Teaching With Style: Halloween

Showing posts with label Halloween. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Halloween. Show all posts
In my classroom, we are finally starting to get ready for Halloween! Hawaii doesn't have traditional seasons, so I don't do too much about fall.  We don't have any apple orchards so it doesn't make sense to do apple week.  We don't have trees with leaves that turn colors and drift to the ground, so we don't do too many activities around leaves and trees.  But we do have a local pumpkin patch and a long tradition of Halloween!

To gear up, I busy prepping my Pumpkin Life Cycles and Experiments unit.  I know the kiddos are going to enjoy exploring the scientific method while counting seeds, experimenting with pumpkins, and even tasting the seeds!

We talk about spiders, especially since there is currently a huge cane spider living in our classroom! Last week we made an adorable spider subtraction craft that my colleague Lora-lea made a few years ago.  Lucky for you she gave me permission to re-create it and share it with all of you! Thanks Lora-lea!  They're hanging in my room and are a fun, glittery decoration for fall! 

Click the picture to download your copy for FREE!

I enlisted the help of my son tonight.  First he colored the spiders and the border around the word problem. 

Then he drew a web with a white crayon and squeezed some Elmer's glue onto it.

Then sprinkled with glitter.


Shook the glitter off, then glued the spiders and word problem paper on.  

Another way I like to decorate is by using fun containers and manipulatives in math.

I downloaded this freebie Mixed Addition Halloween center game from my friend Fern.  We started addition a few weeks ago, so this is perfect! I printed, laminated, and cut the game pieces and placed them in this fun pumpkin basket I got at the craft store.  I then threw in 12 bat rings for the kids to use as manipulatives.  Luckily, the little bag of rings I got at the store has 100 in them, so I have plenty to give out to the kids and replace in case one turns up missing.  No biggie! 

So now, you might be wondering about all these extra goodies I've purchased, like baking materials for the pumpkin pie in a crock pot recipe from my Pumpkin Experiments pack, the pumpkin basket and rings from the game, or even the glitter for the craft.  That's where Coupons.com comes to my rescue!  You can search their site for coupon codes and get them for stores like Michaels, OfficeMax, and even Target! Check out The Good Stuff here! 

Right now there is a Coupons.com Halloween Creepstakes going on.  The Creepstakes gives you the chance to win $100 in daily prize giveaways and a $3,000 grand prize.  It ends October 31, so hurry quick!

One last goodie - check out this post from last year to snag my freebie Halloween goodie bag toppers! :)
Read more »
Denise is back with My Truth Monday!  This week, it's all things creepy.



In the spirit of Halloween, I have some free printables for you!

These are the goody bag toppers I made for my daughter's preschool class.  I shared a pic on Instagram here:

In the bags, I put some Hawaiian animal crackers, organic fruit snacks, a fun-size Starburst, an organic lollypop, a plastic spider ring, and a reflective Halloween sticker.  I hope the kids all love the goodies!

If you can use these toppers, as well, I've uploaded them to Google Drive for you!
There are two versions.  One with the little heart to write your child's name (or yours!)
One without the heart.

There are also ones with a boy instead of a girl! :)

Next up, I have some awards for you!  I went to a pumpkin carving/chili-making/costume party this past weekend and made these awards.  I figured, some of you might be having contests at school among the teachers or even this upcoming weekend.  I hope you can use them!





What do you think is creepy?
Read more »
Last week my class learned all about the pumpkin life cycle from my Pumpkin Life Cycle and Experiments pack!

We started off by reading the mini book and filling in the blank spaces with the correct life cycle terms.

We then reviewed the vocabulary using posters and vocab cards, then added some activities to our interactive science notebooks.  We also filled out a life cycle sheet as a check-in assessment.

Then, I brought a pumpkin to school and we got started on the experiments.  There are 4 experiments that follow the scientific method.  As practice, we walked through the steps of the method and did Stephanie's egg experiment from her Life Cycles pack as practice.

First we found out if a pumpkin could sink or float.  Boy, were those kids surprised when it bobbed in the sink!

Then, we read the book How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?, then we predicted how many seeds we thought were inside our pumpkin.  

Here are my kids counting out the seeds on laminated 10's frame mats.  I divided the seeds into 5 bowls, then gave 1 bowl to each table and had them work together to fill up their mat.  At the end, each group reported out how many seeds they counted and we added them all up (by 1's, 10's, and 100's!) to find the total amount.  We had 674!  Only one kid got a close prediction, he thought 602.  Most kids chose either 100 or 1000! :)






After we counted them, I collected all the seeds and filled the bowls with water.  I walked around to each table and dropped a spoonful of seeds into each bowl so the kids could see if they sank or floated.  Only one boy predicted that they would sink.  I think he wanted to go against the majority :)

Our last experiment we will do on Monday, because I had to take the seeds all home.  Our school permits teachers and parents to bring in food cooked at home, so I roasted all the seeds in my kitchen, then flavored them 3 different ways: salty, savory, and sweet.  

Lucky for you, I made a freebie for this last experiment, as well as a How-to writing prompt: Pumpkin Seed Experiment, Recipe, and Writing Freebie!


 Three different writing pages:



I love teaching about pumpkins around Halloween time!  The kids love it, too!  I have a Jehovah's Witness student this year, and since I don't want him to feel left out, I am not doing any traditional Halloween activities.  This unit is a perfect alternative to Halloween, or even a perfect supplement!

What other things do you do with pumpkins?

I'm Linking Up

Freebie Fridays

Read more »
I meant to do this post on Sunday.  Oops!  Here is a sneak peek into what I am teaching this week!

In Langauge Arts, I am teaching about bats from Erica Bohrer's Batty for Bats science and literacy unit and Reagan Tunstall's Stellaluna Book Study.


On Halloween, I'm reading There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat and doing Sharing Kindergarten's Literacy Unit.  Even though the unit is meant for K-1, there are plenty of activities that my kiddos can do.  It's really fun!

I'm also doing these fun freebies from Adventures of a Third Grade Teacher.  Only problem is that kids are supposed to count, graph, and add candy corn and i couldn't find any on my island.  Really??? No candy corn!  So, I bought the kids fruit snacks instead.  I'm sure they won't mind :)

In my reading centers I'm doing Katie's Spooky Centers.  This pack is AMAZING!  95 pages of math and literacy fun!

And we're of course doing my Compound Word center and Contractions center.


And we started my pumpkin science unit last week.  The kids are having a blast with the experiments!  I ended up adding a poster and worksheet to walk students through the steps of the Scientific Method.  My kids are having fun and are really getting the steps!

Here is my pumpkin.



First, I read How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? by Margaret McNamara.  It was a great introduction to the pumpkin experiments!

After we tested out if our pumpkin  floats or sinks and students predicted how many seeds are inside, I cut open the top and walked around to let the kids look inside.  Then I passed out laminated tens frame sheets from my pumpkin unit, plastic gloves, and paper towels.  I put a handful of seeds on a paper towel on each table group and let kids work together to fill up their tens frame sheet.  They then shared out how many seeds they had and we added them all up.  Our pumpkin had 309 - way less than I originally thought!



That's my week!  What are you teaching?

Read more »
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)