Trick or Treat!

Last week, I discovered that we measly people from the States have NOTHIN' on my peeps here at ASD when it comes to celebrating Halloween. Pardon the expression, but the last few days of my work week were something akin to Halloween on crack! These people aren't kiddin' around...

First off, the fabulous room parents came around to talk to us about how we wanted our doors decorated. Door decorating is big around here during Halloween so my kids and I took inspiration from the book I read to them this month, "The Legends of Sleepy Hollow" (the Wishbone version :) ) and I must say, it looked fabulous! It's also great to be able to walk around and see all the dirrerent themes, but I think my favorite was the door across the hall from me. A skeleton...in a coffin...3D....and the "eyes" light up! Too cool. 

My class' Door

Now we move on to the insanity that is "The Pumpkin Patch". Now I'm guessing that when you hear "pumpkin patch", you're thinking of a nice field of vines with big plump pumkins laying around, drinking cider, and hay bales. You're almost right. Here, the "pumpkin patch" is a room-sized corner in one of the common areas in our school. In the far back corner are hay bales stacked up with pumpkins and scarecrows sitting all over. Around the outter edges, there are tables set up and LOADED with every kind of store-bought or home made Halloween goodie one could ever imagine (scratch that...sadly there was no candy corn). So here we have a school full of kids, ages 8-11, and they have at their disposal tables and tables filled with treats and goodies. Holy sugar-coma, Batman. Thankfully, there are rules and set times regarding the Pumpkin Patch, however, this creates MASS hysteria when those set times roll around. I practically had to peel a 3rd grader off me when I went during break to get myself a cupcake...something akin to going into battle. What we will do for a little suga... 

Last, but not least, there's the Halloween Carnival. Kids can buy tickets prior to the carnival and come to ASD to play games and trick-or-treat in the halls. I wasn't here for it, but boy did I get a good preview! The pics say it best, so check out my facebook. However, the halls are lined floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall, with autumn and halloween backdrops, props, and other hanging decor. Every corner was made into a "scene", depicting something different with each turn. In wall hallway, you had to go through a stringy black "curtain" to get to the other side and there were hay bales EVERYWHERE. 

In a nut shell, the parents, kids, and staff at ASD rock socks. I could never have fathomed something like this and the kids were lovin' it up...I especially enjoyed seeing everything with the kids who were new to ASD. They were just as pumped as I was. 

The kids and I had a great time. It was no 3rd grade in Las Vegas Halloween shin-ding, something I totally rocked out if I do say so myself, but it came in a very close 2nd. With my kids, we watched the movie that accomonied our "Sleepy Hollow" book, had some popcorn, and played "Who Are These Little Monsters"; a game where they had to guess which students from our class, were in the pictures. I had the kids bring in a picture of themself in a Halloween costume when they were 1 or 2.  I put them on display all week and on Thursday they had to write down their guesses. It was simple, but they loved it! (Usually the way it goes, huh?) 

Happy Halloween all! Enjoy the changing colors and crisp autumn air for me. This is the time of year I always miss the most :)