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Don’t Let Halloween FRIGHTEN You ~ FREEBIE Included

If the thought of Halloween being on a weekday FRIGHTENS you… I am right there with you!

I keep thinking… how will the kids focus?

How will I manage?

How will I survive?

Wait…

WILL I SURVIVE?

Now, I don't want to sound negative but I am also being realistic and the truth is KIDS LOVE HALLOWEEN! They get excited for it and they will be bursting with energy on Tuesday. But… I have plan!!!! And I'm going to share it with you. ‘Cause really, on this day, we should really help each other out! Am I right?!

Here's the plan…

If we can't beat them… join them!

Below I'm going to share with you a few ideas and a FREE resource that you can do on Tuesday to keep your students engaged and learning with a Halloween twist.

First of all, your schedule might be a little different. Just accept that your regular Tuesday schedule might not go as planned. Plan for some academics and mix in some fun! Here are some ideas of things to mix into your day!

​Candy ABCs

​Break up the kids into groups of 3-4. (If there are more kids, they might get a little loud.) Give each group a sheet of paper and have them write the alphabet in a column down the left side of the paper. Then you will give the students time to come up with as many candy names as they can. The goal is to try and think of one candy for each letter.  Want to extend this game? Give them only 3-4 minutes at a time throughout the whole day. That way kids have time to think of more candy. Anytime you have a pocket of time, have the kids get in their groups and brainstorm some names. Want to make it a whisper game? The quietest team will get help from you. You can walk around and give a candy name that isn't on their list if they are quiet. Here is a list of random candies that your students probably won't have on their list that you can give them: Zagnut, Zours, Jujubes, York Peppermint Patties, Mentos, Mr. Goodbar, Airheads, Milkduds, Mike n Ike, Sugar Daddy, Almond Joy, and  Mounds. ​Who wins? ​You can decide. The winners can be the ones with the most candies listed or the ones that filled in the most letters from a-z.

Halloween Bar Graph

​Pose the question: What is the costume, you think you will see the most of today/tonight? Don't let the students discuss with each other so they don't sway each other. Give each student and post-it note and create a class bar graph with the tallies. Hopefully, some students will put similar answers. Example: Zombie 5 votes, witch 3 votes etc. 

Want to get more votes?

Give students more 4 post-its and pose the question: What will you and your family dress up as? or Popular Halloween Costumes ​Discuss: ​Use this time to talk about graphs and how they give us information. Ask questions such as: Which one got the most votes? Or Which costume do we predict we'll see the most of? Which one has the least? What is the difference between the greatest and the least? 

Learn All About Bats

​I've written a complete unit about bats that your students will love! Your students will read informational text, a fictional story, and a poem all about BATS! Then they can write about what they've learned!

​Reading and Writing about Halloween

​You can combine reading and writing about Halloween with the FREE resource that I am providing. There are three acrostic poems that I am including in the freebie: bats, candy, and Halloween. Start by reading a nonfiction book or fictional story about bats and then have the students write a poem about bats. Then ready a story about Halloween and then send the students off to write a poem about Halloween.

Things to consider: You may need to explain what an acrostic poem is. You might also want to use one of the poem pages that I've provided to write a poem together as a class. I've seen acrostic poems only have one word per letter or a whole sentence. I like having students write a whole sentence so they do more writing. Here's an example of candy.

Candy is my favorite part of Halloween.
All the kids dress up and go out at night
Neighbors hand out candy if you say trick or treat
Don't forget to say thank you
Yummy candy for everyone!

Grab your freebie by clicking here!

It will take you to my Resource Library sign up page. If you're a member just type in your password. If you aren't a member yet, signing up is easy. Once you get an email with the password you can download the freebie.

I hope these ideas will help in keeping your students stay engaged! Happy Halloween!

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Teaching in a primary classroom can be overwhelming! Have you ever wondered… How can I meet all the demands of teaching and still make sure I am teaching my students to be good world citizens? How can …

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