Happy Halloween!

In class this week we debated the idea of having Halloween activities in the schools. It was interesting to hear all sides of the debate and really understand the motives why people feel strongly for or against celebrations around this holiday.

Although I knew our school supported dressing up after lunch, I was still surprised by the amount of Halloween that was incorporated into our day at school. There was a pumpkin carving contest going on that we could vote on, a costume parade and contest, a Halloween song sing-along, followed by an afternoon of integrated elementary activities.

I was thankful to have my teaching block first thing after the morning routine. The students were really excited for Halloween so I was anxious to see how they would engage with my lesson, however, I was happily surprised that they were on their very best behaviour!

I began my lesson with a short video that they watched intently and followed along with some choral reading to practice the new word pattern. Then I introduced our Ghost Spelling activity. The kids thought this was an amazing, magical thing and even the students that don’t love to practice their printing intently worked on this activity. I had an early finisher who I worked with to sound out the words until our time was up. It was the cutest thing, he was so proud when he successfully read all of this words.  

After lunch during the integration activities I took a turn leading BINGO for the kids and handing out prizes. We had students from K-6 so it was fun to see the variation and interaction between them all.

We finished the day with a class group photo where all our students could show off their costumes. It was seriously so much fun and the most exhausted I’ve been all week. I’m still so impressed by the Grade 1 class working so hard in spite of all their excitement, and can’t help but think: Can’t every day be Halloween?