Halloween Themed Lesson Ideas for Senior Classes

Here are some Halloween based lesson ideas that I have used with 3rd, 4th and 5th Class around Halloween, both this year and last. I hope you find them helpful, especially over the next few days when it can be difficult to get the children to focus on anything but the midterm break!

English: Poetry
There are many different poems you can do with your children based on Halloween. This year I did a poem from the 5th class Reading Zone Teacher's Manual, called 'Halloween Night'. What I like to do with poems based on this theme is get the children to create and then perform a dramatic/expressive reading of the poem in small groups, following a discussion of vocabulary, themes and images in the poem. One member of the group reads the poem with expression while other group members make various sound effects in the background. They can even learn off the poem and create actions to accompany their performance!

http://www.momendeavors.com/

English: Creative Writing:
Focus on recipes as a theme of writing with the children. Read various examples, highlight features of a recipe, brainstorm 'cooking/baking' vocabulary, make a recipe, write it down together as a class (modelling the structure of the writing genre) and finally get them to come up with their own imaginary witches' potion recipe. Make sure to encourage them to be creative with ingredients and give them access to their 'cooking terms' word wall while creating their recipes!

English: Oral Language: 

http://goo.gl/BCFdTN

Get the children involved in storytelling by getting them to tell some scary stories to the class. Discuss the characteristics of a good storyteller along with what makes a scary story different from a feel good story, a funny story, etc. Note some of these ideas on the board so they keep them in mind while creating their own stories. The children can then create a short spooky story in their copies (ensuring to have a definite beginning, middle and end). In pairs, they can read each other their story and get advice from their partner as to how to make it 'spookier' or more dramatic. Give them an opportunity to memorise their stories, reassuring them that they don't have to remember them word for word. Get some of the children to tell their story from memory to the class using dramatic pauses, different tones of voice for different parts of the story and raising and lowering their voice to suit the story's progression.

Gaeilge: Foclóir agus Dán:
Teach them some Halloween vocabulary (which you can download from Seomra Ranga) by playing Cluiche Kim, Biongó, etc. Get them to write a short paragraph about Halloween, answering these questions: An maith leat Oíche Shamhna? An bhfuil tú ag gleasadh suas d'Oíche Shamhna? An bhfuil do chara ag gleasadh suas d'Oíche Shamhna? An bhfuil tú ag dul ag imirt bob nó bia? These phrases can also be used in a comhrá beirte.
You can also teach and get them to perform the poem Oíche Shamhna (from Seomra Ranga):

Science: The Skeletal System: 
Discuss the functions of a person's skeletal system and what joints do. Teach them a song to help them remember the different bone names, such as this one from YouTube (with actions):

Do an internet scavenger hunt to search for more information about the skeletal system and get them to fill in the information found on a writing frame like this one:

Links for Skeletal System websites:

Learn about joints.

Learn about the skeleton and rebuild it.

Put the skeleton back together.

Look at a real x-ray!

Finish a skeleton puzzle.

Label the bones.

Complete a quiz on the skeletal system.

History: Stone Age Burial Customs:

Use the Power Point below to get the children to discuss and write about what they think each building/monument was used for (include some pair discussion here as well!). Then go through each picture (monument) and discuss and name it. At the end, get the children to write down a sentence about something new they learned about each tomb. (These lesson activities are outlined further in the Power Point!).

P.E: Thriller Dance:
Teach a simple version of Michael Jackson's Thriller:

Drama: Spooky Stories
In groups, create a spooky, Halloween themed improvisation and perform it for the class.

Music: 
Sing the song 'Disco in the Dark' (The Right Note) and artistically respond to some spooky film music too!

I hope you find these ideas useful this week and don't forget you can check out some ideas for Halloween Art projects in my previous post: Halloween Art Lesson Ideas.
Happy Halloween!

Halloween Art Ideas

Last year while teaching 3rd and 4th class, I wrote about a website I discovered called Artventurous, that had some excellent seasonal Art lesson ideas. I tried out the project called In a Dark, Dark Wood with my class and it turned out very well (I also really like her 3D Witch Faces project by the way!). Below you can see the Halloween haunted houses we made. The children had a great time colour mixing, making colours gradually darker to create this illuminated sky effect and then drawing on the houses and trees with markers.

We also created these crayon scrapings:

This was a very quick and simple art lesson. We coloured the background of our page in warm colours: red, orange and yellow. Then we coloured over the background with a black crayon. We then scraped Halloween pictures and patterns onto the page and the colours came out through the black layer.

We also made these Halloween masquerade masks from paper plates:

I really liked how each came out so differently and they really loved this project! We began by discussing what a masquerade ball is and why these masks are different to normal masks. I showed them this slideshow of pictures I had Googled:

and we discussed different ideas for creating their own masks. They then folded their mask in half and drew half of their mask's face, cut it out and opened it up to find a symmetrically shaped mask (some weaker children found this difficult and had to draw the whole shape with the plate opened up, meaning it wasn't perfectly symmetrical, but this was more manageable for them!). They were given different collage materials to use on their mask along with colouring pencils/crayons/etc. I added an elastic to some of the masks to wear around their heads and a long cocktail stick to the sides of others (depending on the design). 

This year in 5th Class, we are making these spooky houses using oil pastels and watercolours (You can mix normal poster paint with lots of water to create a similar effect). I really like the ease of the project, the bright colours and the lack of mess it creates. The idea and the picture below come from the blog: Art Teacher In LA. You can find all of the instructions on how to make them there!

http://artteacherinla.wordpress.com

You can check out her other simple and creative Halloween Art lesson ideas if you click here too. There are ideas for every age group.  I really like her Monster Collages and her Silhouette Acrylic Paintings in particular!

I hope you get some inspiration from some of these ideas and enjoy your mid term break.

(By the way, If you are an infant teacher and haven't already checked out my Halloween Themed Infant Lessons, check them out, you might get some good ideas for the last week of school!)

Decorating for Halloween!

Over the past week we have been getting a little 'spooky' in fifth class. I was adding some finishing touches to our Halloween decor today and thought I would share some of my displays with you (I know, sometimes I go way overboard!):

My Nature Table last year:

Pumpkin lantern, Dealz

'Straw' packaging from a hamper

Coloured paper leaves

Scarecrow, bought in the US

Conkers, leaves and a tree branch

This year's Nature Table: 

Pumpkin lantern, Dealz

'Straw' packaging from a hamper

Coloured silk leaves, Amazon

Scarecrow, bought in the US

Conkers, conker shells, leaves, tree stump, rocks, acorns, pine cones and a tree branch

Halloween crayon scrapings art display in the classroom: 

Words from Seomra Ranga

Halloween paintings on the classroom windows: 

Spiderwebs, Dealz

 Other window decor:

Window stickers, Dealz

Irish word display this year:

Scarecrow, bought in the US

Coloured silk leaves, Amazon

'Straw' packaging from a hamper

Words from Seomra Ranga

Teacher's desk:

Trick or Treat bucket, Tesco

Ghost and pumpkin, Dealz

Book shelf:

Pumpkin lights, Dealz
Skull, Lidl
Bones in a Bag, Aldi
Cobwebs, Dealz

I hope you enjoyed having a peak around my classroom and happy decorating!

Throwback Thursday: Halloween Havoc in Infants

So it's coming close to that time of year again - personally one of my favourite times of the year - Halloween! For those of you planning some Halloween based activities in your classroom, here are some ideas to help you along!

Gaeilge: Oíche Shamhna

Our mála draíochta for Halloween presented us with some Halloween costumes to dress up in. Included in this was a ghost mask, a witches hat, a pumpkin mask and a cat mask. The children pulled out an outfit and put it on them as we named the 'character'. They all lined up and I asked the rest of the class things like: Cé hí an chailleach? Cé hé ___? Cad é seo? srl. We also played the usual games of Cluiche Kim, éist agus dáthaigh and the like! We sang the song 'Oíche Shamhna' to the tune of Fréres Jacques as well.

Oíche Shamhna from SeniorInfants

History/English: Halloween Games:
I read them the story with accompanying video, 'Today is Halloween'. (If you had the hard copy or Big Book of this/a similar story you could integrate this with English!)

 We talked about things the children in the story did at Halloween and things the children in the class usually do/games they play at Halloween. The children then went home and talked to their parents about games they played at Halloween when they were young. We discussed these the following day (Apple Bobbing and Snap Apple) and we watched sections of these videos and discussed whether they ever played them/saw them being played and which they think they would prefer to play. (We played versions of these games during our Halloween party on the last day before midterm!) 

We talked about which games they preferred - today's games or games their parents played. They then folded an A4 page in two and on one half drew a picture of games 'Today' and on the other half, games their parents played.

Religion: Light and Darkness

We sang the Alive-O song about Halloween. I then showed them a little teddy and a shoebox with a hole in the top, big enough to fit a torch in. I shone in the flashlight (as the sun in the sky) and asked how they thought Teddy would feel in the box (Happy - he can see, feels warm etc). I then dimmed the flashlight and stuck it in, telling them it was the moon. I asked how Teddy would feel now (maybe cold, but at least he can still see, so he is happy enough). Then I stuck in the torch a final time, but off this time. We talked about how he felt sad as it is dark, he is scared, cold and can't see. We discussed what makes us feel better if we find ourselves in the dark. We talked about the good things about having the sun and electric lights to brighten up the darkness and thanked God in a 'Prayer of Light' for giving us these things. This provided a good introduction to stories and activities on this subject of 'Light' in religion during the week leading up to Halloween.      

                                   Music: Halloween's Coming!

We talked about Halloween sounds and what makes them. We used body percussion and our voices to copy these sounds. Each group got a different sound to portray and decide how they were going to do it. I created a Halloween Music Composition chart using symbols for the different sounds (cat, ghost, door creaking, windy cloud etc) and we performed the sequence of sounds with each group waiting until I pointed to their symbol to perform their sound. We created some pretty spooky music!

We also learned the song, 'Halloween's Coming', from the Right Note, Senior Infants which featured some more fun Halloween sound effects! 

Art: Cotton Wool Ghosts

Nothing too strenuous on the art front for this theme I'm afraid! One of the Halloween art projects we undertook was making these ghosts with cotton wool. We talked about scary faces and how to make our ghost's face look. We drew a ghost shape onto a sheet of card, drew a scary face on it, cut it out and stuck on little bits of cotton wool on the front and back of it. We then hung them up around the room for a spooooky atmosphere!

(UPDATE 2014: Keep an eye out for a post next week on some more Halloween  art ideas!)

How to: Teach Long Division

My favourite Maths topic to teach to senior classes is long division. Some people may find that a little strange, but I love teaching children something they think should be really challenging and seeing the pride they have in their work when they have nailed the method in only a few lessons. (Note: This lesson should only be taught once the children have mastered simple division and once they have a good understanding of the concepts of division, place value and why we do what we do during the procedure.) 
My method of teaching it is as follows:

1. Say the problem is 425 ÷ 25:
Write down all of the x25 tables along the side of the page before you do anything else. Get the children to use a rough work column to do these workings if they are unable to do them in their head. Usually I only tell them to do 6 of the tables as often you will not have to go further than that and you can always add to the list later if you need to!
E.g.
25 x 0 = 0
25 x 1 = 25                             Rough Work
25 x 2 = 50                                  25
25 x 3 = 75                                   x3
25 x 4 = 100                                  75
25 x 5 = 125
25 x 6 = 150
25 x 7 = 175

2. Highlight (with a yellow highlighter or a red pen) what I call the 'Magic Numbers'. These are the middle numbers and they are called this for a very specific reason.

E.g.
25 x 0 = 0                             Rough Work
25 x 1 = 25                                   25
25 x 2 = 50                                   x3                              
25 x 3 = 75                                   75
25 x 4 = 100
25 x 5 = 125
25 x 6 = 150
25 x 7 = 175
When you have done this, you can start solving the problem as you would any division sum. This is where the 'Magic Numbers' come into play.

3. Write down the sum:
                                                       

25/425

4. Cover the last two numbers as you would with simple division (with your finger!):

              

25/435

5. Check the tables you have written out to see which answer is closest to the 4 you can still see.

        ↓

25 x 0 = 0    

25 x 1 = 25  

25 x 2 = 50  

25 x 3 = 75  

25 x 4 = 100

25 x 5 = 125

25 x 6 = 150

25 x 7 = 175

As you can see above, 0 is! Therefore the magic number belonging to that sum (25 x 0 = 0) FLIES on top of the tree branch and sits there, while the answer which is not magic and unable to fly (0), crawls in under the tree instead to be taken away from 4.

        0      

25/435

-0

 4

6. Uncover the second digit in the number (2) and see it follow the 4, down below the line as it was feeling lonely up there!:

    0  

25/425

  - 0↓

    42

7. Now you have 42 ÷ 25. Look at the tables you have written earlier and see which answer is closest to 42.                         ↓

25 x 0 = 0    

25 x 1 = 25  

25 x 2 = 50  

25 x 3 = 75  

25 x 4 = 100

25 x 5 = 125

25 x 6 = 150

25 x 7 = 175

In this case 25 x 1 = 25 is closest. Therefore the magic 1 flies on top of the branch again and the 25 crawls in under the tree to be taken away from 42.

    01  

25/425

  -0↓

   42

 - 25

8. Uncover the final digit in the number (5). It gets very lonely too so decides to come and join the 17: 

      01   

25/425

  - 0↓

    42

     -25↓

      175

9. Now you have 175 ÷ 25. Look at the tables that were written out earlier to see which answer is closest to 175.                       ↓

25 x 0 = 0    

25 x 1 = 25  

25 x 2 = 50  

25 x 3 = 75  

25 x 4 = 100

25 x 5 = 125

25 x 6 = 150

25 x 7 = 175

In this case 25 x 7 = 175 is closest. The magic 7 flies up on top of the tree and the 175 crawls in underneath to be taken away, leaving us with 0.

   017

25/425

  - 0↓

    42

  - 25↓

    175

  - 175

       0

That leaves us with 17 as an answer.

Every teacher has their own strategies for teaching long division, however I find this method works best for me. I also find using a highlighter to be a great novelty for the children and also a great visual aid for visual learners.
Don't forget that no matter what strategy you use, practice is the most important thing when it comes to long division. This website has some great worksheets you can use with your class if you want to give them as much practice as possible with the concept. Enjoy teaching long division!