H is for... HEARTS and HALLOWEEN!

     It’s a well-known fact that after Christmas, Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday.  I hate being spooked, but there’s just something about dressing up and getting candy that is just so much fun.  So, boy was I excited when I figured out that the letter Hh would be close to Halloween! How could I not cover Halloween with the letter Hh?  However, for my flashcard, I went a more generic route so that the kids and their parents could use them long into the future if they want to.

     When I start my flashcard craft for each week, I always like to do a quick little Google search for some inspiration.  This week, I saw the letter H turned into a house, a horse, a hippo, and hands used to form the H.  All of those are pretty great, however, I have a group of kids that LOVE stickers.  I am always grateful for my sticker-loving kids because when I am having a hard time thinking of a craft, all I have to do is find some great stickers, create a simple background scene, and my kids are perfect happy.  So what better way is there to incorporate stickers into a craft than to give each kid a sheet of heart stickers and let them stick until their heart’ content.  Thus, our craft this week looked a little something like this.

Materials: Capital letter H drawn on an index card, foam hearts on glue dots, and crayons

Back Side of Card

1)    Trace the capital and lower case Hh on the backside of the card.

2)    Color the letter H then STICK AWAY!  My kids got a little creative here.  Some used the hearts on the front, as intended, while others used the hearts to outline the letters on the back.  I love it when my kids think of something that I haven’t!

3)    Place letter Hh on the binder clip with the letters Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, Ee, Ff, and Gg.

     Normally, I do not have a hard time finding great read-aloud books that I know my kids will like.  Lately, I have been STRIKING OUT!  Last week’s giraffe book was a bit of a bust, and I had that same problem this week.  It was a little bit difficult finding a good book about hearts that wasn’t related to Valentine’s Day.  Thus, I went with the book, In My Heart by Molly Bang.  I thought this book was sweet, thought-provoking, and loving.  My kids thought it was a bit slow and lacked excitement.  My suggestion?  This book would be great for a mom/dad/grandma/grandpa/aunt/uncle to read in a one-on-one situation, however, as a group of about 20, the message doesn’t really come across clearly.

     Halloween books, on the other hand, there are so many great ones it’s hard to pick just one to read.  This week, I went with a fairly new book that I knew none of my kids had read.  The 13 Nights of Halloween by Guy Vasilovch is really funny, a bit creepy, and filled with lots of fantastic drawings.  This book is really fun because you can sing it to the tune of “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”  In fact, it’s kind of hard not to.  I gave my kids the line “5 Singing Skulls,” and boy did the love to shout it out!

     As for our Halloween craft, I strayed just a little bit and went a “Five Little Pumpkins” craft. Does it have to do with Halloween? Eh, pumpkins remind me of Halloween, so why not? Plus, our fun Halloween craft will be next week when my library has our annual Halloween Story Time! In order to get a complete list of instructions, go here. I didn’t follow the instructions exactly, however, below you can see a picture of what ours looked like. The biggest thing that I added was print-out of the poem on the back so that the kids and their parents could recite it at home whenever they want. Reading and a craft?! Woo Hoo!
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Front side of the "Five Little Pumkins" Craft.

Back side of the craft and the poem the craft is based on.

     I like to finish these blog posts with the music that I have been using over the past couple of weeks.  I am a Windows Moviemaker novice, and while making these music videos can be fun, there is quite a bit of frustration at the same time.  I just hope they keep getting better the more I learn.  Below are a couple more songs that my kids absolutely love.  “If You’re Happy and You Know It,” is a classic, however, I like this version because it’s just a tad bit different.  Watch and listen to see if you can find the differences.
*** Due to some technical difficulties, this video has been removed.  Please visit the following link to see this video.

"If You're Happy and You Know It"

    The same can also be said for another favorite, “The Itsy Bitsy Spider.”  Just like “If You’re Happy and You Know It,” this one also has a bit of twist that my babies tend to go wild for.  Watch and listen and I’m sure you can figure out how this one became a quick favorite among my kids.

"The Itsy Bitsy Spider"

by Hap Palmer.

This song can be purchased on iTunes.

     Well, I think that is it for now.  Did I mention that next week is Halloween at our library?  Maybe once or twice?  I cannot wait!  The kids are always so cute in their costumes and it’s hard not to have fun when everyone is so excited.  I can’t wait to post pictures of my costume, but first I have to figure out what I am going to be!  Stay tuned for next week to see what I come up with!