Halloween week in 1st and 2nd grade is pure chaos. Here's a funny, honest survival guide, plus LOW PREP Halloween math and ELA centers that keep learning on track.
It's Wednesday of Halloween week. Nobody in the building has eaten a single piece of candy yet, and somehow the energy is already at "the floor is lava, and also the floor is a trampoline."
Halloween lands on a Saturday this year, which means the costume parade, the class party and the sugar all get packed into Friday. Which means Monday through Thursday is one long, slow drumroll. Every time the intercom clicks, twenty-two heads whip toward the speaker like it might announce that Halloween has been moved up to right now.
You had a plan for this week. It was a good plan. It had a calm read-aloud in it. That plan is now taped to the inside of a cabinet, where it lives with your dreams of eating lunch sitting down.
Things that have definitely happened in my classroom during Halloween week
- A morning meeting share that started as "my weekend" and became a seven-minute, scene-by-scene review of a costume that is "still a surprise."
- A sweet first grader asking if the fire drill was "the spooky part."
- Me saying "eyes up here" and realizing I was wearing googly-eye earrings, so that one was on me.
- A spirited debate about whether a pumpkin is a fruit, a vegetable or "just orange."
- The word "trick-or-treat" sneaking into a spelling test answer for "Tuesday."
- A worksheet left on my desk, completed in full, with every answer written as "BOO." Honestly, the handwriting was beautiful.
Here's the thing: the excitement isn't the problem. Kids being thrilled about a holiday is one of the best parts of teaching little ones. The problem is that we still have standards to teach, and a regular worksheet this week has the attention span of a ghost at sunrise.
The LOW PREP fix: Halloween Math and ELA Centers for Grades 1-2
When you can't beat the Halloween energy, you can point it somewhere useful. That's why I built Halloween Math & ELA Games and Centers for Grades 1-2. Every activity practices skills most 1st and 2nd grade classes are working on in late October, the characters are friendly instead of scary, and it's print and go (or open the interactive slides).
The math comes in two levels: Level A for Grade 1 and Level B for Grade 2. So if you teach a mixed group, or you have a few kids ready for a stretch, you're not hunting for a second resource at 9 PM.
Here are four ways to use it this week:
- Turn the energy into a game. The Pumpkin Patch Path board game (2-4 players) gives the wiggles a job. Kids move, count and talk math, and you get a few minutes to pull a small group.
- Run a math mystery on the wildest afternoon. The Case of the Missing Candy has a clue sheet for each level. "Solve the problem to crack the case" gets a lot more buy-in on Thursday afternoon than "please finish page 4."
- Set up task card scoot or a center rotation. The Haunted House Task Cards come with 24 cards per level (addition and subtraction within 20, word problems, place value, time, even and odd, arrays and more) plus a recording sheet. Add the color by sum or color by difference mystery pictures as an early-finisher choice.
- Keep reading and phonics going. Pair the digraph sort (sh, ch, th) and the Noun or Verb? sort with one of the two original stories, "Pip and the Big Pumpkin" (Grade 1) or "Bella's Big Night" (Grade 2), which come with questions. The jack-o'-lantern sequencing page makes a nice calm-down activity after the parade.
The teacher pages include a 5-day plan, game directions, a standards table and answer keys for every activity, so the week is mapped out before you've finished your coffee. There are also 16 interactive slides for PowerPoint or Google Slides with type-in task cards, a drag-the-X math mystery board and a drag-and-drop digraph sort, which is handy for a sub day or a rainy indoor recess.
Grab it
Get Halloween Math & ELA Games and Centers | Grades 1-2 for this week. Teaching a different grade? There are versions for PreK-K and Grades 3-4, or the whole set in the Halloween Math & ELA Centers Bundle.
Hang in there. Friday is coming, the costumes are going to be adorable, and next week we all get to find out what a classroom sounds like after the candy wears off. More teacher life posts live on The SOAR Classroom Blog.
Written for teachers by Mr. M's SOAR Classroom, a classroom teacher and instructional coach.