Halloween Writing Activities

I saw so many great ideas for Halloween crafts on Pinterest.  I couldn't decide which one I wanted to do, so we just did 'em all!  

We started last week with the witch's skirt.  I provided all the paper and the students made their own.  Then we thought of as many Halloween adjectives as we could to describe our witches.

On Halloween we read a book about a mummy and a skeleton.  We used our comprehension strategies to make predictions about the outcome and we also used visualizing with the adjectives in the book to make a good picture in our heads.  

After I showed them the artwork they would create, I gave them a sentence starter and we wrote a description together of a mummy on the board.  

They did a great job on their own writing!  Happy Halloween!

Adjectives

Today we learned about adjectives.  I saw this activity on The Inspired Apple via Pinterest and knew I had to do it.  The kids loved it.  They will work for popcorn!  I was so impressed with the many adjectives they were able to come up with.  After I ran out of popcorn shaped cutouts, they still thought of more!

I made the poster during my ancillary with just the red bag, and I also made the popcorn shaped cutouts.  We made a quick pitstop outside the teacher's lounge following our afternoon bathroom break so that I could pop the popcorn.  We discussed what an adjective is and I gave each student a piece of popcorn so that they could think about descriptive words.  I gave another piece to them when they came up with an adjective that we could add to our poster.  By the end of the activity, we had popcorn spilling over the sides of our bag!

Soil Layers

This week in Science we are teaching about earth materials and products that come from the soil.  This activity was great for my kids because it was hands on.  We discussed each layer of soil and the composition of that layer as we added layers to our cup.  Afterwards, I had them describe the layers to me as a formative assessment.  I have attached a video below of one of my sweet kids explaining her soil cup!

We used marshmallows for the bedrock, because they are chunkier.  Cheerios served as our subsoil.  The children left some whole and crumbled some near the top of the layer.  They used chocolate rice crispies for the topsoil and mixed some mini m&ms in for the humus.  They topped it off with gummi worms!

I expect that they will remember the soil layers and their compositions better after completing this activity.

Gallon Men

This week we learned about volume and capacity.  We watched a brain pop video about measurement and then did this activity, inspired by pinterest (I will tag the originator soon) to go with it.  I cut the paper in advance in different colors and sizes.  I passed out the gallon piece first.  Students were asked to label it with the appropriate abbreviations.  Next we did quarts.  I passed out a different color paper in the same size as the gallon and students had to cut it into 4 pieces to explain that 4 quarts are in a gallon.  We continued this strategy with pints and cups and labeled each one.  Finally, we put it together in the shape of a robot.  

 We have not finished with this activity yet.  I took photos of each child and printed them out so that they can attach their heads to the gallon men before we hang them outside for everyone to see!