1-2-3 Come Make A Halloween Ghost Craft With Me

  “Spooky Spirals” is a quick, easy & super-fun little craft that’s perfect for Halloween week or Halloween party day.

This (print & go) craft can be done as is, for the fun of just making a Halloween decoration, while practicing scissor skills. 

Cutting definitely helps strengthen finger muscles & staying on a line increases dexterity. 

So you can easily diversify your lesson, there are a variety of patterns to choose from.

The patterns to the right are the easiest to cut out. This pattern  comes with & without a face, as well as a smaller, "just the right size" pattern for younger kiddos. 

The patterns to the left are a bit more challenging because they have arms with hands, which is no problem for older students. 

Pick the pattern that best suits your needs, or for a nice variety, give students a choice.

It's hard enough learning how to hold a scissors & cut when you are a leftie, without being given a right-handed spiral pattern to frustrate you further! With that in mind, I designed patterns specifically for the left-handed kiddos in your class.

Variety is indeed "the spice of life"...

You can add additional variety to your display, by running off the pattern to the right, which comes in a small, medium & large size. 

Using different lengths of yarn to suspend the ghosts will enhance your display as well. 

Note in the photo, that I have not only punched the hole at the top of the ghost's head, but in the left & right "hands" as well, which will cause the ghosts to hang differently as well.

If you aren't allowed to simply do a craft, I've made it easy for you to turn this into a writing extension, by having students write on the spiral before they cut it out.

Students can jot down one thing that frightens them, or something they think is spooky, or whatever else you deem appropriate.

Besides writing on the spiral, I've also included several options of cool paper to jot down final drafts on.

There's a ghostly haunted house pattern, which also has a  writing page to glue to the back.

A separate spiral is cut out & attached to the bottom.

Another worksheet features a cute ghost topping the page, with the word "Spooky" running down the side. 

These patterns come in black & white for students, as well as full color, so that teachers can quickly & easily make examples to share.

As an additional time saver, I've included my completed samples.

Besides the “spooky spiral” craftivity, the packet also includes:

* A poster, to introduce this term & the activity; and…

* Since completed projects look awesome suspended from the ceiling, I’ve also included 2 additional posters to enhance your display.

I've put this at a 1st-4th grade level, but I have done the easier spiral pattern with my young fives & kindergartners, and have friends who have done this activity with their 5th graders as well. 

Again, the variety of options make it easy to up or down scale the activities to suit your grade level. 

Today's featured FREEBIE is another fun activity for October.

These Pumpkin Alphabet cards are great for a center activity; or print, laminate & trim several sets to use for partner games.

Click on the LINK for a nice list of all the ways you can use the cards.

Well that's it for now.  Thanks for stopping by. 

It's super chilly out today, but the sun is shining & the lovely colored leaves are valiently clinging to their branches despite a nippy wind.  Perfect day for making some more fall activities.

                                   CLICKABLE LINKS for more fall fun:

Click here to see more Halloween activities.

Come join the fun on Facebook for my exclusive FREEBIES & Monthly Giveaways.

Check out my educational Pinterest boards.

Don’t forget that all of my new products are 40% off for 48 hours.

Click this LINK to follow my shop & you'll be notified of these huge savings.

"A mask tells us more than a face." -Oscar Wilde

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 Few Ghostly Activities With Me

I had a request from Alma, over in California, for a few non-scary math activities, with a skeleton or ghost theme.  She teaches a Hispanic group of kinders in Oakland and their Day of the Dead celebration (Dia de Los Muertos) is huge for them.

I referred her to the Numbskull math activities, as well as the Candy Bones activities, but also decided to design a few ghost -themed things as well. Cute little ghosts seemed to be a lot less scary to me than a skull, although that seems to be the prominent symbol for their holiday.

So if you too, are you looking for a few activities to plug into your Halloween party day, but still want to cover some standards, then I think you'll enjoy this cute little ghost-themed packet. 

The packet includes:

• A ghost craftivity that I call Spooky "Soles".   Students trace their shoe, trim & add some wiggle eyes to make a keepsake ghost (the heel is the head).  They glue their ghost to the back of the tombstone, which has a little poem on it.  "Here's a little ghost traced from my shoe. Made with lots of TLC cuz I love you."  

Instead of the R.I.P. signifying rest in peace, I printed Really Important Person on the tombstone.  Children sign their name at the top.  Older students can complete the writing prompt: Things that scare me... on the back.

• The packet also includes some Spooky sliders.  Even though this packet is mostly about numbers, I've also included extra sliders to cover other things.  Sliders for: upper & lowercase letters, shapes, numbers 0-30, counting backwards from 10 to 0 & 20 to 0, plus skip counting by 2's, 3's, 5's, and 10's.

Children can also trace their shoe to make their ghost slider and then cut 2 slits in the center, so they can insert their "slider" strip, or simply run off my ghost template, (bottom right in the photo), choosing whatever slider you want to practice.

• A Five Little Ghosts rhyme poster that I wrote. (Use the number cards as manipulatives for the poem.)
• "Five little ghosts flying out the door, one flew away and that left 4.  Four little ghosts playing happily, one flew away and that left 3.  Three little ghosts yelling boo, boo, boo! One flew away and that left 2.  Two little ghosts having spooky fun, one flew away and that left 1.  One little ghost sleeping in the sun, flew back home and that left none."
  

• Cute little ghost number cards to 35, number word cards to 10, and ordinal number cards, with a blank set to program with higher numbers, plus a set of math symbols, so students can make equations. There's also a 3-page tip list of what to do with the number cards, that includes the Kaboom game.

• An Odd Todd & Even Steven sorting mat.

• 3 trace & write worksheets for numbers 0-120.  I faded in a little ghost in the background for a rather cool looking affect. 

• Plus a "ghost with the most" rhyming word worksheet with helpful answer key.  
• Click on the link to view/download the Common Core Ghost packet.
  

Well that's it for today.  Thanks for visiting.  Time to straighten up the toy messes happily strewn hither and yon around the house.  Proof that a little pumpkin plays at Nana's house.

One of my dearest friends is coming over.  We are celebrating Jude's going into remission from cancer news!  Since it's Cancer Awareness Month, just want to give a shout out to all those brave people battling it, as well as those helping in and supporting the cause.  Blessings all around.  Click on the link for an inspiring musical video "Truly Brave" by Sara Bareillis and Cyndi Lauper

"We haven't failed. We now know a thousand things that won't work, so we are much closer to finding what will." --
Thomas Edison