Halloween on a Friday? Yes, Please! Can we arrange the calendar so that happens forever? k, thanks.

We have a lot of fun on Halloween. I kind of give in on this day. I mean, how much are we going to learn when we're draped in Christmas lights and superhero capes? 

One of the cutest traditions is when the pre-k kids come trick-or-treating. Seriously, cuteness overload! My kids were so excited to be the ones handing out the candy. Adorable.

Every year, my team dresses up together. We're now up to 12 teachers, so choosing a theme that all of us can get on board with and find costumes for gets a little challenging. We went with hippies this year. Easy and fun. I made those little Tic-Tac gifts for them. Cute free printable for those can be found here.  And I treated myself to the cutest coffee cozy ever! It's handmade by the one and only Squirrels. Who also sells them at her Etsy store.

The highlight of the day is classroom trick-or-treating!  I ask each parent to send in 18 treats and then I put them out in different buckets and baskets and the kids trick-or-treat around the classroom. Isn't that what Halloween is all about as a kid? Getting a big bag of goodies to hoard?!

 This idea was from another teacher on my team. I thought it was genius! She had each kid come dressed as a vocabulary word. They came through and had to tell how that word related to their costume. If you have kids who don't celebrate Halloween, this might be a fun way that they can participate in the fun of the day by dressing up because it's an academic activity. Maybe? Depends on the parents for sure...

So that was Halloween in our room. And afterward I was exhausted. I fell asleep for 2 hours when I came home! Woke up in time for the few trick-or-treaters we had. I got a little nervous because we don't usually have many kids come knocking, so a few days ago we started picking at the candy we bought. I scoured the pantry to see what I had in case we ran out of candy. I came up with packs of gum, Jif singles, microwave popcorn, and Keurig K cups (something for mom?) Luckily, it didn't come down to that.

Hope your Halloween was happy! Bring on the turkeys!

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SunnyDays

Oh, this little blog of mine has been woefully neglected lately. I think it's partly because I tend to put off writing a post until I have some grand idea with a billion artfully staged pictures. And then that never happens and then way too much time passes between blog posts. So a great idea that someone might like never even gets posted at all. Well, I'm hoping to change that a bit. I don't teach in a Pinterest-perfect classroom, so to hold off posting until it looks like I do is a little crazy, right?

I've actually been giving myself a lot of slack lately. In the past if something bubbled during lamination, was cut crooked, or wasn't "just so", I'd find myself re-doing it. I would laminate everything. Like EVERY. THING. It's like I was protecting all my classroom materials from some infectious disease. Ok, I know I work with little walking germ factories, but was the lamination going to save us from doom? Nope. Maybe everything didn't need a shrink wrap haz-mat suit after all. So if it's something I'm using once, like a scoot game, scavenger hunt, pocket chart activity, or bulletin board title, it gets a lamination pass. It feels a little naughty at first. A little wrong. You know what else it feels like?  It feels like freedom, people! It feels like time saved. It feels smart.  And I can definitely use my materials again next year, even without the lamination. But the way things change in this profession, I keep finding that I what I use from year to year changes anyway! {But that's a whole 'nother post}

I'm hoping from this point on to post a little more frequently. Maybe a little more imperfectly. Which may turn out to be a little more honestly. So, who wants to join me in celebration of imperfection? Let's just be real, right? <end rant/step off soapbox>

Moving on...

In the "just in the nick of time" category, I updated my free jack o'lantern glyph with a little writing extension and it came out so cute! We are paired up with a 5th grade class for book buddies. Once a month we meet, read a little, and usually complete some type of activity together. This month we used the glyph and it was perfect. The fifth graders helped my kids make the glyph and then guided them through writing a little Halloween autobiography.

At the time, we just wrote on index cards, which was fine. But then we ended up leaving our projects with our buddies to hang in their hallway, which bummed out my kids a little. Honestly, it bummed me out too because it had a naked bulletin board that was the perfect spot to hang them!

So, the next day, I had my kids make the glyph again. It was a much faster experience this time because they had a little practice. Just to change it up a little, I tweaked the objects on the glyph a bit and I added a writing extension page.  This time I had the kids switch glyphs and write about each other using the glyph as a guide. Then we mounted it on black paper. Super cute!

I know it's getting down to the wire for Halloween projects, but this is something that can easily be done in one day. Or in my case, once a day for two days! lol! Get the glyph with the writing extension for free here!

We also finished up our storybook pumpkin character based on Crazy Hair Day. I think he came out awesome! My room moms painted the pumpkin head and then each kid got a popsicle stick and some pipe cleaners, feathers, markers, and other random craft objects. Then the moms helped give the pumpkin some hair implants. One talented mom made the body for us. I love him!

We're almost at the end of Halloween week. Hang tight my friends and say a prayer of thankfulness that Halloween is on a FRIDAY! Yahoo!

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SunnyDays

I was trying to create some math task cards for the month and I kept thinking about how I was going to have to  laminate and cut all of them before I could use them. Then I thought - well,  maybe I won't cut them apart. Then I took it a step further and and decided to make all of the questions on that card relate in some way... soon after that my Math Task Mats were born!

Each card has four tasks on it and all four tasks focus on the number or numbers in the circle. I also wanted these cards to reflect what I'm currently teaching or have already taught. We're just finishing number sense, place value, forms of number, and basic operations. In looking for centers for October, so many included skills I'm just not ready for them to work on independently yet, like time, money, and measurement. I was also very careful not to include any graphics that might make it questionable for you to use in your classroom, like ghosts or witches. The colors are definitely Halloweeny though, so they bring a touch of holiday fun to your room.

To introduce the activity, I showed the cards on Smartboard and we did a few together.

Then I set them free to explore the cards. I put two cards on each table and they roamed the room and worked on the various tasks while I circulated to assist as necessary. I overheard lots of great math talk and I loved hearing them try to explain the tasks to each other when someone needed a little clarification.

I also made very specific recording sheets, so if they had to write a set of related facts, the spaces were already there for them. Short answers had small boxes, longer answers had bigger spaces. I also included a full answer key. It makes it easier for you of course, but you can also use it to let the kids check their own work because it's in the same format as their recording sheets.

These cards have so many uses - they're great for a write the room type activity, but would be great in a small math group, as morning work, for your fast finishers, or even a formative assessment. You can use them as enrichment or remediation too, depending on the needs and level of your kids. For me, they were a great formative assessment. From this one activity, I was able to see that we totally know forms of numbers, fact families, and place value. Surprisingly, we need some review on tally marks (really??) and questions like "what is the sum of the digits in the circle."

The best part is that I printed them and had them in my kids' hands immediately. You can even skip the laminating and just slip them in a page protector. Honestly you can even leave them naked since the kids won't really be handling them all that much.

I've also completed a first grade version for October and I'm already working on next month's set and also standard specific versions, like money and time. I just fell in love with the concept and ease of implementation. I hope you will too!

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SunnyDays

So it's the day after Halloween and I *think* I have survived the insanity. My kids are actually pretty mellow and they even party on the quiet side and I was still exhausted. Like 2 hour nap after school exhausted. Well, I'm also old, so that's part of it. Plus I had to help rescue a wayward hamster from the bottom of a giant garbage can first thing in the morning. I saved his life and how does he repay me? With a bite and a tinkle. And for real,  just wearing this costume and swinging my new dreads around all day was pretty taxing. But seriously, how awesome did we look? I love my little rag tag band of co-pirates.

We don't have a Halloween party per-se. It's supposed to be a "fall festival treat day" where we do academic based activities and have a treat while we pretend it's not really Halloween even though the kids come in full costumes all day. Most of that first part is left over from the previous administration, so we actually loosened up the party part a bit. Nothing major. I didn't even get too many cute pictures. Turns out pirates are not great photographers.

Here are few snaps I managed to catch. We decorated some bags which we used to trick or treat in our classroom. I had asked parents to send in a bag of 18 identical items and then we put them in containers and piles and the kids trick or treated around the room taking one of each. Big hit this year: vampire teeth and green witch fingers.

We also played hangman with these awesome skeleton sets I got from Party City years and years ago. They loved adding the pieces to the skeleton as they played. I was actually surprised that a bunch of them didn't know how to play! I need to add that one to the indoor recess rotation. We also had a Jingo game which is pretty much bingo, but with a j for some reason. So my bunch of super rule followers were sure to call out JINGO, not bingo, then loudly chastise any poor soul who forgot and said BINGO. So that was fun. For them. Not me.


Then even though it was Thursday, we did Tasty Tuesday. And every time I said Tasty Tuesday they all said, but it's THURRRRRSSSDAY. So that was fun to hear all day. #notreally #ismiledanyway

This one's not in my pack yet, but I'm planning some updates soon and you'll be able to download the revision with any new recipes if you've already purchased.


Earlier in the week we did some spidery stuff, including this great freebie where the kids learned all about the jumping spider. That sucker can jump 40 times its length! We watched this YouTube video with Bob the Spider Hunter. My kids really liked Bob. He was pretty friendly and his passion for spiders was pretty obvious and not at all creepy. Then we experimented to see how far we could jump and if it made a difference if we were standing or had a running start. Check out these action shots! I wasn't wearing my pirate costume that day, otherwise there would be no pictures. (Links to everything will be at the end, as always)

I know you want that awesome ruler thing mat. It was from the Scholastic Bonus Points catalog.

We also played the math game Spider Legs. I don't have a picture of them playing #blamethepirate.
But is a cool game that's so easy to differentiate. The object is to be the first one to have 8 legs on their spider. They roll and can use up to 4 dice with multiple operations to get to 8 they can just use 2 or 3 of the dice. They get the hang of it pretty quick.

Thanks again to everyone linking up to My Truth Monday! I love getting to know everyone a little better!

Tasty Tuesday Pack

Spider Legs Directions Printable

Thank you to these talented teacher authors who make me a better teacher with their awesomeness!

I used bits and pieces of most of these units which is what you see in the pix above.

Jumping Spider Freebie from Wise & Witty Teacher

Fix the Spider Sentences Freebie from Jamie Rector

Incredible Spider Pack from Kristen Smith

Adjective/Adverb Spider Sort Freebie from the Applicious Teacher

Reagan's Spider Week Amazingness

Jen's Spider Bundle

Michelle's Spider Bundle which seriously rocked

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SunnyDays

Welcome to the second My Truth Monday! If you missed what it's all about, click here to catch up.

Big love to everyone who linked up with me last week! It was inspiring to see how many of you really commit to your fitness. I'm not quite there, but I'm working on it.  Tamara I think you'll appreciate this one with me...

Moving on... This week I thought it would be fun to get into the Halloween spirit and talk about what creeps us out!  Here's mine:

 So, how about it, want to join the party?  Just copy the image below and link up! Be sure to use the My Truth Monday badge below on your post and link to this page. Can't wait to read about what creeps YOU out!

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SunnyDays

In Florida we do a lot pretending around this time of year. We're having a "cool" weekend in the mid 80's and I guarantee I will see at least three people wearing a scarf or Uggs when I head out to run some errands. I'll play along as I sip my pumpkin spice latte and scrunch up my shoulders against the "cold" and nod to them in fake-fall solidarity.

I don't let the fake fall and real sweat stop me from going all pumpkin-palooza in my classroom. We had a half day on Thursday, so it was the perfect time to get our pumpkin on! 

I always start by doing a RAN chart on pumpkins, then reading How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin. I love that it's set in a classroom and shows the kids arranging the seeds in different groups to skip count. Eventually the kids make a great discovery about the groups they choose to count. I'll stop here. I don't want to ruin it for you. Ha! I'll link to the book at the end of the post.

RAN stands for Reading and Analyzing Nonfiction. Unlike a KWL, those letters don't stand for the areas on the chart. I have this one in my pumpkin unit which I'll link to at the end. I like the detailed nature of the chart and how it gets the kids to think more about their prior knowledge and then reflect on it during different parts of the activity. I'll have to do a whole blog post on the RAN chart soon.

One thing I'm really working hard on lately is condensing and combining things to take up the least amount of paper possible. I used to use a version of this activity and each separate station was its own piece of paper. Each kid had a packet that was about 8 pages long! Insanity in these days of crazy low copy limits. So I made a trifold brochure for my kids to use that has 6 panels, one for each rotation. It's a lot less copies and they seem to like the novelty of the brochure effect. Hey, whatever works!

My partner and I each set up three experiments and a research station in our adjoining rooms. We had one pumpkin at each station.  The kids went from station to station as they were ready, read each direction card, made their prediction, completed the experiment or activity and rotated through the two rooms.

I've done this many different ways over the years. When I didn't have an adjoining room with a great partner, I enlisted parent volunteers to help man the stations. I've also done it with just one pumpkin with me leading the experiments in more of a demonstration style with some children assisting me while others watched and we all recorded the results. If your school prohibits Halloween parties, this would make a fun alternative for the kids. Luckily, we can have a fall festival, but it still needs to be heavy on the academics and light on the party/food/crazy sugared up children side. I'm actually ok with that!

This would also make a great day after Halloween activity, especially considering that would be a Friday this year. Half price pumpkins, here we come!

As always, I really tried my best to make this unit easy to understand and implement. Along with everything you actually need for the kids, I included teacher tips for each station, a list of resources and books, and a possible timeline. I like things that I can just print and use, without a lot of brainpower required to get it up and running in my room, so that's why I strive to do the research, formatting, and a little planning for you in everything I make. Be sure to see the links below for the book, unit and some other freebies that you might like this week!

Pumpkin Science Unit

How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin on Amazon

Free Boo Bump

Free Jack O'Lantern Glyph

Free October Word Sort

Free October Task Cards

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SunnyDays

I'm linking up to a great collection of fall books and activities hosted by my friend Ashley from The Teacher's Treasure Chest. Here in South Florida fall is pretty much non-existent, but we join in on the fun anyway. Growing up here I have vivid memories of sweating off my halloween make up and planning the costume with the least amout of fabric possible. Writing this post sent me on a wild internet goose chase to find one of my childhood Halloween costumes. Anyone remember these? The whole costume basically consisted of a blow up decoration you tied to your head, a tube of face paint, and a plastic cape. I remember the make-up just dripping off of my face and the blow up bat slipping off with it. Ahh, Florida Halloweens...

Fun trip down memory lane! Now back to business at hand - Ashley's linky par-tay!

I sometimes obsess over things that really have no business occupying space in my brain. One year it was the theme for my Just Say No door decorating contest. Yes, really. The thought for my door popped into my head over the summer and I was just busting to put it up! It actually did come out pretty cute AND I won first place ThankYouVeryMuch! Just thought I'd share with you in case you're searching for something similar. Here's the winning door...drumroll please...

Don't Get Wrapped Up In Drugs! Cute right? Each kid made a mummy using a plastic spoon and a popsicle stick. The stick was broken in half and stuck to the spoon with glue dots to hold it in place. We had some help from a parent volunteer for that part. Then each stick/spoon combo was wrapped in toilet paper. To age it a bit, we used a small brown ink pad and dabbed it on the toilet paper. Add some googly eyes and a red ribbon - and there you have it! We brainstormed things we could do for fun instead of drugs which is on the speech bubble. I can't share the lettering I used for the title because it's against the terms of use for that site. Really, the mummies are eye-catching enough that any cute font would work.

Speaking of mummies, my friend and teammate Mrs. H made THE cutest storybook character pumpkin that I HAVE to share! Every year each class decorates a pumpkin and we display them in the main hall. We've all now started using the craft pumpkins because carved pumpkins in South Florida, well, let's just say they don't last very long and our creepy crawlies find them quick! Here is her display based on the book Where's My Mummy? By Carolyn Crimi.

Love all the details from the story! The little green blob, skeleton and Dracula are all characters from the book. There's a creepy tree to represent the setting and there's a little mouse in there too! The whole thing is balanced on some styrofoam pieces. I love, love, love it! This has me re-thinking my No, David pumpkin. I'm going to have to step it up a notch now!


Speaking of Halloween - feel free to check out my latest TpT unit. I finally created something to accompany MY personal favorite Halloween book - The Hallo-wiener. Click {here} to preview the unit.

I love this story so much that I almost forgive him for writing Captain Underpants!

Check out some other great fall books and activities by visiting the blogs below:

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SunnyDays