once in their class and figure he must have been left back.

I stood my ground knowing that he would not be the only child ever held 1 year and that he would survive it.

If you are wondering why I decided to hold you can go back to the beginning but if not, let's move along shall we?

It has been 1 month since we started our ridiculous new schedule of Preschool, speech and OT, gymnastics, and martial arts and I am so proud.

He is in school from 9-12 5 days a week. Then we walk over to speech 4 times a week and OT 2 times. He goes to martial arts training 2 times and gymnastic 1 time all with a smile on his face.

His speech is incredible. We are working on specific sounds now like l/ch/s along with a lisp and he seems to be opening up more, less shy with much more confidence.

I recently asked his preschool teacher if she thought he would have been ok in Kindergarten. Her answer, "you know, it's a hard call. I think he would have been ok but I see why I decided to hold him. He is shy but I do see him playing with the other kids. He is a really good kid and you can't second guess what you did. You are his mother and you know what is right for him."

She also said that all the other kids want to play with him. She mentioned that he and another boy that was held from Kindergarten play together and she isn't sure if they instinctively know that they are older. Most kids she says want to play with the older kids. It's funny because the Goddess is usually the kid that wants to play with everyone but usually it is Handsome who everyone wants to play with except he doesn't usually want to play.

When I asked the Goddess who she plays with in school she mentioned her brother. When I pressed more she said, "just Handsome." I think next year will be different because she will no longer be the youngest in the class.

As for his Karate and Gymnastics, I couldn't be more prouder. I am amazed with what he does in Gymnastics and he does will in Karate but I hear them constantly telling him to be louder. Hopefully he breaks through his self esteem issues with the help of Karate and moves forward.

He is doing so well. We are so proud and and KNOW holding him was the best thing for him.