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Halloween Roundup

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It is a holiday many of us fear as teachers.  There are so many differing opinions on this holiday.  What is and is not appropriate to teach?  And then there is all that candy!!  I’ve put together this group of resources, tips, blog posts and more to help you get through this spooky day.  So grab your pillowcase and Wonder Woman mask, and come along with me!  Just click on the pictures to go to that activity.

Math Resources

From Susan Jones Teaching, I found this group of 3 math counting games ready to download and print for free.  You will need to pick up a few things from the dollar store to make the most of these games, but would be totally worth it for something you could use year after year.

Who doesn’t love free printables. This pumpkin seed math activity is perfect for practicing counting with your kids. I love the idea of using real pumpkin seeds with it too!

From Grade School Giggles, here is a free pumpkin seed counting activity.  You will likely want to do some laminating to make these more durable, but then you will have them year after year.  Great activity for Thanksgiving as well!

FREE Boo Bump Halloween Math Game (Addition)

From SunnyDays, there is this super cute bump Bingo game.  Basically, the kids roll three dice, add the sum and cover the answer with their marker.  Just print and go!

ELA Resources

Pumpkin Book Report Ideas - Adorable pumpkin book report ideas for teachers, students, and parents.

From Keeping Up with Mrs. Harris, comes some great ideas for decorating your little pumpkins to look like your favorite story character.  Some really clever ideas here!

From Special Needs for Special Kids (me ;)), I have a free cut and paste or tracing spelling free download to snag.  There are 2 differentiated versions.

Free Halloween Wordsearch Activity & Writing Prompts

For your older students, grab these awesome word searches from Tracee Orman.

Science Resources

halloween-science-experiment

From Literacy Lattes,  is a super fun and easy experiment you can do with all that left over candy corn.  The directions are well explained and there is a free lab guide to download.

Free Spider Activities

A Classroom for All Seasons, has this amazing free download that has some great spider activities!!  A nice resource for Halloween without actually teaching about the holiday.

Haunted Hallowe'en Hand Melt - happy hooligans

From Happy Hooligans, come this super cool (pun intended) experiment that combines fine motor and sensory experiences all in one activity.  There is a lot to learn with this seemingly simple set up.  Perfect for the upcoming spooky day!!

Art, Fine Motor, & Sensory

Easy No-Mess Pumpkin Art

From Teaching 2 and 3 year olds, I included this activity to address that sensory component so many of our special kiddos have.  I also like that is is fairly  mess free and allows for a lot of independence.  Finally, it in not dependent on strong motor skills.  Accessible for every ability level.

Slime, goo, GAK, silly-putty….Whatever you call it, goo is fun! These “Franken-Slime” cups are a great project to do with the kids. There’s a writing freebie and ideas for cross-curricular integration too!

From Grade School Giggles, comes this easy recipe for that all-favorite slime.  Again, the directions give great tips to make this mess-free and really plays into those sensory needs.  In addition, there are some free downloads to make the most of this activity by pulling in science, writing and more.

Here are 7 fun and exciting fine motor activities for fall. Perfect Halloween, pumpkin, and Autumn fine motor activities for kids in preschool, pre-k, tot school and kindergarten.

From Early Learning Ideas comes 7 fine motor bins you can easily set up for your classroom this month.  There are also 2 tracing templates to download for free at the end of the post.

Teaching About Halloween in Special Ed

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Do You Teach Halloween??

So for years I was in an elementary public school setting that seriously frowned upon teaching anything relating directly to Halloween.  Kids were not allowed to dress up, and we did not have the parades around the track or parking lot I remembered as a kid.  I always respected this policy, but it also bugged me.  Why? There are a couple of reasons I think we should be allowed to teach about Halloween in a public school setting.

At the end of this post is a link to a FREEBIE to inspire you to teach about this holiday!!

  1.  There is a lot of history tied to this holiday.  Customs and traditions began long ago as a way people believed they were protecting their crops and families. history of halloween1

By the 1950’s the tradition of going house to house asking for candy began.

history of halloween2

Today, this is still a very important economic holiday for the United States.

history of halloween3

2.  The other reason I feel it is important to be given the option to teach about this holiday is that if you have a special ed class, especially that contains students with autism, this time can be confusing and scary.  trick or treating1

Putting a costume comes with all kinds of sensory issues for these special kids, and interacting with strangers in order to get a bag full of candy can lead to frustration and anxiety.  trick or treating2

If we could talk about these traditions in a safe and structured way in the classroom, perhaps more of our students with special needs would be able to enjoy trick or treating or simply dressing up as their favorite super hero.trick or treating3

So, I know there a lot of people out there who do not celebrate or believe this is truly a holiday.  However, I think there is a respectful and appropriate way we can teach about Halloween.  So, if you are allowed, would you teach Halloween?

If you are interested in a unit on this holiday, designed specifically for students with special needs, especially autism, click on the image below.

Halloween Unit 2

And now for the FREEBIE!!  Click below to download my Halloween Spelling booklet for FREE.

Halloween FREEBIE