Trick or Treat?

I remember when I was in elementary school, Halloween was a huge deal. My friends and I would spend recesses planning our costumes so that we could show them off at the school parade on Halloween day. Generally that whole week would be a build up of excitement until our class party that day, where I can't say much learning went on. I guess this might explain why many schools (secretly to my disappointment) have refrained from celebrating the holiday all together.

This is why I was relieved when my master teacher from my main placement asked if I could help her out at their Halloween Party, the Friday before Halloween. While it wasn't what I expected, I was very impressed with the way she was able to incorporate learning into their activities while still making it a fun experience.

In the morning, before the party, she did a science lesson on spider anatomy involving vocabulary. For the party, she set up 6 stations between which the 4th graders would rotate. One of the activities was to draw an anatomically correct spider. After the kids rotated through every station, they played spider bingo. That morning, while they were learning about spiders, they learned 16 vocabulary words pertaining to spiders and/or their environment. Then, during bingo, she read the definitions and they had to mark the correct vocabulary word in order to win.

It was great to see my 4th graders again and to learn some fun ways to incorporate learning into class parties!