
Half Spider (with free printable template)


(Edvard Munch’s) “The Scream” Blow Painting
Starlight Pumpkins (Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd grade)
You know that there are great art lesson plans and blogs out there. But where to start? Let me tell you about some of the best ones I’ve seen (in no particular order):
Sample cool project:
Sample cool project:
Sample cool project:
Sample cool project:
I saw an idea similar to this and thought it would be fun to make. Contrary to popular belief, graphing is FUN! Students will color and count each type of picture on the page, and then fill in the corresponding graphing bars to indicate the total. Click here for the free printable worksheet (PDF): I Can Graph the Pictures- Halloween
Click here for more fun (& FREE!) Halloween stuff!
Halloween is a perfect time to talk to kids about safety. Here’s a cool resource for teachers from the National Crime Prevention Council and it’s got age appropriate online activities for kids (featuring McGruff the Crime Fighting Dog) as well as resources for adults teaching children. The teacher who submitted this idea learned about it from a police officer who also included these cute Halloween themed pages to remind kids how to be safe while trick-or-treating: page 1 page 2
It’s always nice to have the student contribute to parent teacher conferences, and have them review their progress and behavior before you sit down with their parents. So I present to you two versions of my “How I Feel About School” student form. Click here for the free printable PDFs:
Parent -Teacher Conference form – lower grades (revised)
Parent Teacher Conferences- student form (upper grades)
Click here to read 25 tips to surviving parent teacher conferences!
Here’s a fun, simple activity for kids learning multiplication facts or learning simple arrays. Use color tiles (or little square pieces of construction paper) to make the rectangles described in the riddle. Then draw your answer on the page (and write the multiplication fact is represents). Enjoy!
I made 2 versions using the same riddles. One is a half sheet with 2 questions on it (since sometimes kids get overwhelmed with a full sheet). Click here for the free worksheet PDFs: Rectangle Riddles- half sheets Rectangle Riddles- set of 4 pages
This is one of my favorite games. This works for reading, math or anything you can write on a card with an answer (great for spelling words, sight words, letter sounds, math facts, states/capitals, etc).
The pictures are of our spelling words for the week. Kids get in groups of three or four. One student does not have a fly swatter, while the others each have one. The student without a fly swatter is the reader. Spread the words (or math fact cards, or whatever) on the ground. The reader reads any word. The other kids try to be the first to swat the word. Whoever swats the word first keeps the word. After the words are gone, the fly swatters get passed to the left. If you don’t have the fly swatter, you become the reader. Be sure to set up rules before the game that if someone intentionally swats another student with the fly swatter they sit out a round, or whatever your class rule would be. For a whole class experience put the words on the board and give each team one fly swatter. Kids love this game!
My friend over at Cultivating Questioners had this to say about the fly swatter game: “I divide my whiteboard into two sections and write words or numbers on the board randomly. I then divide the students into two teams. I have one person from each team step forward with the fly swatter in hand. I then call out a problem or word and the students run to the front of the room and slap the correct answer in their team’s section. They love it!”