By Gigi on October 17th, 2017
This Halloween sensory bin is made of just a little bit of spooky and a whole lot of fun!
Children learn best by using their senses. Tubs filled with a variety of substances and materials enable young ones to use those senses to explore things that capture their attention. As they manipulate the objects, they are seeing, touching, smelling, and hearing. This allows them to collect information and make discoveries, which leads to the practice of many learning concepts.
Young learners build language, social emotional, and problem solving skills as they work alongside their peers to delve into the bin’s contents. They increase their math skills by counting, sorting, and classifying different elements. Quantity comparisons are also made as they decipher who has more “spiders” or “rocks” in their “cauldrons”. Additionally, scooping, pouring, and picking up different items helps to strengthen fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination.
Without a doubt, sensory bins are one of the best hands-on learning tools. So hurry and gather up a container and some spooky goodies!
MATERIALS USED:
– Any suitable container
– Aquarium gravel
– Pom poms
– Halloween buttons/embellishments
– Sequins
– Mini candy cauldrons
– Large googly eyes
– Plastic spiders, bats, snakes, centipedes, skeletons
– Halloween bouncy balls
– Plastic spoons
By Gigi on October 10th, 2017
This Halloween Math and Literacy Activities pack contains printable activities for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten. It enables children to practice the following skills:
– Counting
– One-to-one correspondence
– Number recognition
– Number quantity
– Set recognition
– Number formation
– Patterning
– Measurement (non-standard)
– Quantity comparison
– Shape recognition
– Association
– Classification
– Attribute variance
– ABC Order
– Uppercase letter recognition
– Beginning sounds
– Visual discrimination
– Visual memory
– Number formation
– Fine Motor
– Following directions
– Social emotional
AUTUMN MIX PATTERN CARDS (8)
Print these cards out on cardstock (laminate for heavy use). Cut the cards into strips. Provide young learners with a small amount of Brach’s Candy Autumn Mix. Work with children to match, extend, and describe the patterns.
BOO! THE FRIGHTFULLY FUN ALPHABET CARD GAME(COLOR 53/B&W 53)
An engaging spin-off of the classic game Old Maid. Print these sheets out on cardstock (laminate for heavy use) and cut into cards. In a small group, shuffle and deal all of the cards. Players will sort through their cards, placing any letter matches face-up on the table.
Starting with the dealer, each child will takes a turn fanning out their hands so that the player to their left can draw one card. Some children may struggle to fan their cards, and that’s okay. Just make sure to emphasize that the children should try to not let the other players see their cards. As your students make letter pairs in their hands, prompt them to discard them immediately onto the table. Depending on how you’d like the game to play out, the player left holding the unmatched card, the BOO! ghost, either loses or wins.
HALLOWEEN ROLL & COVER SHEETS (COLOR 4/B&W 4)
Print these sheets out on cardstock (laminate for heavy use). Provide mini erasers
, pom poms, vase gems, or some other small manipulative for students to use as markers. For individual use, have the child roll the die
, count the dots (or recognize the “set” of dots), and find and cover the corresponding number on the sheet. Repeat until all of the numerals are covered. In small group, give each child a sheet and have them take turns rolling the die. The first person to cover all of their numbers wins. Trade cards and play again!
CANDY CORN MEMORY GAME (COLOR 24/B&W 24)
Print these cards out on cardstock (laminate for heavy use) cut, and mix them up. Place them in rows, face down. Prompt students to turn over any two cards. If the cards match, they keep them and go again. If the pictures don’t match, they are turned back over and it is next player’s turn. Encourage children to “take a picture with your brain” to help them recall what is on each card and where it is. The game is over when all of the cards have been matched.
HALLOWEEN COUNT THE ROOM (COLOR 10/B&W 10)
These cards are to be used in conjunction with the Halloween – Count the Room worksheets. Print these out on cardstock (laminate for heavy use) and cut. Place the 10 cards (tape, clip, prop, etc.) around the room. Working with a small group, give each child one of the 3 worksheets and a writing utensil (clipboards are optional). As students discover each card, they will count its items and record the number on their worksheets.
WORKSHEETS (12)
With these 12 worksheets children will measure monsters, compare sets of Halloween items, color by numbers, trace shapes, identify some spooky sounds, and so much more!
Get this Halloween Math and Literacy Activities pack.
By Gigi on October 3rd, 2017
Let’s make some truly magnificent broomsticks! This extension activity for the delightful book Room on the Broom
is all kinds of fun. Paired with the story, this craft helps children to practice rhyming (phonemic awareness), rhythm and repetition, pro-social behavior, creative expression, and fine motor skills.
This exciting book is written by Julia Donaldson, and is brought to life by the colorful and extremely beautiful illustrations of Axel Scheffler. This is the same bestselling, award-winning team who created The Gruffalo
.
Room on the Broom tells the story of a friendly witch and a remarkable journey on her broomstick. From the start, the weather conditions are against her; the witch loses her belongings (hat, bow, and wand). She meets a cast of helpful characters along the way and offers them all a ride on her broomstick. Together they are able to overcome adversity. The friends not only find the witch’s missing possessions, they also escape a hungry dragon!
MATERIALS USED:
– Paper towel rolls
– Brown tempera paint
– Paper bags
– Twine
– Scissors
– Glue
– Star stickers
– Glitter
– Small acrylic craft jewels 
Have children paint their paper towel rolls and sprinkle them with glitter while they’re still wet. Once the rolls are dry, little ones can decorate their broomsticks with stickers and jewels, and any other items provided. Give each child a strip of paper bag and have them fringe cut the edges. They can glue their fringe on their sticks and you can help them wrap and tie the twine around it. A crumpled ball of paper can then be glued into the front of the broom, and voila! Behold some truly magnificent brooms!
- 
- 
- 
, pom poms, vase gems, or some other small manipulative for students to use as markers. For individual use, have the child roll the 
, count the dots (or recognize the “set” of dots), and find and cover the corresponding number on the sheet. Repeat until all of the numerals are covered. In small group, give each child a sheet and have them take turns rolling the 
is all kinds of fun. Paired with the story, this craft helps children to practice rhyming (phonemic awareness), rhythm and repetition, pro-social behavior, creative expression, and fine motor skills.
. 
