HALLOWEEN. One of the most exhausting, fun, exciting, and did I mention exhausting days of the year? I mean is there anything better than seeing your kiddos excited about their costumes and candy and all things fall?
Halloween always seems to be a crazy day every year until I started implementing Halloween Centers. For some reason, the day went by so fast, the kids were engaged, and every 15-20 minutes they were up and moving (and maybe walking like a mummy or flying like a bat) to the next rotations. We played Halloween music, laughed, and truly had an amazing time.
This past year was the first year I truly “transformed” my room for this day. I love decorating the library area and covering it with spider webs or hanging witches from the ceiling to make the day feel “a little more exciting.” Everything I used to transform was either decorations I’ve gathered over the years, old decor that my mom gave me, or a few things I purchased from Dollar Tree, Target, or Amazon.
Okay, now to get to the good stuff, THE CENTERS! I had all the centers laid out around the classroom. That way, each area had a specific center and kids were not running around like crazy, losing pieces of the center, etc. Before the centers began, I divided kids up into groups of 2-3 kids and that was their partner/group for the day. I assigned each pair/group a center to start and then together as a class we walked to every center, went over the activity together and answered any and all questions students had.
The centers we used are:
Eyeball Rounding: Students pick an eyeball and round that number to the nearest ten or hundred according to what their recording sheet says!
Build an array: At this center, students will pick a task card and build an array using the Target Dollar Spot Halloween Mini Erasers. I found this task cards for free on Teachers Pay Teachers years ago.
Grammar Sort: Students will pick a sign and decide what part of speech category it belongs in. (noun, proper noun, verb, adjective) I was surprised to see how many students had difficulty with this and was definitely a good informative assessment for me to use in my planning for the following week!
Monster Math: This game students will play as a whole group and one person begins and picks a card. Student will solve the card and show everyone in the group the card. Everyone will solve it and if the student who choose the card correctly solved it, that student gets to keep the card. Whoever has the most cards at the end of the game is the winner. There are some fun cards like lose a turn, extra turn, game over, etc.
Fluency Reading: I found these fun witch/scary looking finger pointers in the Target Dollar Spot and gathered as many Halloween/Fall picture books that I had. Students whisper read with partners and loved falling along with the “fingers.”
Halloween Inferencing Game: This is one of the favorites!! Students will be in pairs and one student will pick a task card and read it and the other student will try and make an inference that matches the task card that their partner described.
Addition/Multiplication Game: Students will work in partners and spin a paperclip twice to get two numbers. Students will either add or multiply (depending on their Vampire sheet) find the answer and create a number sentence. Partners will check each other’s work. This can also be an independent center or you can have students add up all of their answers at the end and whoever has the highest score is the winner.
Overall, it was a wonderful and exciting day BUT I was looking forward to getting home to my couch and eating as many Reese’s Pumpkins as I possibly could! Happy Halloween!
