Five for Friday - a look back at October

So since Halloween was on a FRIDAY, I didn't get around to posting about Halloween on Five for Friday like I wanted to. So today I'm doing a flashback to October!

I always have a pumpkin & fall themed day on or the day after Halloween because the first school I ever worked at had kiddos who didn't celebrate Halloween. One of the crafts we did was Candy Corn Men which I actually got from Kacey at Doodlebugs Teaching for free. Check it out!

I had an awesome mom come in with 2 easy-peasy foam crafts which the kiddos LOVED! One was a Day of the Dead themed skeleton and the other was a jack-o-lantern. They came out super cute and even though they were pre-cut, they all took on a look of their own!

Another fun thing I've done the past few years is read The Biggest Pumpkin Ever, write about how we'd grow the biggest pumpkin ever then use water colors to decorate pumpkin templates. You can get everything to do this activity and craft from my TPT store here.

We played some fun games that were fall themed. This one is Pumpkin Push. Just like other "push" games, once you have 2 "pieces" on a number you keep the number. If there is only 1 "piece" on the number the other player can "push" it out. I wish I could remember where I got this game a couple years back. If it's yours, let me know so I can give you credit!

Another game I wish I remember where I found it (let me know if it's your product)... Students roll dice to cover different parts of the jack-o-lantern. They race to fill up their pumpkin first.


What did you do to celebrate Halloween or Fall last week?

Five for Friday: Fall Fall Fall

Linking up with Doodlebugs for another Five for Friday

We are all about bats the past week and a half! Check out Tuesday's book talk here to see what we've been up to!

We went on a field trip around our town and to a farm last week. The kiddos had a fabulous time, especially in the one room school house! The questions were priceless... "how could all those grades fit in here?!" "how did the teacher know what to teach?" "why did the students have to use chalk?" Yes we have reached a generation where very few kiddos have been exposed to chalkboards in a classroom!!!

I've expanded my "teach your hand" to "teach your foot" while students are waiting for the rest of the class to finish writing something down during a whole group lesson. To learn more about teaching your hand and foot, check out this weeks Whole Brain Wednesday.

I've been dying for an excuse to use the magic curtain strategy I learned about in my grad class to build excitement and get students talking about a new unit. We are starting a unit on matter, so I decided to cover up solids, liquids & gases on the carpet to build excitement while my kiddos ate lunch (they eat in my room) wondering why I wouldn't tell them what was hiding under the table cloth!

You might have thought there was candy or critters underneath with how excited they were when I finally revealed what was underneath. After observing and discussing with their partner, they had to make a prediction about what we'd be learning about in science.

We made these awesome pumpkins last year and it took FOREVER... so this year I smartened up and had our 6th grade reading buddies help us out with the cutting. These are really cute and simple... 11 same size orange circles, fold 10 in half and make a slit about half way from the fold side. Slide the folds onto the 1 not-cut circle and spread them out to create the pumpkin look. Then glue on a green stem... easy peasy!


Have a lovely weekend!