Halloween is my very FAVORITE holiday! Nothing beats fall weather, the colors of the season, and the anticipation of costumes and candy. I LOVE walking into stores and being greeted by jack o’lanterns, spooky characters, mountains of candy, and all things orange and black! Don’t even get me started on the visits to pumpkin patches…I HEART those too! Here are my “pumpkins”!
This year I wanted to share some of the fun things that I love to do with BIG KIDS and a few of the ideas that I have found, implemented, and can’t wait to try as parties and classroom festivities are heading into full swing.
First, if you are looking for the perfect craft idea to create in the month of October or for your Halloween celebration that is inexpensive and festive, this is the one for you! Jessica from Cutesy Crafts is a kid-crafting genius! Click on the image of the Pony Bead Pumpkins to get a step-by-step tutorial of how to create these adorable pumpkins. I find that even my rough and tough BIG KIDS enjoy crafts like this one. They may not be displaying the finished product in their bedroom, but they may give it as a gift to a parent, teacher, or favorite adult.
I LOVE to decorate for different holidays, but decorating a classroom gets very expensive. 
For this “spooky” Halloween door idea from bigdiyideas.com grab:
- a few rolls of toilet paper
- black construction paper
- yellow construction paper
- tape
Cheap, adorable, and easy! You can create this door yourself, or allow students to create it that love to take on jobs around the classroom. If you want to save even more time, there are GIANT googly eyes you can purchase in the Halloween section of Target for $2.
Be sure to get those kiddos outside for an awesome game of “PumKickball!” Clever, huh?! I found these adorable kickballs at Five Below and knew that my students would love the opportunity to have a friendly class competition while burning off some excess energy. Play at recess, take students out for your classroom party, or use the game as a clever incentive for awesome work ethic or behavior during this last week of the month. Energy burning is the gift that keeps on giving, especially during this sugar-filled time of year, as you know!
As an ELA teacher I love to share fun literature with my students. I created a Halloween Reader’s Theater and Reading Literature Toolkit based on collection of stories that were brewing in my head. Your students will love reading about how the students at Parkersburg Elementary convinced the principal to change his perspective on cancelling the Halloween celebrations at school by proposing new, thoughtful traditions. You can check out this reading literature resource by clicking on the image.
Grab this Pumpkin Harvesting Informational Text FREEBIE! This is a CLOSE reading selection with context clue word work and reader response questions that your students will love to work on independently, in small groups, for homework, or in a literacy center.
Keep me posted on any fun Halloween ideas you love to do with your BIG KIDS! In the meantime, Happy Fall, Happy October, and most importantly, HAPPY Halloween!
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