Nonfiction text structures (compare and contrast, sequential order, cause and effect) can be tricky for students to understand. That’s one of the reasons I like reviewing this challenging skill with these holidays around the word passages. It’s not what I use to introduce these text structures, but it is a fantastic review.

Since my style of instruction changes from year to year to meet the needs of each group of students, I created multiple options of this resource.

Task Cards

One way to use this activity is with task cards. In this version, the passage is written on a half-page task card. I prefer the larger recording sheet, but I also included half-page recording sheets. You never know what you will need! In the lesson shown below, students sequence holiday traditions in The Netherlands.

You can see how the same format works with practicing cause and effect with the Holidays in Japan task card.

Worksheet

There is another version that includes the passage and the graphic organizer on one page. In the example below students compare and contrast holiday traditions in China with their own holiday traditions. You could also have students compare and contrast traditions in China with another country students have studied.

This is another example of the graphic organizer-worksheet version of the resource. In the worksheet below, students find and describe cause and effect relationships using holiday traditions in Norway.

Traditional Worksheet

Another version of this resource includes traditional questions that incorporate nonfiction text structures. It’s a great way to have students apply their understanding.

I have a different holidays around the word resource that I love too! These are two completely different resources. This resource includes all new countries, so there isn’t any overlap of content. In the nonfiction text structure resource students learn about traditions in: Russia, China, England, India, Japan, Norway, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Netherlands, and Argentina.

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Tomorrow, my students will participate in a Halloween Scavenger Hunt. We originally had a school-wide outdoor activity planned, but due to rain, I’m moving to Plan B.

The goal of the Halloween scavenger hunt is for students to place the corresponding sticker beside each of the seven riddles. The trick is that students have to solve the riddle in order to find the sticker.

I’ve hidden all of the stickers inside books in our school library. The number that is the solution to the riddle is the number on the spine of the book. For example, the answer to the riddle on top is 914, so the stickers are placed in Europe.

When planning the Halloween scavenger hunt, I had to be careful when selecting the books to hide the stickers. I haven’t introduced decimals, so I avoided any book with a decimal on the spine. I also avoided books where there were several books with the same number. I also chose books that were not frequently checked-out of the library.

I printed the stickers on label paper with .5 inch circles and placed the whole sheet (section) in the book. When students solve the riddle, they’ll go to the book, get a sticker, and return the book correctly.

I even made multiple versions of the same riddle to prevent everyone from solving the same riddle at the same time.

I image the answer key will be my best friend tomorrow! It can be hard to keep up with what goes where without that in my hand.

If you’d like to do this Halloween scavenger hunt your students, you can download the files for free!  You can download this resource in the FREEBIE LIBRARY! This file is the PowerPoint version that is editable. More than likely you’ll need to make changes to make the numbers work for your school library. You can download the editable file and make any changes you need!

I hope you and your students enjoy! If you’d like to see more Halloween ideas, be sure to check out this post!

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Every holiday season is busy, but this year it feels as if I cannot keep my head above water. There are no parties or events keeping me busy, so I have to assume it’s the challenge of teaching in a pandemic. Can’t image how that could be difficult, right? There are several resources I had hoped to share with you much earlier in the season, but things didn’t work out the way I planned. However, I still want to share these last minute Christmas resources with you-just in case you can squeeze them in this year. If not, there’s always next year!

In this post:

• Christmas Division
• Holidays Around the World Math
• Paired Passages

Christmas Division Project

In our division unit, students typically use long division to create a “Division Garden.” It’s always one of their favorite division lessons. You can read about how I introduce and teach long division in my How to Teach Long Division post.

Since we are way off our schedule for the year, students are just now at that point of the division unit. Rather than stressing, I adapted the lesson to a Christmas Division Project activity. It follows the same premise as the Division Garden, but it has a seasonal twist.

This combines the rigor from the long division unit with a little extra holiday fun. That always makes the lesson a little more engaging for students. Plus, it looks great in the hallway!

Since the premise of the lesson is in my original 4th Grade Division Unit, I added this as a bonus file in the resource.

There are a few other lessons that I gave a seasonal look. For example, I turned the Planning for Crafts and Party Planner lessons into Christmas themed lessons with the same content.

Those Christmas resources are also included in the bonus file in the Division Unit. You can just download it again for access to these extra files.

Holidays Around the World Math

I also made two 3-act tasks (or at least a version of a 3-act task) for Holidays Around the World Math. The goals was to make a task for each country studied, but…..maybe next year! In the meantime, here’s what is ready.

For Australia, students solve a complex problem involving Carols by Candlelight.

Students will use a Google Form to work their way through the problem. I prefer using Google Forms for this task, because it forces students to look at each part of the problem. Far too often, students skip to trying to solve the problem without analyzing what they know, need to know, and thinking of reasonable estimates.

There is another tasking involving the holidays in Brazil. Once again, students use multimedia to solve a complex problem.

Google Forms are such a great way to guide students through the problem solving process. I prefer not setting a required correct answer, because this isn’t your traditional word problem. These will present a considerable challenge for students and will need to be followed with a conversation about the strategies used and the possible results.

You can download a FREE copy of these Christmas resources here. You’ll get a PDF of the recording sheet as well as links to the digital forms.

Paired Passages

The other major update is that I added a paired passage version to my Holidays Around the World reading resource. I love how it elevates the rigor of the passages and how it incorporates so many informational reading standards.

I made sure to create a digital version of this as well. This is one of those resources that I may prefer using digitally.

You don’t have to pay anything extra for this update! You can simply download the file again for access!

I hope that these last minute ideas and resources help you out!

The post Last Minute Christmas Resources appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

Every year I’m bound and determined to help students experience the magic of the holiday season. At the same time, I want the learning to continue and to minimize behavior issues. In this post, I’ve shared a collection of my favorite Christmas activities that are just right for upper elementary students.

Browse these resources:

Reading

• Holidays Around the World
• Holidays Around the World Interactive Notebook
• Twas the Week Before Christmas
• Christmas Writing

Math

• Christmas Division Lessons
• Holidays Around the World Math
• Holiday Lights Math Project
• Christmas Fraction Project
• Christmas Geometry Project
• 12 Days of Christmas Task Cards
• Christmas Math Centers

Science & More

• Christmas STEM
• Christmas Escape

Reading

Holidays Around the World

This Holidays Around the World resource incorporates reading and writing. There are ten sets of reading passages that are based on different cultures’ and nations’ winter holidays and traditions. For differentiation, each of the passages is written on three different reading levels. You’ll also find three sets of text dependent comprehension questions for each of the passages.

One of my goals is to give you as many options as possible. I know there is never a one size fits all approach to anything in the classroom, so I’m continuously adding-on to existing resources. To help you extend your holidays around the word lessons, I created a bonus version of this resource. Of course, you’ll have access to both, so you can use what works for you. This extension includes a paired passage version of the holidays around the world passages.

There are multiple choice questions for each country, as well as nonfiction text structure and nonfiction text features questions. Students also answer a main idea and supporting details question for each passage.

My favorite portion is when students write a paragraph (or more) to integrate the text from both passages. Students love the fiction response, because they get to be creative. I know there are a lot of options, but don’t feel like you need to do it all! Pick what you want! There is a PDF version and a Google Slides version of this resource.

Holidays Around the World Interactive Notebook

Students love this Holidays Around the World Interactive Notebook. This resource is perfect for reviewing informational reading skills and strategies. For example, when students learn about Brazil, they will work on main idea and supporting detail, or when students study Australia they use text evidence to answer questions. You do not need the close reading passages for this pack, but it is an amazing companion resource! There is a print and digital version of this resource.

Twas the Week Before Christmas

This literacy resource Twas the Week Before Christmas is based around five Christmas picture books. For each book there is a reading, writing, and art activity. Most books also include a STEM activity. For example, after reading Snowmen at Christmas, students make a snowman Venn-Diagram that compares the snowmen’s celebration with the student’s celebration.

Christmas Writing

I have a December Creative Writing Freebie! It’s fun of fun, creative prompts that your students will love! There are 15 different writing prompts that require students to think and write creatively! You can download it here!

Math

Christmas Division Lessons

I’ve adapted some of my division lessons in my Division Unit (not seasonal) to Christmas division lessons. I included this Christmas option as an additional PDF file to access when you download the Division Unit. Hopefully, these little updates and twists will make the division unit a little more fun for students.

Holidays Around the World Math

I made two 3-act tasks (or at least a version of a 3-act task) for Holidays Around the World Math. The goals was to make a task for each country studied, but…..maybe next year! In the meantime, here’s what is ready. For Australia, students solve a complex problem involving Carols by Candlelight.

Students use a Google Form to work their way through the problem. I prefer using Google Forms for this task, because it forces students to look at each part of the problem. Far too often, students skip to trying to solve the problem without analyzing what they know, need to know, and thinking of reasonable estimates.

There is another tasking involving the holidays in Brazil. Once again, students use multimedia to solve a complex problem.

Google Forms are such a great way to guide students through the problem solving process. These problems will present a considerable challenge for students and will need to be followed with a conversation about the strategies used and the possible results.

You can download a FREE copy of these Christmas math resources right here. You’ll get a PDF of the recording sheet as well as links to the digital forms.

Holiday Lights Math Project

In this Christmas Math Project, students enter a holiday decorating contest. Students select a house to decorate and must determine how many feet of lights they need/want for their decorations. (On the picture of the house, every centimeter equals one foot.) Then, students purchase all of their decorating materials from The Exterior Illumination Specialist.

All contestants (students) must submit a plan that accurately shows how their decoration budget is spent. Students plan should show student measurements so confirm the exact length of lights needed. The plan must also show the desired location of each additional decorative feature.

All contestants must submit a final version of the decorated house, which makes an adorable hallway display! You can skip this step, but it’s students’ favorite part of the activity.

Christmas Fraction Project

There are three versions of the Christmas Fraction Project. In one version, students are given a detailed picture of different parts of Christmas Village. They must use the direction page to color portions of the pictures based on specified fractions. This is definitely the easiest version of the project.

In the second version, students use equivalent fractions to design Christmas Village. In this version, 12 square units represent a whole. After students draw Christmas Village, they may add special details. The third version is similar, but in this version, 24 square units represent a whole.

Christmas Geometry Project

This project begins with a letter from Santa Claus. He needs help drawing pictures of the buildings in Christmas Village in the North Pole. The catch is that all of the buildings are geometric figures (quadrilateral, parallelogram, square, rectangle, rhombus, trapezoid, pentagon, hexagon, octagon, and irregular polygons). There are lots of different options for this project, so you can adapt it to your classroom.

12 Days of Christmas Task Cards

Even though it’s definitely NOT my favorite holiday song, I couldn’t resist making math task cards for The 12 Days of Christmas. The cards are mostly multiplication word problems, but I threw in a little addition, subtraction, and division word problems as well. You can download these Christmas task cards for FREE!

Christmas Math Centers

These ten 4th Grade Christmas Math Centers and 3rd Grade Christmas Math Centers are great for reinforcing math concepts taught in the first half of the school year. Instead, I’ll leave you with a few pictures from some of my favorite math center Christmas activities. As always, it’s completely flexible. Use all the activities or use what works for you and your students.

Science & More

Christmas STEM

I’ve created Christmas STEM activities to go along with Christmas themed books. In one activity, students design a parachute for Olive. In another activity, students use gumdrops and toothpicks to see who can design the tallest Christmas tree, and in the last activity, students create a container that will prevent their snowmen (ice cube) from melting. You can download these free forms here.

Christmas Escape

In this Christmas Escape, there’s been a terrible mix up at the North Pole, and the class has accidentally been placed on the naughty list! Students must alert Santa of this mix-up! However, for students to get the message to Santa and escape the naughty list, they must solve a series of four Christmas puzzles.

I’ve written a blog post that serves as a how-to guide on implementing digital and physical escape lessons, and you can see that in my post, A Guide to Using Escape Classrooms. I feel very confident that everyone will make it to the nice list on this Christmas Escape!

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This ultimate list of Halloween activities for the classroom is here! We all know that during this time of year our calendars are completely full, and students get oh-so excited about every single holiday that will occur in the next few months. I try to embrace the crazy and enjoy the season. However, we don’t want instruction or learning to suffer, so I love using resources and Halloween activities for the classroom that can be used to allow students to have fun in a purposeful and educational way.

This post includes a list of my favorite Halloween activities for the classroom that you can use in your upper elementary classroom. Hopefully these ideas will inspire you as they did me!

Halloween Math Centers

Students LOVE these 4th grade Halloween math centers and 3rd grade Halloween math centers that are great for reinforcing math concepts taught in the first quarter of the school year. The Halloween activities were designed to be used as centers that can be organized with file folders or any basic container or storage device. I like to attach each center activity title page to the outside of a file folder and attach the center’s directions on the inside of the file folder and laminate the folder. The only prep needed is to print the task cards and/or recording sheets, laminate, and place the cards inside the corresponding file folder, and you’re ready! If you want to see more you can check out these blog posts: third grade centers or fourth grade centers.

The Day After Halloween

I’ve come to the conclusion that one of the only days more challenging than Halloween is the day AFTER Halloween. There is nothing quite like a room full of children who’ve eaten nothing but candy over the past 24 hours. I’ve heard many teachers say that November 1st should be a school holiday, and I think that sounds like a great idea!  I don’t see that happening anytime soon, so I’ve tried to find ways to go with it rather than fight for my students’ attention all day. You can see each of these activities on TpT here or you can see each of the included activities on this blog post.

The Halloween activities for the classroom have been updated and includes a Google Slides version for distance learning! This is included with the original file.

October Word Problems

These October Weekly Word Problems are one of my favorite Halloween resources. There are four weeks with of word problems and word problems are broken into Monday through Friday segments. There are three word problems for each day of the week, and on Friday students write their own word problems. I use these every day of the year, and they make a HUGE difference. When I have students solve these, I require them to write the equation they used and to reference the answer, rather than just writing a number. This forces students to think about the problem and its meaning. I have a third grade version and a fourth grade version.

This has also been updated and now includes a digital version!

Halloween Activities For The Classroom – Choice Board

This Halloween Choice Board resource is different from my Halloween centers, because this is designed to be finished in a day or two, and it doesn’t include ANY task cards or prep work. Some years I let students complete one activity a day, and other years I give students a choice board and they complete three activities in a row or column.

This resource is more geared toward third grade than fourth grade, but you can make it work for almost any classroom. Each of these lessons has been updated to Google Slides as well.

Halloween Multiplication

Creative Thinking / Creative Writing

While I prefer teaching writing through writing workshop, I occasionally like to give my students creative thinking or creative writing prompts. I use this for a little extra, not my actual writing instruction. You can print these as a booklet, one page at a time, or display them on your projector. You can just click here to download your prompts for FREE! I always like having options, so I thought the task card version might be helpful for you too. You can download the task card version here.

Halloween Resources Add-On to Centers

Since we don’t all teach the same concepts at the same time of year, I didn’t want to replace any set of my 4th grade math centers with seasonal centers. Instead, I added a Halloween option to the third set of math centers. This gives us options and flexibility. You can use the Halloween version or you can totally skip it and only use the original. I’ll share more about the original version as soon as I take some pictures. In the meantime, you can click here to see what’s included in the Halloween edition of the Multiplication Math Centers.

Halloween Activity For The Classroom

You’ve Been Booed

There’s absolutely nothing academic about “booing” classes, but this Halloween activity for the classroom is something students will remember forever and look forward to every year.  To do this, you’ll need some type of basket or container. Place some type of treat or goodie in the basket. You could add candy, silly straws, erasers, pencils, stickers, spider rings, or anything fun. Just make sure you have enough for each student that will be receiving it.

Place the goodies, direction sheet, and We’ve Been BOOED sign in the basket and SECRETLY deliver the basket to another classroom. You can place it outside a classroom door or place it inside a classroom while the teacher and students are away from the room. The class gets to keep the treat, and then it’s their job to replace the goodies with something different. Then, it’s their turn to boo a different classroom. Once a class has been booed, they should place a We’ve Been BOOED sign on their door, so everyone can have the chance to get booed. You can download You’ve Been BOOED here.

I hope you’ve found a few new Halloween activities for the classroom that your students will enjoy. If you’d like to read more about how to integrate engaging seasonal activities with high quality content, be sure to check out this post!

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The only thing more fun than a math project is a Christmas math project! It combines two of my favorite things. You can find this Christmas math project here. You can read about my Christmas Fraction Project here.

In this activity, students are invited to enter a house in a holiday decorating contest. Some students never did realize that it wasn’t a real contest, which made it even more fun. Of course, students don’t have an unlimited budget, so they probably can’t include everything they want in their design.

Where’s the Math

The most important part of any Christmas math project (or any math project) is the math. In this activity, students first select one of five different houses to decorate. They must determine how many feet of lights they need/want for their decorations. To calculate this, students measure the portion of their house they want to add lights.  On the picture of the house, every centimeter equals one foot. Students must purchase all of their decorating materials from The Exterior Illumination Specialist. I’ve included a flyer with a large variety of lights, wreaths, garland, and inflatables. You can print copies for groups or upload an image of the flyer to Google Classroom.

Budget

All contestants (students) must submit a plan that accurately shows how their decoration budget is spent. This requires students to think about the value of what they purchase and which set/length of lights is the best for their design. This also incorporates the application of multiplication and division. I’ve added a few updates to the budget since I had the pictures taken to make it even more student friendly.

Christmas Math Project – Planning

Students must first create a plan for their design. The plan should show student measurements so confirm the exact length of lights needed. The plan must also show the desired location of each additional decorative feature.

I recommend having students glue their plan on white construction paper. This gives them space for “extras” such as trees and fences. I let students draw their own trees or use some of the trees included in the resource.

Christmas Math Project-Final Plan

All contestants must submit a final version of the decorated house. The house must be colored neatly with crayon. All decorations listed in the budget must be included in the final design. However, no additional lighting or decorations may be included.

I created a “road” on our wall and placed the final copies above and below the road. I also made sure students stapled both versions and the budget together, so all of their work would be kept together.

You can find this Christmas Math Project here. If you’d like to see more Christmas ideas, be sure to check out this post!

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Several years ago, I used my Christmas Geometry Project as a multi-day math project before Christmas break. When I changed grade levels, I wasn’t been able to use the activity, because I hadn’t taught geometry. I LOVED the math project so much that I turned the Geometry Project into a new Christmas Fraction Project.

After I made the Christmas Fraction Project, I realized that it may be a bit too challenging for some students or a bit too easy for others, so I’ve made three versions to fit your students’ needs. This embedded differentiation is such a life-saver!

Christmas Fraction Project Version 1

In this version, students are given a detailed picture of different parts of Christmas Village. They must use the direction page to color portions of the pictures based on specified fractions. This is the easiest version of the project.

Christmas Fraction Project Version 2

Students use equivalent fractions to design Christmas Village. In this version, 12 square units represent a whole. After students draw Christmas Village, they may add special details.

Christmas Fraction Project Version 3

Students use equivalent fractions to design Christmas Village.In this version, 24 square units represent a whole. After students draw Christmas Village, they may add special details.

Extension

As an extension to the fraction project, you can have students calculate the perimeter of each figure (Versions 2 and 3). I’ve included an optional recording sheet for both versions that will give students space to record the area and perimeter of each building in Christmas Village.

To begin the lesson, students receive a letter from Santa Claus that asks for their help creating a drawing of Christmas Village. Students receive a directions page and two pieces of graph paper (I’ve found that one isn’t enough). Have students tape the two pieces of grid paper together on the back, so it looks like one large sheet of paper. Another, easier, strategy is to have students use a glue stick to glue the two pieces of grid paper to a large sheet of construction paper. This provides a nice frame for the project.

Students should then use a pencil to draw Christmas Village on the grid paper. Once students are happy with their plan, they may outline and label each building with a skinny black marker. Then, students can show off their creativity by adding details to each of the buildings in Christmas Village.

The grids are a bit larger in Version 1, because the number of square units for each building is smaller. If using Version 2, Students will need approximately one class period to compete the outlining portion of the activity. Encourage students to sketch lightly with a pencil first, because they will likely want to make several corrections. I encourage students to solve the math problems first and then outline each of the buildings. Students should save adding any details for last. Students may place the buildings wherever they want. There is plenty of room for all buildings to fit in the given space.

After the math portion of the activity is complete, students may use the remainder of their time to decorate and add details to their Christmas Village.

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These Thanksgiving math activities include options for differentiation and opportunities with math tasks and projects. These differentiated pages are included in my Thanksgiving resource.

Thanksgiving Math Activities-The Cost of Cooking

Two-step word problems are always a challenge for students. They require students to read carefully and think about what the problem as asking, which is often much more difficult than the actual computation involved. In this activity, students receive a Thanksgiving meal price list and solve 2-step word problems based off of the prices. There are three different versions of the price list. The easiest version only contains 1-digit numbers. In the moderate version, all prices are 2-digits, and the more challenging version contains decimals.

Thanksgiving Math Activities – Elapsed Time & Interpreting Remainders

These Thanksgiving math activities are quite challenging! In the Cook Off activity, students solve elapsed time problems. All of the problems are centered around preparing a Thanksgiving meal, so the questions are relevant to students. In the first version, all times are on one hour and a half hour increments. In the second version, all times are in five minute increments.

The Party Planning activity has students interpret remainders, which is always challenging. I find that many students want to solve the division problem, but they don’t actually answer the question. This helps slow students down and actually think about the problem. In the first version, all problems are 2-digits divided by 1-digit. In the second version, all problems are 3-digit divided by 1-digit.

Thanksgiving Math Activities – Geometric Feast

In this Thanksgiving math activity, students lay out a Thanksgiving feast using a large variety of geometry terms.  I’m going to have them go all out and decorate and color the table and food items. It can be tricky to include the shapes that each teacher needs to teach or review, so I also included a version where you can fill in the shapes of your choice. I like to collaborate with students on this section and have students determine the shapes and we fill in the blanks together.

Partitioning Pies

The Partitioning Pies Thanksgiving math activity has quite a few options for differentiation. In one version, students compare fractions with either common numerators or common denominators. This is definitely the version I would use if I was teaching third grade. In the second version, students add and subtract fractions with common denominators. They also compare fractions with unlike numerators and denominators. In the third version, students add and subtractions fractions with unlike denominators and compare fractions with unlike numerators and denominators.

It’s Turkey Time

This is my newest and favorite Thanksgiving math activity in this resource. In the lesson, students plan a Thanksgiving meal for a given number of guests. I differentiated this activity by changing the number of guests. In the easiest version, students plan for 12 guests, and in the most challenging version, students plan for 96 guest.

To make this even more relevant to students, you can use the open ended version. In this version (my favorite) students plan their meal for all of the faculty and staff in the school. Using that information, you can give your students a budget to stick to. Then, students can use grocery store flyers, catalogs from places such as Honey Baked Ham, or even store websites to plan their Thanksgiving feast. I think that working with real places and real prices increases the level of authenticity to the task.

I hope that you were able to find some Thanksgiving math activities that you’ll be able to incorporate into your classroom. I’m sure the fact that all of these lessons are no prep activities will be a huge help during this incredibly busy time of year. If you’d like to check out the unit, you can click here . If you’re looking for language arts ideas for Thanksgiving, you may want to check out this blog post.

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This Christmas escape room activity is so much for students and teachers! I love any and all Christmas related activities. I also love escape lessons in the classroom, so I decided to combine two of my favorite things to create a Christmas Escape Room activity that is perfect for upper elementary students. This is not a grade level or standard specific breakout project. Instead, this Christmas Escape Room activity focuses on critical thinking and reasoning, and a whole lotta fun! If you need ideas on how to implement an escape room activity, be sure to check out this blog post.

Christmas Escape Room Activity – Set the Stage

In this Christmas escape room activity, students have to escape from Santa’s naughty list. There’s been a terrible mix up at the North Pole, and the class has accidentally been placed on the naughty list! This was a mistake and everyone is supposed to be on the nice list, so students must alert Santa of this mix-up! However, for students to get the message to Santa and escape the naughty list, they must solve a series of four Christmas puzzles.

Clue 1

To prove that students belong on the nice list, they’ll need to sing a few Christmas carols. Students must decipher the picture clues to determine which 12 carols to sing. They will write the title of the song that each card represents on the recording sheet. I’ve tested these out with several students. Some aren’t too difficult, but some were fairly challenging. Fortunately, with students working together they won’t have too much trouble identifying all of the carols.

Clue 2

In clue 2, students learn that Santa accidentally jumbled up his Christmas list. They must help him by finding the hidden words on the list. The letters that are NOT used will give students the next code to discover the following clue.

Clue 3

For clue 3 in the Christmas Escape Room, students must help Santa find what number goes at the top of his tree. To find the missing number, students should add side-by-side numbers and write the sum of those numbers on the hexagon above that number. The number at the top is the code for the next lock. The higher students work their way up the tree, the larger the numbers will become, so there is a bit of math involved.

Clue 4

In the fourth portion of the escape, students help Santa organize his supplies. To do this, students need to match the Christmas items on the Christmas puzzle. To complete the 3-by-3 puzzle, students should reconstruct the squares so that all of the images match on every interior side. Once students complete the puzzle, use the top three images and the decoder wheel to crack the code!

Christmas Escape Room

I have included multiple versions of this Christmas Escape Room to meet your classroom needs. One version is for a physical setup of the activity, and the second version is for a hybrid digital version of the activity that does not require boxes or locks. In both versions, break students into small groups of approximately four per group. If you use the digital version, you don’t need any special locks or boxes, which does simplify it a bit. I’ve written a blog post that severs as a how-to guide on implementing digital and physical escape lessons, and you can see that here. I also made You Escaped cards, and I will probably add a candy cane or something seasonal to our smallest boxes. I feel very confident that everyone will make it to the nice list on this Christmas Escape!

You can check out this post for a huge collection of Christmas activities!

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Halloween Ideas: Math Centers

I’ve created ten 4th grade Halloween math centers and 3rd grade Halloween math centers that are great for reinforcing math concepts taught in the first quarter of the school year. Each of the activities were designed to be used as centers that can be organized with file folders or any basic container or storage device. I like to attach each center activity title page to the outside of a file folder and attach the center’s directions on the inside of the file folder and laminate the folder. The only prep needed is to print the task cards and/or recording sheets, laminate, and place the cards inside the corresponding file folder, and you’re ready! I’ve only shared a couple of the activities, but if you want to see more you can check out these blog posts: third grade centers or fourth grade centers.

Sweet Multiples

In this activity, students can use candy corn as a counter. Of course, they can still use traditional counters as well. Students should place a candy corn or other Halloween candy on each multiple of two on a hundred grid and continue these steps until you work through numbers 2-10. Students should use the hundred grids to complete the recording sheet.

Spooky Recipes

Spooky recipes is one of my top two favorite centers in this pack. It’s fun AND it incorporates multi-step word problems. With this activity, students will need to refer to a copy of the Spooky Recipes handout. However, they will not need to write on the handout. To help save copies and/or ink, you can laminate a couple copies of the handout. Another option is to attach a copy of the handout to the inside of the center file folder. Students should look at the ingredients on the Spooky Recipes handout and carefully read a Spooky Recipe card. Then, students answer the question using the Spooky Recipes handout.

Haunted Math

Haunted Math is my other favorite activity. This is very similar to the popular game of Clue. In this version, someone hid all of the candy at the Halloween party. It’s students’ job to determine who stole the candy, what the candy was hid it in, and the room where the candy is hidden. Students  will use the clues on the Haunted Math task cards to solve the mystery in a similar manner to clue. To find a clue students solve the problem on the recording sheet and find the task card that has the answer to the problem on the recording sheet. It will either be a who, what, or where card. Student check off the clue on the table to the right. When students find the who, what, and where that was not checked off, they find the solution to the mystery!

Halloween Ideas: The Day After Halloween

I’ve come to the conclusion that one of the only days more challenging than Halloween is the day AFTER Halloween.  There is nothing quite like a room full of children who’ve eaten nothing but candy over the past 24 hours. I’ve heard many teachers say that November 1st should be a school holiday, and I think that sounds like a great idea! However, I don’t see that happening anytime soon, so I’ve tried to find ways to go with it rather than fight for my students’ attention all day. You can see each of these activities on TpT here or you can see each of the included activities on this blog post.

Students can also write a descriptive writing paragraph about a piece of candy. This is great to tie in visualizing and sensory images! I included a few different forms, because it seems like every year my students need something different for writing. We’ve recently started using a bubble map graphic organizer with the paper students will write on to make the transition from graphic organizer to actual writing a bit easier.

Pumpkin Catapult STEM

I also love this Halloween STEM activity where students design a pumpkin catapult. While I originally planned to use mini pumpkins for this activity, I chickened out and bought pumpkin candy corns instead. I think that the catapults for the mini pumpkins would be fun, so maybe next year! You can download this form for FREE here!

October Word Problems

Another one of my tried and true resources is my October Weekly Word Problems. I’ve written four weeks with of word problems. Each week’s word problems are broken into Monday through Friday segments. There are three word problems for each day of the week, and on Friday, students write their own word problems. I use these every day of the year, and they make a HUGE difference with my students word problem abilities. When I have students solve these, I require them to write the equation they used and to reference the answer and not just write a number. This forces students to think about the problem. I have a third grade version and a fourth grade version.

Halloween Ideas: Choice Board

This year I’m recycling some Halloween Choice Board activities that I made way back in 2010. I actually used the same activities YEARS before that. Back before I knew how to make tables and insert images, I created the choice board and activities by hand. Some years I let students complete one activity a day, and other years I give my students a choice board and have them complete three activities in a row or column. This is different from my Halloween centers, because this is designed to be finished in a day or two, and it doesn’t involve task cards or prep work.

The only special materials you’ll need are two pumpkins. These can be real of artificial pumpkins. I used to buy real ones every year, but after accidentally forgetting it over a weekend made me realize I should probably stick with fake;) In the activity students compare two pumpkins using different elements of measurement. I love the Geometry Haunted House, because you really don’t know what students will think of!

There is writing and solving word problem practice, a rounding game, and a Halloween graphing activity.

There is a page for properties of addition, fractions, and perimeter. I haven’t taught perimeter yet, but I think with a quick explanation, my students can complete the activity.

Halloween Multiplication

When I was teaching third grade, I created a few resources that tie-in multiplication and Halloween! I love having a staple of no prep activities ready to go, because I never know when I’ll need a little something extra. These Halloween Multiplication Activities are so incredibly fun too! In this pack, there are a few Ghostly Word problems. These word problems are fairly rigorous, because students solve comparing problems, equivalent group, and unknown factor problems. I like giving students word problems that will require them to think and to not solely rely on the memorization of key words.

Of course there is a Halloween Candy activity, because what goes with Halloween better than Halloween candy. Of course, this activity does not require you to actually use candy, because at this point, that’s the last think my students need:)  This lesson goes beyond basic graphing and has students use a table to multiply the amounts of different types of candy by different factors.

My students love the Haunted House activity where they determine the cost of admission to a haunted house. There are so many ways you can differentiate this activity! You could have groups of families, rather than individual families,  attend the haunted house for an extra challenge. You can also have students use their own immediate family for the activity, or you could give students a set number for a family to work with. I like to get creative!

The Costume Shop activity is my favorite activity in this Halloween ideas pack! In the  activity, students will need to apply some serious problem solving skills! This is my favorite activity in the pack, because of its open ended nature and the required problem solving. I always love activities that present a real challenge for my students.

One thing that I really like about this unit is that there’s almost no prep work!  I don’t have to cut out or laminate anything for these activities!  I’m working on a fourth grade version now.

Halloween Ideas: Fall Constructed Response

I know I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again…It’s essential to begin teaching constructed response at the beginning of the year and to now wait until testing time to teach students how to answer constructed response problems. While I integrate constructed response problems into a lot of my math tasks, I also like to add a set of fall themed multi-step word problems to my guided math centers. I love using anything that will help prepare my students for extended constructed response problems. I also happen to love the look of these task cards. Right now, I have a third grade version, and I’m currently working on a fourth grade version. I’ve limited these problems to content I’ve already taught this year (place value, rounding, addition, subtraction, and multiplication), so that my students have received the necessary instruction to solve each of the problems. These task cards have a fall theme, without any Halloween references, so I can use them in October and November.

Fall Creative Writing

While I prefer teaching writing through writing workshop, I occasionally like to give my students creative thinking or creative writing prompts. I use this for a little extra, not my actual writing instruction. I created these writing prompts when I was getting my gifted endorsement, and tried to write prompts that would promote divergent thinking to allow students to think outside the box. You can print these as a booklet, one page at a time, or display them on your projector. You can just click here to download your prompts for FREE!

I’ve also turned the creative writing prompts into creative thinking or creative writing task cards. I always like having different options of formats, so I thought the task card version might be helpful for you too. You can download the task card version here.

Halloween Ideas: You’ve Been Booed

Another fun week to build a little excitement for any holiday is a class version of You Got Booed. Classes take turns booing each other. To do this, you’ll need some type of basket or container. You can place some type of treat or goodie in the basket. You could add candy, silly straws, erasers, pencils, stickers, wikki sticks, spider rings, or anything fun in the basket. Just make sure you have enough for each student that will be receiving it. You could even add something special for the teacher. Place the goodies, direction sheet, and We’ve Been BOOED sign in the basket and SECRETLY deliver the basket to another classroom. You can place it outside a classroom door or place it inside a classroom while the teacher and students are away from the room. The class gets to keep the treat, and then it’s their job to replace the goodies with something different, and it’s their turn to boo a different classroom. Once a class has been booed, they should place a We’ve Been BOOED sign on their door, so everyone can have the chance to get booed. You can download You’ve Been BOOED here.

This should be kept simple and not overly complicated to prevent creating stress!

Pumpkin Decorating

One of my favorite Halloween ideas is having students complete a literacy based pumpkin project. Since we never have any extra time at school, this was an optional project that students could complete at home. I absolutely never want to be a burden on parents, so this was assigned in the spirit of having fun. I emphasize over and over again that this assignment should not create unnecessary stress. In the project, students decorated a pumpkin to represent one of their favorite book characters. Then they created a written presentation to describe the character traits of the character they chose.

I think the best part of the whole project was seeing how excited my students were about school. They have been bubbling over with anticipation for the past two weeks and couldn’t wait to share their pumpkins with the class! Here are just a few of the pumpkins that my students turned in. Do you recognize any book characters?

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