0 Halloween Party FREEBIE: Tuesday Teacher Tips

Have you been making plans for your Halloween party?  If you're lucky, you have a room-mom that is doing all of the hard work for you.  One year, there was a glitch and I somehow ended up without a room-mom.  So, there wasn't anyone to plan my holiday parties.  At first, I was stressed about it.  After a little brainstorming,  I decided to structure the party like my small group block of time.  It turned out to be one of my easiest years - party wise.  

My students were organized in their reading groups and rotated to the following activities:

Teacher's Table:  Halloween BINGO

Table #1:  Snack and drink box - it works best if you keep it simple. Suggestions:  juice box and a bag of popcorn.

Table #2:  Make a jack 'o lantern using attribute blocks.  There is a printable for students that finish early.

Carpet:  Play hot pumpkin which is played the same way as hot potato only you play it with a small pumpkin.  Play seasonal music.  I chose one person from each group to be in charge of playing the music the first time.  After the first round, the winner was in charge of the music.

Looking for more tips?  Check out my October and November Pinterest boards.  Click on the picture below.

Fern has a few tips to share with you, too.  Be sure to hop over to her blog!

Each week, Fern and I will share a teacher tip. We love to read teacher blogs and the latest teacher idea books and hope you do, too!  Stop by Fern's blog and my blog each week for our latest tips.  We hope you will share your ideas, too.  

The winner from last week's post is:

Each week we will choose one person who shared a tip about the topic of this week's post on our blog who will get a $10 shopping trip.  We will announce the winner on the following Tuesday's post.  

Do you have a tip about Halloween parties to share?  Be sure to include your email so I can contact you if you're the winner of the $10 shopping trip. You must leave your email address in order to win.

Looking for more ideas?  Click on the pictures below.

An InLinkz Link-up

Sources to make my blog post graphics can be found HERE. Click HERE to read my blog's disclosure statement.

Detail: Halloween Party FREEBIE: Tuesday Teacher Tips

0 Having fun when you can't celebrate Halloween at school!

Do you teach at a school that has a policy against using Halloween activities?  I've taught in a variety of schools with a wide variety of policy about this holiday. At some schools we could use Halloween activities as long as we didn't include anything scary like witches.  Other schools we could use about any type of activity except for students wearing costumes.  At one of my former schools, Halloween was a big event.  Students went home at lunch and changed into their costume.  Many parents took the day off of work.  When students returned after lunch, it was time to get ready for our school-wide parade.  Students paraded down the hall of the school and around the block of the school.  When we returned to our classroom, our room moms had the room decorated for a Halloween party.

At one of my schools, we were not allowed to incorporate any holiday into our lessons.  The district felt like this was the most sensitive thing to do when you teach students from a variety of cultures. We could use seasonal topics like scarecrows or pumpkins but the pumpkins couldn't be a jack 'o lantern.  I had mixed feelings about this policy. 

This policy sounds good when you read the policy as it is written on paper.  But, when you are in the trenches teaching little people, it doesn't work quite as simple as that.  Children, even those from cultures and faiths that may not celebrate Halloween, hear holiday music when they are at stores, see their neighbor's house that is decorated, and hear their friends talking about what they are going to be for Halloween at recess.  I found most of my students were excited about Halloween.

After a little brainstorming, I found a compromise that seemed to make everyone happy.  Listed below are topics that I've taught in October that followed the policy, and aren't Halloween-ish, yet allowed my students to have fun.

Social Studies:  Community Helpers Unit - Let your students dress up as their favorite community helper. Be very clear with your students that you do not consider a ghost, witch, or vampire as a future career for them.

Science:  

Animal families:

• Mammal:  bats
• Arachnids:  spiders
• Birds:  owl

Nocturnal animals

Phases of the moon

Life cycles of:

• Pumpkins
• Bats
• Spiders
• 
  

Math:  

Pumpkin measurement unit

Reading:

Author study - dress up as your favorite book character.

Do you have any ideas to share of how you incorporate non-Halloween activities?  I would love to hear them!

I made a FREEBIE for you.  Click HERE to download it.

Looking for more tips?  Check out my October Pinterest board.  Click on the picture below.

Fern has a few tips to share with you, too.  Be sure to hop over to her blog!

Each week, Fern and I will share a teacher tip. We love to read teacher blogs and the latest teacher idea books and hope you do, too!  Stop by Fern's blog and my blog each week for our latest tips.  We hope you will share your ideas, too.  

Each week we will choose one person who shared a tip on our blog who will get a $10 shopping trip.  We will announce the winner on the following Tuesday's post.  

Do you have a non-Halloween lesson tip to share?  Be sure to include your email so I can contact you if you're the winner of the $10 shopping trip. You must leave your email address in order to win.

Looking for more ideas?  Click on the pictures below.

An InLinkz Link-up

Sources to make my blog post graphics can be found HERE. Click HERE to read my blog's disclosure statement.

Detail: Having fun when you can't celebrate Halloween at school!

0 Halloween Party Tips - Bright Idea

Do you enjoy parties?  How about class parties?  Through the years, I have had great class parties and some that were a little on the crazy side.  Here are a couple of ideas that we did at my parties that were fun and less hectic.

One year I discovered the book, The Hallo-Wiener by Dav Pilkey.    This is such a great story!  I thought it would be fun to serve hallo-wieners at our party.  It ended up being a hit with my students and parents.  Parents loved it because the kids didn't go home all hyped-up on sugar from the party.

We cooked the wieners in a crockpot.  We put the wieners in the crockpot standing up which I think might have helped us fit more in it.  I asked for condiments that were bottles to make it easy and less messy.

This is a inexpensive snack to serve.  I have so many donations that I put extras in the teachers' lounge for the custodians.

Supplies needed:

-Wieners

-Hotdog buns

-Condiments (ketchup, mustard, relish)

-Potato chips

-Juice box or water bottles

-Crock pot(s)

-Power strip / extension cord

-Tongs

-Paper plates

-Napkins

-Handsanitizer

-Small cooler to put wieners in if you don't have a refrigerator nearby.

By the time of the party, kids are excited and the last thing they want to do is sit and be quiet.  One of my go-to activities is to play hot potato.  Only the potato is a seasonal object.  Target Dollar Spot is a great place to find a small plastic seasonal object. 

 Right now there are some little plastic pumpkins and spiders that would be perfect for this.  Have your students sit in a circle on the floor.  Give one student the seasonal shape.  Begin playing seasonal music.  Students pass the pumpkin or spider or whatever shape you have to the person next to the them.  When the music stops, the student that is holding the shape is "out".  That student now moves out of the circle.  This continues until there is only one person left who is the winner.  This game gets your students moving and they have to be quiet so they can hear the music.  It is a win-win!

Looking for some seasonal music?  Here are a few choices:

-Monster Mash

-The Addams Family

-Ghostbusters

-The Witch Doctor

I hope you have been joining us each month for our Bright Ideas Blog Hop.  My friends and I enjoy sharing ideas with you.  Don't forget to pin these to your Pinterest board so you'll have them handy when you need them.

I hope you will follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, and Bloglovin' so you don't miss out when I share more ideas and freebies!

Looking for more ideas?  Check out all the great ideas my friends are sharing this month.

An InLinkz Link-up

Clipart to make my blog post graphics can be found HERE.  Click HERE to read my blog's disclosure statement.

Detail: Halloween Party Tips - Bright Idea