One-stop Halloween Party!

Halloween is coming!  Do you have a plan for your party?

Usually October is a pretty full month with conferences, testing, and the curriculum in full-swing.  A Halloween party can sneak up on you!  Here is a tried-and-tested plan for a Halloween party that won’t take you hours to plan.  It is a one-stop Halloween Party in a single download!

This download contains printables and ideas for SEVEN Halloween-themed centers. It is all you need to throw a fantastic, fun Halloween Party! Detailed directions are included for the following centers.

Centers:
1. Craft- Spider Hat
2. Photo Frame Template (Optional: Photo booth!)
3. Activity- Pumpkin Bowling- with a REAL pumpkin!
4. Coloring Pages
5. Word Search
6. Writing Center/Class Book
7. Halloween Read Aloud Center

Each center has detailed directions and a list of needed materials.  If you have willing volunteers, you could even print this whole packet and give it to them for them to run with.  Or you could have each volunteer take on one center.

The spider hat craft is very simple, but the kids love it and it makes for great pictures!  You can make it more fun by adding googly eyes or accordion folding the legs.  For younger grades, it’s good counting practice to make the kids count the eight legs by themselves.

 

For the photo frame activity, an optional idea is included to create a photo booth.  This can be as simple or elaborate as you’d like.  One year, we hung a black plastic table cloth and some leaf garland from Michaels.  Bingo!  Another year, I had a mom of a student who went all out- hay bales, corn stalks, props, and even a portable photo printer so we could print the digital images right there at the party.  Whatever your level of involvement, it will be fun for the kids!

 

The activity included is pumpkin bowling.  This requires you as the teacher to be okay with a little craziness.  It gets kind of nuts.  Beware!  But it is so worth it!

Buy a small, round pumpkin that is about 8″ in diameter.  Pull off the stem.  This is your bowling ball!  Then have 2 volunteers, if possible, run the bowling alley!  In this picture, we created pins out of old soda bottles.  I have also just used pins from a toy bowling set.  

 

The rest of the centers are calmer- word search, coloring pages, writing center, and book center.

The writing center is an important one because it gives a little more content to the day and makes kids stop and think about how they celebrate.  I like to collect these, bind them into a class book, and let the kids take turns bringing the book home to share with their families.

I situated these centers around the room, had a volunteer stationed at each center.   Then, I let the kids roam around, completing each center.  Depending on the size of your class, you could let them do the centers in whatever order you choose, or you could make them rotate in a circle.  Or if you’d like a little more control, you could create groups and have them travel with a group and parent volunteer to teach center.  It’s up to you and what you think your class can handle.

I hope this helps you have a FUN and easy Halloween party!  Enjoy!

Here are the links:

One Stop Halloween Party!

Halloween Class Book

Fall/Halloween Party Signs

Holiday Writing Prompt Bundle

And check out my post about Pumpkin Math Centers, a great addition to the party day!

-Laura

Pumpkin Math!

Hello teachers!  Happy fall!  It’s the time of year for apple orchards, boots, falling leaves, and PUMPKINS!  And why not incorporate such a fun season into the curriculum?

This is a fun math unit my team came up with over several years.  It uses a REAL pumpkin to teach math measuring concepts!  We edited this unit and tweaked it over many years.  We created it for kindergarten, but it could be used for grades Pre-K through 3rd.  Here are the details!

This is a 3-page printable math lesson using REAL pumpkins! Pick up a huge pumpkin and a tiny pumpkin and you’re set! I have done all four parts to this in one long lesson, or I have split it up over 4 days. Use as you’d like! It covers:
• Weighing the pumpkin- We visit the school nurse with our pumpkin and have her weigh the pumpkins on the large scale. I also have each student predict the weight.
• Measuring the circumference. I hold out a length of yarn and each student cuts it to the length they think will go around the pumpkin. Then we measure the actual length and each student finds out if their guess was “shorter,” “longer,” or “just right!”
• Count the lines on the pumpkin. We have found the easiest way to count the lines is to designate a front and back to the pumpkin, and then count each side. Then they have to add the two numbers.
• Count the seeds. This is so FUN and MESSY! Give yourself plenty of time for this! It took my K class about 45 minutes. I have the kids sit at tables, then scoop (or let the kids grab!) a scoop of pumpkin guts. They separate the seeds into piles of ten, then we count by tens as a class. Large pumpkins generally have around 600 seeds!

Students counting seeds!

It is also aligned to Common Core Math.  Here is one of the standards it covers, for kindergarten specifically.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.MD.A.1
Describe measurable attributes of objects, such as length or weight. Describe several measurable attributes of a single object.

If you’re looking for a break from the normal math curriculum for a few days, this is a perfect fit!  It also would be fun to do on the day of the Halloween party, because we all know that not much actual learning happens that day!  This would be one day to redeem the day!

I hope you enjoy this!

Download the unit here:  Pumpkin Math Lessons!

Also, check out a freebie for your Halloween party here: Fall/Halloween Party Signs!

And, here is a link to some great writing prompts for this, and other, holidays! Holiday Writing Prompts!

Laura