Category: Halloween

Halloween Maker Mat

11/2/2019

If I haven't said it in about every other post I have made about Maker Mats, I would just like to mention that I love Maker Mats. :) I think I would say that when I use them in class, students love them just as much! They know they can pick anything on the mat to begin creating and that I am okay with that (there is no specific order in which items should be created). When I hand out the Maker Mats, I always hear great conversations among work partners about what they should start to begin building. This also works in opportunities for them to respectfully disagree and share their opinions. Usually with a brief conversation, they can decide on their first two designs they want to build and then get started with the first.

As it was the week of Halloween and one of my classes falling on Halloween itself, I knew this would be a great activity as the energy in the room was, let's say, palpable.

Halloween Maker Mat

For the Maker Mats this time, I introduced Pix Brix. I love how they are a combined take on Legos and Plus Plus. One shape that fits in multiple ways. I feel with that with Pix Brix, there is a bit of a learning curve, despite its simple shape. Learning how to stack, slide, and take apart takes a bit getting used to, as it is different from familiar building tools. At one point when he was taking apart one of his creations (my rule before moving on to the next design) stated that, "These make my fingers depressed". After having a good inward laugh to myself, we talked about how his fingers could be made happier by breaking his design into smaller pieces instead of trying to break the whole thing apart like you can with Legos. Once they started feeling more comfortable with the Pix Brix, their designs really took off!

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What Was I Scared Of?

11/2/2019

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As it was the week of Halloween, I wanted to do a fun activity with my Y5 and T1 kiddos. Insert Glowie Mats here! We started off by reading the book "What Was I Scared Of?" under black lights (as it has glow in the dark elements of the story). I had found some free Halloween printables for the Glowie Mats, and they were a perfect companion for the story! We practiced tracing different Halloween objects, writing our names, and doing some free drawing. This was great for fine motor practice and perseverance - and the kids loved it! When we were done with the Glowie Mats, we explored neon Plus Plus bricks and glow in the dark Magnet Tiles. It was a perfect activity for on Halloween especially, as costumes were lit up in a fun way and gave a whole new appearance to their Halloween look.

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I Like Pumpkins

10/25/2019

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This week in Y5 and T1, we talked about pumpkins. The book I Like Pumpkins is such a cute book and perfect for that age level. It talks about how pumpkins come in different shapes and sizes and how all pumpkins are different.

After reading the story, we went back and looked at looked at some of the pages and how the pumpkins were pictured on the page. We started out by building a stand for our pumpkins so we could display them for all to enjoy. I told the students that the pumpkin had to be on the top of their stand - it could not be hidden inside their stand somewhere. This was a bit of a difficulty for them, as most thought it was easier to hid it on the inside. They all started building the same kind of design (rectangular with a flat top), so I challenged them to change something about their design, so I could easily tell a group's design was different from another group's design. After they built their stand, we moved on and build a vehicle that could transport their pumpkin from a pumpkin patch to a store. This time I told them their pumpkin had to be inside of the vehicle so that it would stay safe. The students seemed to enjoy the challenges and as we are still working on sharing, respecting, and being responsible with our STEAM building materials, it was a simple and easy activity for them where I could reiterate those important rules so that we continue to have materials to build with (as well as other students, too!).

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How to Catch a Monster

10/18/2019

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As we moved on from our Toy Story Mania theme in Y5 and T1, we moved into our fall/Halloween theme. We read the story "How to Catch a Monster" and the students LOVED the story (I personally loved the cute rhymes)! After we read the story, I told the students that we were going to draw our own monsters and then do some magic to make them disappear. You know they perked up when they heard the word "magic"!

For our monster activity, we drew monsters on coffee filters. I told the students that they needed to have at least 3-4 colors for the magic to work (in reality, so they had a variety of colors that would blend together). After their monsters were drawn, we used pipettes to do our "magic" and make our monsters disappear. We talked about the proper way to use the pipette to do the magic (not squeezing it out all at once, but instead using a lot of small drops), and how no more than 2 pipettes full of water were to be used. I told them the magical part was not only did their monsters disappear, they were left with a beautiful piece of art! I wish I had taken more pictures of the final products as some turned out really neat, but making sure the coffee filters were safely moved without spilling colored water all over the place was more of a priority. :)

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What Should I be for Halloween?

10/18/2019

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We have been doing a lot of building and constructing in 4th grade and the students have been stepping up to each challenge I have given them. As we moved on from our Toy Story STEAM Mania theme and into our fall/Halloween theme, I thought I would give them a creative challenge that helped them learn more about me as well as me learn more about their interests.

For this activity, I gave each student a popsicle stick with my head on it (oh, the laughs everyone had with even just this part!) and asked them to design a costume for me for what they thought I should dress up as for Halloween. I allowed several minutes for them to ask me any question about myself (I received questions about my favorite color, sports, animals, video games, and others). I then gave them about 25 minutes to create a costume with a piece of paper, markers, and one strip of tape. Of course everyone wanted more tape, but what kind of challenge would it be it I just gave them unlimited materials?!

After our design time was done, we took the time to share and reflect on our costume designs. I had students partner up in twos and take turns being the "Presenter" and the "Listener" (thank you @lonestarclassroom for sharing your prompts!). I heard some great conversations and respectful feedback using the prompts that I gave them. This was definitely a great way to get them productively sharing and communicating!

There were many great designs, but I had to highlight two of them just based on how the students shared their designs with me.

Student: Mrs. Wood, you should be a log! Get it? Because it is made out of wood and your last name is Wood!

Student: I think you should be Junie B. Jones.
Me: Oh, I like that! Why do you think I should dress as her for Halloween?
Student: Because she is cute and nice like you.
Me: Oh, thank you! That is such a nice thing to say!
Student: She also doesn't care what anyone thinks about her, just like you.
Me: You got it. I don't care, I am just happy being me! :)

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Halloween Paper Quilling

10/19/2018

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This week when I picked my own kiddos up from school, one of their teachers shared with me some Halloween-themed paper quilling projects they were working on and I thought it was so cool! The detail that the kids were putting in to their creations were awesome and despite the general design of them (pumpkins, witch hats, spiders, ghosts), they were all very different. I knew this was a project I was going to have to share with my 4th grade friends!

The great thing about this project is that it takes minimal resources - just paper and glue! The not-so-desirable part (for me at least), was cutting out 1/4 inch strips of different colored paper for at least 2 classes. Talk about tedious - but totally worth it.

I created a little background sheet so that if they were only able to complete a smaller object, they wouldn't feel as though their paper was missing something with a bunch of whitespace. Plus, it is Halloween, so why not be a little extra, right? :)

The activity was pretty straight forward, which gave students the majority of the time to actually work on their quilling. I asked them to make the outline of their objects first so that it would keep their wound up quills together and not unravel all over the place. The kids really enjoyed this new way to use paper to create art and really allowed me to walk around and sit at tables and have conversations with students. It is all about relationships and that is something I felt I needed to revisit and build upon a bit more.

Background Paper

Student Work

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Quickfire: Creature Catchers

10/20/2017

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As I was perusing Pinterest looking for some inspiration for Halloween STEM/STEAM activities, I came across the video below for making "Creature Catchers" and I knew it would be perfect for my weekly group of 4th graders. To see more about this activity, please click here.

In setting up the activity for them, I used:

An 8.5" x 11" piece of (laminated) cardstock
20 pieces of 12" string
4 pipe cleaners
A variety of "creatures" (most I found at the dollar store)

I always have extras of materials on hand when I do Quickfires, but I don't always let the kiddos know that. This was the first time they noticed I had extras and tried to grab some more pipe cleaners for their creature catchers. I reminded them that they could only use the materials they were given and could not get any more. Their response? "But this is so hard!" "How can we build this without more?" Me? "Firgure it out! Be problem solvers!"

Other than that little incident, I haven't had to dip into my stash of extras when doing Quickfires - which makes me happy! I just let them know they are responsible for their provided materials because if they lose any, they have to continue on and still complete the challenge.

Today we had a shorter time to for our activity (1/2 hour compared to about a hour). The kiddos had an awesome opportunity of visiting a local watershed and doing some outdoor activities on a beautiful day, so their attention was a little off. Despite having limited time and being a bit frustrated with me giving them a difficult task, they persevered and created some great creature catchers. One group struggled with coming up with a cohesive design and one member said he wasn't going to help anymore because no one was listening to him. My response to him was that this was an opportunity for him to be a team leader and really help his group. He definitely stepped up to the challenge and his group was the one who was able to capture the most creatures. That group exemplified the 6Cs!

When doing Quickfires, I have learned that you never know what you will get with student creations. Yes, this group completed the challenge. Yes, for this group, it was a big a big hairy mess. No, I did not have a fabulous time helping them untangle the mess so the creatures could be reused. I did have a good laugh over it though!

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Quickfire: Pumpkin Elevators

10/13/2017

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When putting together some fun Halloween Quickfires, I went to my go-to source for inspiration - Pinterest. I found an activity for building Pumpkin Elevators as a STEM activity and thought it would lend itself really well to some adaptations to be a Quickfire.

The first modification I made was in the materials that we used. As a Quickfire, students would be working under a time constraint (1 hour), so for this activity, I did not want them to be spending their time cutting and gluing, but rather constructing, prototyping, and revising. So, the materials they received for this were:

5 pipe cleaners (which were half the size of a regular-length pipe cleaner)
1 pumpkin containter
2 pieces of string, each 1 yard in length
Handful of Straw Builders and connectors (I did not put a limit on the number of these)
Marbles

The challenge was for the students to build an "elevator" that could be raised and lowered. Some of the constraints I gave the students:

They could not cut the string or pipe cleaners
They could not use the small handle of the pumpkin container
The elevator had to hold the pumpkin container and had to be able to be raised and lowered with ONE string
The pumpkin container had to be able to hold marbles
The elevator had to be free standing (students could not hold it while raising the pumpkin)

As I was planning this out, I started to second guess myself on how it would actually work. I started to question the constraints, but went with my gut feeling to make it a bit difficult (as they have already proven to me that they are excellent workers!). The kids dove right in to the activity and I was blow away at the conversations they were having in their small groups as well as with the teachers in the room. I told the classroom teacher that I am pretty sure she has some future architects in her room!

The students did not hesitate to build, rebuild, rebuild, rebuild, and then rebuild again to create a functional pumpkin elevator. What was amazing to me was that there was very little "copying" of other elevators - each group had their own ideas and everyone was different. We asked the students to see how many marbles their pumpkin elevator could lift and I think the group that had the most was 31. I was pretty amazed because once they started adding weight, the Straw Builders would flex and sometimes tip over. In talking with one group that almost had a cross shape to their elevator, they shared that they designed it that way to balance the weight of their structure because it kept tipping over. How clever!

This group of 4th graders never ceases to amaze me! They are up for any challenge that they are presented with, work so well with one another, and never give up on the task. I feel they are pushing me as an educator to help push them further each time. It definitely is the highlight of my week!

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Halloween Sketchnote Fun

10/29/2015

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Recently, I was asked to come speak to a group of 10th grade English students about sketchnoting. I love when I hear excitement and buzz going on about something and I am always happy to share!

As Halloween was just three days away, I did my Halloween sketchnote presentation for the students. They seemed very intrigued about the concept and the students were so excited to see their teacher actively participating, drawing, and taking notes. It was so fun to watch this group of students start out at the beginning of the class period wondering what this was all about and at the end being excited, sharing, and talking about what they took notes on.

If you are unable to view the presentation below, please click here.

As these students were older than ones I have presented to in the past, I chose a video that was <intentionally> a little more difficult. I wanted to give them a bit of a challenge! If you are unable to view the video below, please click here.

Below are some student examples from the video above. Many of the students said that the video went really fast and it was hard to keep up, but I think they did a fantastic job!

Some of the classes were very diligent in their sketchnoting, so we were able to a couple of fun activities at the end. We did some head- to-head word challenges (in 30 seconds, write the word given by the teacher and illustrate it) as well as some exit slips.

In one of the head to head challenges, I was given a lesson of my own by the teacher. She was given the word "Rooster" and this is what she came up with in 30 seconds. It wasn't even a competition for her!

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Big Pumpkin Bookmarks

10/20/2015

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Want to reward your students for their reading accomplishments?

Would you like to give your students the opportunity to give their parents a Halloween “treat”?

Download these bookmarks that students can color to celebrate their reading and the book Big Pumpkin!

Available in English and Spanish.

Click the button to the right to download the bookmarks!