Friday, October 28, 2011

How to Have a Sugar-Free Halloween for Preschool Kids


Screams, howls, and groaning; It’s Halloween, but really it our preschool kids on too much sugar. That eerie feeling in the pit of our stomach is not the excitement but the knowledge that every year we got through the same thing regarding sugar and the kids in the classroom.
It’s time to channel Susan Powter and ‘Stop the Insanity!’ So, is there really such thing as a sugar-free Halloween in our own classroom without the kids knowing? I say there is. We made it so fun and got the parents involved that the kids didn’t notice they weren’t screaming from the sugar rush.
Here are a few things we did to make the Halloween pleasant and fun and practically sugar-free everyone. And it you don’t have tons of volunteers, just make a few modifications.

How We Make a Practically Sugar-Free Halloween for Our Preschool Kids 

Get a fun Halloween Music CD.

Sugar-Free Goodies: Put together small bags of “Yummy Earth” (Sugar Free Candy) Candies in Halloween Goodie Bags (Distribute them after the Party).

The way Halloween haunts me: Kids on sugar!
Apple Float Activity: Fishing for Apples, Float real apples in a large tub of water with mini fishing rods (with magnets on the end). (Stick a paper clip through a golf tee and shove it in an apple, do this a couple times per apple) Float the apples in the water and allow the children to “fish them”. They loved it! Be sure to use small size red apples.

Kids Crazy Glow Water: We make this one ahead of time and turn out the lights on one side of the class room and have it sectioned off a bit with a black sheet and black light. The water is in a larger water table for all the kids to use. We keep this well supervised.

The Slime Pit: We use a cornstarch and water mix to make ooze called the slime pit. We put Halloween trinkets in there like spiders and such and later on add an extension such as food colors to allow the kids to mix colors.

Less Treats More Fun: Much later in the day we have a few Halloween stories and some carrot cake. The kids also vote on some of the same activities we had inside to bring outside (except for the Crazy Glow Water, of course).
By the end of the day we are really worn out.
But at least our eardrums aren’t ringing....

We hope you'll give it a try, we are pretty sure you'll feel brilliant that you did! 

Ha! Out-smarted Halloween this year, baby!

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