Every Halloween, the preschoolers go around the school collecting candy from teachers and showing off their costumes to the high school students. This is a 20 year long tradition that is an essential part of being at the Northview Preschool. 

The most important part of this tradition is how much fun the preschoolers have, going to all the classes getting candy from teachers. 

Five year old Graham Felver’s favorite part was, “When we got lots and lots of candy!”

“I liked going to mommy’s classroom!” four year old Jansen Barber said, daughter of Intervention Specialist MaGee Barber. 

Not only is this a great experience for the kids, but it also helps the juniors who are involved in the Education and Training program. Since Halloween is such a fun day where kids get a lot of candy, the high school students have to be able to work with and calm the excited preschoolers. 

“As future teachers, it is necessary for them to think about how to plan ahead and develop classroom management strategies, especially for students who may really struggle with the “craziness” that comes with classroom celebrations/parties,” Career Tech Education & Training Teacher Ryan Eikholt said.

In addition to learning how to control the excited kids, these future teachers learn how important it is to have routines in a classroom. Since Halloween trick or treating leads to a different schedule, the kids get a little crazy with the different activities. From the early experience with this, the junior students can understand how important routines are in the classroom and how to implement them in these settings. They also get to teach the kids how to trick-or-treat politely.

“The junior students help to teach the students the steps to trick-or-treating in the classroom the week prior.  We have pretend houses in our dramatic play area and students put on costumes,” Pre-School teacher Patricia Beckstead said. 

Overall, the annual preschool trick-or-treating is a NV tradition that is beneficial for both the preschoolers as well as the juniors who work with the preschoolers in hopes of one day becoming a teacher.