Surviving Halloween: A Week of Lesson Plans

Just when everything is working SO SMOOTHLY in your classroom the end of October rolls around and it hits you...HALLOWEEN! How will I ever get through? Are my kids going to be crazy ALL week because it falls on a Wednesday this year? Wednesday! Come on people!

I have a couple of answers for you. 
#1 You will get through it. 
#2 Yes they will be crazy but you can make that a good thing. 
#3 The whole week is going to be shot so you might as well embrace it and have a good time! 

Backstory totally unnecessary to read but I always feel the need to explain. You see, I create calendars for my school so every summer when I re-do the calendar I start to anticipate what certain dates will look like. Halloween fell on Saturday and Sunday a couple of years ago, I was in the clear. Valentine's day on a Friday this year? I can do that. But this year as I typed in Halloween and realized it was on a Wednesday I started stressing. When I stress I plan obsessively to alleviate the worry. So that's how this whole thing came about! 

I created Halloween Lesson Plans for the whole week that includes 4 days of fun curriculum centered activities then one BIG day to celebrate with Halloween stations and party ideas. That way it will fit into any week. I plan on using all four days this week because I know Thursday and Friday after Halloween are going to be rough. It takes kinders about a week to recover from all of the excitement! 

ALL ABOUT BATS: 
One day focuses on bats. It includes a little book for students to use as a reference for facts, bat crafts, reading lesson with the -at word family, book connections (Stellaluna lesson, my favorite!), a food craft, and a whole bunch more. Basically everything you need to spend a day exploring bats. 

ALL ABOUT BONES: 
This day focuses on skeletons but takes a more educational approach rather than spooky or scary. I have an activity where I teach my students all of the bones in the body (not all but a lot!)  during the month of October. That was the starting point for this day of lessons. It includes a little book to use as a reference, a calcium (milk) taste test to use as a graphing activity, book connections, and posters to support the science facts introduced throughout the day. I may be the most excited about this day!

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ALL ABOUT JACK-O-LANTERS: 
I chose Jack-O-Lanterns not because I want to teach my students about the history of them or why they came to be (it's a disturbing story).....but really because my entire month of October is full of pumpkin investigations. I already do a 2 week ALL ABOUT PUMPKINS unit so I didn't want to repeat. This day really focuses on all of the fun books that include Jack-O-Lanterns like The Five Little Pumpkins, The Runaway Pumpkin, and Too Many Pumpkins. They are always my must reads during Halloween. 

ALL ABOUT HALLOWEEN: 
This is the day that I added in all of those classic Halloween stories like Room on the Broom and The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything. I included a sequencing story to go with The Little Old Lady, a retell activity idea for Room on the Broom, a slime recipe (and tips for a no mess experience), and a fun Monster Exchange activity you can do with another class. There are lots of fun options! 

HALLOWEEN DAY: 
The day of Halloween is full of ideas for stations to include during your regular routine or as part of a "party" celebration. The purpose of this day is to keep them ENGAGED all day long so the day will go quickly and they can get to their festivities.  Stations include pokey pins, spider stacking, play dough (with recipe), Lego building ideas, cup stacking, STEM ideas, and more. 9 stations are included in all with some using worksheets I provided and some just using materials you have around school (or easily accessible). Oh and I included a little treat tag too just in case you hand out treats on Halloween. 

It is sure to be a fun week and now instead of dreading it I am actually looking forward to it! I did this last year during Valentine's day and this approach really saved the day. I am hoping to spread that good vibe to Halloween too. If I can manage to figure out the month of December then I will have this whole kindergarten thing mastered! (11 years later....) 

Thanks for stopping in to read all about surviving Halloween. If you would like to save this post for later just pin it here! Thank you!