A FUN Halloween Singable Book Project!

Hey everyone!! I just wanted to quickly share about our Halloween Song Singable Book project since, you know, Halloween is just around the corner!! :)  This book making project helps children learn to follow directions, develop their fine motor skills, and learn reading skills such as tracking, fluency, and concepts of print. Plus, each child winds up with a book to add to their classroom library that they can each read and “own.” SO cute!




Now this little singable book is just a rewrite of a traditional tune, together with a Halloween poem.  But in my version, I take care to include only real things such as bats, brown owls, trick or treaters, black cats, and jack-o-lanterns.  There is one small exception: there is this one little jack-o-lantern that DOES hop up and down, but that’s the scariest thing in there! The stickers on the cover are totally optional.




Hopefully, you are still allowed to mention the word “Halloween” at your school, because I think that making this book is just so much fun!  To me, this little book is a piece of Americana; it contains symbols of fall and of Halloween.  Probably 95% of our students will go trick or treating.  Only once in the past, a parent asked me to have her child participate differently by not putting a face on the pumpkin.  Problem solved!  In 20 years of teaching K, that is the only problem I have had- and I think it’s mainly because there are no evil characters in it, people seem to be fine with it.

We always LOVE it, singing our hearts out every single day!  You know what else?  There’s a video of it on YouTube, so you wouldn’t even need to get a DVD or purchase the music! (But you can if you want the other great songs that go with it!)  The printable template and instructions for the Halloween book are $4. So actually, I think it’s a pretty good deal! It's also available in our Little Songs for Language Arts video collection our HeidiSongs Video Streaming site!




Here’s a run down of what exactly this is and what you’re getting in the download:
The Halloween Song Book Project – A counting book with five pages of Halloween fun! Includes one pumpkin, two owls, 3 trick or treaters, 4 cats and 5 bats. With 80 pages of full instructions and artwork to make this seasonal book! PLUS, an MP3 of the SONG that goes with it!!

File includes:
• Printable masters of Singable Book Songs
• Cutting dimensions and templates for easy classroom prep.
• PDF images of completed project
• Multiple text options including: Plain – Traceable – Lined – Blank space
• MP3 of the song





We usually do one page a day. When they are done with the book, we read the book together in small groups and practice turning the pages, finding letters and words that we know on the pages, identify the spine and the front and back covers, find the title, and then try to track the words as we read (speaking, not singing) the book together. Then we sing the book together again up to regular speed. Then the kids get to take the book home!

This fun, little Halloween project is only a $4 download on our website here!! Let me know if you make these!! I’d love to see and hear how they turn out!




Another fun Halloween activity we do is the Halloween Boo! Game!!




The kiddos get to practice sight words, numbers 0-20, and the concepts of more, less, and equal, in a Halloween themed game. The $3 download also includes blank cards so that you can modify the game to include your own sight words, etc.

Here’s an old video from my Kinder class in 2010 playing the game!




I hope you find these ideas helpful!! See you next week!

– Heidi




----------------------------------
Follow me! Did you enjoy this post? Do me a favor and share it with your friends! And follow this blog by signing up for my email updates here, or follow on Bloglovin', or follow me on TPT! I'm also on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and YouTube, too! Don't forget to sign up for our email newsletter for special deals and promo codes that you won't find out about anywhere else.

Popular posts from this blog

Creepy Crayon: Free Craft Template!

Image
Today, I am going to give you a link to our free Creepy Crayon craft that we made to accompany the book Creepy Crayon by Aaron Reynolds!   Yay!  If you are a fan of Creepy Carrots and A Creepy Pair of Underwear ,  then you were probably just as excited as I was for the next book in the series, Creepy Crayon !  And so by popular demand, we have have included the Creepy Crayon craft here as a free download!  We have also included links to our other crafts for Aaron Reynold's creepy books, too.  They are such fun! The Illustrations are FAB! I definitely need to give a shout out to illustrator Peter Brown, whose wonderful illustrations play a huge part in the popularity of these books!  I love the way he made almost all of it in gray tones, except for the crayon, of course!  The illustrations really give the story a creepy, but friendly tone.  I know I'll be a Peter Brown fan forever! This is a photo of my Creepy Carrots crafts samples in my classroom before I retired. Check Ou
Read more

How to Help Children That Have a Hard Time Learning the Alphabet

Image
Is your child (or student) having a hard time learning the alphabet?  Are those letters just not "sticking?" Does your child seem to know a letter one day, and then forgets it the next day- or even just a few minutes later? In this post, I will share my most recently developed techniques for helping kids learn and remember the alphabet. Check Vision- Thoroughly! During the past 30 years as a teacher, I have tried many things for all of the different types of learners that I’ve had. One thing that I would highly suggest is that you have your child's eyes checked, just in case you have not yet done that. I know that most schools have their school nurses do this, but I would suggest that a nurse is really not an optometrist, nor is he/she an ophthalmologist. I wrote about one little guy with vision issues in my post, Tips for Teaching the Alphabet to Struggling Learners . In that post, I shared that I had been teaching one child that had had such a difficul
Read more

Fun with STEM: A "Punkin Chunkin" Catapult with Craft Sticks!

Image
In this post, I am going to tell you about a really FUN, seasonal STEM project that I did with my first and second graders:  they made "Punkin" Chunkin" catapults with craft sticks and masking tape!  Then we measured to see who's pumpkin went the farthest!  The "punkins" were actually orange pompoms, so we had to use our imaginations, but none of the children cared.  They had an absolute BLAST! For this fun activity, we invited our new fifth grade buddies to come in and give us a hand, but I really think that the first and second graders could have done it on their own as well.  So if you are thinking of doing this with your own young students alone and without the help of older students, go for it!  I think that Kindergartners could do it too, but I would do it in small groups so that I could help those that needed it. My inspiration for this came from many different child constructed catapults that I have seen on Pinterest- along with a
Read more

Teaching Kids to WRITE the Numbers! – FREE Number Poems!

Image
Teaching children to write the numbers  correctly can be very frustrating for early childhood teachers! Also, attempting to GRADE their writing can be equally TRICKY! What does a number written correctly look like, versus one that is not?  In this post, I am going to tell you how I teach my students to write the numbers. I’ve posted some examples of student work showing numbers that look correct and some that are not, in my opinion.  I explain under the photos why certain numbers “would pass” or not.  I also have some FREE number formation poems to share with you, plus a FREE download of a parent guide that explains what those correctly formed numbers should look like- and the incorrect ones! So it seems that every year, getting the children to write those numbers can be something like pulling teeth: it comes slowly, and getting them to just “CARE” seems to be half the battle!  Perhaps the reason for this is that we know that the most important learning in math comes from wo
Read more

Teaching Phoneme Segmentation: Separating Sounds in Words (Freebies!)

Image
Teaching children to pick out all of the phonemes (or sounds) in a given word can be tricky!  This requires good listening skills and well developed phonemic awareness in general.  For some children, mastering phoneme segmentation can seem just about impossible!  Here are some teaching tips that have worked for me in the past. *  The best advice I can give is to practice segmenting words with a designated MOTION for a short time every single day with your whole class.  Even just one or two minutes per day will help! Look for suggested motions on this post. There is also a downloadable list of words to use, plus a homework sheet that you can download here. Here is where you can get another  word list for practicing words with two, three, and four phonemes. And here is another post with lists of words with four, five, or six phonemes. *  Give kids beads to slide down a pipe cleaner as they segment the word.  I made these "Segmentation Sliders" out of p
Read more

An EASY Critical Thinking Game for K/1 Kids!

Image
Today I'm going to tell you about a fun and EASY game to help boost critical thinking skills in Kindergarten or First Graders!  I call it The Critical Thinking Comparison Game, because in it, the kids are simply comparing one thing to another and telling what they think are the similarities and differences between two objects.  Believe it or not, my first graders LOVE this game and often ask me if we can play it again!  I think they like it because the game makes them feel successful and "smart."  I have also played it with Kindergartners, and they enjoyed it, too! The Critical Thinking Comparison Game is really very easy to play!  All you need is a few questions like the ones below, and something for the children to color, just to keep them busy while they wait for a turn to talk.   ( I also used my Critical Thinking Comparison Cards as a visual aid, but you can certainly play it without them! ) Here is the type of question that I ask in this game: How
Read more

Getting Control of a Very Difficult Class: TAKE TWO

Image
Have you ever had a class that just tried your patience day after day? Have you ever felt like you could walk away from teaching forever tomorrow, and be fine with it?  This is a repost of a piece that I wrote several years ago when I was teaching Kindergarten.  I'm now in second grade, and finding that I have many of the same problems!  Since I actually went back and read my own post again, I thought I would post it here for you again, too, with a few of my updated comments inserted in italics.  Hope it's helpful! This is the original post. ********** This year, I have one of the most challenging classes I have ever had. I am still working on training them to do what I want them to do, but I know that in the end, I will win! Meanwhile, we are spending a LOT of time on classroom management, modeling routines and procedures often. Here is a list of some classroom management tips and techniques that I have used successfully in Kindergarten, but I think that they would prob
Read more

A Creepy Pair of Underwear Craftivity FREEBIE!

Image
Today I have a fun and easy craft based on a SUPER fun book by Aaron Reynolds called A Creepy Pair of Underwear .  After reading this book just ONCE with my class last year, it instantly became the class favorite, and I KNEW we had to make the project!  The illustrations by Peter Brown provided the perfect inspiration.  We are providing the master and instructions free for you today at the end of this post.  I hope you enjoy it as much as we did! If you are unfamiliar with this fun book,  you can read the synopsis here on Amazon, where you can also purchase the book .  Another great book to go with it is Creepy Carrots, by the same author and illustrator.  Both are instant Halloween classics, in my opinion!  Don't miss them! My teammate Jeff Pang is super creative, and he adapted the design from the book to make it into a craft that would be simple enough for the children to make into their own little Creepy Pair of Underwear!  So kudos to Jeff!  He seems to be able t
Read more

20 Hands-On Ways to Build a Sight Word, (And Research to Back it Up!)

Image
Today I am pleased to share TWENTY great ideas for building the sight words to help kids learn them in a hands-on way!  Making sight words (AKA high frequency words) in lots of different ways allows kids to choose their best learning modality and really take charge of their own learning. I'm super excited about this way of teaching, and I hope you will be, too! When my teammate and I do this, we focus on just ONE of the trickier sight words per week and have the kids BUILD JUST THAT ONE WORD over and over again in many ways.   If there happens to be a parent volunteer at that center, they are to ask the children to spell it and tell what the word is often. This is what our Sight Word Building Table looks like.  We put out a variety of choices, and the children can change seats each time they finish to keep building the word.  If there happens to be a volunteer, she ask them what word they are working on and to spell it, and will hand them a different manipulative.  
Read more

A Twist on the Headband Game!

Image
Here’s a fun, new, twist on the classic Headband Game that makes it reusable and adaptable to any subject and any level!  AND it gets the kids up and moving as they learn, so that’s an even greater bonus!!!!  This awesome idea was suggested by a participant in one of my workshops when I presented the Sight Word Headband Game and wondered aloud how to make this adaptable to kids in higher grades that learn their new words much more quickly.  So I tried it out myself, and voilá!  It worked out great!  My own class has done this now a few times and they LOVE it! So here is how it works; I’ll remind you of the my original version first.  With the original  Sight Word Headband Game , I wrote a word on a strip of paper and formed it into a headband.  The kids all put one on, and then walked around the room and wrote the words that they found on their friends’ heads next to their friends’ names on a sheet of paper. Now with this second “twist” on this “Advanced” Headband G
Read more