Halloween is just around the corner and I wanted to make sure my school had just a sprinkling of the season in its mix. I do not go all out with a ton of scary decorations because for me Halloween is more of a “candy day” than it is a scary celebration. I am very well aware that many people love this holiday and find it to be the best one of the year! I like seeing the creative and cute costumes and I do enjoy seeing all the new commercial items as well. For my school, I really like keeping the decor for Haloween specifically to a minimum and increasing the autumn feel. This year, however, autumn seemed to drop on us the first of October. We did not have a longer summer as we’ve had in the past recent years, so the cold really hit. Not that it has been super chilly out there, just all of a sudden I saw the leaves turn lovely colors and wind and rain became our norm.
I prefer to keep Halloween themed provocations to a tiny amount because the curriculum for the school is emergent. With an emergent curriculum the children’s interests do not always match the holiday season and that is just fine with me. That doesn’t mean that costumes and parties are off the table for discussion, it just means Halloween is not the main part of the curriculum and the school’s goals. I have never liked interrupting real learning and natural interest with artificial things that match the holidays. If children are interested in building with recyclable materials, then why should they be pulled away to do a “Halloween activity”? Let’s not interrupt real learning and interest with topics that may be best suited for outside the classroom time.
What Halloween provocations have you set up? What autumn provocations have you set up? How successful were these provocations and what did they lead to? Let me know below!
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