Week 10: the 10 Commandments meet Halloween

The anticipation for Halloween has been steadily building over the last 30 days, so during Halloween week we had a little holiday celebrating to do. The kids all wore their costumes to school on Monday.

Check out (from left to right) Batman (Noah), a "worker" (Jack, who was tired of wearing his Buzz Lightyear costume), Woody (Doc), Princess Annabelle (Annabelle), Rapunzel (Eisley), Pirate Girl (Juliette), Sad Pirate Boy (CJ) and Belle (Addison).

This week's curriculum focused on the story of the 10 commandments, the letter "f" and the number 5.

To memorize ten rules in the correct order is probably too much to ask of three and four year olds, so we spent the first days focusing on the five that I felt would be easiest to understand. Each student was assigned one rule, and over the course of our circle time we talked about each of the five rules and reminded each other of the rule each was assigned. I found a great list of kid-friendly interpretations of the 10 Commandments online here.

Jack was assigned the 6th Commandment: never hurt anyone.

After a few books we got down to the important business: decorating cookies with tons of sugary candy and frosting. Thanks to my mother and father-in-law for sending us a box of awesome Halloween cookie decorating goodies, including candy eyeballs. Awesome.

Nothing like a little sugar to whet the appetite for a week full of...more sugar.

On day two of week 10 we got serious about our letter and numbers of the week (f and 5). We read both of Moncure's books (My F Book, My Five Book) and practiced making the "f" sound, putting our hand in front of our mouths as we do to "feel" the sound as well. 

I set up a four workstations:

Do-a-Dot for upper-case and lower-case "f"

Trace the letter "f" (this is a bag of paint)

Letter "f" hunt/maze

Build the letter "f" with foam blocks

Number match (add the correct number of blocks in each column)

The kids did really well at these activities. The three year olds struggled with the number match (I think they would have done better with a bit more time on this one), but Eisley was a pro.

We moved outside for some free art time. I asked the kids to paint a picture of the silliest or coolest thing they'd seen the night before, which was Halloween.

It was fun hearing their stories and I think the kids enjoyed an art activity without any rules. Here are the end products:

After 10 weeks I've feeling extremely thankful for this amazing group of kids and moms. Our kids are wonderful, but the friendships and support we share as moms is a true gift. It's been a great 10 weeks.