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Painting a yellow and orange stripe on a styrofoam cup, will literally take your kiddos just a few minutes, and is a fun October center activity, or something simple and fun to do on Halloween party day. 

10 pages.

This nursery rhyme craft is versatile.  I've included a blank pumpkin, so students can complete a writing prompt on it; there's also one that says "Happy Halloween from your little pumpkin", which children can give as a card, plus one with the nursery rhyme on the front, which I revamped.

6 pages.

These Halloween crayon resist coloring pages, are perfect for Halloween party day, or a fun center activity.  There are 5 to choose from, with directions of how to set things up.

5 pages.

Midnight Magic, is a quick, easy and fun little ghost craftivity, perfect for Halloween party day.  This art is called crayon resist, as the wax in the crayons resist the watercolors.  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.

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

15 pages.

These cute dangling ghosts are a quick, easy & fun little something to do on Halloween party day, or as a nice activity to transition to after reading some Halloween-themed stories.  Cutting on a spiral provides wonderful scissor cutting practice, which helps strengthen finger muscles.  Older students can write on the spiral and complete the prompt: "Things that are creepy to me are . . ." or "Things that I'm a bit afraid of are . . ."

2 pages.

Hot tips for your bulletin board borders.

 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  

15 pages.

At the end of October, have your students choose their favorite fall book and do one or more of the craftivities in this packet.

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Looking for a fun way to review fact families with your kiddos?  How 'bout a football theme to especially peak the boy's interest? This activity will be FREE for an entire year! Woo hoo. After which time, it will be revamped and put in my jumbo, 177-page "Funtastic" Fall November Math & Craftivities Packet.  Click on the link to zip on over to my TpT shop to take a look.