The Haunted House Project

A book that we read inspired the kids to turn our dramatic play area into a Haunted House! We created a list of what we wanted in it.

After looking at the list, I thought everything could be divided into 6 groups. The kids signed up to be on a team that would work on each part. We came to an agreement that there would be no blood or killing in our Haunted House because that would not be appropriate for kindergartners. They did a very good job of respecting that boundary! 

During Thinking, Learning and Discovering Time many started making things on their own to hang up! Aren't these the cutest monsters ever? 

The spider experts started researching spiders. They each wrote about one spider fact. 

They presented what they learned to the class...

then got to work creating spiders. 

They added their spiders and spider webs to our Haunted House.  Notice the dead flowers.  They said a haunted house had to have dead flowers. 

The Bat Team also explored, wrote and presented what they learned about bats. 

They made bats to hang in the Haunted House. 

Next we learned about skeletons. They created a sketch based on research we did on the computer and then got to work making a big one for the Haunted House. 

The House Team wanted to make a stormy night in the window. They went and grabbed yellow paint for the Lightning but when we researched lightning on our IPad, they realized lightning was white!

Based on their research they created white lightning. 

Here is our finished storm and skeleton!

The Ghost team created ghosts to fly in our paths.

The monster team created a witches costume and a black cat costume. 

The House team also worked on the front of our Haunted House. They wanted a yellow window.

They also created a blue door. 

We needed a sign so some kids volunteered to measure the area with paper tubes...

then measured the paper for our sign to be the right size. 

Some friends painted the words on the sign. 

Here is our finished house! Totally kid-did! I just hung it up for them!  Welcome to our Haunted house.  

I hope they have fun playing in it!

We also had a pajama day!  The kids were allowed to bring their stuffed animals in so I told them they could have them during Thinking, Learning and Discovering time!  I wish that I had gotten more pictures but they did so many cool things that required collaboration with friends, critical thinking, problem solving, measuring, they built houses for them, made beds for them, wrote stories for and about them, made them cards, read books to them.  They did such a good job using reading, writing and math skills with these toys just naturally!  Here are a few pictures that I got.

Enjoy your week! Stay tuned to see what we explore next!