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

1-2-3 Come Do A Halloween Craftivity With Me

Are you looking for a few quick, easy and fun activities to do on your Halloween party day, but still need to cover some standards? Then I think you'll enjoy this candy corn craftivity. 

It's very versatile.  Use it to reinforce circles, the concept of small, medium and large; or  have students write whatever you want them to practice, on the individual sections of the candy corn pieces. 

Students can get a lot of cutting practice in with this activity, or to expedite things, pre-cut the 3 sizes of circles on orange, yellow and white construction paper, then choose which fraction template you want to use and run it off. 

Students trim their fraction circle, then place it on the top of their candy corn circle, that they've glued together.  Holding the two circles together, they cut on the black lines to quickly and easily make individual pieces of candy corn!

I've made samples to give you some ideas of what you can do with the pieces of candy corn.  Have students write CVC words, or upper and lowercase letters on the sections. 

You can also review shapes, breaking down a number or counting to 30.  Students can also practice writing the orange, yellow and white color words, then writing down examples of things that are those colors.

If you're working on fractions, I've included pocket chart cards for a quick review.

You also have the option to have your students cut their candy corn circle into 1/4ths, 1/5ths, 1/6ths, 1/8ths, or 1/10ths.  (I've included templates to run off so they can place them on top and cut on the black lines.)

Click on the link to view/download the Common Core Candy Corn Craftivity.

Well that's it for today.  Dinner's in the oven and smells yummy; the timer's ringing so it's time to fly. 

Thanks for visiting.  Hope you can pop by tomorrow for another fall FREEBIE.  Wishing you a delicious day.

"If you fail to plan, you plan to fail."  - Unknown 


1-2-3 Come Do Some Crimping With Me

Crimping? What's crimping? It's a wonderful way to add that finishing touch to your students' crafts. Alicia, over at Jam Paper, contacted me and asked if I would be willing to design some sort of craft activity using their paper.   Of course! (They have "every color and every size!" including brown which is rather unusual and perfect for fall.)

I checked out their site and found that they also carried an awesome tool called a "corru-gator"  which crimps paper!  Well the creative juices kicked in and my brain went into over drive, with all of the fun things I could do with one. The more I pondered, the more excited I got.  I hope you will too. 

I chose the "wave" pattern for it's versatility. (One with straight lines, that crimps like corrugated cardboard, is also available.)  I'm sure scrapbookers are well aware of these fun gadgets, but I wanted to figure out ways a teacher could use one in the classroom. 

One of the reasons that this is great for school, is that it has a width of 8 1/2 inches, so it will fit a regular sheet of paper, (smaller sizes too) as well as card stock thickness, so you can add texture to just about any project.

The corru-gator is a safe and easy-to-use-tool even for little ones.  Inserting a sheet of paper and cranking the roller, is wonderful fine motor practice that is a super-fun way to strengthen finger muscles, which is so important for pre-writing skills and scissor cutting capability.

A child's excitement at seeing their finished project being cranked out, with a cool texured look, is priceless.  "Wow! Look what I made."  

Because students will want to add that "finishing touch" to whatever you deem appropriate, use the tool as an incentive to keep students focussed, by allowing them to use the crimper after they have completed their project. 

What kinds of projects? Oh the possibilities... Here are just a few that I thought of:

Students can crimp a file folder (portfolio) or pocket folder to keep their work in.  The "Flip For Facts" file folder activities that I've posted also look more interesting after they're crimped too.  Make sure you use plenty of glue on projects to be crimped and that they are completely dry.

Crimp shapes, letters and numbers to add a bit of pizzazz. Use Elison die cut letters and have students glue them together to make a name plate then crimp it, or simply have them write and color their names and then add the texture. 

When students make a special card for Christmas, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, or Father's Day, allow them to crimp it to add that "wow" factor or have them crimp the envelope for something different.

Crimp your plain colored bulletin board borders to add some 3D pop.  Have students design a bookmark and then crimp it. 

Crimp a writing prompt topper, or even the written page.  I crimped the entire haunted house 5 senses craftivity to add an extra touch of creepy. As I've discussed before, tossing in a bit of hands-on art to go along with a writing prompt, simply gets students more motivated. 

Completed projects make awesome displays, which help build self-esteem. 

Crimping only takes a minute and the unusual results will surely get all sorts of comments.  Everyone wanted to know how we made these cool tri-colored apples.

A myriad of themed craft activities are also perfect for crimping.  Here are just a few:

For Fall: crimp apples, pumpkins, scarecrows, bats, spiders, candy corn, skeletons, & monsters.

Studying fire safety? As you can see by the photograph, flames look awesome crinkled and definitely add that finishing touch!

Are you studying leaves?  Paper leaves look wonderful crimped.

I designed this fall dangler then added the texture for an interesting 3D effect.

Trees are also the perfect craft to crinkle.  

My students partnered up and traced their arm and hand with fingers spread to make an apple tree and then ran it through the corru-gator.  

The pumpkin sliders gained extra pizzazz by being "munched and crunched". (My Y5's have named this cool tool "The Muncher Cruncher".)

Our pumpkin Venn Friends turned out especially cool with a little crimping.

I LOVE that the size of this tool accommodates an entire project. 

The scarecrow's face and hat, look extra special when crimped, which gave it more of a burlap look. I also ran yellow paper through a shredder to make the hair.

Thinking ahead to WINTER: Crimp Christmas trees, ornaments, snowmen, snow scenes, and mittens.

Do you celebrate 100 Day?  Have students draw a self portrait of how they think they'll look if they get to be 100-years-old, then crimp for instant wrinkles, or simply crimp a real photo of them.

For Groundhog Day, crimp children's groundhog craftivities to give those animals some "fur".  Are you studying shadows? Using a light source, trace your students' profile, trim and crimp. 

For Valentine's Day add texture to paper hearts.  If you study Abraham Lincoln, crimp a log cabin.

Moving on to Spring: Crimp rain, the water cycle, a Seuss hat, butterflies, caterpillars, shamrocks, flowers, grass, eggs, baskets, bunnies, lions, and lambs.

As you can see I'm pretty excited about the educational potential of this fun gadget, and at $24.50 it's certainly an affordable tool to add to your teaching bag of tricks. 

To take a look at the corru-gators over at Jam Paper, click on the link.  They also have a large variety of paper choices, as well as other office supplies. 

If you're going to do the Frankenstein envelope activity with your kiddos that I posted a few days ago, they also sell the green envelopes. Your kiddos could also crimp their completed envelope monsters too.

Speaking of envelopes, if you do a Chinese New Year Theme in February, and want to get some red coin envelopes to do a few of my Chinese New Year activities with, they sell the perfect 3 x 5.5 size.

Well that's it for today.  I'm going to play around a bit more with this fun gadget to see what else I can come up with. 

If you've thought of another way to use the tool, or an activity you plan to do with your kiddos, I'd enjoy hearing from you: diane@teachwithme.com  or feel free to leave a comment below.

"There is a great distance between said and done." - Puerto Rican proverb 


1-2-3 Come Study -ick and -eat Word Families and Shapes With Me

Here's a word family trick for helping teach Common Core, that's a real treat, as you'll  be covering the Phonological Awareness Common Core State Standards: RF.K2a, RF.K2c and RF.K2e  in a quick, easy and fun way.

Here's How: Run off my template with the adorable Laura Strickland trick or treaters on it. You can use the treat bag just as it is, or you can cut off the top of a brown paper lunch bag, so that it fits on the back of this treat bag, and glue it on.

It's a bit more difficult to manipulate the strips, but worth the extra effort as it's truly a functional bag for doing other things with, which I'll explain later.

Pre cut the top & bottom dashed lines of the squares. (I use an Exacto knife.) Insert letter strips, so students can make new words.    

I’ve also included traceable word flashcards, so students can practice the words in yet another way.  There's a cover if you want them to alphabetize the words and then make an Itty Bitty booklet.

When they have finished cutting & tracing their word cards, they can drop them in the bag when they are done.  Students write their name on the side of the bag. You can punch holes and put in real yarn for handles if you want a more 3-D effect.

After everyone has completed their bag, call on students to pull their strips to make the various sentences. Children read them in unison.  There'll probably be a few giggles as they say “Wick or wheat”, “Sick or seat” "Chick or cheat" and “Kick or heat.” etc.

Make sure the last one they read is “Trick or Treat!”  Drop a piece of candy corn, or a sticker, or special treat in their bag as a reward for their great effort!

You can also play “I Have; Who Has?” with the word cards.  Make a copy of the word cards and do not cut them out. Post these pages on the board.  Make another copy and laminate them.  Cut these out.  Put them in your Trick or Treat bag and have students choose cards ‘til they are all gone.

You read an –ick card and ask for an -eat card on the list. The –eat child reads their card. Both children say their “–ick or –eat!” sentence together. Those cards go in the bag. Play continues ‘til all of the cards are gone.

The packet also includes a poster that says: How many words can you make using the letters in Trick or treat?" plus a recording sheet and alphabetical list of 158 words that I thought of. 

Click on the link to view/download the –ick or –eat Word Family Treat Bag.

Finally, after doing this trick or treat-themed activity, you may want to review 2D and 3D shapes using my candy shape posters.  

There are 17 Candy Shape posters in all, with a white or black background. What a fun way to grab your kiddos’ attention. 

These “real life” shape examples will certainly help them understand and hopefully remember the various shapes.

As an incentive, reward them with a shaped sweet treat when they can identify all of the shapes on the posters.

Thanks for visiting today.  The rain's stopped and it's time to take my poodle pup out for a romp.  The fresh air is filled with the wonderful fragrance of fall.  Wishing you a splendid day.

"Like a ten-speed bike, most of us have gears we do not use." - Charles Schulz 

1-2-3 Come Do Some Spook-tacular Activities With Me!

Halloween is just around the creepy corner, so I thought I'd blog about a few of our Halloween-themed FREEBIES. Since the Fact Family Schoolhouses were such a huge back-to-school hit,  I thought I'd repost the Fact Family Haunted Houses.

The Packet includes:

• Fact Family "craftivity" templates.
• Fact Family spinner game templates.
• Directions and link for a home-school math connection, for fact family online-homework practice.
• Directions and sample of how to make mini dry erase envelope boards.
• Fact Family T-bar "mad-minute" skill sheets +
• A certificate of praise.

If you're looking for a language arts activity, one of my favorites is the Trick or Treat Word Family packet, which will help reinforce Common Core State Standards: RF.K2a, RF.K2c, RF.K2e

It's a fun way to review the -ick and -eat word families.  Students make this "craftivity" and pull the letter sliders through the treat bag windows, to reveal humorous new ways to say "Trick or treat!"

I've also included traceable word flashcards for the -ick and -eat families (28 cards) + another "Trick or Treat!" word activity game extension.  Click on the link to view/download the Trick or Treat Word Family packet.

Thank you for visiting today.  I design and blog daily, so I hope you can zip on over tomorrow for more FREEBIES.  Feel free to PIN away. 

To ensure that "pinners" return to THIS blog article, click on the green title at the top, it will turn black; now click on the "Pin it" button on the burgundy menu bar.   If you'd like to see all of the wonderful-educational items that I spend way too much time pinning, click on the heart to the right of the blog.

I wish you and yours a very Happy Halloween.

"The whole idea of living, is to believe the best is yet to be." -Peter Ustinov