Tag Archives: Halloween

Halloween Fun 2018

What a GREAT day in Rm. 111!  I mean I know Halloween is supposed to be fun, but I really think the reason it was extra great this year was because Rm. 111 kiddos were so amazingly behaved and still worked like it was a learning day, not just a throw-out-all-the-rules or just-a-party day!  They even did it in their PAJAMAS because we had earned a PJ Day reward for getting 20 Catches of the Day.  Granted I also think it helped that we kept them busy and planned some really interesting things, but regardless, they stepped it up and totally rocked it. :). Let me share our day with you. 🙂

We of course spent the day (and every day!) with some books.  On both Tuesday and Wednesday, we focused on books about pumpkins and then Halloween specifically.  Check out the titles we read together:

We enjoyed all these (because who doesn’t look a good story, especially when it’s holiday-themed?!), and strangely it was the very first time I’d ever read The Little Old Lady Who Wasn’t Afraid of Anything.  Not sure how, after all these years of teaching (and of being alive!), but I loved it and will definitely include it in my repertoire next year.  AND we might decide to do the Breakout box I saw recently related to it.  I’ll definitely share that here if it happens!

We had been working on a lantern project in reading, and because Mrs. Heisner blessed us with some extra pumpkins we had enough leftover to carve–even exactly the right amount for each crew to do one.  Kids had a chance to plan their idea of a great jack-o-lantern as morning work, and then we planned to do a little flip-flop with Rm. 112 kiddos and Ms. Turken for the morning.  She had a super Room-on-a-Broom-themed craft to do (which of course I have no pictures of since I wasn’t in there 😦 ), and so two crews when there while two crews were with me and then we traded (this is, by the way, an oft-used structure used in our co-teaching classroom).  As each crew came to my table, we voted on the pumpkin plan we liked best in each group and then we began to turn our pumpkins into fabulous jack-o-lanterns.  We would, by the way, use this experience as the basis for our how-to in writing today, which was another reason why I wanted to do this together. 🙂

And what fun this whole thing was, from pulling the guts out, to drawing on the faces and then seeing Ms. Pachan’s amazing pumpking-carving skills and then getting to see our finished products all on display! I was also super impressed with how well everyone worked independently and quietly while I was with groups.  SUPER JOB, RM. 111 and 112 kiddos!

Check out the pumpkin work we did! 🙂

The jack-o-lanterns we ended up with were SUPER!  Check out our amazing products!

Later on in the day we were able to participate in our annual Robinson Halloween Parade with the rest of our Roadrunner friends.   Our costumes were GREAT and we had a great walk.  It was a little chilly, but that just added to the late-fall fun!

Robinson teachers even got in on the fun!

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We decided to do a team costume to go with our current science unit–Patterns in the Sky!  Ms. Turken is the moon, I am the sun, Mrs. Kier is the earth, Ms. Dale is covered in constellations and Ms. Fry is a cloud. Such fun!

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Ms. Pachan, our first grade teaching assistant was also part of a group of crayons, put posed for a picture with me before our parade. 🙂

Once we got back, we settled in for a snack and a movie.  The day before I had asked this question as our morning work problem to get a little data:

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While this was a great question for practice with tally marks and addition, I also used it to know what to shop for for our Halloween treat!  Win/win!

It looked so pretty on the table, too, with all that natural color, don’t you agree?

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Ok, so I know Oreos and Starbursts are NOT natural….look at the front of the picture instead. LOL

We watched Room on the Broom (which we had already enjoyed as a book and a craft!) and kiddos were so quiet and calm–even on Halloween and even after a parade
AND in their costumes.  Joyous. :). Some friends who didn’t want to watch the video with us quietly made other choices like reading with a friend or writing.  Yes, even on Halloween. :).

Here’s to the beginning of a great holiday season!  Bring on November and December! 🙂

Happy Halloween 2016!

This year Halloween is on a Monday, but our school decided to have our Halloween festivities on Friday instead.  We went ahead with our traditional Halloween Parade, which travels down the street near our school and snakes along the campus of Aberdeen Heights–a retirement residence next door.  We have a great partnership with them and love to delight their residents with our cute costumes, big smiles and happy waves as we walk by.

This year, however, instead of having a typical “party” after the parade, we decided as a grade level to have a more low-key afternoon, and just watch a movie and have a snack.  My kiddos seemed really excited about this (as excited as kiddos usually are for a “regular” party) and I was, too. Sometimes less is more. 🙂  I mean who doesn’t love some popcorn and a show?  Oh, and throw in a couple of Oreos and it’s even better, right?  I even heard a couple of friends say, “This is the best day ever!”

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At our school, kiddos bring their costumes and put them on just before we leave for the parade.  For us, that was around 1:45, which meant that they’d been waiting pretty much all day for it!  Sometimes (which I am sure is not surprising) this can mean that kiddos are little more amped up and full of lots of pent-up energy.

What was SO great, though, was that instead of that reality, this was THE BEST putting-on-costume time I think I’ve EVER experienced with a group of kiddos.  Part of it, I think , is that we really emphasized that costumes would be easy to put on and go over clothes (rather than having to have kiddos change anything), and so we could all just find a quiet spot in the room and quickly get ready.  Kiddos gathered on the carpet after that, and we even had time to read two books before they called us to line up!  Talk about efficient!  Forgive me for not having better pictures of the parade, but I was busy having a great time like the kiddos and couldn’t snap pics of it!

When we returned, however, we did have a chance to capture pictures of our great costumes!  We noticed that there were many costumes that went together, and so kiddos planned how we should group for our pictures.  Check it out!

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Superheroes!

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Warriors!

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Star Wars!

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Monsters!

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Miscellaneous-Amazing-Costumes-That-Are-Different-From-the-Rest!

We had so much fun!  Happy Halloween from Rm. 202!!

Halloween 2015 (a little late…)

Yep, I know.  It’s Thanksgiving week.  And you know what?  If I remember correctly, I posted about Halloween on Thanksgiving last year, too.  And this year, too.  Man.  Oh well, it’s true that it’s better late than never, right? 🙂

I don’t have much to say about it, except that we had SUPER 2nd grade costumes, a SUPER party thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Gordhamer (it even involved an obstacle course in our room that TOTALLY worked, even among the other stations with games and a snack.  Kiddos totally ROCKED being respectful and appropriate!), and a SUPER parade around the grounds of Aberdeen Heights next door.  The residents love to see our smiling faces and fancy costumes and we waved at SO MANY PEOPLE!

Yep, it was great!  I don’t have many pictures because I was too busy having fun, but here are a few:

Twin Red Riding Hoods!
Lawrence had his Spidey-Sense going!
Ella Marie was a bat. 🙂
Second grade Halloween selfie!

Ok, and since this is my blog, and so I can be a little bit indulgent sometimes, here are two more from my own Halloween at home (you know you were wondering!!):

Luke and his droid. 🙂
Bearden tribute to Star Wars

Hope yours was fun!  Here’s to posting Halloween pics in October next year! LOL

 

Halloween on Thanksgiving

Ok, so I feel like this post comes with many apologies.  Yes, I know that Halloween was 3 weeks ago, and I know that Thanksgiving is this week and I know that the best blog posts are not just boatloads of pictures thrown at you, but I could not let first grade Halloween be forgotten–even if it is a little late.  So here you go with lots of Halloween cuteness, and even some Halloween learning, too.  Hope you enjoy! (And that you forgive me for my tardiness! 🙂 )

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Happy Halloween! (A few days late…)

So yeah…Halloween was last week.  Sorry!  I haven’t gotten it up on the blog yet.  Hope you aren’t mad at me for making you wait for this cuteness.

At our school, Halloween is a fun-filled afternoon of costumes, parades and parties.  This year, though, we started a new tradition for our parade.  Next to our school, a great place called Aberdeen Heights was recently built.  We’ve formed a great relationship with them and many classes in our school have connected with the residents there.  So our parade, instead of going around our school went down the street and through their campus!  We had such a great time sharing our costumes, and waving at all the happy residents who came out to see us.  The weather that afternoon was a bit chilly, but so nice and sunny that we hardly even noticed the nip in the air.

Somehow I only managed to get one (not so great) picture of our parade.  Sorry. 😦

After the parade, we came back to school for our party.  There was a group of great parents who planned it for our grade level, and each classroom had a different activity.  We rotated through the fun for an hour or so.  Again….I was having such a great time I guess that I didn’t manage to take very many good pictures.  But I’ll share what I have:

What a great combination of costumes!

Making frames: Anna K., Rosalee, Natalie and Anna C.

Smile! More fun with Fiona, ZB, Sophia and Jack.

Keelan, Peter, Aiden and Seamus making a Halloween frame for pictures we took together.

Sammy, Owen, Ames (yep, I promise that’s him in there!) and Don

Devan, Damonte, Jernandra and Rebekah

Along with the picture frames and photo booth, we also played some games and ate some fabulous Halloween goodies!  The rotation idea was a super one, and the kids seemed to like it.  Thanks to all the great volunteers who made this happen for us!

And now one last bit of Halloween fun:

Mrs. Hong, Mr. Kieschnick, me and Mrs. Brown

Happy Halloween!  How did you spend it?  We’d love to hear about your Halloween traditions. 🙂