Catchy Halloween-Time Tricks & Bulletin Board Treats

Symbols of the fall season in some regions

Symbols of the fall season in some regions

Hi and welcome back to Attentionology for K – 5 Teachers!

Think about it…better still…catch your students’ attention by asking them to think about it, about this…

every season and every holiday has its own special symbols and patterns.

Where I live, for example, bright red and gold maple tree leaves are distinct symbols of fall. When green summer trees begin to turn colors, Halloween catches our attention here, too…

Try a Halloween-Time trick that invites kids to enjoy a spooky tradition, and “jump for joy” about nature’s seasonal bounty…

…Host an OUTDOORS – INDOORS SCAVENGER HUNT

It’s easy, fun and functional…

Tickets Please – Set up computer time in your classroom for printing tickets to the Scavenger Hunt along with lists of items to scavenge for outdoors and inside your classroom.

Computer Tricks & Treats for K - 5 classes

Computer Tricks & Treats for Teachers and K – 5 Students

Choose a Halloween design for your tickets and scavenger lists. Set out some Halloween decor in your computer center to focus students’ attention on the theme.

Your Outdoors Scavenger Hunt tickets may promote Halloween-Time Fun Outdoors to Stay in Tip Top Shape!

Below the ticket title, print:

  1. Exercise Outdoors = Energy in School
  2. Eating good foods = Healthy Bodies & Minds
  3. Outdoor Fun = Less Stress
  4. Happy Halloween!

This theme can help students make a connection between spending time outdoors and staying healthy. Healthy students are better able to sustain attention.

Bring the Outdoors In – Invite kids to experience the natural wonders of a season like fall by challenging them to find Halloween-ish treasures right outside your classroom window, such as:

  • spider webs
  • ghoulish rocks
  • sticks that look like a witch’s broom

Before taking students scavenging outdoors, point out the natural wonders they can discover simply by looking all around your classroom, such as:

  • sunshine streaming in a window, or
  • shadows from clouds blocking the sun, darkening sections of bookshelves and desks
  • water in the sink, flowing in through pipes connected to community sources. NOTE: This activity offers multiple connections to science units, including the study of water, one of earth’s precious resources.

Plan your Indoors Scavenger Hunt to include time for students to search around the classroom for small inexpensive Halloween-time treasures, such as small plastic spider rings, that you place on shelves, floor corners, etc for children to find.

Your Indoors Scavenger Hunt tickets may also invite students to a Halloween Pattern Paper Poem Party.

Halloween symbols make monstrously fun patterns on craft paper for poetry writing!

Halloween symbols make monstrously fun patterns on craft paper for poetry writing!

For the Poem Party, buy a variety of patterned paper with Halloween designs and invite students to Pick a Pattern – Write a Pattern Poem.

Follow these steps:

  • Let students choose a piece of patterned paper. Note: Craft paper is somewhat expensive so you may want to cut large pieces into smaller sections before kids choose paper for their poems.
  • Post my poem, In Line with Halloween, (see below) on the board.
  • Post a piece of Halloween patterned paper that includes Halloween-time images in the design, such as spiders, stars, the moon, bats, a haunted house, pumpkins, candy corn, ghosts, spider webs and black cats.
  • Read the poem aloud. Encourage students to listen for words that match the paper pattern and for the rhyming pattern of the poem. Note that the first and fourth lines of each stanza rhyme with each other.
  • Ask students to write poems about the designs in their paper patterns.
  • Explain that they are writing poems from pictures to “paint pictures with words!”
  • Encourage children in grades 1 – 2 to write rhyme word pairs like spooky, kooky/black cat.
  • Invite students in grades 3 – 5 to write more and longer lines with rhyme. 
  • Make a Halloween-time Bulletin Board. Post students’ patterned paper and poems. Ask volunteers to present their writing with spooky-sounding voices to dramatize the action in their poems.

In Line with Halloween

Whenever it’s time for Halloween

Dancing spiders, sparkling stars

Shine under a crescent moon,

Making a showy, spooky scene.

_______

Who’s hiding in the haunted homes,

Some rooms dark, the doorways lit?

Is it six flying bats or is it one

Unseen witch stirring new soup bones?

_______

Spider webs tell a writing spider’s story,

Pumpkins wait for faces to be carved tonight,

Children shout trick or treat in costume,

Counting their candy in Halloween glory.

_______

Ghosts and goblins run down the street

Slipping past sly, scary black cats,

Curved tails dancing to a Halloween rap.

It’s time to go home now; let’s eat!

Remember, you don’t need to be a magician to work magic in any instructional setting!

Speaking of instructional settings…we know that they begin at home when children are toddlers. Start the learning early with tips from SmartParentAdvice.com. Check out https://smartparentadvice.com/fine-motor-skills/

Do you share Halloween-time fun with your children and class? Please send comments.

Talk with you again soon,

Barbara ♥ The Lovable Poet

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Posted in Attentionology for K-5 Teachers
Barbara Cleary has been serving as a resource to hundreds of educators for more than 25 years. An award-winning writer, producer, teacher, and trainer, Barbara’s focus is on offering easy, fun tools and tricks that support K-5 curricula and assist teachers with classroom management.
Quick tips for common classroom conundrums: K-5
Situation: Students continue to use lackluster verbs in their writing.

Solution: Show toy cars and pretend to make them zip across a page, telling the class that good writing includes action words (verbs) that have "zip." Ask the class for examples of "zippy" verbs like zoom, race, flash, rush, etc.

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