1-2-3 Come Do Some Halloween Craftivities With Me
When parents would ask "When does your Halloween party start?" I'd answer with a big smile, "When the children get here, and it lasts all day!" The day before, I'd let my students know that we'd be doing all of our math, reading, writing and center activities as usual, but they'd all have a Halloween theme, so we could "party" all day.
They were then pleased and happy about this, and I wasn't constantly being asked: "When does the party start?" which interrupted everyone's focus. They also remained calm, on-task and weren't all fidgety waiting.
In the 10 years I taught Y5's this day was never a crazy day, instead, it was one of my personal favorites, because I had lots of volunteers eager to help out. We proceeded as normal, with only part of our lights on, to add just the right amount of ambiance. (This also seemed to relax my students.)
They wrote with their "spooky pencil pal" which was quick and super -inexpensive to make. (Directions in the Halloween packet.)
In the afternoon, our snack time would be extra special (cider, fruit, veggies, with some sweets & treats, which parents provided) and to practice and review a variety of standards, we'd play educational games.
I think one of the Y5's favorite parts of the day, were the super-fun centers. Parents would come in to help, so I could plug in a few more craftivities. What took me a bit of time to design and set up, they usually completed in just a few minutes, but that was OK as we had much to accomplish. They were enjoying themselves and learning at the same time.
I share my party day ideas in a Halloween packet, but wanted to dream up a few new ones, as this was one of the first units I did, way before I had all of the cool software programs, fonts, and clip art that I use now, but perhaps you'll find a few things you and your kiddos will enjoy.
These cute dangling ghosts are a quick, easy and fun little something to do on Halloween party day, or as a nice activity to transition to after reading some Halloween-themed stories.
I was "pinspired" by a Family Magazine holiday craft photo. They did not provide a pattern, so I made up my own.
Cutting on a spiral provides wonderful scissor cutting practice, which helps strengthen little finger muscles.
There's an easy ghost pattern with no arms for younger students, and to help out your left handed kiddo's, I've included flipped patterns for them.
Older students can write on the spiral and complete one of these prompts: "Things that are creepy to me are . . ." or "Things that I'm a bit afraid of are . . ."
As you can see by the photo, these look awesome dangling from the ceiling, where they'll twirl and swirl.
Click on the link to view/download the Spooky Spirals Halloween ghost writing prompt craftivity.
Another Halloween craft that I found several versions of on Pinterest, was a photo of a child in a pumpkin.
These too, did not offer a pattern, so I provide one in my Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater craftivity packet.
There's a blank pumpkin, one that says: "Happy Halloween from your little pumpkin" as well as one with the nursery rhyme written on it that I revamped.
"Teacher, teacher pumpkin eater. Had a student couldn't reach her. Put _________ in a pumpkin shell and there she taught her very well." (Female and male options.) I've included a poster of the original Nursery Rhyme.
Midnight Magic, is also a quick, easy and fun little ghost craftivity, perfect for Halloween party day because it's super-simple and has that "Oh Wow!" factor.
This art is called crayon resist, as the wax in the crayons resist the watercolors. I've taken a picture of the 3 steps of how it looks.
Using a white crayon, (press hard) trace the simple ghost pattern onto squares of white paper. Children will not see the ghost 'til they "wash" their paper with the "magical colors of midnight". To their utter delight, a ghost will appear as they are painting.
Although an all-black wash is effective, I think the ones where children used purple, blue and black turned out better. I did a ghost, but any simple shape (pumpkins, candy corn, or bat) would do.
I've also done these with children's names. Click on the link to view/download the Midnight Magic Halloween watercolor craftivity.
In the Halloween Crayon Resist packet, I've included 5 coloring pages for kiddos to choose from, along with directions of how to set things up.
Finally, another quick painting craftivity, is Alphie Andy the candy corn alphabet cup. I used styrofoam cups, orange and yellow acrylic paint and a black ink pen to make these fun "I Spy a Letter!" game "twirlers".
Students can add a face to the top white section, or leave it plain. First graders can write their own letters on the top of the cups, but I'd do this for younger kiddos. (I did a class set while watching TV. Takes a minute or two per cup.)
It's not at all difficult, but little ones have a tendency to write large, so they won't be able to fit all of the letters around the rim. When you make yours, look at my photo. Letters need to be close, with a small space.
Remember the cup is upside down when you write the letters on the rim. Add a second cup so you have a sturdier surface to write on.
You can keep this simple and just make cups with the uppercase letters on them, or "double up" and add an additional cup with the lowercase letters. This way, you can review more than one standard. When you call out a letter, students twirl their uppercase letter cup til their arrow lines up with that letter; then they twirl the lowercase letter cup, so that letter matches up with the uppercase one.
Students literally take 2 minutes to paint a yellow and orange stripe on their cup. (Make sure they write their name on the bottom.) Set aside to dry. Add an arrow, insert cup(s) and play "I Spy!" It's a quick, easy and fun way to whole group assess. Children hold up their cup when they've found the correct letter and have the arrow pointing to it. Click on the link to view/download Alphie Andy, the Candy Corn Alphabet Assessment Cup craft.
That's it for today. Thanks for visiting. Have to go check my apple-crisp bars. The cinnamon scent is wafting through the house and smells delicious. Wishing you a warm-fuzzy kind of day.
"Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done." -- Louis D. Brandeis
- halloween activities
- Halloween crafts
- Halloween party day ideas
- ghost crafts
- ghost activities
- spiral ghosts
- spiral template
- crayon resist art
- Peter peter pumpkin eater activities,
- nursery rhymes for October
- nursery rhyme activities
- nursery rhyme crafts
- Halloween coloring pages
- watercolor wash activities
1-2-3 Come Do A Few Pumpkin Craftivities With Me
Now that October is nearing an end and your students have hopefully read a zillion fall books, or you've read them during story time, have children choose their favorite fall book and do one or more of the craftivities in this Common Core Pumpkin packet, which covers a lot of reading and writing standards. Woo Hoo!
The packet includes:
A pumpkin book report craftivity.
"Read it" is a play on words for "Ribbit" so I've also included a little frog template that you can run off.
Students color, trim and glue the frog to their pumpkin. There's also a blank pumpkin template without the words "Read it"
Students can leave the pumpkin plain, or draw on a face to make a Jack-O-Lantern, especially if they're writing about a Halloween book.
Run off the "pumpkin guts" writing prompt section on yellow paper. Students fill in with information about their favorite book.
Add some finishing touches with crayons and a school photo glued to the stem.
The packet also includes another writing activity without a craft.
Older students write about two of their favorite fall books on the recording sheet.
If you want them to compare and constrast the books they've chosen, they can fill out the Venn diagram to help organize their thoughts.
Are you working on retelling a story with your kiddos? The beginning-middle-end story pumpkin craftivity, will be a fun way for them to share their thoughts.
As with the other craft, I've also included a blank pumpkin pattern, so students can draw on their own face. Run off the template of your choice on orange construction paper.
Students place the orange pumpkin paper on the top of a yellow sheet of construction paper and cut once, creating the inside of their page at the same time that they cut out their pumpkin cover.
Children glue or staple their booklet together. (I've provided a nice wide tab on the left side.) Cutting on the dashed lines of the orange paper, students create a flip booklet to explain the beginning, middle and end of their story.
I've included samples of both projects, so you can quickly and easily make your own examples to share with your students.
For my book report pumpkin, I chose the story Big Pumpkin, by Erica Silverman.
For the retelling-a-story pumpkin, I chose The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid Of Anything, by Linda Williams. These are two of my all-time favorite Halloween books. They've always been favorites for my Y5's as well.
Any of the activities work well for your Daily 5, and are especially fun for Halloween party day. Let's face it, most children are so energized that day, that it's nice to have something a bit out of the ordinary, to grab their attention and keep them focused, while still learning something relevant.
Completed projects make wonderful bulletin boards or hallway displays. The pumpkin book report looks cute hung back-to-back suspended from the ceiling.
A nice bonus about the pumpkin craftivities without Jack-O-Lantern faces, is that you can keep these displays up through Thanksgiving, with the rest of your November harvest things.
Click on the link to view/download the Common Core Pumpkin Reading Craftivities.
Thanks for visiting today. I'm dashing off to do some serious grocery shopping.
You know you're low on things when you're out of condiments like ketchup and mayo, to say nothing of the rest that I need to make dinner for tonight. Wishing you a productive day.
"The injury we do and the one we suffer are not weighed in the same scale." -- Aesop
1-2-3 Come Do An Owl Craft With Me
Whether you do this activity at the beginning of the school year for a back to school icebreaker, or in the fall for October or November, this owl craftivity is a wonderful way to get to know your students, and for them to get to know their classmates better.
Completed projects make an adorable fall bulletin board. A caption could be: "Owl Stars!" as a play on the words all star.
For those finishing touches, have students cut out their owl, fold the wings inward, and add some highlights with crayons.
Adding a pair of wiggle eyes, stuck on with glue dots, is also cute. I've included owl templates with the pupils missing, so they can be creative.
Where they place the eyes really changes the personality of these cute little critters. They can even make them goofy, like I did in my sample.
There are two options to choose from: Students can make an owl for themselves: "Owl" About Me... or have children pick a partner and make one for that student: "Owl" Be Your Friend.
If you have chosen the personal owl for your kiddos to do, adding their school photo makes this a sweet keepsake.
If you're doing this in October, it's a fun activity for your Halloween party day.
Children can write "Happy 'Owl-oween!" on the back and present the card to their friend.
Click on the link to view/download the Owl Writing Prompt Craftivity.
Thanks for visiting. I'm off to do a zillion and one things that I never have enough time for. Wishing you an energizing day.
"If we were meant to talk more than listen, we would have two mouths and one ear." -- Mark Twain
Hurry! Let's Make A Sentence!
A fun thing you can do with Dolch words is to print off my labels and press the stickers on large colored Popsicle sticks.
Simply download my template, put a sheet of large Avery (30 on a page) labels in your printer. (In my HP you put the sheet face down, in my Epson printer it's face up. Make sure you do a test, so you don't waste labels.) and then click print.
I wanted to use the big labels so that students could easily read them and I could use this cool font by Kevin and Amanda called “Tonight’s The Night”. Click on the link to check out their free fonts.
You’ll need to trim the labels down a bit so they fit, but I think it’s worth the effort because they show up nicely. Press hard so that they will stay put.
Keep the sticks in a cute mug or basket that you can pass around. Students choose a stick and read their word. If they can, they stay in the game. If they can’t, the stick goes back in, and they’re out of the game.
Challenge students to find other children with words that they can team up with to make a phrase or sentence. See who can make the longest phrase or sentence, using the most words, before the timer goes off.
Students can go to this mug/basket and create sentences and phrases when they are done with other work, or use it as a writing center or Daily 5 activity, and have students choose sticks to make phrases/sentences and then write them on a sheet of paper using correct capitalization and punctuation.
Click on the link to view/download Dolch Word Labels There are 2 sheets for each Dolch Word List (Pre-Primer through 3rd Grade). Enjoy!
If you're looking for more Dolch Word activities, click on the link to zip on over to that section of my site. The Dolch activities, especially the Dolch word Bingo games, are some of my most popular downloads! You can also scroll down to take a look at that blog article.
Do you have a Dolch Word or Daily 5 activity you can share or another way you used the word sticks? I’d enjoy hearing from you! diane@teachwithme.com or feel free to leave a comment here, especially if you use one of my ideas. Thanks in advance for your time.
That's it for today. I'm off with my hubby to take a relaxing drive and enjoy all of the beautiful fall colors. Thanks for visiting. I hope you can stop by again for another fun teaching idea and FREEBIE. I try and design new things every day, so do stop by often.
"The wastebasket is a writer's best friend." -Isaac Bashevis Singer
Turning On The Dolch Word Light Bulbs
Are some of your students struggling with the Dolch Word lists? Here are some helpful tips that might turn the light bulbs on.
Children enjoy games. Making things fun for students takes the drudgery out of memorizing things, as one of my little ones said: “We were having so much fun we didn’t even know we were learning!”
I truly believe that learning and fun should go together. If children enjoy learning they will WANT to come to school and you won’t have problems with discipline because students will be engaged in learning because they aren’t bored.
The Traceable Dolch Word Card packets provide a tip list of a variety of activities you can incorporate into centers and games for students so they can immerse themselves with these words.
I've also designed Dolch Word Bingo Bonanza for all the word lists. If you get students looking for, and using the words they will learn them.
I've discovered that looking at the words separately and trying to figure them out, is difficult for some students. Memorization is also very boring.
We teach students all sorts of attack skills when they read, yet we give them a “list” of Dolch words and hope for success.
I find that some children do so much better if they can see these words in a group. So I’ve made up phrases using the words.
These can be found in My Read, Trace & Write Dolch Word Phrase Packets. They include trace and write the phrase-skill sheets, 40-60 phrase cards, a letter home to parents, 3 recording “good reader” sheets, and 2 certificates of praise. These make great Daily 5 activities.
It’s important to get parents on board to reinforce lessons at home to get struggling children over the hump as there is just not enough time for all the one-on-one needed at school.
Click on the links below to view/download whatever packet you need.
My Read, Trace & Write Pre-Primer Dolch Word Phrase Packet
My Read, Trace & Write Kindergarten Dolch Word Phrase Packet
My Read, Trace & Write First Grade Dolch Word Phrase Packet
My Read, Trace & Write Second Grade Dolch Word Phrase Packet
My Read, Trace & Write Third Grade Dolch Word Phrase Packet
When a student achieves success with one packet they can correct the phrases and turn them into sentences by adding capital letters, punctuation and a word or two to complete the thought. Continue to raise the bar, and challenge students to move on to the next level of words.
Finally, I really think that teaching students the words phonetically helps a lot. I’ve had wonderful success turning the light bulb on when some students just don’t get it when I rhyme things.
I actually think it is much easier to break the words down this way and feel most students could learn a lot more words across the board if we taught them “off the list” and grouped them by sound instead.
I’ve compiled an anchor chart of a Phonetic Dolch Word List. Click on the link to view/download it.
I hope these things help your students enjoy reading and learning new words, as those light bulbs turn on and start to shine brightly!
"The only place success comes before work, is in the dictionary." -- May Smith
- kindergarten Dolch Word list
- preprimer Dolch word list
- first grade Dolch word list
- activities for Dolch words
- Second Grade Dolch Word List
- Third Grade Dolch Word List
- Dolch Word Bingo
- Dolch word games
- Dolch word cards
- Dolch Word flashcards
- Dolch word traceable word cards
- Dolch word phrases
- Dolch word phrase cards
- dolch word activities
