1 2 3 Come Do Some Sequencing Activities With Me

Do you read “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat!”  by Lucille Colandro? 

It's a favorite October story of my Young Fives, and perfect of practicing the "sequencing & retelling a story" standards. 

With that in mind, I designed these quick, easy & super-fun (Print & Go) activties, that I think your students will really enjoy transitioning to, after you read the story. 

Since the old lady yells "Trick or Treat!" at the end of the story, any of these activities, particularly the "tongue" craft, would be great for a little something different, for Halloween week or Halloween party day too.

The packet includes:

1. A whole group sequencing & retelling craftivity: “Bat Got Your Tongue?” 

For extra durability, print on card stock, then laminate & trim.  This is a picture of the old lady before I attached her tongue.

I purposely used ordinal numbers for the tongue, so that you can practice another standard. 

Pass out the mini cards (of what the old lady swallowed) to your students. 

As you come to that item in the story, the child holding that card attaches it to the old lady's tongue. You can use a magnet, Velcro or glue dot to attach the pictures. 

The last item to be placed on your whiteboard or flannel board is the "Trick or Treat!" speech bubble, which will go above the little old lady. 

Afterwards point to each item and have children retell the story.  They will be excited to transition to making a little old lady of their own.

2. Students have a smaller, black & white old lady craft, where students color & cut the items that the old lady swallows.

Children sequence, then glue the “picture tiles” to her tongue in chronological order.

So that you can easily diversify your lessons to suit the various abilities & skill levels of your students, I've included a variety of options. 

For example, after they have added some color, little ones can simply glue the entire picture strip on the tongue, without cutting and gluing the graphics individually. 

There's also a "mixed up" strip for older students to color, cut, sort & sequence, then glue on.  To expedite this, the "boxes" on the tongue, are the same size as their matching picture.

As always, all patterns come in full-color so that teachers can quickly & easily make examples to share, as well as black & white for students to color.

3. Since completed projects make a terrific bulletin board or hallway display, (Be sure and curl the end of the tongue for some extra 3D pop), I've included a “Having Fun With the Little Old Lady” poster for some extra pizzazz.

The packet also includes These "Print & Go" activities:

4. A “Checking for Comprehension” worksheet, where students fill in the blanks using words from a word bank.

5. An “Ask Me a Question” worksheet.

6. A “Let’s Sequence The Little Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat” worksheet.

7. A “Here’s What Happened” writing extension.

All of the worksheets can be done as a whole group activity, used in a small reading group, or done individually.

So that you can easily diversify your lessons, I’ve included a variety of options for the worksheets as well.

8. I’ve also included colorful answer keys.

9. For added value, there’s a BONUS activity: “Show Me A Pattern” game/center, which uses the picture tiles. 

Since the old lady is yelling "Trick or Treat!" at the end of the story, I thought it would be appropriate for the Featured FREEBIE to be a "color me" safety rules for trick or treating. 

At the end of the day (perhaps Halloween party day?) have students quietly color their worksheet, then send home for parents.

Besides the "color me" page, I've also included one in full-color that you can read with your students, then post on a wall if you want.

I know that much of this is common sense, but "...better safe than sorry" and "forewarned is prepared."

Well that's it for today.  I hope you found something here you can use.

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"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." -Unknown

1-2-3 Come Do Some Activities For The "Room on the Broom" Story   

Do you read the story ”Room on the Broom” by Julia Donaldson?

Click on the book cover or this LINK to zip on over to YouTube to see a really cute animated version. (10-minutes).

The TV film was nominated for the Best Animated Short Film at the 2014 Academy Awards!

It’s one of my students’ all-time favorite Halloween stories and perfect for practicing the “sequencing and retelling a story” standards.

With that in mind, I designed this quick, easy and fun ”Room on the Broom”  slider craftivity, which will help your students retell the story in the proper order.

There are 2 outside slider options to choose from. One is a square for easy-peasy straight cutting, which is perfect for little ones. 

While the other choice is a "cut me out" larger witch, for more advanced cutters.

I made some "broomstick"  ends for the "slider strip" for the larger witch, as well as included a "broom straw" pattern to glue on, which results in the slider looking like a broom that the witch is riding on. 

Run these patterns off on brown construction paper, then add some shading details with a marker.

For extra pizzazz you can tie on a jute bow.

I make the big one for myself, and run the square craftivity off for my little learners.

Students color the story elements on the “slider strip” then cut and glue it together.

As they pull on the end of the “slider-strip” the various pictures go through the “window” on the witch’s cape, so that children can take turns retelling the story to a partner or reading buddy, then take their craftivity home to share with their family, once again practicing these standards.

I introduce the lesson by reading this rhyming Halloween tale, then share my completed "slider craft” with my students.
So that you can quickly, and easily make an example, full-color patterns are included.

After we read the story, we retell the tale together, using the picture prompts on my slider.
They guess which story element they think comes next, before I pull the picture through the “window”.

My students now know what’s expected of them, and are very excited to transition to making a “Room on the Broom” craftivity of their own.

Storytelling sliders are also an easy & interesting way to assess comprehension.

I’ve included a “Let’s Sequence the Story” activity for this, where students color and trim the picture “windows” then glue them in the correct order on their worksheet. There’s a larger, full-color option so you can do this as a fun whole-group activity with younger students.

There’s also a “Here’s What Happened…” writing prompt worksheet, as another way to check comprehension, plus practice sequential writing, hopefully using a variety of ordinal numbers and other transitions. You can use the colorful template to do this as a whole group activity with younger folks.

Woo hoo! There are two featured FREEBIES today. The first one is a set of Halloween safety tips. 

The tips are loaded with Dolch sight words, providing great reading practice and review.  Read the list together as a whole group, calling on different children to read a tip.  Afterwards, they can color the picture, then take it home to read to their parents. 

The second FREEBIE is a set of "Happy Halloween!" note cards, with 6 on a one-page template. 

They come in color as well as black and white.

Attach one to a treat bag, or tuck in a folder, lunch box or backpack.

Well that's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by.

It's dark, damp, dreary and raining outside, providing the perfect backdrop for creating some more Halloween "stuff". 

Stay tuned for several more activities to go along with the "Room on the Broom" story.  "Witching" you an easy-breezy day filled with lots of memorable moments.

"There is magic in the night when pumpkins glow in moonlight." - Unknown

1-2-3 Come Play Some Halloween-Themed Games With Me!

As a child I loved drawing haunted houses and spooky things at Halloween.  The first and only art contest I ever won was a picture of a witch riding her broom past a crescent moon.  I was in 4th grade and thrilled!  One of the things that really pops out at you when you're looking at a haunted house is all of the broken and shuttered windows.

I thought it would be fun to make the windows look like the 6 standard 2D shapes.  To play the Spooky Windows game, print, laminate and trim the haunted houses.  Run off the shapes on a variety of colors of construction paper. 

Keep each set in its own Ziploc Snack Baggie and attach with a paperclip to one of the Spooky Windows haunted house mats. Children place the shape cut outs onto the matching spooky window. 

You can also play this as a game.  Children choose a partner and spin the spooky shape spinner.  Whatever shape they land on, they say the name of the shape and place it on their haunted house.  The 1st one to match all of the shapes on their house, is the winner.

I've also made the Spooky Windows into a dice game.  Here students choose a partner and take turns rolling a dice. Whatever number they roll, they color in 1 matching numbered window and identify the shape.  The 1st child with all of their windows filled in, or the one with the most filled in when the timer rings, is the winner. 

By having students play with the color spinner,  you can also review colors.  Whatever shape they land on, they color the matching shape window that color.  Afterwards, little ones can color their haunted house.  Challenge older students to only color the rectangles.  How many did they color?

Also in this packet is a Spooky Windows shape sorting mat.  I found that after awhile, most of my Y5's readily identified the various shapes, but when I asked them to find that shape in the world around them, many had difficulty. 

i.e. I could show them the shape of a rectangle and they'd say "That's a rectangle."  but when I asked them to name something in the classroom that was a rectangle, some of them had difficulty doing so. 

Because of this, I also like to design shape activities using pictures of things representing the various shapes, so children can sort them.  Print off the shape pictures, trim and keep each set in a separate Snack Baggie.  Children can work independently or against a partner to sort the shapes.  Turn it into a game, and have students spin the spinner in order to be able to place that shape on their mat.  

Another fun way to review shapes with the haunted house, is via a little ghost puppet.  Print and laminate the haunted house, trim and cut out the windows.  Using an Exacto-knife, I cut out the circle and oval windows completely.

I cut the other shape windows, so that one side was left un-cut, to act as a hinge.  You can fold the windows open, or leave them shut, so your students can better see the shape as your ghost puppet pops through it.

Hold the house up in front of you. Manipulate a white ghost (Popsicle stick) through a window or simply have the ghost peek behind the window. 

Students call out the shape of the window the ghost is peeking out of. 

You can also make a ghost finger puppet by cutting off a “finger” of a white glove, and gluing on 2 wiggle eyes.  Use rubber gloves for an eerie transparent look.  I experimented with dotting eyes on with a black marker as well as using puffy paint. 

I personally like how the ghosts with wiggle eyes turned out.   You decide which you like best.  Because these are really quick, easy and inexpensive to make, you could set this up as a center and have your students each make one.

Finally, I've included a card game called "Shapely Haunted Houses".  These are cards with a shape on them that can be matched to the shape, or shape word cards for a Memory Match or "I have; Who has?" game. 

All of these games and "craftivities" are included in the Spooky Windows packet.  Click on the link to view/download it.

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"Faith is building on what you know is here, so you can reach what you know is there." -Allen Hightower