October Activities It is finally no longer dry as a bone and baking in heat. October is a favorite month of mine because of the fun of Halloween and the milder weather which allows outdoor games and exploration. This month for activities, I have selected pumpkins, pasta and the Day of the Dead. PASTA This unit centers around children's books and songs involving spaghetti, macaroni and other pastas. Keep a copy of Tomie de Paola's book Strega Nona. Look for recordings of "On top of spaghetti" "I love ravioli" . Sorting salad pasta Bring a large bag of salad pasta of a variety of shapes. If desired, dye pasta using one bottle of food coloring and one cup of rubbing alcohol . You can use a different color for each shape if there are only three or four shapes. You will also use this pasta on the next activity, so have fun with it. I haven't found it workable to color pasta with tempera or other paints, as it makes the pasta crack and fall apart. Show students how to sort pasta by shape, using sorting bins, or a colored piece of construction paper for each color as a cue. You can also make a large set of flashcards with the numbers one through ten on them. Kids who are working on counting skills can count out on piece of pasta on each card. Stringing pasta Give each student a shoe string and help them string pasta. You can also use thick nylon cord with some plastic tape wrapped around the end to make it stiff, this may save you money, and you can make the stiff "needle" part longer. If you have students with good tactile or cognitive skills, have them make patterns with the pasta, alternating two or three shapes in the same order each time. They can also work copying a model from pasta already strung or pasta glued to a piece of cardboard. For kids with less coordination, string pasta on a knitting needle, or cut the bottom of a wire hanger free and bend one end into a circle so the pasta doesn't fall off to use to put pasta on. Discovery bin pasta: I always carry a covered tub of large elbow macaroni in my car when I visit students to play in. For kids who tend to put things in their mouths, nothing is totally safe, but it is easier to clean up than rice or sand, and is hollow, unlike beans so if it gets stuck in some little nose or mouth, air can still pass through. I still wouldn't use it for any student who mouths objects with out careful supervision. Put some cups with and with out handles in, some scoops if you have them, measuring spoons or big serving spoons, tongs, ladles, whatever is at hand. I highly recommend metal tools, they are more expensive, but are shiny silver, and attract visual attention from kids with vision impairments. Show kids how to scoop, pour pick up, and swish around in the pasta. Hide objects in it and let them search with their hands to find it. I even carry a little whisk broom and dust pan to show kids how to sweep it up and put back what has fallen on the floor. Kids with poor coordination and tactile defensiveness benefit the most from this activity. You can also put a small vibrator in the pasta (such as a squiggle wiggle writer with the pen tip removed) and let the kids feel around and find it. Pasta art on paper: Cook some pasta and let it cool by running cold water on it. It's probably best if you use only spaghetti, but you could use other shapes as well. (you can do this at home) Dribble a little vegetable oil on it to keep it from getting too sticky. If you think you will have trouble keeping it out of kid's mouths, use a tablespoon of food coloring in a fourth of a cup of water and pour over pasta to color it. If you have more mature kids, just use tempera paint. Let kids pick the pasta up with tongs or their fingers and drop onto paper or tagboard of a contrasting color. Squeeze white glue over the pasta to help it stick to the paper. Show the kids how it changed from being soft to hard. Pasta art mobiles:Prepare spaghetti as described above, color it well. Give each student a piece of foil or waxed paper and let them pick up the pasta and drop it onto the paper. Show kids how to make shapes or letters with the spigot. Don't glue it down this time, but make sure all pieces touch each other. Set aside to dry and harden. When dry help kids to peel it up from the paper and tie a ribbon to it, hang it from the ceiling or in front of a window. Pasta paper weights: It used to be whenever you gave kids clay and they didn't know what to make, they could make an ashtray. Now we have to be a little more creative. So make a paper weight. Use playdough, and show kids how to roll it into a ball and flatten it on the table a little. Break up spaghetti into lengths three inches or less. You can also include other types of pasta from the sorting bin activity. Let kids stick pasta into the playdough until they are finished. Then let it dry completely. Send it home, it's desk sculpture! Eat some pasta: Make a quick snack of pasta with your students. Boil water to cook pasta. If you don’t have access to a stove, try using a counter top electrical appliance such as an electric skillet, or electric teapot. Break your spaghetti in short pieces, then boil. Drain and drizzle a little oil on the pasta. Spoon some spaghetti sauce over the pasta and eat, the heated pasta will be hot enough to make the sauce warm, too. Help kids explore wit their hands to feel the difference between the pasta before and after it’s cooked. Velveeta macaroni and cheese on toast: Some kids really love Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, for myself, I like Velveeta macaroni and cheese in a box, the cheese tastes more like actual food! Whatever you want to try, cook the pasta for about 10 minutes extra so it will be really soft. Mix in the cheese product. Toast some bread and spread the macaroni and cheese on toast. Make a sandwich or eatopen face. A pasta sandwich! On to Other things . . . Well, enough pasta ideas for now. The fun stuff to do in October is Halloween. This year I have spent some time reading up on the Day of the Dead or Dia de los Muertos, as it is celebrated in Mexico and in Mexican immigrant communities here in Texas and the Southwest. Halloween and it’s pagan precursors were never festivals honoring the devil or evil malicious activity. With the days growing short, it was thought by preindustrialized cultures that the long hours of darkness gave spirits more opportunity to contact people living on the earth. The separation between the living and the dead was thought to be especially thin on this day halfway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. Most cultures of the world honor and revere the elderly members of society, believing their many years of living has imparted great wisdom and experience from which we can all benefit. Elders are asked advice in matters both spiritual and mundane. When elders die, family members want to continue the relationship. Dia de los Muertos celebrates the continued role of dead friends and family members in the lives of the living. The humorous depictions of skeletons engaging in everyday activities reminds us that they are still people with mundane interests and concerns, namely their living friends and relatives. Some of these suggestion for activities may be unrealistic to do in public school settings, because of the Anglo fear of death and the images’ association with devil worship in our society. Other activities will fit right in with Halloween, now the second biggest selling holiday for decorations, food and fun. Cemetery celebration: If your school is within walking distance of a cemetery, and in small towns, many are, take some time to walk over and explore. Active groups can work on cleaning up the cemetery and clipping grass around the monuments, this is especially good for secondary aged kids, as they may have some experience at home with lawn care. Students can look for monuments with their family name on them. Make some tissue paper flowers to leave at grave sites, or pick fresh flowers outdoors to place at graves, make them special by tying a colorful ribbon around them. Leave something special on a neglected marker that has fallen over. O.K. I know hardly anyone is really going to be able to do an activity like this unless they are working with a Sunday school class, or other non-public school arrangement, or have a lot of Latino students in their class. It truly is not a religious activity, since people of all cultures honor those who have passed away. You can try this on memorial day. Picture Frame: Make a picture frame for the photo of a beloved family member who has passed away. Use four tongue depressors, overlap at the corners and glue into a rectangle shape. Scrounging from the pasta unit, apply some pretty shapes such as wagon wheels, elbow macaroni, and shell macaroni to the picture frame with copious amounts of white glue. Allow to dry. When kids are not around, spray paint with gold metallic paint. When dry let kids glue a few silk flowers to the corners or across the bottom of the frame. Cut cardboard to fit, and glue across two sides, leaving the other the other two open to slide a picture in. Anglo parents who think the Day of the Dead is a morbid tradition can always put a picture of their kids in the frame! Cookies: Get a skull or dog bone shaped cookie cutter and make cookies with your students. You can buy ready made dough such as sugar cookie dough and roll it out with a rolling pin. Sprinkle on decorations and bake and eat. Celebrators of the Day of the Dead give one another “pan de muertos” or bread of the dead, a sweetbread with a coating of sugar crystals to honor the occasion. Skeletons and bones prints: Use your skull and skeleton and bone cookie cutters to make cookie cutter prints, or trace around them and use the shape as a pattern to cut a sponge for sponge prints. Moisten the sponge, or wash the cookie cutter well and use the non cutting side to dip in paint. To prepare, pour white tempera paint into a shallow container such as a pie pan. Tape black or dark blue construction paper to the table at the corners, and assist students with dipping the sponge or cookie cutter in the paint and patting it onto the paper. Some kids who really dislike touching slippery things may actually be able to do this without getting their fingers messy! Skeletons and bones decorations: Look for some great room decorations at stores with Halloween displays. You can find skeletons of all sizes in cardboard with bendable joints. You can find little plastic ones, and larger plastic ones. I have even seen inflatable plastic skeletons. Hang the skeletons around the room and dress them up with paper clothing and accessories. Trace around kids’ hands to make gloves, lay shoes on their side and trace, make hats, watches, neckties, belts, necklaces and all kinds of items which you wish you had in your wardrobe. Find a smaller skeleton and copy it on legal size paper, then cut out magazine pictures of clothing and accessories, or bits of fabric and trim to glue on. Paper plate skull: Buy two different size cheap white paper plates, one standard dinner size, one smaller desert size. Prepare materials in advance for your students by cutting the small plate in half, and cutting from black felt, two circles and a triangle for eyes and nose for each paper plate skull. Draw a few teeth with a black marker on the back of the paper plates, short straight lines across about four inches across one section of the large plate: I I. Then the same thing across the straight side of the plate cut in half. The skull will be on the Back of the paper plates. Let kids snip on the lines to make teeth, then Glue eyes and nose of black felt on the large plate attach the small plate to the large plate with the straight side of the small plate against the teeth on the large plate. Staple or glue to attach. Creepy! That’s all for now! I have to apologize for the lateness of this newsletter, as I try to get it in the mail on the week before the first of the month. Alas, I have to squeeze this, my creative fun work in after the work I get paid for, teaching, and the work I don’t get paid for, working on a doctorate in special education. The next few semesters I have some heavy duty research courses, so I will just have to do my best. Part of my lateness is also due to building my web page, YES, HANDS AND EYES NEWSLETTER IS NOW ON LINE! Wow, I’ve only been saying it is on the drawing board for a year. The News on paper and on line will take on a slightly new look as I get the two on a compatible and usable format for both. So E-MAIL me at HandENews@juno.com or read me on line at http://home.earthlink.net/~vharris/ I’m getting registered with search engines now, so if you don’t know the address, you can search by my newsletter’s title soon. . . Holly