My favorite season is Fall…not because I like pumpkin spice {gag} — sorry to all my psl fans. But I love when it gets cooler and the leaves change color. I love when the wind picks up and I can pull out scarves and boots. I love decorating for Fall and seeing all the cute pumpkin decorations. Mostly, I love when the weather cools down after a long, hot summer.
Any season though is a great time for student engagement…am I right?!? I love looking at pumpkin cut outs and witch hat finger puppets – there always seems to be something I can do with those things.
Here are a few fun ideas that I’m using this month to keep my students engaged and having fun while learning.
I found these beautiful, bright pumpkins on line as a FREE printable. Once I printed them out and cut them out ( they have yet to be laminated….busy much!?! ) I added letters and words to them. I added both for a couple of reasons. I teach reading all day and have a variety of levels in those groups. I offer free tutoring on Friday mornings for a small group of kiddos that are still struggling with letter recognition and sounds…although they do know some sight words.
I got this idea from a teacher that Jen Jones was visiting on one of her trips. She used a mummy wind up toy – HOW SMART is she?!?! I just happened to have one of those squishy light up toys handy so I used that instead. I let the children take turns tossing the alien. They had to tell me if what they landed on was a word or a letter. Then based on that they had to tell me the letter name and sound(s) or read the sight word to me. We had so much fun playing and the time flew by!
This little guy did his own differentiation. He is proficient on his letters and sounds so he was sure to hit a sight word, love that about him!
Another fun thing I have planned for a read aloud with engagement on Halloween is this:
I will be reading a Halloween picture book that rhymes and whenever the students hear a rhyme they will hold up their witch hat pointer. I just printed out witch hats and hot glued them to pipe cleaner, you could also glue them to a straw. Thanks for the fun idea: Leigh @ The Applicious Teacher
Hoping this is the last week I see 93 degrees on my phone – ready for some of that cool Fall weather.
Happy teaching friends,
xo
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