Halloween in Your Classroom!

October is one of my favorite times of year! I love watching Hocus Pocus, drinking hot chocolate and going to pumpkin patches.  I know, I know. TYPICAL!

But I also love teaching in October as well.  This unit has everything you need!  It's got math games, book activities, crafts and writing. 

My favorite game in this pack is October Battleship!

 This unit integrates Halloween into math, literacy, and art! Differentiated for

 Kinder, 1st, and 2nd grades (with B/W options available).

Over 100 pages including:

Scoop and Sort Place Value

Patterning

Greater/Less

Problem Solving

Graphing

October Battleship

Place Value Game

Bat Writing

Spider Writing

Spelling Game

Q-Tip Skeleton

Paper Plate Spider with Writing

Paper Plate Scarecrow

Hand Print Spider with Poem

Spider Web Chart

Don't Munch the Mummy! (sight word game)

Reading Response Activity

Interactive read-a-loud

Original Poem

Green Witch, Green Witch book 

Student Mini-Book

Class Book

Word Search

Click here for more info!

Halloween Activities for Elementary (with lots of freebies)

 This unit integrates Halloween into math, literacy, and art! Differentiated for

 Kinder, 1st, and 2nd grades (with B/W options available).

Over 100 pages including:

Scoop and Sort Place Value

Patterning

Greater/Less

Problem Solving

Graphing

October Battleship

Place Value Game

Bat Writing

Spider Writing

Spelling Game

Q-Tip Skeleton

Paper Plate Spider with Writing

Paper Plate Scarecrow

Hand Print Spider with Poem

Spider Web Chart

Don't Munch the Mummy! (sight word game)

Reading Response Activity

Interactive read-a-loud

Original Poem

Green Witch, Green Witch book 

Student Mini-Book

Class Book

Word Search

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• This writing pack contains two parts – 4 Halloween Writing

Assignments and 5 October themed journal pages.

• Each of the 4 Halloween Writing Assignments have a

brainstorm page

• 3 different differentiated writing pages for

each of the Halloween Writing Assignments. 

• 2 different grading rubrics. 

This unit was originally created for grades 3-6, but I've had teachers of younger grade levels use this and love it too. With my update, I created differentiated writing pages so it can be used will all grade levels K-6.

3-6 example:

K-2 Example:

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Want some free downloads?

This will be a quick, fun drawing activity. Then, we'll share our pages in small groups because you know your students are dying to talk about what they did the night before.  

I'm loving the Hello Fonts, Moffatt Frames and KPM Doodles!

Then, we graphed whether or not we thought spiders were scary! We used the free app on our iPad called Doodle Buddy. 

We recorded our results on Cara Carroll's cutest recording sheet {here}.

And then we wrote an opinion piece (Common Core Opinion Writing) about if we were afraid of spiders.  We supported our opinion with 2 reasons why! 

We also wrote an informational piece on what we learned about spiders and you can see how we did that {here}. 

Then, we did some of these in math! We are working on counting on and counting back, so our equations are simple. 

Halloween Activities for K-6

Let's be real. October can be a crazy month for teaching. Between students being excited about dressing up in costumes and all the candy they eat during the month, kids can have a hard time focusing and working hard on school work. 

We have both created some resources that are fun, engaging, AND educational that you can use during the month October. It's a great way to keep them excited about learning. 

This Halloween Writing Pack has been in my store for years. It's actually one of the first things I posted in my TPT store back in 2012. This year I gave it a major makeover to update the design and add some new features. 

• This writing pack contains two parts – 4 Halloween Writing

Assignments and 5 October themed journal pages.

• Each of the 4 Halloween Writing Assignments have a

brainstorm page. These pages have directions for each story 

and will get your students thinking about what they write 

before they begin.

• I have included 3 different differentiated writing pages for

each of the Halloween Writing Assignments. This will help

you meet the needs of your students, and also allows these

writing pages to be used for all grade levels K-6.

• I have included two different grading rubrics. The first

rubric can be used for grading each of the 4 Halloween

Writing Assignments. The second one can be used as an

overall grading checklist for the entire Writing Pack. Full

sized and quarter sized rubrics are included. (I like to staple

the smaller sized rubrics to the top of each story after I have

graded them.)

This unit was originally created for grades 3-6, but I've had teachers of younger grade levels use this and love it too. With my update, I created differentiated writing pages so it can be used will all grade levels K-6.

3-6 example:

K-2 Example:

(My own sweet daughter, Allie, wrote this story. She's in kindergarten! I obviously helped her with spelling and punctuation, but she wrote the story all by herself!)

Rachelle also has a Halloween pack in her store made specifically for grades K-2. It's a fun unit that integrates Halloween into math, literacy, and art! 

This unit has over 100 pages and is full of fun activities your students will love! It's differentiated for Kinder, 1st, and 2nd grades (black and white options available to help save ink.)

Here's what's included:

Scoop and Sort Place Value

Patterning

Greater/Less

Problem Solving

Graphing

October Battleship

Place Value Game

Bat Writing

Spider Writing

Spelling Game

Q-Tip Skeleton

Paper Plate Spider with Writing

Paper Plate Scarecrow

Hand Print Spider with Poem

Spider Web Chart

Don't Munch the Mummy! (sight word game)

Reading Response Activity

Interactive read-a-loud

Original Poem

Green Witch, Green Witch book 

Student Mini-Book

Class Book

Word Search

October isn't quite so scary when you have your students working on fun, meaningful activities that keep them engaged. We hope these resources will help save you time as you plan and prep your lesson plans over the coming weeks and also offer educational Halloween activities your students will love! 

Want to save these ideas for later? Feel free to pin any of these images. 

       

Columbus Day SALE!

We're having a Columbus Day SALE!! Check out each of our TPT stores to save 20% TODAY ONLY!  Visit each of our stores by clicking on the pictures below!

Halloween Unit K-2 {UPDATED}

Oh my goodness did this unit needed an update. It was my very first unit on TpT in 2011. If you really go back and look, read the comments. Paul, the founder of TpT commented on the post and Natalie and I FREAKED OUT! ;) He's the best. That was 5 years ago! I finally gave my "baby" a HUGE OVER-HALL! SO, if you've already purchased this unit, go re-download it in your "my purchases".  If you haven't purchased,

it'll be on sale for 20% until October 5th!

 This unit integrates Halloween into math, literacy, and art! Differentiated for

 Kinder, 1st, and 2nd grades (with B/W options available).

Over 100 pages including:

Scoop and Sort Place Value

Patterning

Greater/Less

Problem Solving

Graphing

October Battleship

Place Value Game

Bat Writing

Spider Writing

Spelling Game

Q-Tip Skeleton

Paper Plate Spider with Writing

Paper Plate Scarecrow

Hand Print Spider with Poem

Spider Web Chart

Don't Munch the Mummy! (sight word game)

Reading Response Activity

Interactive read-a-loud

Original Poem

Green Witch, Green Witch book 

Student Mini-Book

Class Book

Word Search

Computer Class!

I thought it was time to give ya'll a little update about how my computer teaching job is going. In a nutshell, I love it! I still really miss being in a regular classroom with my very own group of students to love, but teaching every kid in the whole school definitely has it's perks. If I ever walk into the lunch room while the kids are eating, I feel like a celebrity with everyone yelling my name and waving to me. Same goes when I pass classes walking down the hall. Overall, I love my job in the computer lab!

So, what have we been doing in computers? A whole lot of keyboarding techniques, internet safety lessons, Google Apps, and some fun writing projects. Today I'm going to share 3 things I've found great success with.

1. Power Position

One of my pet peeves is when I have kids sitting in their computer chairs incorrectly. I see them come in, kneel up on their chairs, sit with their chairs crooked or tangled with their neighbor's chair, etc… and it drives me bonkers! It's my job to teach them correct posture and somedays it's like they walk in and forget the correct way to sit in their chairs.

This year I finally started something that has made all the difference! It's called "Power Position" and we do this little cheer when my students come in and sit down in their chairs at the very beginning of class. Anytime I see anyone sitting with their feet up on the chairs or have their chairs scooted back, I just yell out, "Power Position" and they all straighten! Sometimes I can just privately walk up to individual students and remind them politely to sit in "Power Position!" It's worked wonders in my classroom!!

Here's how it goes:

(For younger kids, I usually just yell out the first three lines and stop there. I use all 5 lines with my 3rd-6th graders.)

Download the free printable HERE!

2. Home Row Chant

I'm trying to drill the importance of keeping your fingers on home row, but my kids have some really bad habits. It seems like whenever I turn my head, I see a handful of students picking at their keyboards again. 

I started using this chant with my students every day before we start typing as a reminder to keep their fingers on home row. I yell each line really loudly like an army cadence and then the students repeat each line after me.

(Sometimes I actually make my students type the letters as we say them, other times they just place their fingers over each letter. When we do the space bar, I have them click it twice with their thumbs on the "bump, bump" part.)

Download the free printable HERE!

3. Writing Projects

In October I had my group of students do a fun Halloween writing assignment. The project was adapted from one of my activities in my Halloween Writing Project book called Create-A-Story. 

   

I did this project with my 1st and 2nd graders and they turned out SO cute! First they brainstormed, then they typed, then they got to draw a picture on the bottom of their page. The kids were so proud of their work when they were done! As you can see from the picture above, I spiral-bound the pages together to make a book and gave it to their classroom teacher to keep in their class library for the students to read.

Now that it's November and I have a new batch of students, I am doing a Thankful Book. This one is based off of a product in my store called My Thankful Book.

    

I'm adapting this project so that my students are typing in PowerPoint. Each topic will be a new page. When they're done we'll have about an 8 page story that we can staple down the sides and they can take the books home to share with their families at Thanksgiving. 

Projects like these usually take 4 or 5 thirty minute class periods to complete. I'll introduce the project the first day and model how to get started, then they write for 2-3 days, and then the last day they finish, print, and can illustrate if they have time. I love doing these types of writing projects because not only are the students getting to practice their typing skills, but I'm also helping their classroom teachers with meeting some important writing standards! Win-win!

Does anyone have any specific questions about the way I run my computer lab? Would you be interested in the websites I use for Kindergarten or the Typing websites I use with my 3rd-6th graders? Do you have any questions about using Google Docs, Google Slides, or Google Classroom? Let me know in the comments what information you'd be interested in and I will try to answer them in future blog posts.

As always, thanks for reading and stopping by our blog! 

Halloween Haunted House Freebie

Thanks so much for all the support and love I've received over the past month after the birth of my beautiful new baby boy. (See pictures here.) It's been a really great month and I've loved having a new baby in my house and have enjoyed being home on maternity leave!

Today I have a fun little freebie for you! It was inspired by my husband who is a very talented artist. The other day he drew an awesome picture of a haunted house and I immediately knew that I wanted to turn it into some kind of school project. 

I created two Halloween activities: the first one is a simple coloring page and the second one is a Haunted House writing prompt. I made multiple versions of each activity so it can be easily used in any K-6 classroom!

Download this freebie by clicking here:

Here's a peek at what's inside:

 The coloring pages can be used by itself or as a coloring contest page. 

You can use the writing prompt pages to let students color and add details to the picture or use the blank one so students can draw their own haunted house and then write about it. 

I know how crazy Halloween can be as a teacher, but I hope you all have a great day at school tomorrow! Because I'm still on maternity leave, this will be my first Halloween in 9 years that I won't be at my school for the annual costume parade and Halloween party. However, I have volunteered to help at my older son's preschool party so it looks like I'll still get to participate in some of the fun.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!