Halloween!

How has Halloween crept up on me so fast this year?!  Last day of October tomorrow. What?  They do say that time flies when your having fun, maybe that's why it's gone by so fast.  I love my kiddos this year so much, even my hard ones.  We have been having a lot of fun learning this year!  Here are a few more Halloween things we've done or will be doing:

Today in math we played a game called BOO!  It is basically the same as the game Bang, just Halloween style.   I broke my kids into 9 groups (3 kids in each group).  Each group got a bag full of math questions.  They take turns pulling out questions.  If a student gets a question right they get to keep the card.  If they get it wrong they have to put the card back in the bag.  If someone pulls a card out that says "BOO!" they have to put all their cards back.  They just keep playing and whoever has the most cards when time is up wins a prize.  The kids had a ton of fun with this one!  It was a good review of the topics we have covered thus far in math.  I the same game that I play on "Grinch Day" only pulling out a Grinch means you have to put all your cards back.  Now they will know how to play when "Grinch Day" rolls around in December : )

This week in writing we are talking about informational writing (specifically "How to" stories).  What better assignment than to have the students write about how to dress up as something!  Below is an example of a final draft.  The kids had to write the directions on the side with lines and then on the back there was a silhouette of a body and they had to decorate it in the costume they wrote about.  They used construction paper for that.

Tomorrow we will be doing monster adjectives!  I got the idea for this at a training last year.  My kids had a lot of fun with it last Halloween so I'm doing it again this year.  After we review adjectives a little bit I will divide the class into groups.  Each group gets a part of the monster.  They have to come up with as many adjectives for it as they can.  Then each group shares (I let students from other groups add to the list of adjectives that the group presenting came up with) and we put the monster together.

We will also make pop-ups with jack o lanterns in them and we will write a sentence as if we were the jack o lantern speaking to the trick or treaters walking by.

I have a scary story (with a funny ending) that I will share with the class.  Lights off of course.  For those of you who know the "Vinder Viper" story, that's the one I'm sharing.

I found a fun Halloween poem that we will make up actions for and learn as a class.  I'm going to have them help me create some additional verses.  I think I will tell the kids that if they get it down really good I will video them doing the poem and e-mail it to their parents (iPad baby!). 

 I saw on Pinterest the idea of having the kids create real estate adds for a Haunted House.  My kids created their Haunted Houses last week and tomorrow during writing we are writing the descriptions.

I've got some fun Halloween books to read if we have a few extra minutes here or there.  I hope we do, because I LOVE reading books aloud!

All of that and a 2nd grade party and a school parade.  It's going to be a busy, fun day in Miss Paul's Second Grade!

I am so excited to spend Halloween with my kiddos tomorrow!  Happy Halloween!