What would your Jack-O-Lantern say?

If your Jack-O-Lantern could talk, what would it say?  Well if mine could talk it would say "where have you been?"  Oh my what a week last week, parent conferences, grades due, monthly monitoring meetings, organizing our school Fall Festival, running daughters to and fro and of course this is the week I got an awful cold!  Now that the week is done, I am beginning to surface!

This is a cute activity I am doing with the kids tomorrow and thought I would share.  The kids will make this pumpkin into a Jack-O-Lantern and then using the speech bubble write what it would say.   I am then going to teach them how to use quotation marks when writing a sentence.

Click the picture or here to grab it FREE!  I hope you have a great Halloween Eve!

I Love Spookley!

I love teaching with Spookley the square pumpkin.  This is a great book with an unbelievable message. Today I found fabulous free resources on Pacer's National Bullying Prevention Center.  When you register you will have access to the Spookley play script, can view the animated movie free online and access to several multi-subject lesson plans and printables.

In addition to the bullying lessons taught with this book, I teach more about character traits, story sequencing, fiction vs. non-fiction, the plant life cycle, shapes.... the lis goes on and on. (OK as I am typing this my mind is filling with ideas for an activity pack I am ready to start work on, I see a late work night in my future! Check back soon.)

Here is a cute graphic organizer to use when writing about pumpkins.  I know many people use the can, have, are graphic organizers.  It makes more sense to me and my kiddos with some topics to use are, can, have.  So click here to grab this writing organizer and paper.

Getting Ready for Pumpkin Fun!

Fall is here, although it doesn't really feel like it in Florida.  I love teaching about pumpkins during this time of year.  You can incorporate it in all subject areas. 

Reading and Pumpkins ~  It is great to discuss schema with and adding new information to our schema.  I make a very cute KWL chart and use it during the week as we learn more about pumpkins.  There are so many great pumping books, fiction and non-fiction.  I love contrasting and comparing.  My two favorite books have to be "The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin" and "Too Many Pumpkins." 

I also love doing pumpkin themed word work activities.  Building words with the letters in pumpkin patch.  It is also a great way to learn about adjectives.  The kids always love expanding their vocabulary as well.  My all time favorite word has to be peduncle!  

Math and Pumpkins ~ I review and teach so many topics with one pumpkin!  Estimation is always a skill I introduce with pumpkins.  We weigh and compare the weight to other objects.  We measure the circumference.  The we open in up and look at the seeds.  I divvy them up among the class and we count and add them to find out how many seeds are in our pumpkin.  The teaching opportunities are endless.

Science and Pumpkins ~ My kids love the great pumpkin investigation!  The favorite part is the sink or float experiment.  I love bringing in the biggest pumpkin I can find and letting the kids predict if the pumpkin will float.  They never get it right.  We discuss plant life cycles.  This year I am also going to let one rot for the kids to see and hopefully a few seeds will sprout too.

October is a month of Fabulous Fall Freebies on my blog!  Here is the pumpkin book my students complete as a part of their Super 6 Daily Differentiated Centers.  It includes activities for Word Work, Read to Self, S.T.E.M. and Book Club.  So grab this book FREE at my TpT store.