1-2-3 Come Do Some Haunted House Activities With Me

I love Halloween.  Some of my favorite childhood memories surround this holiday. Although I don't care for horror movies, some of the old classics like Abbott and Costello and the Haunted House are fun.  There's nothing like the idea of a haunted house to get students excited about writing.

With that in mind, I designed some interesting haunted house-themed activities.   I hope you find them spine tingling! 

If you're looking for some Common Core lessons for Halloween, the Haunted House Activity Packet might be just the thing. 

It includes alphabet activities, adjective practice, vocabulary building, plus writing prompts, which are great for Daily 5.  

You can complete the Haunted Houses ARE and Haunted Houses HAVE worksheets as a whole group, or have students make up their own. 

I've included finished samples for you to share.  For more practice, students can look up the words that they don't know, or alphabetize my list.

I've also included upper and lowercase trace & write worksheets, as well as assessments for both, plus a "Spooky Letters" alphabet game.

Use the game as an independent center, or whole group game.  Pass out a lowercase letter pumpkin card to each student. 

Call for a letter. The child holding that card comes up and opens the matching uppercase "window".  

You can also use this file folder game as a different and fun way to independently assess a student. 

I've included upper and lowercase assessment recording sheets for this.  

For more creative writing, I've also included the writing prompt: If I lived in a haunted house... Click on the link for the Haunted House Activity Packet.

Since the apple and pumpkin senses writing craftivities were such popular downloads, I thought your students would enjoy doing one for a haunted house. 

This is a quick easy and fun way to review the 5 senses, as well as work on adjective usuage for more descriptive writing. I've included a completed sample for you to share, or make one up of your own. 

Students color their haunted house, trim, and cut the roof off, which they attach to the top of their writing prompt.  The base of the house goes on the bottom. 

For that finishing touch, have students put their school photo peeking out a window.

To add to the fun of writing about haunted houses and get students in the mood, dim the lights and play some Halloween music or a soundtrack from a thunderstorm. 

Completed projects look terrific as a border along a hallway wall, or hung back-to-back suspended from the ceiling.  Click on the link for the Haunted House Writing Craftivity.

Well that's it.  I'm trying to keep my blogs shorter, so the other two Haunted House-themed activities will be in tomorrow's article.  Hope you can pop by to pick up those FREEBIES.

I'm off to pack for a little get-away time with my hubby.  Wishing you simple pleasures and heartwarming moments this weekend.

"Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved." -Thomas S. Monson

1-2-3 Come Learn About Pumpkins With Me!

Our pumpkin unit was one of my Y5's favorites.  We culminated our apple studies and launched into pumpkins, with a field trip to an apple orchard, that also had a huge pumpkin patch.  My little ones really enjoyed the tractor ride, and picking out a class pumpkin.

To empower my students, I designed activities that incorporated the same directions from the previous unit.  I had already spent quite a bit of time explaining how various things were done, when we studied apples, so to save time, I repeated some of those activities only with a pumpkin theme. 

My students were now familiar with the format and could get right down to business.  This was a great self-esteem builder.  Because the theme had changed, students' interest was high, and children whose "light bulb" had not come on with apples, had another chance to practice and reinforce those lessons with pumpkins.

Keeping that in mind, I wanted to turn some of the most popular apple downloads, into pumpkins, so that this time-saving concept would work for you too.

It usually took through November, before all of my Y5's could identify the flat shapes, so I made a Pumpkin Shape Matching Game like the apple one.

Likewise, the apple counting anchor charts with matching "What's Missing?" worksheets, were extremely popular, so I made a pumpkin set. 

Click on the link to view/download the Pumpkin Counting Packet.

I also made pumpkin number cards.
This packet includes pumpkins numbered from 1-120; pumpkin number words 0-10, pumpkin tiles for counting, and a set of math symbols on pumpkins, so that you can show and make equations, plus a blank set of pumpkins to program with whatever. Click on the link to view/download the Pumpkin Number Packet.

Finally, there's also a Pumpkin Number Word Matching Game. Print, laminate and trim the cards.  Students pinch a clothespin on to the number that matches the number word on the pumpkin. 

If you mark an X on the back of the cards to show the correct answer, students can self-check their work.  I made a set for apples too.  All of these activities make wonderful independent centers, or something students can go do, if they finish their work early.

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"More people than ever before are graduated, but not really all that educated." -Robert Gunderson