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

Are you looking for a few quick and fun things to plug in on Halloween?  Something interesting for your kiddos, easy for you, and will still be educationally relevant?  Then I think you'll enjoy my Ready Set Ghost!  Halloween games packet. 

Everything's pretty simple with a lot of variety.  You can review and practice math, counting, letter recognition, end punctuation, capitalization, spelling, sequencing and more.

Here are a few things that I've included in the 28-page packet:

There are all sorts of math dice games that will help review numbers, counting and addition: A very simple one is the coloring puzzles. 

Students choose one of three options; color their paper then cut on the lines making a 6-piece puzzle. 

They pick a partner and take turns rolling a single dice.  Whatever number they roll is the numbered puzzle piece that they glue on their grid. 

Older students can work on addition, with the Race to 100 game.  They too pick a partner and take turns rolling dice. 

Children add the 2 dice together and then X off that many boxes on their 100 chart.  Who will be the first one to get to 100?

Another 100 chart activity is a Halloween hidden picture worksheet.  Students can listen and follow the directions of the teacher, or read the numbers on their worksheet.  A successfully completed paper, will reveal a Jack-O-Lantern.

Have you made a list of all sorts of fall words for your word wall?  The "I mustache you to unscramble the words" worksheet, will help students practice them. 

Give children a minute or two to try and figure out as many as they can.  Did anyone get all 22?  There's an answer key to save you time. 

I've also included another mustachioed ghost worksheet, which asks students to add end punctuation to however many Halloween-themed sentences that you want them to work on.

Students can work on more vocabulary skill building, by challenging them to use the letters in pumpkin, to see how many new words they can create.  I've included my list of 20.

Younger students can spin and spell Happy Halloween! There are two spinners to choose from, a recording sheet and a colorful answer key poster to help little ones know where to put the letters.

Even preschool children can work on addition skills with the candy corn counting game. There are several math mat options, including one that the children color. 

Students can work independently or choose a partner and take turns rolling the dice.  Each child gets 13 pieces of candy corn.  (Pre count them and put in Dixie cups). 

Children can eat one, then use the rest as manipulatives to put on their candy corn counting mat, making groups of whatever numbers they roll.  I've also included a recording sheet (2 on a page) where students can "show" their work.

If you want to practice letter recognition, play upper or lowercase "I Spy" .  You can reuse the worksheets as many as 5 times, depending on how you have students record their findings. (Trace the letter, trace the circle,  color, X-off, bingo dot etc.)

Finally, just for fun, I've included a Halloween version of "Trick" Tac Toe. There are six manipulatives children can choose to play with, plus a set of black line tokens they can color.

Click on the link to view/download the Halloween game packet: Ready, Set, Ghost!

Well that's it for today.  I hope you found something useful that will make Halloween less stressful for you, and more fun for your students. 

I'm off to change the light bulb on the front porch.  Since I'm ready for those sweet trick or treaters, I better have the lights on.  Wishing you a safe and happy Halloween.

"I love the childhood memories of Halloween, the excitement and energy that comes with it. Even the air feels different on Halloween; festive, fresh and crisp."  

29 pages. 

Put some fun into Halloween and still review a variety of standards with these quick, easy and educational games.  Plug them in throughout your day to help practice math, counting, letter recognition, end punctuation, capitalization, spelling, editing, sequencing and more. 

 1-2-3 Come Do A Few Ghostly Activities With Me

I had a request from Alma, over in California, for a few non-scary math activities, with a skeleton or ghost theme.  She teaches a Hispanic group of kinders in Oakland and their Day of the Dead celebration (Dia de Los Muertos) is huge for them.

I referred her to the Numbskull math activities, as well as the Candy Bones activities, but also decided to design a few ghost -themed things as well. Cute little ghosts seemed to be a lot less scary to me than a skull, although that seems to be the prominent symbol for their holiday.

So if you too, are you looking for a few activities to plug into your Halloween party day, but still want to cover some standards, then I think you'll enjoy this cute little ghost-themed packet. 

The packet includes:

• A ghost craftivity that I call Spooky "Soles".   Students trace their shoe, trim & add some wiggle eyes to make a keepsake ghost (the heel is the head).  They glue their ghost to the back of the tombstone, which has a little poem on it.  "Here's a little ghost traced from my shoe. Made with lots of TLC cuz I love you."  

Instead of the R.I.P. signifying rest in peace, I printed Really Important Person on the tombstone.  Children sign their name at the top.  Older students can complete the writing prompt: Things that scare me... on the back.

• The packet also includes some Spooky sliders.  Even though this packet is mostly about numbers, I've also included extra sliders to cover other things.  Sliders for: upper & lowercase letters, shapes, numbers 0-30, counting backwards from 10 to 0 & 20 to 0, plus skip counting by 2's, 3's, 5's, and 10's.

Children can also trace their shoe to make their ghost slider and then cut 2 slits in the center, so they can insert their "slider" strip, or simply run off my ghost template, (bottom right in the photo), choosing whatever slider you want to practice.

• A Five Little Ghosts rhyme poster that I wrote. (Use the number cards as manipulatives for the poem.)
• "Five little ghosts flying out the door, one flew away and that left 4.  Four little ghosts playing happily, one flew away and that left 3.  Three little ghosts yelling boo, boo, boo! One flew away and that left 2.  Two little ghosts having spooky fun, one flew away and that left 1.  One little ghost sleeping in the sun, flew back home and that left none."
  

• Cute little ghost number cards to 35, number word cards to 10, and ordinal number cards, with a blank set to program with higher numbers, plus a set of math symbols, so students can make equations. There's also a 3-page tip list of what to do with the number cards, that includes the Kaboom game.

• An Odd Todd & Even Steven sorting mat.

• 3 trace & write worksheets for numbers 0-120.  I faded in a little ghost in the background for a rather cool looking affect. 

• Plus a "ghost with the most" rhyming word worksheet with helpful answer key.  
• Click on the link to view/download the Common Core Ghost packet.
  

Well that's it for today.  Thanks for visiting.  Time to straighten up the toy messes happily strewn hither and yon around the house.  Proof that a little pumpkin plays at Nana's house.

One of my dearest friends is coming over.  We are celebrating Jude's going into remission from cancer news!  Since it's Cancer Awareness Month, just want to give a shout out to all those brave people battling it, as well as those helping in and supporting the cause.  Blessings all around.  Click on the link for an inspiring musical video "Truly Brave" by Sara Bareillis and Cyndi Lauper

"We haven't failed. We now know a thousand things that won't work, so we are much closer to finding what will." --
Thomas Edison 


1-2-3 Come Do A Halloween Craftivity With Me

Are you looking for a few quick, easy and fun activities to do on your Halloween party day, but still need to cover some standards? Then I think you'll enjoy this candy corn craftivity. 

It's very versatile.  Use it to reinforce circles, the concept of small, medium and large; or  have students write whatever you want them to practice, on the individual sections of the candy corn pieces. 

Students can get a lot of cutting practice in with this activity, or to expedite things, pre-cut the 3 sizes of circles on orange, yellow and white construction paper, then choose which fraction template you want to use and run it off. 

Students trim their fraction circle, then place it on the top of their candy corn circle, that they've glued together.  Holding the two circles together, they cut on the black lines to quickly and easily make individual pieces of candy corn!

I've made samples to give you some ideas of what you can do with the pieces of candy corn.  Have students write CVC words, or upper and lowercase letters on the sections. 

You can also review shapes, breaking down a number or counting to 30.  Students can also practice writing the orange, yellow and white color words, then writing down examples of things that are those colors.

If you're working on fractions, I've included pocket chart cards for a quick review.

You also have the option to have your students cut their candy corn circle into 1/4ths, 1/5ths, 1/6ths, 1/8ths, or 1/10ths.  (I've included templates to run off so they can place them on top and cut on the black lines.)

Click on the link to view/download the Common Core Candy Corn Craftivity.

Well that's it for today.  Dinner's in the oven and smells yummy; the timer's ringing so it's time to fly. 

Thanks for visiting.  Hope you can pop by tomorrow for another fall FREEBIE.  Wishing you a delicious day.

"If you fail to plan, you plan to fail."  - Unknown 


A 1-2-3 Come Do Some More Haunted House Activities With Me

I'm enjoying a bit of R&R time this weekend, so I wanted to feature 2 "oldies" but "goodies" for today's blog.  They fit in perfectly with the 2 new haunted house FREEBIES from yesterday.  If you missed that article, simply scroll down to check it out.

The 17-page Haunted House math packet, is a "craftivity" and game to help reinforce fact families in a fun way.

The Packet includes:

• Fact Family "craftivity" templates.
• Fact Family spinner game templates.
• Directions and link for a home-school math connection, for fact family Online homework skill building practice
• Directions and sample of how to make mini dry erase envelope boards.
• Fact Family T-bar "mad-minute" skill sheets +
• A certificate of praise.

Click on the link to view/download Haunted House Fact Family Fun.

The other haunted house activity helps reinforce 2D shapes.  These are quick, easy and fun games for your kiddos to play in an independent center, or as a whole group.

Click on the link to view/download the Spooky Windows Haunted House Shape Games.

That's it for today.  Thanks for visiting.  Wishing you a restful and relaxing weekend too.

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is not an act, but a habit." -Aristotle

23 pages

Looking for some Common Core lessons for Halloween?  This haunted house-themed packet includes alphabet activities, adjective practice, vocabulary building, plus writing prompts. 

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.

Thanks for visiting today.  I design and blog daily, so I hope you can fly on by for tomorrow's FREEBIES.  Feel free to PIN away.  To ensure that "pinners" return to THIS article, click on the green title at the top; it will turn black, now click on the "Pin it" button located on the burgundy menu bar.  If you'd like to take a look at all of the awesome educational items that I pin, click on the heart button to the right of the blog.

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