Oh, Hey Halloween! Plus, a Spooky Sale!

Well, it’s upon us.  Halloween Week. I’m not sure I’m well rested enough to handle the craziness that this week is sure to bring. I mean, I’m dog-tired from regular October activities.

In other words, October is so totally kicking my butt.

Not to be confused with September. I think I blocked it from my memory.

My kiddos are sure to be wired (it also happens to be red-ribbon week at our school as well)…

but I’m ready for them.  My electronic filing cabinet is stock-piled with tons of awesome Halloween units and activities.  So, bring.it.on!

All week long, we’ll be taking part in spooky reading.  I’ll turn the lights off and play some spooky sounds and students can read by flashlight.  It’s read to self in disguise and it’s a big hit in my room year after year!

We’ll also be fully immersed in centers from some of my favorite bloggers and creators:

(Katie King)

(Swimming Into Second)

(me!)

We’ll be doing lots of literacy and writing-themed activities as well!

We’re gonna get our buddy reading on with these fun and spooky poems from Tanja. My kiddos already love reading from their poetry folders so this is gonna put them over the edge!

(Journey of a Substitute Teacher)

We’ll be reading some of my favorite Halloween-themed books and completing activities to go along with them.  I’m so luck to have Rachel’s pack, which makes it really easy on me…I don’t have to come up with anything! Halloweiner is definitely the favorite year after year.

(Rachel Lamb)

I love all this learning disguised as pure fun! I’m continuing that theme with my Fall Comprehension Sheets.  We’re just now getting into using text-based evidence to support our answers and restating the question in our answer.  It’s tough for them, I can’t lie. I will say, my reading passages definitely make it a little more fun for them and easy for me!

I’m really looking forward to Thursday and Friday when we’ll turn into little witches and wizards and create our own spells and hexes with my spell-writing unit! (It just got a makeover yesterday!!!)

We’ll be creating word families and rhyming words and dreaming up disgusting, slimy, and wretched ingredients for our spells.








As a culmination, we’ll do a spooky author’s share and make a class brew with yucky-sounding ingredients that actually taste delicious.  We’ll even cast a spell for no homework together!



I’m hoping this will be the perfect activity for the day after Halloween. Click here to grab it from TpT.

Speaking of witches, we’ll be doing this amazing reader activity from the ever-talented, Tracy!

(Read all about it here!)

And I’m loving these fun FREEBIES from Jamie (2nd Grade Stuff)

and Once Upon a Classroom

Click the pictures to check them out!

As you can see, we’ll be busy, busy, busy.  I have to keep them in line somehow, right?

If you’re still looking for a few spooktacular activities yourself, I’ve put all my Halloween units on sale through Halloween!  Click the image below to get your shop on!



Because the Fall Passages aren’t classified as a Halloween item you’ll have to search my store separately for them, or click here!

Wishing you a fun (and hopefully not too insane) Halloween Week!

Halle

Five for Saturday and Win It!!!!!

Good Morning :)

It’s been a little while since I got to join in on the “Five for Friday” fun, so I figured Saturday was as good a day as any!

And here we go…

1) We’re knee deep in all things fall and Halloween at school.

We’ve begun our “Spider Parts of Speech”



I switched this little crafitvity up from how I’ve done it in year’s past. Previously, students came up with 8 adjectives the described them and put them on their spider legs.  I decided this year to focus on the 3 major parts of speech instead.

First, I had students research spiders in the computer lab.  We used their graphic organizers to help find different parts of speech associated with spiders.  Then, I showed a short video on spiders and we brainstormed some more verbs, adjectives, and nouns.  To cap it off, I read a Scholastic book on spiders to them.  They sat on the carpet with their clipboards and wrote down any word I read aloud that was their assigned parts of speech.

I can’t believe I forget to get a picture of the finished spiders. I haven’t hung them up yet, but I will post a picture when I do!

(Last year’s spiders on display)

Read more about how I did Spider Parts of Speech in year’s past by clicking here.
Check out Spider Parts of Speech by clicking below!




2) We’re pretty knee-deep in Halloween at our house too. 

Yes, that’s a hammock on my screened in porch. Yes, I live there despite the cooler temps.

3) More Halloween!

I gave away a few spooky FREEBIES this week on the blog:

-Ghostly Greetings

(Click the picture to grab it!)

A fun activity for working on dialogue. I even made it into my Halloween bulletin board:



-Halloween Main Idea Passages

(Click the picture to grab it)

I just projected these on my interactive whiteboard for a fun and easy practice activity!

And I mean to “reshare” a few oldies but goodies…I guess now would be a good time!

- Halloween Bump (3 versions)

(Click pic to grab)

and Halloween Math Match-Up

(I was low on ink when I took this picture, it’s cuter than it looks, promise! Click the pic to grab it!)

4) Even More Halloween (and you can win it!)

I’m pretty excited about my newest TpT unit!  I plan on using it the week of Halloween with my kiddos to introduce inferring.  I present to you Costume Clues…

This little unit can be used as a “Read the Room” activity or as a center. I need to get my kiddos up and moving so you can guess how I’ll be using it!

Students read the clue cards and decide which costumed kid is being described…




There are two different sets of clue cards. One for the primary grades (K/1)



and one for the bigger kids (2/3)



It also comes with recording and extension sheets






This is a unit I know my kids are just gonna eat up!

Want to win it?  Comment below with your favorite Halloween candy. Don’t forget your email! I will announce the winner on my Facebook page tonight before bed!

5) With all this Halloween stuff I’ve been pretty busy, but I ‘ve still found some time to relax with the hubs, our furballs, and some junk food.



Love hangin’ in the hammock with this girl, a blanket, a good book, and a fall candle.  It’s heaven.

And I found a new obsession last night…



That would be gelato. Caramel Cookie Crunch gelato, to be exact. Divine.  I debated having it for breakfast this morning.  Seriously.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!  I’m excited to have nothing on my calendar for the day. It’s the first time in a long time, so I’m set on enjoying it!

Don’t forget to enter below to win “Costume Clues!”

and go link up with Doodle Bugs!

Halle

What’s the Main Idea? Another Halloween FREEBIE!

Well, what do you know? I actually kept my promise of another post and freebie today! Well, not actually a promise, but you know… (If you missed yesterday’s freebie, click here)

We’re learning all about Main Idea in our 2nd grade classroom right now and let’s just be honest: It is easily one of my least favorite comprehension skills to teach. I remember it being a tough skill for me back in the day, and it definitely stumps some of my kiddos.  We’ve learned the tips and tricks. We’ve made the anchor chart. And we’re still.not.getting.it.

So, on a whim the other day I decided to put my overwhelming amount of Halloween clip art to good use whip up some Halloween-themed main idea passages.  I projected them on to my whiteboard and had students write the main idea on their whiteboards. Then we VERBALLY gave some supporting details.

This says, “Manny lost his hat and cannot find it.” (He's correct by the way. This isn't the main idea of the passage above!)

Yep! That’s it!

As you can see, this was a pretty quick and informal exercise but it was a fun way to get some practice in!  We might have to make seasonal passages like this one a regular thing!

I also have to give a shout-out to Tracy from Creekside Teacher Tales. I’ve been using her Non-Fiction Main Idea Pack with my above-level kiddos in reading.  It’s definitely more challenging than the passages I’ve created but it’s an engaging, well made product perfect for my high fliers!!

(Click to check it out!)

Ok, so I promised a FREEBIE!  You can grab these main idea passages for free, but I am going to make you work for it!  Head over to my Facebook page and click the “Freebies for Fans” tab.  If you already “like” me (gee, thanks!) you should be able to download them straight away.  If you’re not yet a fan, just click like and grab them!

(Don't be alarmed by the image you see. It looks like you're going to be downloading "While You Were Out" folder covers.  I just haven't changed the image yet.  You actually get to download the Main Idea Freebie and the folder covers too, if you want! What a steal!

I can’t promise they’ll be there forever though, so act quickly!

Have a great night!

Halle

A Ghostly Freebie

Hi Friends!

I’m popping in with a spooky fun freebie for you :)

I knew I wanted to do a ghost bulletin board this year but I was having trouble thinking of a way to make it a little different than the other ghosts in my hall. First I was gonna go with “Gregarious Ghosts”. Then I decided it was a little early in the year for such a robust vocabulary lesson. A few random thoughts later, “Ghostly Greetings” popped in my head. 

I noticed a few (very few) of my kiddos were attempting dialogue in their writing, so a little crash course on quotation marks wasn’t too out of left field. We practiced a few times on our interactive whiteboard and then got to work coming up with what we wanted our ghosts to say.



Students filled out this sheet and once I approved it, they were allowed to make their ghosts.  Then we grouped them together, and voila, ghostly greetings!







I think it turned out pretty cute :)

And my favorite ghostly greeting…



I just love the bowling ball!

The next day, I reinforced the activity with another practice sheet. I didn’t get a shot of any of theirs but some of them were really, really fun and tongue-in-cheek.



What Did One Ghost Say to the Other?

“What are you being for Halloween?”
”A ghost. Duh.”

“Ahhhh! You’re skin is missing!”
”We’re ghosts. We don’t have any skin!”

Well, I got a chuckle out of them!

If you’re looking for a fun activity or mini-lesson to do in writing over the next few weeks go ahead and download it by clicking the picture below. I hope you’re students have fun with it!



It is my goal to be back everyday the rest of the week with a Halloween-themed FREEBIE for you.  I haven’t been too good at following through on blogging goals though, so don’t hate me if you don’t hear from me for a day or two!

Have a great night!

Halle