Spooky Sorting

Hey Friends!
Halloween frenzy is in full force in room 852. I can't complain though, because I totally started it. I feel pretty fortunate because our district and especially our school has a pretty lax policy about Halloween displays and candy consumption (I'm enjoying it for now, who knows what tomorrow brings!)

I tend to stay away from ghosts or witches, but pumpkins, skeletons and bats are fair game. Today we did a fun activity to reinforce parts of speech recognition. My kids are having some difficulty recognizing and categorizing them when they are in a group of mixed words. We've been working on them with these centers  and continued practicing with today's seasonal color, cut and paste activity.

I typed up some Halloween words and mixed them up on a grid. Some of the words are a bit challenging, but they were eager to read and talk about them after they realized they weren't just an ordinary set of words. Words like fangs and zombie usually perk them up!

First we read the words together and discussed the meaning. Then I let them work with partners to try to categorize them as noun, verb or adjective using an N, A or V in each box.

                                                                                    

Then we went over the list again and made any necessary adjustments before it was time to color, cut, paste. I was so surprised at the creativity they used in gluing down the pieces! I didn't really give specific directions besides making sure they all fit before they glued. Some of them went with traditional straight lines, but some took a pretty artistic angle...even jazzing up the title!

Next time I'd give them a bigger piece of black paper, but I was trying to conserve. Our construction paper budget (along with everything else) is EXTREMELY limited. Click on the image below to download a free copy if you'd like to do this with your kiddies. This would actually make a good center activity as well.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for some mummy fun including my PRIZE winning Just Say No door decorating contest entry!

P.S. I just listed a new unit at TeachersPayTeachers. 17 pages of reading response activities for my fav Halloween book, The Hallo-wiener! Click the picture below to check it out!