Reading
Songs, Fingerplays, & Flannel Board
Jack O'Lantern, Jack O'Lantern What Do You See? If you like the "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" book illustrated by Eric Carle, you'll love this Halloween version of the story using an orange jack o' lantern, white ghost, green witch and etc. to help children learn their colors, develop listening skills, and pattern recognition. The only hitch? You'll have to either trace the patterns provided or draw the images free hand onto the felt. We did ours drawing free hand. But you can buy graphite paper at the craft store (such as Michael's) to lay over the felt (black side down), then cover with the pattern picture and trace. As you press your pencil down, following the lines, the graphite transfers the lines onto the felt. You can then trace over these lines with your permanent marker. Then just cut out the shapes and embellish, if you wish, with puff paint and small googly eyes.
Stirring My brew For this fun and simple fingerplay, children pretend to grip the handle of an imaginary stirring spoon. Be sure to explain that a "brew" is a big pot of witch's stew (or etc.) so they can make sense of the stirring. This is a super popular preschool song that even young toddlers can do.
For added fun, say the "tip toe" part in a very soft voice, then "Boo!" with a very loud voice.
Five Little Pumpkins
This popular fingerplay can also be a
flannel board story. Simply cut out five pumpkin shapes from
orange felt and decorate each with a jack o' lantern face. We like
to use a sharpie (permanent) marker to color the face, then go over it
with black fabric paint (squeezable puff paint). As another
option, you can print jack o' lantern pictures (including clip art) onto
printable transfer paper, then cut out the jack o' lanterns and iron
them onto the felt. Note that "dark T-shirt" transfer paper shows
up best on colored felt, however regular transfer sheets will generally
blend into the orange of the felt, making a fun effect. (You
can always highlight with permanent marker and/or puff paint.)
When using transfer sheets, be sure to read instructions carefully.
If you have trouble getting your pieces to stick to the flannel board,
hot glue a tiny piece of velcro to the back -- use only the stiff
bristly part.
Black Bat
A small bat puppet works well for this song. With it you can act out the words of the song. Children can act it out with their hands, or with paper bats that they have made for art.
Itsy Bitsy Spider The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout <crawl fingers up imaginary spout> Down came the rain <raise hands then lower them with fingers wiggling> and washed the spider out. <hands crossed at wrists sweep apart> Up came the sun <make circle with arms, or hands, and raise> and dried up all the rain. <raised hands swish gently, slowly from side to side while lowering> And the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again
Other Ideas:
Writing
Spooky Creative Writing Prompts
These fun story starters will get you
going on your own Halloween tale. Try "Monster Match", "Are You a
Vampire", "The Evil Scientist", or "The Box". From
Bogglesworld.
Short but fun story starting prompts,
from ABC Teach. Teaching the Epic through Ghost Stories Lesson plan for helping students write their own ghost stories, based on family tales, urban legends, or their own imaginations. Also helps kids understand the function of the great tales handed down through the ages -- in the days before television and the printed word.
Story Map
Social Studies
Learn a bit of history by reading about the real Prince Dracula!
Traces the origins of Halloween from Celtic times through the Christian advent of All Hallows Eve. Compares modern Halloween celebration in the U.S. and other countries.
A Christian Perspective on Halloween Not all kids are allowed to celebrate Halloween because some adults see it as a celebration of things that are scary and even evil. But read this article on the Christian origins of All Hallows Eve (Halloween), and discuss it with your friends and family. Do you think Halloween is "bad for kids", or do you agree with the writer that spiritual faith means we can have a sense of humor about life, even the parts that would try to scare us and bring us down.
This lesson plan teaches history as well as the threat to social order created by prejudice, intolerance, poor information gathering, and poor leadership. See also Salem Witch Trial Hysteria -- from National Geographic
Science
Check out this cool National Geographic
site about real mummies. Learn about the different ways that
mummies are created and find out what cultures -- and what conditions in
nature -- create them. A fun exercise in mummy detective work is
included. Pumpkin Sink or Float Experiments
Gather an assortment of Halloween and
fall items to see what sinks and floats. Fill a water table, dish
tub, or sink with water. Let kids experiment and record
their results on a chart. Possible items: pumpkins of
varying sizes, gourds, apples, ears of corn, plastic skeleton and other
Halloween props. Great ideas, with printable worksheets included.
Play the echolocation game, try some fun crosswords and word searches, and do some puzzles -- you're just getting started with this fun site that's all about bats.
Voted the Yuckiest site on the web -- but in a good way -- Worm World has interesting facts about worms and their role in the ecosystem. What better time to check out creepy crawlies than Halloween!
Math
Counting Survey & Graphing Get a notebook or a clipboard and keep track of what kinds of costumes you see this Halloween. How many pirates? How many princesses? Monsters? If you're not sure what someone's supposed to be, just ask! The next day, you can make a graph to represent your data. If you want to get really fancy, try graphing age versus costume type -- you'll have to ask kids their age for this of course. Find out if some kinds of costumes are more popular with younger kids, older kids, or teens. And what about adults? What kinds of costumes do they usually choose? (Note: this might be the ideal project if you've decided to stay home and pass out the candy on Halloween, if you're stuck home with a cold. But if you can tote a clipboard and keep track of what's going on even while trick-or-treating, then give it a try. Just watch out for cars -- and goblins!)
See how number and spacing affects texture and shape. Use this Math Cats program to draw string art spider webs. Just set the sliders to different numbers to create different looking webs. Don't forget to "reset" between webs. See if you can create a web that looks like some you've seen out in nature.
Estimating Every year your parents have to estimate how many children will come to the door, so they know how much candy to purchase. Help them figure it out this year. And then try estimating some other things this Halloween: how many kids in a "scream" mask are you likely to see, how many houses will give out candy, how many neighbors will decorate their yards with a pumpkin (a ghost, a scarecrow, etc.), and so on. You'll have to draw on your memories from previous Halloweens in order to make your estimations/predictions. Then on Halloween, use a small notebook or a clipboard to keep track of your estimated predictions. Jot down the number of each house with a pumpkin and etc. and then add it all up to see how your predictions matched what really happened. How close were you? For extra credit: try to express the relation between predictions and outcomes in percentages. For example, if you predicted that 10 houses would display a scarecrow, but only 8 did, then only 80% of the predicted scarecrows were displayed. Or if you predicted that 10 out of 100 houses would have bat decorations, then you predicted that 10% would have bats.
Estimating and Counting Pumpkin Seeds Lay out some old newspapers on top of the kitchen table and cut open a pumpkin -- then estimate how many seeds it contains. (Be sure to check with your parents first!) Of course, you'll have to count the seeds when you're done to see how close you came! But after you've gone to all that work of separating the seeds from the pulp you can toss them onto a baking sheet, spritz them with an oil spray, salt them and toast them up for eating. (Bake at 250 degrees F for 15 minutes.)
More Pumpkin Estimating Try to guess how much your pumpkins weigh just by looking at them, and visually comparing them to other things (like a 5 pound bag of sugar, etc.)! Now pick them up and make a new guess, based on the apparent heaviness. Then check this guess against the bathroom scale. How close did you come? Was your pumpkin heavier or lighter than you expected? Why do you think this is? Next, try to predict how many inches around your pumpkin is (circumference). Then get out a dressmaker's tape measure and measure around the fat part of the pumpkin. (Or wrap a piece of yarn around, then compare the length of the yarn to a ruler or yardstick.) How close were you? Now try the same thing, measuring in centimeters. When you're all done, cut the pumpkin open (with adult help) and take a look at the inside. If your pumpkin was much lighter than you expected, it may be because it was rather dry inside. If it was heavier than expected, then it may be very moist and pulpy inside.
Favorite Candy Survey & Graphing
Art
Check this site for the big scoop on how to carve a great pumpkin.
Spooktacular Decorations for Home & Yard
How To Create Your own Haunted House
Cute & Creepy Costumes
Creative Food Ideas
More Fun Ideas
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Boo-ti-ful
Bushes
with White Chocolate
