13 Days of Halloween and Other Halloween Books

 My son loves Halloween and all things fall! We have spent a lot of time decorating and reading library books on the topic. I've chosen some of our favorites to share with you. These stories are great for reading at home or in the classroom.

The 13 Days of Halloween by Carol Greene

I chose this book for my husband to read to our son at bedtime, and I know it would be a favorite if I read it to my class. If you know the 12 Days of Christmas song and story, this one follows the same pattern. There's one caveat, though - there are 13 days and the last one is a cliffhanger. It's the perfect way to get children involved in writing the ending!

Six Creepy Sheep by Judith Ross Enderle

This is a short book that is good for subtraction and reading of number words. It's a nice easy read for younger kids and a fast read aloud. Check out a video of it here. 

Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson

This one is a favorite of my fourth graders every year, and obviously others love it too, because it was turned into a film in 2012. The rhyming and repetition make it easy to follow along, and it always has them rolling on the floor laughing. This is also why it's great for younger kids, who will want to read it again and again. Here it is in play version. Check out the DVD trailer, too!

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda D. Williams

The possibilities for participation in this read aloud are endless. Kids love the repetition and acting out clomp, wiggle, shake, clap, and nod as well as running, jumping, hiding, peeking, and laughing! It's fun to point out the onomatopeia and collect the verbs. View a read aloud here.

How to Catch a Monster by Adam Wallace

We love this series! We own many books from it, catching monsters and leprechauns and tooth fairies. My son's interest wasn't kept the entire time and I think part of it was that he's still afraid of the idea of monsters. Associating ninjas with monsters wasn't really making sense to him, but he seems less scared of monsters now. Watch the read aloud here.

Night of the Pumpkinheads by Michael J. Rosen

At first glance, this book's pictures are pretty cool. If you have anything like The Great Jack-o'lantern Blaze near you, your kids will love this! And if not, it's a nice substitute. The tone can be a bit negative in terms of how the pumpkins talk (it included the dreaded "s" word, stupid) and spoiler alert - the kids aren't afraid of scary pumpkins. Still, the book has some redeeming qualities. It includes some figurative language including similes and has some science related vocabulary related to animals and vegetables. Children are introduced to foods they may not have ever had before, such as radishes, rutabagas, parsnips, and leeks. The message at the end is that kids are afraid of them, but I would have like to have seen the kids try to eat them!

Looking for other Halloween posts? Click here for printables, songs, and videos.

Spying Shapes

 One thing I've noticed as a teacher is that geometry is an area of weakness for elementary students, and part of that is we don't often move beyond the knowledge and comprehension levels to application and creation. Students learn the basic shapes in preschool and kindergarten and then suddenly they're expected to differentiate between types of triangles and quadrilaterals when many still don't know what pentagons and hexagons are. Adding in types of angles often leads to kids being overwhelmed with a lot of information at once.

As an upper elementary school teacher, I've decided on a plan of teaching my son the standards earlier than expected as well as pointing them out in real life and thinking about their use in engineering and design. We created this Spying Shapes Google Slides presentation that we call our shape book.

We have had a lot of fun taking pictures of shapes we see at home and in public. This is a great project for homework, home school, and collaboration at school. You can assign this project for individuals or groups, or even across grade levels. Students can add audio clips of them explaining what the objects are and why they think the shapes were chosen. 

If you want to differentiate, remove some slides or add others, such as the different types of triangles or  hexagons (regular / irregular), etc. Download it here.

If you plan on using this resource with younger kids, here are two books that can help introduce the concept of shapes around us. 

Round is a Tortilla: A Book of Shapes by Roseanne Greenfield Thong

This book is great for teaching a small amount of Spanish words, too! Some kids may notice 3D shapes, like a sphere, but call them round, however.

City Shapes by Diana Murray

Beautiful pictures in this book and descriptive prose don't help point out the actual shapes themselves in print, but lead to a discussion of what is seen in each scene.

Interested in more math posts? Click here! 

Want to incorporate more technology into your lessons?

As always, I'd love your feedback! Please leave a comment below and share how you used this resource on Facebook or Twitter.

Virtual Google Classrooms

 

Have you struggled to keep your child or students on track when they're watching an educational program or playing a learning game, and then suddenly they've gone into an abyss of material you'd rather them not access?

Welcome to our virtual PreK classroom! 

This one has been tailored to my son's interests, but all are educational. 

Clicking on the books, stuffed animals, toys, and objects will take you to read aloud stories, songs, videos, and even virtual models to do things like:

• listen to read aloud stories 
• watch videos
• listen to songs
• play games
• learn to write numbers and letters
• learn to draw
• watch some science experiments
• build virtual models

Interested in something a bit more mature for older children and students? This is my fourth grade modern virtual Google classroom, which can easily be used for middle or high schoolers. It will keep students' attention as they explore and view gifs, such as moving plasma, bubbles, and a welcoming skeleton in the STEAM room.

Students can:

• explore geography
• chill out in the relaxation room
• read books in the library
• use virtual math manipulatives
• learn about geology
• examine bones and animal skeletons
• conduct chemistry experiments
• study plants
• access textbooks in their locker

Clicking on the water feature, breathe hand, and sunrise will take you to other sites with resources for a peaceful classroom. Let's see if you can find two other links embedded elsewhere in this room!

Head over to the cozy reading room, where you can listen to books on video and read books, magazines, articles, and newspapers!

The math classroom has all sorts of virtual manipulatives and opportunities for practice. 

My son's favorite part of my virtual "big kid" classroom is the S.T.E.A.M. lab. Can you find the 6 hidden interactive links?

Our school's mascot makes an appearance in the locker room hallway area. Fun fact: our real school doesn't have lockers! It's a fun place to store books and find links to them online, though! You can replace these images with ones that apply to your students.

These are customizable. All you need to do is click an image (such as the clock to add your daily schedule), insert a link, and share with students!

Click the images above or this link to view our classroom.

Interested in something similar for your child or class? Leave a comment below and I'll see what I can do! 

Crinkle, Crinkle, Little Star Activities

 After a recent trip to Liberty Science Center, we left the gift shop with a NASA shirt that says "I Need My Space" for my son and two books - one called This Little Scientist and another called Crinkle, Crinkle, Little Star. He is super into science and my daughters are loving touch and feel books, so they were big hits.

The latter is a rhyming book that extends the well-known song "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" by adding information about some constellations and their stories. We also have this one, which is somewhat satisfying for the girls when they fight over the crinkle one.

We watched this short video about constellations:

before seeing One World, One Sky: Big Bird's Adventure in the IMAX theater.

We printed a constellation connect the dots page, which was a big hit! 

Lastly, we came across a StoryBots video about Outer Space.

I cannot wait to see my son's reaction when he gets The Moon in My Room for his birthday. He, like most kids, has been fascinated by the moon since he could look outside. Before he was even two years old, he could point out the moon during the day and tell you when he saw a full moon or crescent.

Now you may not have a child or student in preschool or even lower elementary, but there are tons of great resources out there to get kids interested in astronomy. Here are a few:

NASA Kids Club has lots of fun space activities to do!

National Geographic Kids has an easy to use section of their site just for learning about space.

NASA Space Place is for slightly older kids.

The European Space Agency website is also geared towards grades 1-5.

Last, but not least is Time for Kids, your go-to place for current space events.

Can't get enough science? Read on:

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Read other astronomy posts here: 

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Book shopping? Check out more posts that include books here:

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Ten Orange Pumpkins

 Today is the first day of fall here in the Northern Hemisphere! We are gearing up for Halloween and learning all about fall symbols. My son just loves pumpkins and is really getting into math, so we picked up the book Ten Orange Pumpkins by Steven Savage. If you're learning about subtraction like us, it's a fun one to read, especially for your beginning readers.

If you can't find the book at your local library or don't want to head to a bookstore or shop online, here it is in read aloud form:

We downloaded some pumpkin cards that came in number and word form as well as ten frames. I used the 3 blank pumpkins to write addition, subtraction, and equal signs.

Want to have some fun? Check out this video.

Find some Halloween printables here. 

Working on math and numbers? You can count on these activities!

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See more preschool activities below!

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