It's beginning to look a lot like... Halloween!

It has taken me a little longer than usual, but I have started our Halloween themed learning fun.

Look carefully at the pictures - at first glance it looks like we're doing nothing but playing, but we've worked on sorting, matching, fine motor development, seriation and more.  See if you can spot the learning!

 Our Halloween sensory bin has lots of small plastic goodies in it: rats, spiders, witches' fingers, rings, finger puppets, etc., plus some "test tubes," a pumpkin box, small trick or treat can, and a purple people eater.  Everyone needs a purple people eater!  The children like to pick through and collect items - note the rat collection at the bottom of the picture.  The rats are having a rat race - her words, not mine!  They sort, collect, negotiate for the desired pieces, and get a sensory play time all at once.  This was by far the most popular toy at school today, and was in constant use whenever I made it available.

 I find it very interesting that the children all want containers to put things into, and love to see them working on their fine motor skills and pinch grip - very important muscle development that is a precursor to writing.  We need strong finger muscles to hold a pencil.

 Our fall themed sensory bin was another very popular item today.  This child found 4 different sizes of scarecrow, and ordered them from biggest to smallest.  (That's ordering or seriating, an important math skill.)

 These children sorted pumpkins and leaves into the dishes - including the various gourds that don't look like jack-o-lantern pumpkins - demonstrating that they did indeed learn about gourds on our field trip to Green's a couple of weeks ago.  No standardized test necessary, they're showing what they know!

 Our jack-o-lantern felt board is mostly for fun - but also involves matching, shape recognition, and another fine motor work out.

 Our math centers for this week are various mats I created to work with Halloween foam shapes - available all over the place at this time of year.  The colorful Halloween themed shapes engage the children - they saw them on the shelf while we were eating lunch, and asked what they were.  When I told them they were for math games, the kiddos actually cheered!  Yes, our math lessons are so exciting, that children cheer for them!

 We sorted by size, shape, and color, and also matched and extended patterns.

Never underestimate the power of play - or the learning involved!