Halloween in the Classroom

Halloween is often the first party of the school year, and after a busy back to school season, it can be challenging to plan out! I thought I would share a few of my favorite Halloween read alouds, activities, and some tips and tricks that I have used to make this crazy day a little less taxing!

This post also contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

Halloween Party

Choose Your Snacks And Drinks

Many schools have health and wellness policies that spell out the types of snacks and drinks that you can serve.  Often schools require that treats be store-bought or pre-packaged as well.  Make sure you check these requirements before requesting items from parents.

Invites

I like to send a note home to my parents a week or two before Halloween to let them know how we will be celebrating.  You can grab this Halloween Party letter to parents freebie by clicking here.

Make sure to ask for parent volunteers as well.  Determine how many activities you will have, and request a parent volunteer for each activity.  You might also want to include a volunteer (or two) that focus on delivering and cleaning up food items.

Music Maestro

What's a party without music?  I love using Kidz Bop in the classroom because I don't have to worry about inappropriate lyrics playing when I least expect it.  Halloween is crazy enough without having to deal with parent calls after school!

Kidz Bop Halloween Hits is perfect for Halloween, and best of all, you can stream it for FREE if you are an Amazon Prime member.



Language Arts

Halloween Word Search Printables

Print out this fun Halloween Word Search puzzle and get your students ready for everyone's favorite spooky holiday!

Math

Halloween Color By Number Math Facts Practice

Color-by-number activities are ALWAYS a hit in my classroom, and Halloween is no exception!  I love being able to get a little math fact practice in with my students with these color-by-code sheets.

Halloween Color By Number Addition Math Facts

Halloween Color By Number Multiplication Math Facts

FREEBIES - Download the previews of these resources for a free color-by-number worksheet!

Ghost Math Facts Craftivity

And in keeping with the math fact theme, another great activity that can be used to celebrate Halloween in the classroom are these adorable math fact ghosts!

Ghost Addition Facts I Know Craftivity

Ghost Multiplication Facts I Know Craftivity

Eye Ball Math

You can make another great Halloween-themed math game with these spooky eyeballs from Dollar Tree. (If you can't find them, Amazon has a set of these eyeballs as well). Simply write numbers onto the eyeballs using a sharpie.  You can practice skills such as:

• math facts
• double digit multiplication, subtraction, or addition
• long division
• rounding

While you are at Dollar Tree, grab a bag of candy corn to practice comparing numbers.

Reading

Halloween Read Alouds

One of the best things about Halloween is that there are so many great read-alouds centered around it.  I buy most of my Halloween-themed books from Amazon - being a Prime member makes it so much easier since they arrive quickly even when I buy one at the last moment.  I have also purchased from Scholastic and Barnes and Noble (which always has great holiday displays in their children's section).


I shared a list of my favorite Halloween read-alouds in this blog post.

Halloween Mad Libs

I love using Mad Libs in the classroom, and Halloween is no exception! There are quite a few options:

Miscellaneous Ideas

Make ANY assignment more festive by printing on Halloween orange paper.

What things do you do to celebrate Halloween in your classroom?

 I would love to hear from you! ❤️

Have a question? Idea for a resource you might find helpful?

Be so kind and leave a comment below.

Halloween Read Alouds

My students LOVE Halloween and I LOVE reading aloud to them, so here are a few of my favorite Halloween read alouds that are perfect for upper elementary students!

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using one of my links, which helps to support the blog.  All opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I have used myself and truly love.  

The Ugly Pumpkin

This is a Halloween/Thanksgiving twist on the classic fairy tale The Ugly Duckling. The Ugly Pumpkin waits all season long for someone to take him home for Halloween, but no one will. He doesn't look like the other pumpkins, so he sets off in search for a place where he will fit in.  Sure enough, he finds exactly where he belongs - BUT, it's not at all what he expected!

Teaching Ideas:

Themes: Loving yourself, fitting in

Grammar: 

Adjectives - this book is filled with great adjectives for your students to find including: ugly, bright, crispy, late, cruel, overrun, odd, and happy.

Adverbs - your students can find a plethora of adverbs including: plainly, early, when, alone, awhile, then, and finally.

Verbs - See if you can challenge your students to write some sentences using the verbs in the story: waiting, picked, looking, getting, tricked, laughed, rolled, and happened.

Writing: This book is an adaptation of a fairy tale, see if your students can write their own adaptation of The Ugly Ducking or the fairy tale of their choice.

Pumpkin Jack

If you are a Kindle Unlimited Member, you can get the Kindle version of this book for FREE here!

Tim carves a pumpkin that is fierce and funny.  A pumpkin like that deserves a name, and so he gives him one - Jack. Tim loves Jack so much that he keeps him "Long after the best trick-or-treat candy was eaten".  He keeps Jack until it begins to rot and Mom tells Tim to throw it out.  He takes it into the garden instead, and that is where the magic begins! He watches it throughout the year as it undergoes many changes until becoming his Jack'O'Lantern again. 

Teaching Ideas:

Themes: Loyalty, friendship

Grammar: 

Adjectives - fierce, first, funny, perfect, good, best, warm, magic, different, wrinkled, silly, bright, orange, brown, colder, flatter, cold, heavy, faded, crumpled, distant, thin, warm, hot, green, hidden, tired, new, tattered, pale, limp, wet, withered, unripe, bright, and generous.

Figurative Language - There are many examples of figurative language throughout the book:

"...the brown ghosts of last summer's plants"

"Flowers opened on the plant each morning, yellow stars that twisted shut forever in the afternoon."

"...searching for green pumpkins like hidden treasures."

"... the pumpkin plant seemed tired."

"The frozen plants seemed changed to pale blue glass."

Science: This book has a great science tie-in with the life cycle of a pumpkin.

Bone Soup

This fun little tale is a Halloween adaptation of the classic Stone Soup. Finnigin is infamous for his ravenous appetite.  Every where he goes he carries his eating stool, his eating spoon, and of course his gigantic eating mouth.  

When he happens upon a new town, all of the creatures there have been warned about his ravenous hunger, and they lock up all of their food.  Finnigin stirs up some delicious Bone Soup and tricks them all into sharing with him.

Teaching Ideas:

Themes: sharing

Vocabulary:  There are so many great vocabulary words in this book including: wits, ravenous, barren, impending, plague, locusts, panic, spare, cauldron, ceremoniously, splintered, ghoul, delicacy, stammered, fetched, stash, wistful, and longingly.

Punctuation: Many of the sentences include commas and quotation marks.  You might give students samples of these sentences without the punctuation and ask them to correct them.  You could also ask them to find the sentences and generate some punctuation rules for them.

Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich

If you are a Kindle Unlimited Member, you can get the Kindle version of this book for FREE here!

This book of poems is filled with monster size problems!  Frankenstein's cupboards are bare. The Creature from the Black Lagoon doesn't wait an hour before swimming and goes into the bog too soon.  The Phantom of the Opera has a song stuck in his head.  The witches have watchers. And, don't even get started on Dracula's hygiene issues!

If your students are fans of Shel Silverstein poetry, they will love these ones!

Teaching Ideas:

Writing: Have your students write their own Halloween poems.

Figurative Language - Can your students find the figurative language throuout the book?

Onomatopoeia

" Cack cack-a-doodle-a DOOOOOOOOO!"

Alliteration

" Fancy folk avoid his feet"

"the personality of plaid"

At the Old Haunted House

If you are a Kindle Unlimited Member, you can get the Kindle version of this book for FREE here!

The rhyming text of this book makes it so fun to read!  At the old haunted house there are all kinds of creatures: a big ma monster and her wee monsters two, a scrawny black cat and her wee kittens three, a green pa goblin and his wee goblins four, and even more!

Writing: Have you

Teaching Ideas:

Writing: This would make such a great mentor text for writing all sorts of things.  Have your students use the same model to write a story book, or to teach about a non-fiction topic.

What are your favorite Halloween Books to Read Aloud?  Share with us in the comments!

Keeping Up With Parent Communication Using ClassTag

Do you ever struggle to communicate with your students' parents?  I know I definitely have!  It is so important that we make it a priority to communicate with parents positively and frequently BEFORE a major problem happens.  But, the big question - how do we do that without it being a major hassle when our plates are already overflowing?

Enter ClassTag!  This awesome parent communication app is completely FREE to use, is super easy to set up, translates in over 50 languages, delivers messages to parents via their personal preference (sms, email, or paper), and allows teachers to communicate about school supplies, back to school info, volunteering, activities, assemblies, and more!

This is a sponsored post.  All opinions are my own.

Some Benefits I LOVE:

1. Office Hours

You can set up office hours in ClassTag.  You get to specify the hours that you will be available to respond to your messages.  Parents can still send messages whenever it's convenient for them, but, you will only get push notifications during your office hours.  This is so important when you are trying to juggle the work/home life balance!

2.  Rewards

Activities on the app earn you points that can be redeemed for rewards for your classroom.

3. Class Supply Lists

You can create supply lists for your families to reference.  The best part is that they have made it super easy with ready created supply lists.  Just delete or add anything that you need included. You can even update this list throughout the year.  You know, like in January when everything needs to be replaced!


4. Communicate With One or All Parents

Using the app, you can choose to communicate with an individual parent (for a behavior issue or to give a compliment) or for the whole class (for upcoming events or announcements).


5. Parent Teacher Conferences

Scheduling parent teacher conferences is a breeze with the app!  You can schedule the times that you are available, and parents can sign-up for available times right on the app!

6. Even More Rewards!

I already mentioned that teachers can earn rewards for their classroom just by communicating with parents, but... ClassTag has added another opportunity for teachers to gain resources they need in their classroom!  They have joined the #clearthelists movement started by teacher, Courtney Jones.

ClassTag is going to clear the list of one lucky teacher every day for the entire school year!  You can find out how to take part here.

If you haven't signed up for ClassTag - click here to get signed up for FREE right now!

I would love to hear all the ways that you use ClassTag to communicate with parents!  Please share in the comments below!

 I would love to hear from you! ❤️

Have a question? Idea for a resource you might find helpful?

Be so kind and leave a comment below.

5 Fun Back To School Activities, Icebreakers, and Community Building Games

If you are a teacher prepping for the first few weeks of school and are looking for fun back-to-school games for your students to learn more about each other and how to work together, I've got you covered!

The best part is that you can use many of these same games and strategies throughout the year for learning and practicing content, so it helps to introduce them in an easy and non-threatening way!

1. Getting to Know You Heads Together

Place students into small groups of 4-5.  Have students take turns answering questions about themselves.  Use a timer to give them 30 - 45 seconds to respond.  Then have each of the groups share out their answers.  You may ask them to pick one or share the one that was most common in their group.

After the first round (which should only have one question to enable them to get started comfortably), help them learn how to keep track of time and to listen to what their classmates have said.  Repeat other rounds over the next few days, or have students share the same things with different peers.  Here are some sample questions:

• What is a movie or a book you have seen or read lately that you really liked? Why?
• What two words describe you? Why?
• If you became the principal, what is one thing you would change about this school if you could?
• If you could have any superpower, what would you choose?

2. Stand Up If It Is True For You

Many times students are embarrassed to participate in classroom activities because they think that no one else thinks like they do.  This is a fun way to help them see how much they have in common with their classmates.

Read one question at a time, and have the students stand up if the statement or question is true for them.  You can enhance this activity by having students meet with the people who stood up for a certain question or statement to share their answers in more detail.  Here are some sample questions:

Stand up if you:

• Were born inside/outside the United States.

• Were born in this state.

• Have a sibling.

• Play a sport.

• Have ridden a horse.

• Have ever broken a bone or needed stitches?

• Have a blue toothbrush.

3. Find Someone In The Class Who

Give students a list of descriptions (for example: who went to visit a relative during summer vacation or who has no brothers or sisters) and have students try to find a student who fits that description.

Students will walk around the room trying to find a student who fits that description.  When they find one, that student should write their name on the paper. The student will then move on to another student with the hope that that person will meet one of the other characteristics on their list.  The goal is to meet and talk to as many people as possible within the time limit to put one name by each of the characteristics.  I usually give students about 10 minutes to complete this activity.

4. Two Truths and a Lie

Ask students to write down three statements about themselves, two that are truthful and one that is a lie.  The rest of the class takes turns trying to decide which one is a lie.  You could also do this as a small group activity.

5. Who's In My Circles?

This is an activity that allows students to know their classmates better by having each one add their names to others' topic "circles" of loves, likes, and dislikes.

Have students draw three circles like the picture above.  They can add the one thing that they love, that they like and that they dislike.  Topics can include things like food, hobbies, sports, or books or movies they have read or seen.

The other students walk around adding their names to the circle's section that they agree with.

I use pre-made circles placed in sheet protectors because I use this activity throughout the year.

You can find all of these games and a few more in my Back to School Collaboration Activities here.

 I would love to hear from you! ❤️

Have a question? An idea for a resource you might find helpful?

Be so kind as to leave a comment below.

The Best Back-to-School Blog Posts

Back to School Season is fast approaching!  I know, I know, I'm trying to avoid thinking about it too, but it is so much easier if we are prepared ahead of time!

I have plenty of things to share with you the next few weeks to help make Back to School a little easier!  Today I am sharing a collection of blog posts from some of my teaching friends that will set you up for back-to-school success. There's something for everyone PreK - middle school! So without further ado, here are a few of my favorite teacher blog posts (labeled by grade) to help set you up for success in the coming school year!

K - 6th Grade

Start the School Year Off Right! will help you get ready for the busy season.  My friend, Melissa Bonito from Peas in a Pod offers some great tips and tricks to help set the stage for a smooth school year. You won't want to miss her top 5 back to school tips, and how she goes about teaching classroom procedures!  That's ALWAYS the tricky part!

2nd - 5th Grade

I am all about building student relationships and I have shared compliments with my students right on the door so it is the first thing they see each day for several years during Valentine's Day.  My students LOVE it and so many of yours do as well!  This year, I decided to implement this idea EVERY month.  My first month I will share why My Students Are Amazing, on adorable apple templates.  Hint**There's a freebie in this post so you can do this with your students as well!

K - Middle School

In Organize & Transform Your Classroom, Suzy Memeo from StudentSavvy offers some awesome tips for creating a space that makes you happy! Since our classrooms are truly our homes away from home, this is SO IMPORTANT! She will guide you as you come up with your plan, locate the problem areas in your classroom, and tackle them. Her classroom designs are a must see!

Prek - 3rd Grade

The BEST way to improve student reading performance is to make sure that they are reading!  Read all about creating a life long love for reading within each of our students in My Favorite Way to Increase Reading Engagement by Paula Beckerman from Paula's Primary Classroom. She says, "After 25 years of teaching early childhood, I haven't found any magic tricks that always work for everyone, each child is unique after all!  There is, however, something that has served me incredibly well, year after year." Find out what it is HERE!  Also, you should check out her Facebook page where she shares so many other great tips and strategies for primary teachers (and parents of students in this age range as well)!  On a random side note, her Australian accent is adorable!

1st - 8th Grade

Classroom Management - It will either be the case of you sinking or swimming during the school year!  If you don't accomplish anything else during the first weeks of school but to have control of your class, then you have done a good job! Read more about how Kathleen Guleksen, from A Plus Kids, does just that!

Thanks for checking out the list of our favorite back-to-school posts. We'd love to hear your tips for a smooth year in the comments below!

And... before you go, make sure to visit my Giveaways page to enter our weekly giveaway to win a $25 Teachers pay Teachers gift card!