Just for J

You can tell it's almost Halloween from the songs we are singing, and the activities we're doing.  The Halloween sensory tub from last week is still the hot item of the week, but the book The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything is running a close second.

On Monday, we started the week by putting on lots of jewelry, and jumping for J.

At snack time we had juice and learned how to write the letter j - in jelly!

Today is Tuesday, and we reread Five Little Pumpkins , learned some hand motions for it, and made a craft to follow up.  Super cute!

Of course, the real reason we learn the letter J in October is so we can make a jack-o-lantern!  The kiddos suggest shapes for the facial features, and then vote (we even got to review tallying!)

I do the cutting, since small children and sharp implements is not my favorite combination.  They're always fascinated when the "guts" appear!

Everyone takes a turn to grab a handful of pumpkin guts, and to scoop it out into a bowl.

Not everyone is enthusiastic about the process!  There is also a good run on handwashing - which is why we worked on this before and during snack time. 

I drew on the facial features, and started cutting...

... while the children had snack: fresh pumpkin muffins, made with a pumpkin they helped me to buy (see this previous post) , and that I baked over the weekend.

When I baked the pumpkin, I also saved and roasted the seeds.  One of the children asked about eating pumpkin seeds, a little incredulously, as the seeds she could see were in fresh pumpkin guts!  I explained how to make them, and we warmed and crisped the (already toasted) seeds.  You can see they were also received with different levels of enthusiasm!

This child liked them - he said they tasted like salty popcorn, and I think he's right.  They were good!

Here's our jack-o-lantern! 

Next time I'll tell you about our letter crafts, and some of the other fun learning activities we are enjoying!