2nd Month, 16th Day

Today kicked off our Halloween fun, and boy did we have it! We all had a blast and I'm pretty sure we all learned a little something too.

We started the day off with Math, where Babe is supposed to start learning how to write her numbers. Drag. Babe knows all her numbers, so to make it tougher I'm incorporating the spelling of each number. I am also doubling up lessons every day this week. Today we started with number 0.

I first had her put some number cards I made in order, which she did. Then I had her put the corresponding number of connecting blocks on each card, which she did.

Now comes the fun part. I wrote out the word 'zero' and number '0' on a sheet of manuscript paper and had her copy, 'in her best handwriting', each one. She did so.

Perfectly.

I quizzed her throughout the day on how to spell 'zero', and each time she spelled it correctly. She even covered her eyes every time I asked her so I could see that she wasn't cheating.

Five-year-olds...

After her worksheets, Math was out of the way and we were ready to kick off Halloween!

I first had Babe put the family pumpkins in order from biggest to smallest. They are pretty much the same size, so she did good!

Next, we (meaning I) opened the pumpkin.

The kids had a ton of fun digging the guts out. Babe remembered from last year that we had to separate the guts from the seeds, so she was very helpful. Z was very, very hesitant in putting his hands into something so disgusting looking, but once he saw Bubs digging in, he was all game.

I couldn't help but incorporate a little Math into the activity, so I made up a simple sheet for Bubs and Babe to work on. Bubs did incredible. Her counting skills have multiplied a hundred-fold over the past couple months. The issue with her is getting her to actually want to do it!

Here is Babe's "worksheet." It's similar to Bubs's except I had Babe write her own numbers.

Here's Z's. He had too much fun "stamping" the stemmed part of the pumpkin on his paper. Then of course he practiced his gluing skills.

After the guts were cleaned out and the seeds were separated, Babe wanted to count them all! She remembered from the M&M activity that it's easiest to count things when they are in rows of ten, so her and I both did that.

We finished in no time doing it together, and Babe was getting antsy! Guess how many!

306!

There were 306 seeds in the first pumpkin of the week!

What did we do with all those seeds?

Made cinnamon sugar roasted pumpkin seeds of course! It's become a tradition. A yummy tradition!

And what did we do with that pumpkin?

We painted it of course!

During Z's and Bubs's nap, Babe read a Halloween-themed book for her reading log. "Pumpkin Eye" by Denise Fleming was a very tough read for her, but she busted through conquered it. During both reads, she tripped up on "blood" and "spirit."

Today is Monday, so after reading, we were off to dance!

More Halloween activities to come! Especially since I went shopping at Dollar Tree tonight. Woohoo!