Pretty dreary, but no worries. We find plenty to do inside. And with Halloween creeping up on us, there's plenty of scary fuel for us to use.
One of our perpetually favorite activities is the scary Boyd Story. Dark and rainy days are the perfect time for it. Miss Alison is the queen of the story, and I suspect she has seen endless scary movies she pares down to rated-G and inserts the individual children as main characters. These stories never seem to lose the kids' interests and they will periodically go on for days. When Alison gets tired of telling the story, we pass it around from child to child or ala Choose Your Own Adeventure books, we take votes.
Of course, October in Pittsburgh is pretty much like a moody teenager, and we have just as many gorgeous days as we do disgusting -- there is no such thing as moderation in October! And we've had some great days outside and we've certainly taken advantage of them.
Following our felt animals last month, and the apple dolls we made as well, we had some students interested in combining the two projects and making their own felt dolls.
This one was hand stitched by a first grader. The doll, the hair, the clothes, the shoes were all sketched and cut out by her as well. I offered her the hot glue gun, but she was interested in learning how to sew. Her face was drawn on using a permanent marker.
Here is her before photo opp. She's wearing the red dress for modesty's sake.
But we have lots of children who are interested in spending their time outside doing traditional drawings. The one below was done by a kindergartner.
In case you need a comparison:
I think it's pretty phenomenol, actually. I love the rings on the corrsponding planets and he was sure to tell me he was including satellites. It was a totally self-motivated picture; I believe he told me it was something he was learning with his father.
We try to get in plenty of time reading as a group, and reading in our own time as well. We picked a whole bunch of creepy stories to read for October, and one of the first ones we picked out was from a book of stories based on actual events. The first we read was the Oak Island Treasure, and it really ran away with the kids' imagination. After talking about why the treasure remained a mystery and what could be done to make it happen, we decided to make some treasure maps of our own.
First we crumpled the paper repeatedly, until it was nice and soft. We took some time to make the edges ragged and then began the drawing. Most started with pencil and added color later on. All were encouraged to use a compass rose and create a key for the reader to follow.
After the maps were complete, we started in with the fun part...making our maps look authentic!
We mixed together some instant coffee and some water (Important Note: It turns out this "paint" will molder...don't succumb to the temptation to keep it around for very long). The kids each got their own little pot of coffee paint and they got to work.
The maps will need to sit for some time to fully dry. If you're at home and feeling adventurous, I have also successfully baked paper in the oven to create an aged effect.
And when they're dry? Spectacular results:
We've been finishing up The Magician's Nephew, and have started reading Horror at the Haunted House, and have some more fun books up for consideration; we know there will be more opportunity to read as we are forced to spend more time inside. Our Words of the Day this month have been Spook-Tacular and include these:
We have the Best Halloween Party Ever coming up, so stay tuned for some great photos and stories from that!
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