Halloween in First Grade

Happy Halloween! I had a blast (a very tiring one) celebrating Halloween with my little pumpkins today!

We started the morning off with labeling pumpkins and putting treats away for the afternoon. This isn't even half of it. I'm pretty glad it's a Friday and that by Monday, they will have all this sugar out of their system.

I have to give them credit though, we managed to get everyone's pumpkins labeled, treats put away, folders and homework checked, and morning work in 15 minutes. Pretty impressive!

For Daily 5, we read "Splat and the Pumpkin Picking Plan." We then retold the story using a beginning, middle, and end graphic organizer. This year we can't get enough Splat! Last year they loved the Little Old Lady Who..books.

We also did a Halloween safety sorting activity. This page came from my Second Grade Halloween Math & ELA Unit.

We also had an hour long Halloween celebration. We decorated pumpkins, passed out treats, and watch "The Cat in the Hat: Tricks and Treats."

But that is not all...we also did math AFTER the party and everyone was pretty focused despite the excitement! We practiced addition within 10 using these adorable pumpkin pails and cauldrons. Each had a sum on it and the popsicle sticks had the equations.

I'm pretty sure we did a million other things too! Halloween is my favorite holiday and it probably showed in my lessons this week!

I came home with close to 100 pieces of candy somehow. Let's see how many are left by Monday.

I'll be blogging about some of my favorite November activities soon!

Until then,

It's October! Really?!

I can't believe it is October already!

We have been very busy in our classroom. It explains my lack of blogging recently.

My students are having a blast learning how to be first graders. They are also enjoying partner work, a whole lot!

Last week, we did a sorting activity about past and present. I have a large population of ELLs and wanted to facilitate a chance for them to have a discussion using the vocabulary past and present. I took the time to make the picture cards to sort. The students benefited from identifying the objects in the picture such as "phone, airplane, and even dinosaurs." I loved how everything came together.

 

As far as planning for October, I am looking forward to using the following Math and ELA seasonal resources. My birthday is in October and I just adore everything about the month! Halloween is my favorite holiday and this is apparent within 5 minutes of visiting my classroom. My October must-haves:

I use the First Grade Halloween Math & ELA Activities Set which is Common Core Aligned for homework and math stations.

  I love the Little Old Lady! We read the book "There was an Old Lady who Swallowed Some Leaves." Next, we worked on sequencing the story. This week we will use the packet to do syllable counting and some math patterning. The packet can be found here.