This Week's Theme and Song

I always use the last week of the month as a review week. This week we'll be using "Halloween" as our theme. We'll be reviewing the themes from the past 3 weeks; witches, spiders and pumpkins.

We'll be using association pairs to teach both math and language concepts. You can use whatever themes you've been doing. My associations look like this:

1. witch and broom
2. pumpkin and jack-o-lantern
3. spider and web

We'll match these pictures together on our felt board while we sing the following song to the tune of "Farmer in the Dell".

HALLOWEEN REVIEW SONG:

"It's Halloween tonight! It's Halloween tonight! Oooo-ooooo it's Halloween, it's Halloween tonight!" (Put up letters to spell: Halloween)

"The witch rides her broom! The witch rides her broom! Oooo-ooooo it's Halloween, the witch rides her broom!" (Match witch to broom)

"The pumpkin's glowing bright! The pumpkin's glowing bright! Oooo-ooooo it's Halloween, the pumpkin's glowing bright!" (Match pumpkin to jack-o-lantern)

"The spider spins her web! The spider spins her web! Oooo-ooooo it's Halloween, the spider spins her web!" (Match spider and web)

*You can change the words of the song to fit the associations you use. You can also add more versus and more associations depending on the attention span of your child.

For Your Health Fridays

Today's recipe took me quite awhile to perfect. I had to come up with a chicken nugget recipe that was gluten-free, casein-free, soy-free, corn-free, egg-free and low oxalate. I had to make sure the recipe was good enough for my kids not on special diets as well. After a lot of trial and error, this is the recipe we love.

Coconut flour absorbs a lot of moisture, bakes well and has a natural sweetness that my kids love. It's also a great source of fiber. It's kind of expensive but a little goes a long way.

Serve these chicken bites with a little sugar-free ketchup (Organicville is my favorite brand) and a side of fruit and veggies and you've got a wonderful, healthy meal. If you try this recipe out, let me know what you think!

GF/CF Sweet and Savory Chicken Bites

3/4 cup sweet rice flour
3 Tablespoons coconut flour
1/2 teaspoon paprika
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon basil
3 Tablespoons grapeseed oil
4 free-range organic chicken breasts
extra grapeseed oil

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. In a bowl, combine all the ingredients except the oil and chicken. Then place the mixed ingredients in a food processor. Add the oil and pulse until all the oil is evenly distributed. Set aside. Prepare your chicken breasts by rinsing them with cool water and cutting them into thumb-size pieces. Cut diagonally to make them more tender. Place the cut chicken in a bowl and drizzle with grapeseed oil, lightly coating. Toss the chicken in the oil and distribute evenly. Add the crumb mixture and toss. Place the chicken pieces on a cookie sheet lined with bleach-free parchment paper. Bake at 325 for 25 minutes. Turn the chicken bites once half-way through the baking. Serve immediately.

Pumpkin Book Picks

#1. Pumpkin Pumpkin, by Jeanne Titherington


I love this book because the illustrations are beautiful and the story is simple. It's a great story to read before carving those pumpkins! It tells the story of a pumpkin from planting the seed to carving it. For more information and a peek inside this delight of a book click here.

Here's a cute poem to go along with this story. Here is an easy song to sing with it.

#2. The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything, by Linda Williams


I've never met a child who didn't like this book. It's illustrations are wonderful and the story is repetitious. It's spooky with a lovely ending. The children can interact with you as you read this book and make the sound effects of each of the sounds the lady hears. It's one of our family's personal favorites. Check this one out, you won't be dissappointed!

For an activity to go along with this book click here. I printed this out on cardstock, colored it, cut out the pieces, and had my son match them as we read. This worked great as a way to keep him engaged and focused. Here is an alternative version of the same pictures.

Pumpkin Sponge Craft

As we discussed earlier, retention of information occurs best when repetition is used. If you are planning a trip to the pumpkin patch, prepare your child by reading the book mentioned in the last post. Any story about how pumpkins grow will do.

After you visit the pumpkin patch, complete an activity that reinforces what your child saw or participated in. An example of this type of activity is the Pumpkin Sponge Craft outlined below. Hang the artwork where your child will see it and talk about the experience every now and then.

Materials Needed:
1. Construction Paper or Art Paper in white or black
2. Tempera Paints or Craft Paints (washable preferred) in orange and green
3. Sponge

Cut the sponge into a rough pumpkin shape (shown below). Dip the sponge flat down in the orange paint. Sponge paint as many pumpkins as you like. Then take your pointer finger and dip it in the green paint. Create a stem on each pumpkin with your fingerprint. This activity is simple and beneficial. Sponging and pressing with the pointer finger practices good grasp techniques and finger isolation.




Create a pumpkin patch during the day using white paper (seen above) or a pumpkin patch at night using black paper (see below). Add additional details such as vines, jack-o-lantern faces, etc. depending on the attention span of your child.



Here are some other fun pumpkin activities:

Printable Pumpkin Dot-to-Dot with Clifford

Printable Pumpkin Maze with Clifford

Pick a Pumpkin Book and Virtual Jack-o-Lantern

Pumpkin Centerpiece

This Week's Theme

This week's theme is: Pumpkins!

This is a great week to make it to the pumpkin patch if you haven't already done so. A great book to read before going to the Pumpkin Patch is:

A Day at the Pumpkin Patch by Megan Faulkner

For more information and a sneak peek at the pictures in this amazing book click here.


Here is the lesson plan for circle time this week. I always do my "pumpkin week" lesson plan around the poem, "5 Little Pumpkins". It's a cute poem and is great for reinforcing rhyming words and counting. For a link to DTLK's printable poem and visuals click here. There's even a mini-book to go along with the poem here. All you have to do is print them, cut them out, put a little velcro or magnet on the back and your circle time visuals are done. (To make them last year after year, laminate them or cover them with contact paper.)

For Your Health Fridays

Why am I posting a recipe on a homeschooling blog? The answer is simple. One of the main reasons I homeschool my son is because of his extreme sensitivity to foods and the difficulty his diet poses. Every time I have attempted to put my son in a classroom, his eating issues have been a huge problem and he has regressed. In homeschooling him I am control of when he eats, what he eats and I can document how he reacts to what I am feeding him. In addition, I can spare him the torture of watching other kids eat what he wishes he could.

When I plan meals for my son I try to maximize the nutritional content of everything he is eating. My entire family is not on the same diet, so I often modify meals so that everyone can enjoy them. The following recipe is free of all of my son's most severe allergies: gluten, casein, soy, egg, nuts, potatoes and corn. Despite what it doesn't have, it's really healthy and really tasty. The directions are for a slow-cooker but if you don't have one, you can make it in a pot. It's one of my daughter's favorites.

Hamburger Soup with Pasta

1 lb. lean grass-fed ground beef or kosher ground turkey
1 chopped yellow onion
1 large can stewed tomatoes
2 cups vegetable broth
1 cup baby carrots sliced into coins
1 cup chopped celery
2 cups cooked brown rice pasta (in spirals or elbow or bow-tie, not spaghetti)
Salt
Pepper

Directions: In a frying pan, crumble the ground beef or turkey. Add chopped onion. Cook until meat is browned. Add to a crock pot (slow cooker). Then add the can of stewed tomatoes and broth. Next add your carrots and celery. Cook on high for 3 hours or until carrots are tender.

Just before serving cook the brown rice pasta according to directions. Drain. Add to the soup. Serve. Enjoy!

Variations:

*If you don't have a gluten issue, you can use regular pasta.

*You can substitute a cup of diced potatoes for the pasta if you prefer.

*If you cook it on the stove top instead of a slow cooker, boil the soup until carrots are tender.

Printable Spider Craft

Here is another spider craft idea, courtesy of Lakeshore Learning.

Click here to view and print craft.