The week of Halloween always proves to be an exciting time in the Lower School as anticipation brews for the annual Halloween parade.  This year was extra special since Halloween fell on a Friday; this meant a week full of Halloween inspired activities across the grades.  In Kindergarten, students participated in The Great Pumpkin Investigation, which allowed them to practice estimating, predicting, and measuring.  Prediction skills were furthered utilized as they set out on the hunt for the “Candy Corn Bandit”.  Spooky science was the highlight of the week in first grade.  Students conjured up fog and bubbles, apple volcanoes, dancing ghosts and frankenworms.  A spooktacluar time was had by all, but the ghoulish times didn’t end there.  Second graders used this fun time of the year to practice their math skills.  Each student received a treat bag filled with goodies.  They then counted their monster scabs (chex cereal) , pumpkin teeth (candy corn), witch’s warts (chocolate kisses) and ghost droppings (marshmallows). Using the data they collected, students then created a bar and tally graph.  Flying down the hall and around the corner, one would have found the fourth graders using candy corn to continue their studies of decimals written in standard form, word form, and expanded form.  Fifth grade joined in the fun by writing their very own scary stories and making “Goblin Gooolosh” with delicious ingredients such as eyeballs, fingernails, and slime.  Students added mixed numbers to find out the total amount of gooolosh made.  Jack Prelutsky’s poem “The Witch”  was a feature text in sixth grade.  Students activated their visualization reading strategy and created images that captured the topic within each stanza.   Swooping in to take a closer look, students examined the different rhetorical elements of the poem – figurative language, diction, and syntax, focusing specifically on prepositional phrases.  Marching through the halls of all the schools as Elsa, a soldier, a Starbucks barista, or a ninja served as the culmination for the festive week and once again proved to be a tradition that is loved by all.