Happy Halloween: Better Late than Never

Halloween came and went and I forgot to wish everyone a Happy Halloween. This time of year, I'm always taken back to my elementary classroom. My kids would plan the best costumes for warm weather but on the day of Halloween the weather always changed. I would see my sweet fifth graders in princess costumes covered by heavy parkas. It was just too cold to be a fairy princess. It never failed...the first day of cool/wet weather was always Halloween.

The day after Halloween was always a nightmare to teach. No matter what the "sugar gurus" say--too much candy makes kids hyper. Then, you have to teach 35 of them...it's not fun! The day after Halloween the kids were "drunk" from sweets and almost impossible to teach. That's when I would do another lesson. It was hands on and lots of fun. I had the kids bring in their old pumpkins and we would do lessons and activities with them. But more importantly, I would lead them to discover the concept of PI, the mathematical constant. The lesson started when one of my students actually discovered the concept of PI all on his own. While we did not figure it out to the 10th decimal place, we concluded that PI was "3 and a little bit" and I was okay with that. To prove that PI was constant, my kids measured every circle they could find from records to car tires to circular waste cans to tree trunks, even round chalk. It was a fun day and believe it or not, it calmed them down. And, my kids knew all about Pumpkin PI. 

Because the day after Halloween was so challenging to teach, somewhere along the line, I stopped giving candy to my local trick or treaters. Instead, I bought rolls of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. I put them in a big bowl and let the trick or treaters grab a handful of coins. I discovered that little hands can only pick up 6 or 7 coins which probably cost the same as a piece of candy. I did not do it to save money, I did it to lower the sugar-high. It was a win-win for everyone. In addition, parents did not have to worry about anything amiss in the goody haul. (One of the local dental offices had a great deal too---they would scope bags of candy to make sure they were safe--and give each kid a free toothbrush too.)

Those days are long gone. I have no desire to go back to teaching elementary school--yet Halloween was always a fun time and the memories are still there. This Halloween we went to a party. I was dressed up in my best Rio de Janiero Carnival hat, which was given to me in Rio at Carnival several years ago. The hat was a big hit and I had a lot of fun wearing it. Kudos to Karen for helping me clean it up.

Thanks for letting me stroll down memory lane. It's important to do that every now and then. Remember, we're all in this together.