1-2-3 Come Play Some Halloween Games With Me

Are you looking for a few quick and fun things to plug in on Halloween?  Something interesting for your kiddos, easy for you, and will still be educationally relevant?  Then I think you'll enjoy my Ready Set Ghost!  Halloween games packet. 

Everything's pretty simple with a lot of variety.  You can review and practice math, counting, letter recognition, end punctuation, capitalization, spelling, sequencing and more.

Here are a few things that I've included in the 28-page packet:

There are all sorts of math dice games that will help review numbers, counting and addition: A very simple one is the coloring puzzles. 

Students choose one of three options; color their paper then cut on the lines making a 6-piece puzzle. 

They pick a partner and take turns rolling a single dice.  Whatever number they roll is the numbered puzzle piece that they glue on their grid. 

Older students can work on addition, with the Race to 100 game.  They too pick a partner and take turns rolling dice. 

Children add the 2 dice together and then X off that many boxes on their 100 chart.  Who will be the first one to get to 100?

Another 100 chart activity is a Halloween hidden picture worksheet.  Students can listen and follow the directions of the teacher, or read the numbers on their worksheet.  A successfully completed paper, will reveal a Jack-O-Lantern.

Have you made a list of all sorts of fall words for your word wall?  The "I mustache you to unscramble the words" worksheet, will help students practice them. 

Give children a minute or two to try and figure out as many as they can.  Did anyone get all 22?  There's an answer key to save you time. 

I've also included another mustachioed ghost worksheet, which asks students to add end punctuation to however many Halloween-themed sentences that you want them to work on.

Students can work on more vocabulary skill building, by challenging them to use the letters in pumpkin, to see how many new words they can create.  I've included my list of 20.

Younger students can spin and spell Happy Halloween! There are two spinners to choose from, a recording sheet and a colorful answer key poster to help little ones know where to put the letters.

Even preschool children can work on addition skills with the candy corn counting game. There are several math mat options, including one that the children color. 

Students can work independently or choose a partner and take turns rolling the dice.  Each child gets 13 pieces of candy corn.  (Pre count them and put in Dixie cups). 

Children can eat one, then use the rest as manipulatives to put on their candy corn counting mat, making groups of whatever numbers they roll.  I've also included a recording sheet (2 on a page) where students can "show" their work.

If you want to practice letter recognition, play upper or lowercase "I Spy" .  You can reuse the worksheets as many as 5 times, depending on how you have students record their findings. (Trace the letter, trace the circle,  color, X-off, bingo dot etc.)

Finally, just for fun, I've included a Halloween version of "Trick" Tac Toe. There are six manipulatives children can choose to play with, plus a set of black line tokens they can color.

Click on the link to view/download the Halloween game packet: Ready, Set, Ghost!

Well that's it for today.  I hope you found something useful that will make Halloween less stressful for you, and more fun for your students. 

I'm off to change the light bulb on the front porch.  Since I'm ready for those sweet trick or treaters, I better have the lights on.  Wishing you a safe and happy Halloween.

"I love the childhood memories of Halloween, the excitement and energy that comes with it. Even the air feels different on Halloween; festive, fresh and crisp."  

3 pages.

For a fun language arts activity for Halloween, have your students become the teacher.  Pass out the ghostly paper(s). Set a timer.  How many boo boos can they find before the timer rings? 

1-2-3 Come Do Some Valentine's Day Activities With Me

I had so much fun making things with candy hearts on Monday,  that I thought I'd make a few more things for today.   If you missed the article, simply scroll down.  As usual, my brain was going a zillion miles an hour of what other things I could do with the candy heart generator.

One of the things I made was a set of candy heart color cards.  The colors are just the 7 in the box, but sometimes its nice to limit things, especially for younger children.  The favorite color and favorite flavor candy heart graphs from yesterday, will compliment these activities. 

Print; laminate and trim to make Memory Match or "I Have; Who Has" games.  I've also included a cover, if you want your students to make an Itty Bitty Candy Heart Color booklet.  Click on the link to view/download the Candy Heart Color Cards.

Contraction activities are often requested, so I thought I'd make a set of those, using 61 contractions. 

Students match the word cards to their contractions.  You could also have children choose several cards and then write what the contraction or words are, depending on which ones they picked.  Click on the link to view/download the Conversation Heart Contraction Cards. 

Switching gears, I wanted to design a few quick Daily 5 word work activities with a valentine theme. 

How many words can you make using the letters in the word valentines?  Challenge your students to work independently or in small groups.  Set a timer, or let teams work on their lists throughout the day. 

I came up with a whopping 312 words!  When everyone has shared their list, share mine and highlight any that students don't know.

Give some to each team and have them look the words up, and then share their results with the class. I've also included several certificates of praise. Click on the link to view/download the Valentine Word Challenge. 

A Valentine Word Search is also a fun way to practice spelling, and build vocabulary.  This one has 22 familiar words associated with Valentine's Day, an answer key, plus several links for students to play valentine word searches online, as well as a list of quite a few sites for them to do valentine crossword puzzles. 

Including a site where they can make up their own crossword puzzle to share with their classmates.  Click on the link to view/download the Valentine Word Find packet.

Finally, I enjoyed making a list of 100+ ways to say "I love you!" in different languages. Challenge your students to each learn 1 or 2. 

These would be fun to include in a valentine card students make for their families, or as a jumpstart to having students do some computer research and find 3-5 facts about one of the countries listed.  Click on the link to view/download 100 Ways To Say "I love you." 

That's it for today.  Thanks for visiting.  Feel free to PIN away. 

"Study without desire, spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in." -Leonardo da Vinci

1 page. I make this game for my students at the beginning of the 1st week of school to reinforce name recognition. Later, you can program word wall words and put them in separate Snack Baggies, or simply write complete sets of the alphabet and have students arrange them, to make up words, or practice their spelling words in a fun way.