I have another fun Halloween read-aloud this week for our literacy snack idea! This week, we are reading, We’re Going On A Ghost Hunt by Marcia Vaughan and pairing it with a simple, fun snack idea that your students will love! There’s nothing better than pairing a great book with a themed snack! It’s an easy way to spark excitement, encourage participation, and make reading truly memorable. Your students will love this Halloween read-aloud favorite!

We’re Going on a Ghost Hunt is a fun and slightly spooky twist on a classic favorite! Follow a group of brave little ghost hunters as they journey through creaky houses, dark forests, and shadowy paths, all in search of their very own ghost. Along the way, they’ll face a few spooky surprises, but their courage (and curiosity!) keeps them going. It’s a ghostly adventure your students will want to join again and again!

To go along with the book, our snack that we will be making this week is our very own ghosts!

Snack Idea

For each student you will need:

• Half of a banana
• 1 choclate chip
• 2 candy eyeballs

To make their little ghost, students will unpeel half of a banana, then gently press on two candy eyeballs and a chocolate chip for the mouth. It’s quick, easy, and absolutely adorable — the perfect simple snack for this week! 

Free Printable

I’ve created a free printable to go along with the book, perfect for students to work on while enjoying their spooky ghost snack! They’ll get to practice their sequencing skills as they color, cut, and glue the pictures in the correct order of what the kids saw on their ghost hunt. It’s a fun, hands-on way to extend the story! 

You can download the Literacy Snack Ghost Hunt Read Aloud free printable from my TpT store by clicking the green box below.

If you’re looking for some other engaging ghost activities, we have this fun Halloween Ghost CVC Middle Sounds Sort Center! This engaging ghost-themed literacy center provides students with hands-on practice in identifying and sorting CVC middle vowel sounds. It’s perfect for Halloween centers, early finishers, morning tubs, or small group literacy practice. You can get it out here.

And if you like this literacy snack idea, you’ll want to check out all of our literacy snack collection here.

I hope your students love this book as much as I do and enjoy their fun, yummy, spooky ghost snack!

See you next time!

Jenette

The post Literacy Snack Ghost Hunt Read-Aloud appeared first on Primary Playground.

Halloween parties can be so much fun with your students! I have gathered up some of my favorite Halloween Party Ideas For The Classroom and am sharing them with you today! I’ve separated them into games, snacks, and activities so you can easily find some new and fun ideas that work for your classroom!

THIS ACTIVITY WORKS WELL WITH

Each of our classroom parties usually lasts one to one and a half hours. I usually plan a game, a snack, and a whole-group activity. Setting up stations is another great option! Set up four different stations that the students can rotate to if you have some parent volunteers to help out!

Games

• Spider Toss– Grab a pack of spider webs and string them across some items and have the students toss spiders into the web to try and make them stick.
• Pin the Heart on the Skeleton. – Grab a large cardboard skeleton decoration from Dollar Tree and cut out enough hearts for each student to try and pin the heart on the skeleton.
• Ghost Says – Just like Simon Says, but use Ghost says instead.
• Play Bingo – Bingo is always a hit with the students no matter the age. Grab our Halloween Bingo set here and a few small prizes or candy to give to the winners.

• Pass the Pumpkin – Play like hot potato. Play some music and pass the pumpkin. When the music stops, the person who has the pumpkin is out.
• Mummy Wrap – grab a roll of toilet paper for each team and they have to wrap up one of their teammates like a mummy.
• Play Minute to Win It Games – I have a bunch of fun Fall Minute To Win It game ideas here.

Snacks

• Make Monster Mash – Put out a bunch of different snack options and let the students make their own Monster Mash! Some great options would be chocolate chips, marshmallows, blue chips, Cheetos, popcorn, and candy corn. Have them put it into a small baggie or cup so they can enjoy their snack.
• Caramel Apple Bar – Cut apples into slices using an apple cutter. The students can then use a skewer to dip their apple slice into some caramel or chocolate and then add some toppings like, mini chocolate chips, mini M&M’s, or spinkles.
• Make Monster Popcorn Hands– You’ll need clear disposable gloves, candy corn, popcorn, and a ribbon or pipe cleaner for each student. Optional – Halloween spider rings. First, you’ll have the students put a candy corn piece in each of the fingers. Next, fill the glove with popcorn. Last, tie the glove up with a pipe cleaner or ribbon and the student can add a spider ring if you have the.

Activities

• Dance and Freeze– use Halloween music
• Bobbing for Donuts – hang a few strings from the ceiling and attach a mini donut to each. Have the students hold their hands behind their backs and try to eat the donut off.
• Halloween Directed Drawing. – lots of great options on Art for Kids Hub.

• Have a Costume Parade- You can plan something school wide, or just take your class and pick a route to walk around the school to let the students show off their costumes.
• Make Mystery Boxes- Make different boxes the students can put their hands in and not see the contents of the box. They can touch several different things and try to guess what they are. Coming up with creative names for the items is always an extra bit of fun!
• Pain Mini Pumpkins– Grab some paint and brushes and let the students decorate their own mini pumpkins.

• Make A Craft – This cat newspaper collage is a fun one that we’ve done for a few years and is always a hit.
• Halloween Fun Pack – This is a great option to have your students work on the activities and play the games while they are waiting for their turn to play a game or make their snack. Grab the Halloween Fun Pack here.

Hopefully, you have got some new Halloween Party Ideas for the Classroom! If you’re looking for even more ideas, in the past I have shared another post with even more Halloween party ideas here. And I have a bunch of Fall Party Ideas here that you can check out too.

Hope you have a fantastic time with your students during your Halloween party!

See you next time!

Jenette

The post Halloween Party Ideas for the Classroom appeared first on Primary Playground.

this article (and most) on primary playground, does contain affiliate links that we do earn a commission off of.  clicking these links does not cost you any extra but helps our website to keep great articles and freebies like this coming your way.

Zombies are always a hit with the kids! ! So for this week, we have a fun Literacy Snack Zombie Read-Aloud for Halloween or any time really! We are reading Peanut Butter & Brains by Joe McGee.

Reginald isn’t like the other zombies that stumble around town moaning for BRAINSSSSS!! His stomach only rumbles for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. He tries to tell his zombie pals that there’s more to life than eating brains, but they’re just not interested. In the end, the zombies all come to love peanut butter and jelly too while Reginald moves onto something new, pizza!

It’s a silly and fun story that has a great message to it about staying true to yourself. For our snack today, we are making our own zombies!

Snack Idea

Ingredients

• a circle cookie cutter to share
• a piece of bread for each student (you could use a plain circle sugar cookie too)
• blue frosting or white frosting with a couple of drops of blue food coloring
• 2 zombie eyeballs per student – I found mine at the grocery store
• 1 chocolate chip per student
• black gel icing
• pretzel sticks

Assemble

To make the zombie, have the students share the circle cookie cutter and cut their piece of bread into a circle. Next, they will spread the blue frosting onto the bread. Your students will then get to decorate their zombies. Have them place the eyes on and nose using the chocolate chip. Bread a pretzel stick into a few small pieces to use as the hair. Last, use the black gel icing to draw on the mouth and stitches if desired. Now you have a cute zombie!

Another fun option would be to give each student a quarter of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to enjoy with their zombie too!

While your students are enjoying their zombie snack, I made a free printable to go along with the story for them to work on. They will get to draw and write about what their favorite food would be if they were a zombie.

Click the green box below to download the Literacy Snack Zombie Read-Aloud free printable from my TeachersPayTeachers store.

I hope your students enjoy making this fun zombie snack!

See you next time!

Jenette

The post Literacy Snack Zombie Read-Aloud appeared first on Primary Playground.

Do you need to create a simple math center to help your students practice numbers to 10? Our Free Printable Clip Counting Spiders are easy to prepare, perfect for October and your little learners will love them! They’re not only an easy and interactive way for children to practice counting and identifying numbers, but they will also work on developing their fine motor skills too.

They will be a great addition to your math centers.

THIS ACTIVITY WORKS WELL WITH

Getting ready

This game/center is super quick and easy to make. All you need is to download and print the Free Printable Clip Counting Spiders from the bottom of this post, cut them out, and add in some clothespins and you’re all set! You don’t need to laminate these sets, but they will last much longer if you do.

How to Play

Each spider has a number on it. The student picks up a spider and looks at the number. Encourage them to say the number aloud. Then they clip the correct number of clothespins onto the spider creating legs.   Repeat until all the spiders have clothespins on them.

These are perfect to use during October, for Halloween, during your spider unit, or even for your nursery rhyme unit to go along with Little Miss Muffett or The Itsy Bitsy Spider.

You can store the spider in a bag or container with the clothespins, so the game is always ready to go or be safely put away for next year.

These Free Printable Clip Counting Spiders are a fun and hands-on way to practice counting and identifying numbers. This simple, low-prep activity is perfect to use as a math warm-up at the beginning of class, during small guided math groups, or to put out at a math station. They can easily be printed and sent home for students to practice counting with their families too.

You can download the Free Printable Clip Counting Spiders by clicking the green box below.

If you’re looking for another fun way for your little learners to practice their numbers and counting, you may like our spider counting mats. These are numbers 1-20. We use little plastic spiders and the kids just love it! You can find the counting mats here on TPT.

Let us know if you have any other fun ways that you’ll be using these Free Printable Clip Counting Spiders.

See you next time!

Jenette

The post Free Printable Clip Counting Spiders appeared first on Primary Playground.

Looking for a fun treat to give to your students for Halloween? Or do you love giving your students little things to let them know how important they are or how well they’re doing? I made these, Free Printable You Are A Spooktacular Student Tags for you to use.  You can give them as a Halloween treat or as a reward for reading or just as a random surprise because the student has been working so hard.  The possibilities are endless!

THIS ACTIVITY WORKS WELL WITH

this article (and most) on primary playground, does contain affiliate links that we do earn a commission off of.  clicking these links does not cost you any extra but helps our website to keep great articles and freebies like this coming your way.

Putting these little treats together for the students is super simple.

Supplies you’ll need

Cookie of your choice, II found these special Halloween Oreo packs at Target, but you can use any type of Halloween treat or any type of cookies.

Scissors

Stapler

The free tag can find at the bottom of the post.

Assemble

To assemble, you’ll simply print and cut out the number of tags you need.

Staple the tag onto the cookie bag or treat and you’re done!

Such a fun little way to recognize the students and all of their hard work!

Click the green box below to download the Free Printable You Are A Spooktacular Student Tags.

I hope your students enjoy their special little treat!

See you next time!

Jenette

The post Free Printable You Are A Spooktacular Student Tags appeared first on Primary Playground.

It’s no secret that I LOVE books. Throw in some pumpkins and fall fun and you have some of my favorite types of books. I’m sharing with you today The Best Pumpkin Read Alouds.

Pumpkins are such a fun topic to learn about. There are so many fun activities that can be done alongside all of the books below.

THIS ACTIVITY WORKS WELL WITH

this article (and most) on primary playground, does contain affiliate links that we do earn a commission off of.  clicking these links does not cost you any extra but helps our website to keep great articles and freebies like this coming your way.

The Best Pumpkin Read-Alouds

From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer

In the fall, pumpkins are everywhere: in the garden, in the supermarkets, and on doorsteps. But do you know how they grow from a tiny yellow seed to a pumpkin? This is a great book for young kids to learn the life cycle of a pumpkin.

How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?  by Margaret McNamara

Charlie, the smallest boy in his class, is left to count the seeds of the smallest pumpkin.  Both he and his classmates are surprised when his pumpkin has the most seeds.  This is a great way to introduce counting by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s.

Our pumpkin seed counting mats would be a fun extension to the book too. Use real pumpkin seeds to practice counting.

Mystery Vine: A Pumpkin Surprise by Cathryn Falwell

This book provides a simple, colorful tribute to growing a pumpkin just in time for Halloween. Children plant seeds for a garden; a mystery vine appears, “First came lettuce, crisp, and crunching. Bright green peas, so good for munching. Radishes all in a line…But what was that young Mystery Vine?” They tend it and the other plants and come fall discover that the mystery plant is producing pumpkins just in time for Halloween.

These life cycle hats from seed go perfectly with the above books as your little learners are learning all about how pumpkins grow and their life cycle.

Pumpkin Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington

Although this book has few words, it’s wonderful to teach the life cycle of a pumpkin. This is a great book to teach that pictures sometimes tell more of the story than the words. The seed, sprouts, the sprout grows into a plant and gets bigger on each page. The words don’t tell this, but the pictures do. Students are engaged as they search for changes in a pumpkin’s life cycle. The pictures are a bit muted, but I still like the book for its simplicity.

Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell 

In this book, you learn about the life cycle of a pumpkin through this charming story of a boy who named his pumpkin ‘Jack.’ After Halloween, the ‘Jack’ begins to rot and goes through the seasons until his seeds sprout in the spring–starting all over again. 

Our How Does A Pumpkin Grow? fill in the blank book is an easy activity the can go along with this book too.

Pick A Perfect Pumpkin Learning about Pumpkin Harvests by Robin Koontz

This is a great book about a boy and a girl’s visit to a pumpkin farm. It touches on everything from how pumpkins grow to all the different colors and sizes of pumpkins. A great book to read before or after your field trip to the pumpkin patch.

Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White

When she was young, Rebecca’s family was so poor that they ate pumpkin after pumpkin.  Now a white-haired older woman, she can’t bear the sight of them. So when a truck accidentally drops a pumpkin in Rebecca’s garden, she won’t even look at it.  But after growing season she’s astonished to discover a whole garden of big, beautiful pumpkins.  Rebecca makes the most of it, and we love what happens next. It’s a wonderful lesson about helping others.

The Biggest Pumpkin Ever by Steven Kroll

Two little mice, a village and a field mouse, both have their hearts set on a beautiful pumpkin.  During the day, the village mouse carefully tends the pumpkin – and at night, the field mouse does the same. One can’t wait to bring the pumpkin to the county fair, while the other wants to make it into a giant jack-o’-lantern.  This is a cute story and I love that the mice become friends at the end of the story.

We also have a literacy snack and free printable to go along with this book too. You can check that out here.

How Big Could Your Pumpkin Grow? by Wendell Minor

This is a great book with vibrant illustrations. It includes neat little facts about states while incorporating math and comparison concepts.

I Like Pumpkins by Jerry Smath

I Like Pumpkins is a cute rhyming book that shows children all the ways to compare and contrast pumpkins.

Pete the Cat: Five Little Pumpkins by James Dean

This is the Pete the Cat version of the classic poem Five Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate. It’s always a favorite.

We have a super fun free craft activity to go along with this book too. It’s a great way to help them retell the story. You can get the details and download it here.

Splat the Cat and the Pumpkin-Picking Plan by Catherine Hapka 

In this book, Splat the Cat heads to the pumpkin patch to pick a perfect pumpkin. Getting it home will be a challenge in itself in the end. This would be a fun read-aloud before you head to the pumpkin patch.

Our pumpkin patch bingo is perfect to play before or after your field trip too!

The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin by Joe Troiano 

Spookley the Square Pumpkin was different. All the other pumpkins teased him until Spookley proved that being different can save the day! 

Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper

Duck, Squirrel, and Cat live together contentedly, each with his own job to make pumpkin soup – until Duck decides he wants a different job.  When Squirrel and Cat won’t let him switch, he runs away.  The book ends with a peaceful solution. The kids will be able to relate to the difficulties that come with friendship.

Little Boo by Stephen Wunderli

The story is about a little pumpkin seed who wants to be big and scary but has a hard time waiting for it to happen over time as he grows. He keeps trying to scare grubs, caterpillars, a shovel, and other garden items, but he’s sad that he isn’t scaring them. The seed grows into a sprout, then a vine, (story skips over the small green pumpkin part of a pumpkin life cycle), a big orange pumpkin, and finally a Jack-o-Lantern.

Our pumpkin craft is a fun one to make alongside this book.

Do you have any other favorite pumpkin read alouds that you would add to our list?

See you next time!

jenette

The post The Best Pumpkin Read Alouds appeared first on Primary Playground.

Have you ever done class rotations instead of having a Halloween party? Where you have a mad scientist theme and in each classroom, you get to do or watch a different creepy science experiment. It makes for such a fun and engaging day, still having fun on the holiday but with a different, twist if you cannot actually celebrate Halloween. I’m sharing with you a bunch of Creepy Science Experiments For the Classroom.

Potions, brews, and eruptions

In these science lab experiments, your little scientists can make their own crazy chemical reactions. The best part is, the experiments are completely kid-safe while also providing tons of fun for kiddos of all ages.

See how Fun With Mama creates this awesome witches’ brew using baking soda, vinegar, and dish soap.

Have you seen a pumpkin erupt before? Little Bins Little Hands uses a jack-o-lantern and makes it erupt using baking soda and vinegar!

Here’s another fun experiment from Messy Little Monster making a magic potion that uses glitter!!

Brains, eyes, hearts oh my!

All of these experiments involve body parts! It makes for some very creepy fun that you’ll get a ton of ewww that’s gross comments!

Make a heart or brain out of gelatin and let the kids explore. Give them an eye dropper and some red-colored water to add in some blood. -Little Bins For Little Hands

Or see how Little Bins For Little Hands makes Frankenstein frozen brains and uses eye droppers and warm water to melt his brain away.

Pink Stripey Socks shows us how to dig for skeleton bones with this perfectly gross activity!

And watch monster eyes fly with this creepy experiment using water, oil, and antacid tablets from The Educators Spin On It.

Slime and Goo

My kids are still obsessed with slime and anything that gets their hands messy. Here are a bunch of ooey-gooey recipes. Make a batch with each class and use small containers to give each student some to take home with them.

This eyeball slime is my favorite! Little Bins for Little Hands combines slime and eyeballs making a perfect combination!

• You’ll get some ohhh and ahhhh’s making this glow-in-the-dark slime by Red Ted Art.

This awesome pumpkin slime from Little Bins for Little Hands is made with real pumpkin seeds and looks just like the insides of a pumpkin! So cool!

And we can’t leave out oobleck! Your kids will love making and playing with this oobleck filled with spiders and eyeballs!

Even more awesomely creepy science experiments

Mama Smiles shows us how to make ghosts’ balloons inflate by creating carbon dioxide.

Create pumpkin circuits to light up a pumpkin made from a pool noodle using insulating dough and conductive dough from Steam Powered Family.

Your kids will love watching the creepy wiggly worms wiggle around the jar in this fun experiment using vinegar and baking soda.

And lastly,, who doesn’t LOVE bubbles? Here’s a fun holiday twist on blowing bubbles with this Ghost Bubble Science from Little Bins Little Hands.

I hope you’re inspired to try to some Creepy Science Experiments in your classroom this month! Share with us if you have any other favorite activities you love doing with your class this month.

See you next time!

Jenette

The post Creepy Science Experiments for the Classroom appeared first on Primary Playground.

Does your school have a Halloween carnival? Ours does and guess who got volunteered to be in charge of the Creepy Cake Walk? Me! So today I’m sharing with you the Creepy Cake Walk Numbers that I made for our event.

THIS ACTIVITY WORKS WELL WITH

Truth be told, the cake walk has always been one of my favorite activities at carnivals. We’ve changed it up a bit over the years at our school and do not give out actual cakes anymore, but cupcakes to each winner. We’ve also done Creepy Book Walks, in which the winner will get to choose a Halloween book! That’s my favorite!

You can use these Creepy Cake Walk Numbers for a large school-wide carnival, or you could use them in the classroom as part of your Halloween party. Your students will LOVE it!

Find a great Halloween music station on Pandora or Spotify to play on your phone or through your smart board and you’re set to go!

Cake Walk Instructions

Just in case you haven’t done a cakewalk before, here’s a quick review of the game. Download, print, and laminate the Creepy Cakewalk Numbers. I made numbers go up to 30 but you can use as many numbers as you’d like to depending on how many people you want to play at once. Use duct tape or painter’s tape to secure the numbers to the floor where you will be playing. Print and cut out the calling numbers and place them in a container that you can draw from when playing the game.

To play, have a person stand on each number. Turn some fun Halloween music on, and have everyone walk in a circle until the music stops. Draw a number out of the container and the person standing on that number is the winner! The game is now over and the next group of people get to come in and play.

You can download the Creepy Cake Walk Numbers below.

And in case your school doesn’t do Halloween, I have a set of Fall Cake Walk Numbers that you can grab here.

What is your favorite game to play at your school carnival?

See you next time!

Jenette

The post Creepy Cake Walk Numbers appeared first on Primary Playground.

We love doing science experiments! They are such fun and engaging activities for little learners. Since it’s October, we’re sharing a fun Creepy Wiggly Worms Science Experiment today.

This would be a fun, quick and easy experiment as part of a Fun Friday, or even as a station during your Halloween party.

Materials Needed

gummy worms – we used 3 each time we did the experiment

Sharp scissors or kitchen shears

3 tablespoons of baking soda

1 cup of warm water

spoon

fork

2 jars or clear drinking glasses

white vinegar

Instructions

• Using the sharp scissors, cut the gummy worms into 4 strips each. The skinnier the better they’ll work for this experiment. You’ll want to do this part for the kids and the sharper the scissors the better as it’s difficult to cut the worms otherwise.

• Mix the 3 tablespoons of baking soda with the warm water in one of the jars/glasses. Stir it well. Drop the skinny gummy worms into the baking soda solution and let them soak for 15 minutes.

• After 15 minutes, fill up the other glass jar with vinegar. Fish the gummy worms out of the baking soda solution using the fork and drop them into the vinegar. You gummy worms will start wiggling and coming alive!

• If your worms are not moving or when they stop, you can add a teaspoon of baking soda to the jar to make them come to life again. Just make sure your jar isn’t too full of vinegar, otherwise, it will spill over!

What is happening?

The gummy worms are wiggling and moving as the vinegar in the jar reacts with the baking soda. It forms carbon dioxide bubbles. which are less dense than the vinegar and will float to the surface taking he worms with them.

Do you have any other fun science experiments you like to do in October?

See you next time!

Jenette

The post Creepy Wiggly Worms Science Experiment appeared first on Primary Playground.

this article (and most) on primary playground, does contain affiliate links that we do earn a commission off of.  clicking these links does not cost you any extra but helps our website to keep great articles and freebies like this coming your way.

We’re still in Halloween mode over here. For this weeks literacy snack idea, we’re reading another great book to help teach about sequencing and is a great story for retelling. This week, we are reading, Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson.

The story is so much fun. A friendly witch starts her travels with one friend but ends up making several more friends who help her find lost items along the way. She finds room on her broom for all the animals asking for rides, and they repay her kindness in the end.

They even have an animated version that is free if you have Amazon Prime. It’s about 26 minutes long but is a great addition after reading the book and moving into the free printable at the bottom of this post.

For our snack this week, we’re making the wishes hat and broom.

Ingredients

Each student will need:

• 1 mini Reese’s cup
• 1 pretzel stick
• 1 chocolate covered cookie
• 1 Hershey Kiss

The class will need to share cookie decorating frosting – I grabbed mine in the Halloween baking section in Target

Assemble

Witches Hat

To make the witches hat, each student will need a chocolate cookie on their napkin. Have them unwrap the Hershey Kiss. You or a parent helper can go around with the frosting and cover the bottom of the Hershey Kiss with frosting. Then have the student turn it over carefully and swish it onto the center of the cookie turning it into a witches hat.

Witches Broom

To make the witches broom, have the students unwrap the mini Reese’s cup and completely take it out of the wrapper. Have them carefully push the pretzel stick into the Reese’s cup turning it into the witches broom.

They are both so simple to make but are super cute and go perfectly with the book!

Free Printable

While your students are enjoying their fun witches snacks, I made a free printable for them to work on. They will get to practice their sequencing skills by numbering the pictures in the boxes in the order they happened in the story. They can then color the pictures.

You can download the free printable to go along with the book from my TeachersPayTeachers store below.

Do you have some other fun activities you like to do in the classroom during the month of October?

I hope your students enjoy their fun witches hat and broom snacks!

See you next time!

Jenette

The post Literacy Snack Idea Witches Broom appeared first on Primary Playground.

Learning about spiders is such a fun activity for October. If you’re not allowed to actually celebrate Halloween in your school, this is a fun alternative that can still be tied into the season.

Most kids love learning about spiders. This Spider Writing Craft is a fun way for them to show some of the fun facts they have learned about spiders during the unit.

Supplies you’ll need per student

A long piece of black construction paper

Some spider webbing – a small bit goes a long way

A plastic spider

Spider Facts printable -you can download below.

Other supplies you’ll need

Glue sticks, school glue, white chalk

To make the Spider Writing Craft

The first step is to have your students write their spider facts on the printable. After they’re done writing, have them glue the paper to the bottom portion of the long black construction paper using a glue stick.

Next, have the students draw a large spider web or two if they’d like using white chalk at the top portion of the construction paper. Give them a small amount of spider webbing and have them keep pulling it apart to make another layer on top of the web they drew.

Have them use a very small amount of school glue to glue down the edges of the spider web to the construction paper. When it’s secure, have them add in their plastic spider into the web.

They look adorable displayed in the classroom for October or in your hallway.

If you are looking for some more spider activities these spider counting mats are a favorite!

And these spider activities include math, literacy and science activities.

You can download the spider facts printable for the craft below.

Do you have any fun activtivities you like to do in your classroom in October?

Thanks for stopping by!

Jenette

The post Spider Writing Craft appeared first on Primary Playground.

this article (and most) on primary playground, does contain affiliate links that we do earn a commission off of.  clicking these links does not cost you any extra but helps our website to keep great articles and freebies like this coming your way.

Halloween is always such a fun time of the year. There so many fun and creative activities you can do! I’m not a person that likes to be scared and real haunted houses are not for me, but I sure do like to read about them in fun not so scary Halloween books. For this weeks literacy snack, we’re reading, At The Old Haunted House by Helen Ketteman.

There are all kinds of creatures in the house that are all preparing for a Halloween Fright. You’ll count along as the creatures prepare for their party full of food and dancing. It’s a fun book for Halloween but not too spooky for the little ones.

Ten Timid Ghosts would be another fun book to go along with our snack for this week too.

For our snack this week, we’ll be creating our own haunted houses.

THIS ACTIVITY WORKS WELL WITH

Ingredients

Each student will need:

• half of a graham cracker
• a handful of candy corn
• one mini Hershey bar
• one Peep ghost

Assemble

To make the haunted house, have your students start with the graph cracker as the house. They can use their candy corn to make a roof on top of the graham cracker. The mini Hershey bar will be the door, and every haunted house needs a ghost!

Free Printable

While your students are enjoying their haunted house snack, I made a free printable for them to work on to go along with the book. They get to draw and create their own haunted house. It’s always fun to see the fun details they add to their houses.

You can download the free printable from my TeachersPayTeachers store below.

If you’re looking for another fun idea to go along with the book, our haunted house craft with writing prompts is another great addition to the book.

Do you have any other fun activities you enjoy doing in your classroom or at home for Halloween?

Thanks for stopping by!

Jenette

The post Literacy Snack Idea Haunted House appeared first on Primary Playground.

I’m always trying to think of new ways for little learners to practice their beginning sounds. Since Halloween is quickly approaching, I made this Boo Beginning Sounds Game for them to have a fun new way to practice their sounds.

THIS ACTIVITY WORKS WELL WITH

I’ve been playing this game for years with my kids and it’s always a favorite, We’re just putting a Halloween spin on it today.

The Setup

To play the game, all you need to do is download the printable at the bottom of the post. Cut out all of the squares and laminate so you can play the game over and over again. You will also need some kind of container to put the cards in. I used a Halloween themed fortune cookie box I had in my stash from years ago. I believe it’s from Michaels but you can use anything you have on hand.

To Play

This game can be played with one student or many. You will put all of the cards into the container and shake them up. Have a student pull out a card, look at the letter, and say the sound it makes. If playing alone, choose another card and repeat. If playing with other students move to the next person to take a turn. There are also some cards that say BOO! If a student chooses a BOO! card, they say BOO! and put all of their letters back in the container and it’s the next player’s turn or they can start over again if playing alone.

There are both uppercase and lowercase letters. You can choose to use them both or just one set, the game will work the same either way.

My little friends just love playing this game and said, “So basically you are saying BOO! and scaring all of the letters back into the container?” YES, EXACTLY!!

You can download the BOO Beginning Sounds Game below.

If you’re looking for more beginning sound activities, we share all of our favorites in this blog post here.

Do you have any other fun games you like to play to practice beginning sounds?

Thanks for stopping by!

Jenette

The post BOO Beginning Sounds Game appeared first on Primary Playground.

I love using different manipulatives for the students to practice their counting with. Working on counting to 20 is so much more fun when counting candy corn.

THIS ACTIVITY WORKS WELL WITH

Prepare

This is a quick and easy one to prepare. Simply download and print the counting cards below, cut and laminate for durability. You’ll want to grab a bag of candy corn or any other fun manipulative you may have on hand already such as pom pom balls or mini erasers. I also used little cauldron containers I found in the Dollar Spot section at Target, and some other fun similar size containers I happened to find brand new at the Thrift Store.

To Play

There are so many different ways you can use these counting cards.  Simply put the cards in a stack. Have the student turn a card over and count out that many candy corn.

You can mix it up and have the students practice their counting while using a pair of plastic tweezers/ tongs and mini erasers to help with their fine motor skills.

Or pom poms are a fun way to change it up too.

You can also just give the stack of cards to the students, and have them put them in numerical order to practice their number sense. Or if they’ve mastered that, use them to practice sorting into piles of even and odd numbers, or practice skip counting. Tons of fun possibilities with these free printable candy corn counting cards!

Click the green box below to download the Free Printable Candy Corn Counting Cards.

If you are looking for even more ways to have fun with candy corn and math, your students will love practicing their ten frames with these candy corn ten frame task cards.

Or practicing their number bonds using candy corn

Do you have any other fun ways that you could use these free printable candy corn counting cards in the classroom? Let us know in the comments!

See you next time!

Jenette

The post Free Printable Candy Corn Counting Cards appeared first on Primary Playground.

Halloween is quickly approaching so I wanted to make sure to incorporate a not-so-scary mummy book into our literacy snack rotation. For this week’s Literacy Snack Idea Baby Mummy , we’re reading “Where’s  My Mummy?”, by Carolyn Crimi.

“Little Baby Mummy wants just one more game of hide-and-shriek with Big Mama Mummy before bedtime. The night is deep and dark, full of friendly creatures that click their clacky teeth and whoosh past on flippy-floppy wings. But who will comfort Little Baby Mummy if a small, scritchy-scratchy someone gives him a scare? Big Mama Mummy, of course!”

For our snack this week, we are of course making a mummy!

Ingredients

each student will need

a slice of sandwich bread

a spoonful of pizza sauce

a cheese stick peeled in half, 2 kids can share one stick

2 candy eyes or you could have them use black olive slices

-You’ll also need a round cookie cutter for the students to share

Assemble

Each student will need to take a turn using the round cookie cutter. After they have their circle bread piece, have them spoon a light layer of the pizza sauce on the bread. Next, have them take their string cheese half, and pull as many string cheese pieces off as they can, the smaller/skinnier the better. They can lay the pieces of string cheese onto the pizza sauce in random directions creating a mummy wrap look. Last, have them place either the candy eyes or olives on as the baby mummy’s eyes.

Free Printable

While the students are enjoying their baby mummy snacks, I created a free printable for them to work on. They get to draw a picture and write a sentence about what their mummy does when they are scared.

You can download the Literacy Snack Idea Baby Mummy free printable from my teacherspayteachers store below.

I hope your students enjoy making their not so scary baby mummy snack this week!

See you next time!

Jenette

The post Literacy Snack Idea Baby Mummy appeared first on Primary Playground.

I’m all for making math fun when I can! With this free printable candy corn math, the students get to practice greater or less than using candy corn!

All you need to do is grab a bag or two of candy corn, print and you’re ready for some math fun!

I’ve included several sheets in the free download so you are able to easily differentiate for the students from single digit to triple digit greater and less than.

I’ve included both Halloween-themed sheets and fall-themed sheets depending on when you want to use them. They’re also available in both color and in black and white. Print them in color, laminate them and add them to a center or print them in black and white on colored paper for a fun element.

You can download the free printable candy corn math from my teacherspayteachers store below.

If you’re looking for more ways to reuse your candy corn for more math activities, your students will love practicing their number bonds using the candy corn.

Or if you want to incorporate some candy corn into art and writing this candy corn craft looks adorable hanging in the classroom!

Hope your students enjoy this fun time of year using candy corn!

See you next time!

Jenette

The post Free Printable Candy Corn Math appeared first on Primary Playground.

this article (and most) on primary playground, does contain affiliate links that we do earn a commission off of.  clicking these links does not cost you any extra but helps our website to keep great articles and freebies like this coming your way.

I love doing a lot of fun pumpkin activities this time of year! Incorporating it into science, math, and reading makes it so much fun for the students. For this week’s Literacy Snack Biggest Pumpkin Read Aloud we are reading, The Biggest Pumpkin Ever, by Steven Kroll.

“Desmond the field mouse wants to carve the biggest jack-o’-lantern in the neighborhood with his pumpkin. Clayton the house mouse wants to win the Biggest Pumpkin contest with his. But when they discover that their choice pumpkins are actually the same one, Desmond and Clayton decide to work together to grow the biggest pumpkin ever!”

For our snack this week, we’re keeping it simple and the students will get a small pumpkin snack and a biggest “pumpkin” snack.

These resources work well with this article.

Ingredients

each student will need

1 orange

2 candy pumpkins

Assemble

You can choose to leave the peels on the oranges for the students or have them all peeled ahead of time. You could even go with the smaller Cuties which are easier for the kids to peel themselves but still are “bigger” than the pumpkin candies.

You could take the snack a bit further, and as a class, have them measure and weigh the orange and the candy pumpkins to in fact see that the orange, “pumpkin” is the biggest.

Free Printable

While the students are enjoying their snack, I made a free printable for them to work on. They get to draw a picture and write a sentence about what they would do with their pumpkin if it grew the biggest.

You can download the free printable from my teacherspayteachers store below.

This is also a great book choice to use while going over the pumpkin life cycle as they get to see the pumpkin grow throughout the book. Our, How Does A Pumpkin Grow fill in the blank book goes along well with it.

And if you are looking for a fun and easy pumpkin craft you might like this paper plate pumpkin craft.

I hope your students enjoy the pumpkin story and their snack this week.

We’ll see you next time!

Jenette

The post Literacy Snack Biggest Pumpkin Read Aloud appeared first on Primary Playground.

I always look forward to being able to do craft projects with my kids. This paper plate pumpkin craft is one of my favorites this time of year. It’s simple enough for the youngest kids to make but also fun for the older kids. You probably already have everything on hand that you’ll need for this craft. By this time of the year, our scrap box is starting to fill up so this is the perfect project to use some of that paper.

THIS ACTIVITY WORKS WELL WITH

Supplies

Paper plates

Construction paper/scraps -orange, green, brown, and or black

glue

Paper Plate Pumpkin Craft

No scissors are allowed in making this craft. There’s only good old fashion tearing happening today. It makes it a perfect activity for kids of all ages and abilities. Give each student a piece of orange construction paper (scraps work well too). Tear them into small pieces and make a pile. Each student will need to tear a small piece of green paper and a small piece of black or brown paper as well for the leaf and stem.

Once they have piles of torn paper. the students can squeeze some glue onto the paper plate. Cover the plate with the orange pieces of torn paper. Last, have them glue on their torn pieces of green and brown/black paper.

I love the fact that their so abstract and there is no pressure for the kids to have anything perfect. They look great on a bulletin board as a whole class pumpkin patch.

You could even take it a step further and have them turn the pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns by using more torn yellow paper. So many fun options.

If you’re looking for some read-alouds to go along with your pumpkin craft, we share all of our favorites in this post. Click here to check it out. 

Happy pumpkin making!

See you next time!

Jenette

The post Paper Plate Pumpkin Craft appeared first on Primary Playground.

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate is an all-time favorite for kids. We’re incorporating a hands-on activity and math to retell the classic poem/song with these free printable five little pumpkins.

THIS ACTIVITY WORKS WELL WITH

This is a fun video you can show them to learn the song. It goes through it twice asking them to sing along the second time.

And this Pete the Cat Five Little Pumpkins version is the same story if you prefer to read the book.

I wanted the students to be able to retell the story so I made this free printable. You can use it in a bunch of different ways.

Print it out and retell the story as a class. Have the gate on an anchor chart, choose a student to come up and put the correct number on the gate, and so on until the story is complete.

Or print it out in black and white and make it into a craft project for your kids. Use a piece of construction paper and have them cut out the pumpkins and gate and then glue them onto the paper. They can add additional details if they’d like.

Or draw a stick and give 5 students the pumpkins. As a class, sing the song and as their number is called, have the student stand up with their pumpkin until the song is over.

Or you can laminate it and use it as a center for the students to practice counting and number sense one through five.

These cute little pumpkins make for such a fun and quick activity during this time of year. Let me know if you have any other ways you’re going to use them in your classroom!

Click the green box to download the free printable five little pumpkins activity.

If you’re looking for another fun activity to go along with the book, these pumpkins sitting on a gate counting mats let your little learners practice counting to 2o.

I hope your kiddos enjoy this fun activity!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jenette

The post Free Printable Five Little Pumpkins appeared first on Primary Playground.

this article (and most) on primary playground, does contain affiliate links that we do earn a commission off of.  clicking these links does not cost you any extra but helps our website to keep great articles and freebies like this coming your way.

Halloween is just a few short days away! The kids are so excited about their costumes and can’t wait to trick or treat. For this week’s Literacy Snack Idea Trick Or Treat, we’re reading Five Little Monkeys Trick or Treat by Eileen Christelow.

Five little monkeys dress up for Halloween. They are going trick-or-treating with their favorite babysitter, Lulu.  “Don’t lose the rascals!” Mama tells her. But soon those mischievous monkeys meet their friends and decide to try “the best Halloween trick ever!” Will Lulu be fooled? Or will those rascals get tricked by their own monkey business?

When the monkeys get home from trick or treating, Mama invites them in to have a treat, eyeballs, and worm juice! A trick treat so that’s what our snack is this week.

THIS ACTIVITY WORKS WELL WITH

ingredients

donut holes – I did 3 per student

bag os white chocolate chips

bag of chocolate chips

food coloring of your choice for eye color

lemonade

gummy worms – I did 3 per student

assemble

Eyeballs

I made the eyeballs at home and brought them in as a special snack for the kids. You’re more than welcome to have the kids help make them but it was just more than I wanted to handle. To make the eyeballs, first, you’ll melt the white chocolate chips in a glass bowl. I did half a bag at a time, starting with 30 seconds. Stir, then keep adding 10 seconds at a time, stirring in between until the chocolate is melted. Next, you’ll dip each one of the donut holes into the melted white chocolate.

Let the chocolate dry. I put mine in the refrigerator to help speed up the process. While they are drying, add the food coloring of your choice for your eyes to the leftover white chocolate. You may need to melt some more at this point.

After the eyeballs are dry, using a small spoon, put a bit of the colored chocolate on top of the white as the iris. Place a chocolate chip in the middle of the iris when it’s still wet.

Worm Juice

For the worm juice, I brought in remade bottles of lemonade. Each student got some in their cup along with 3 gummy worms. They could either put them in the lemonade to make the worm juice or just have them apart.

Free Printable

While the students are enjoying their snack, I made a free printable for them to work on. They’ll draw in what they’ll dress up as for Halloween.

Click the green box below to download the Literacy Snack Idea Trick Or Treat free printable from my TeachersPayTeachers store. 

Enjoy your eyeballs and worm juice!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jenette

The post Literacy Snack Idea Trick Or Treat appeared first on Primary Playground.

I don’t know about you but I can’t get enough books for my library. Halloween books are some of my favorites! These books are perfect for read-alouds and for your classroom library. I’ve gathered some of my student’s and my favorite Halloween books to share with you. Here are my picks for The Best Halloween Read-Alouds.

THIS ACTIVITY WORKS WELL WITH

this article (and most) on primary playground, does contain affiliate links that we do earn a commission off of.  clicking these links does not cost you any extra but helps our website to keep great articles and freebies like this coming your way.

The Best Halloween Read-Alouds

Peanut Butter & Brains

A delicious tale about a zombie that wants peanut butter and jelly sandwiches instead of brains like the other zombies. A great story about being true to yourself.

Pumpkin Time

A beautifully, colorful illustrated book. Evy is so focused on watching her garden grow, she doesn’t notice all of the silliness going on around her. In the end, everyone is invited to pumpkin time!

Fright Club

Only the scariest of monsters can join the Fright Club, but when a group of cute little critters comes along, the members of the Fright Club will find out who really is the scariest of all!

Little Boo

A heartwarming tale of a pumpkin seed that can’t wait to grow up and scare people.

Jampires

There’s a jam thief about! Sam takes a marvelous journey to solve the mystery of the missing jam.

Scarecrow Magic

A spooky tale of the scarecrow and his creepy friends having playful adventures after nightfall.

Ten Flying Brooms

Filled with colorful pages, ten flying brooms, ten spooky witches, and one special night make this a Halloween counting treat!

Splat the Cat and the Pumpkin-Picking Plan

Splat the Cat is back again in a funny adventure to pick the most perfect pumpkin ever!

Pete the Cat: Five Little Pumpkins

Pete the Cat rocks out to this cool adaptation of the classic Halloween song “Five Little Pumpkins”.

We have a great free craft to go along with this book too, you can grab it here.

The Monstore

The Monstore is a one-stop-shop for all your monastery needs in this enormously funny story that’s full of friendly, kooky creatures.

Boo la-la Witch Spa

Spooky meets silly in the unique Halloween story about a witch’s night out at the fa-Boo Witch Spa!

There Was An Old Mummy Who Swallowed A Spider

“As the old mummy makes his way across a graveyard and through a haunted castle, he swallows all kinds of creepy things. From a rat to witches’ brew, and a crow to a spooky ghost, this mummy keeps swallowing and swallowing…until finally there’s a knock on the door. Trick or treat!”

We have a fun snack idea and printable to go along with this fun book too. Click here to check it out now.

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat

This spooky twist on the wildly popular “There Was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly” is perfect for fun Halloween reading!

Room On The Broom

There’s always room for one more on this affable witch’s broomstick… or is there?

We have another fun snack idea and free printable to go along with this fun book! Click here to check it out now.

Pippa the Pumpkin Fairy

Pippa the Pumpkin Fairy has a very special wand that can give pumpkin lanterns a ‘face with a boo’, but when Pippa’s magic pumpkin goes wrong, she is much too afraid to tell all of her friends. Instead, Pippa tells a fib – that her wand is helping her to create the most spectacular pumpkin lanterns ever!

 10 Busy Brooms

Whether zooming past rattling skeletons, buzzing by pie-stealing mummies, or soaring over a werewolf with bad breath, readers will be cheering for this exciting group of witches and their high-flying Halloween adventures!

And we also have a great snack idea and printable to go along with this book too! Click here to check it out now.

Do you have any other favorites to add?

Jenette

The post The Best Halloween Read-Alouds appeared first on Primary Playground.

this article (and most) on primary playground, does contain affiliate links that we do earn a commission off of.  clicking these links does not cost you any extra but helps our website to keep great articles and freebies like this coming your way.

Need a fun Halloween Writing Center Idea? Come check out how we used some fun eye stickers I found at Michaels to get the students excited to write!

THIS ACTIVITY WORKS WELL WITH

I was at Michael’s a few weeks ago and spotted these cute eye stickers and just couldn’t pass them up. How perfect are they for adding to your writing center for Halloween?!

These eye stickers on Amazon would be a great option too if these stickers are no longer available at Michael’s.

I let the students choose up to 3 sets of eyes for their page. The possibilities of what the students can write are just endless. They can draw a picture first using their eyes, and then write a story or a few sentences about their drawing.

I’m sharing with you the writing page so you can easily add this to your writing center too! I think it’s one of the kid’s favorites so far!

Click the green box below to download the writing page.

Do you have any other ideas on how to use these cute eyes in the classroom?

Thanks for stopping by!

Jenette

The post Halloween Writing Center Idea appeared first on Primary Playground.