Halloween Week

I scoured blogs and found some fun stuff for my Kindergarteners.  We started out with a Frankenstein hat, idea from Cara Carroll.  I had them draw their own Frankenstein.  I did a little tutorial, and I love how they turned out!  They glued their numbers (counting by 10's) on a sentence strip and had a hat to wear all day!

We also made Cara's Frankenfold freebie.  I read

We then discussed the beginning, middle, end.

In our Art center, they made super-easy monsters.  I had students paint plates in the past.  This year, I bought colored paper plates.  Creating this is super-easy- you just make various sizes of features. =)  They are welcome to mix and match.

A teacher down the hall made these mummies.  She used manilla paper as the wrappings, but I'm super-cheap, so I used paper towels that are "free" in my classroom.  After reading

they wrote how their mummy comforts them.

I make Memory Books for my students, so I trimmed this one down to be 8.5x11".  I believe it will be quite the keepsake.

On Thursday, the children all helped me scoop out the inside of a pumpkin.  Everyone gave me a great, disgusted face! =)

On Friday, we had Book Character Dress-Up Day.  They were absolutely adorable!!  We started the day with a parade.  Grades K-2 went to the gym and sat around the perimeter.  One class at a time circled the gym so everyone could enjoy the costumes.
My class also got to go to our media center for a special story.  Our media specialist sings the story to us.  It is one of my favorite activities of the year!

Our administration team always does a good job coordinating.

The Kindergarten team dressed as the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie series.  We took this picture at the end of the day, and several of us were missing.

We had a birthday celebration and kept with the theme.  The snacks match the books. =)

Happy Halloween!!

Batty for Bats!

We're getting closer to our SPOOKY week.  We started out by taking a poll of who thinks bats are creepy or cute, courtesy of Cara Carroll's Batty Graph.  Surprisingly, most of my students think they're cute.

In my art center, my students just cut and paste some bats to hang around our room.

In one of my centers, they made a predictive text (mirroring Brown Bear).  This is a great way to help build confidence in beginning readers.  You can download the printable book (nothing fancy!!) by clicking on the picture:

I found this video on YouTube.  It's about the world's largest bat.

We also read Stellaluna by listening to Pamela Reed read the book to us.  Are you familiar with Storyline Online?  Love this site!

One of my favorite books about bats is

 

After lots of learning about nocturnal animals, we made little informational bats.  This is an old one, so there's nothing digital about it.  I'm pretty sure I got it from Mailbox Magazine.

At the end of the week, they made a bat craft and acrostic poem to display out in the hall.  I got these for FREE from A Cupcake for the Teacher.  Super cute!  We wrote the poem together.  Then we discussed what they'd learned about bats.  In the bottom box, they drew a picture of one thing they'd learned.

Have a batty week!

BOO!!

I'm sure you're aware of the tradition of BOOing people.  I just got BOO'd by someone in my neighborhood.  What a treat it is to know that someone was thinking of us.  I was supposed to copy the note.  It's on cute orange cardstock, and I don't keep anything creative at home.  So I had to recreate in PPT.  I thought I'd share with y'all in case you ever need it.

Click on the image below:

Here are some ideas from the neighbor that BOO'd us:

Halloween bag, glow jewelry, glow-in-the-dark insects, cup, AND candy.

We also participate in this tradition at school.  For your free download, I made 2 different kinds:  one for neighbors and one for school friends.  I hope you can spread a little cheer before Halloween! =)

Pumpkin Week!

I'm jumping into Halloween month with pumpkins!  I first asked my parents to please send in a small pumpkin- any size.

We measured them with strips of butcher paper.  I helped them cut off the excess paper.  I do not like to use string because it stretches.

Then I had them find something in the classroom that was the same length.  Finally we sat in a circle and ordered their strips from smallest to largest.  We then compared our smallest pumpkin to the largest pumpkin.

Later they held their pumpkins and used 2 senses to describe them:  sight and touch.  I wrote these on a butcher-paper-pumpkin.

The next day, we tested if pumpkins sink or float.

In Math, we ordered pumpkins from smallest to largest.

The next day they ordered pumpkins by number.

These math activities (and more) are in my Fall Math Centers' packet in my TPT store.

To learn about the life cycle, we started out by reading the necessary Gail Gibbons book.

I'm a big fan of Cara Carroll, and she posted where to find these photographs (HERE).

For writing, I pulled pumpkin seeds out of a jack-o-lantern.  Since we have been learning about fall for a couple of weeks, they were a variety of fall words.  We talked about how each of these words represent something about the fall.  I then gave each of them a seed and had them write about it.

Two of my centers were pumpkin-related.  One was a "Where is Pumpkin" book.  The pages behind this cover say random positional words, like "Under the moon..." or "Above the cat..."  Then there's a little pumpkin they use to position it correctly.  This is a Mailbox Magazine activity, so I can't show too much. =)  But you get the idea!

Okay, this one is a precious activity.  The kiddos color/cut/glue fences in number order.  Then they paint little pumpkins with their fingers, sittin' on the gate.

Finally, who doesn't love singing?!

Happy Fall, Y'all!!!