Halloween Fun with Verb Tenses

Once again, I was inspired by my fellow bloggers to create a Halloween activity for my elementary students.  What began as an expressive language lesson about verb tenses, turned into a fun, articulation lesson too!  First, I found some clip art of a pumpkin with a blank space in the middle of its face.  Then, I pasted the pumpkin image into my classroom publisher flash card program.  Last, I typed various sentences about Halloween onto each flashcard, leaving the verb out and providing the appropriate number of blank lines to show students how many words they needed to fill-in.  Remember those open spaces on the pumpkin?  Well, I used that space to write in which verb tense (past, present, future) I wanted students to provide.   In the end, I made over 16 flash cards, each having a sentence on one side and the pumpkin image on the other.

The fun didn't stop there!  Every correct answer earned them a big or small pumpkin to toss into a pumpkin bucket.  Of course, I found the bucket and bags of small pumpkins at the dollar store, so the entire game cost four dollars.  At the end of the lesson, students decided if they wanted the bucket "near" or "far" to toss in pumpkins.  I used this lesson with my first graders, who were quite challenged but entertained by the activity.  My third graders were more accurate and they too enjoyed the game.  Follow these links to a blank page to create your own lesson and 16 mixed past, present, and future flashcards ready to go for your lesson!  Simply print, cut, and fold each flashcard along the dotted line.  I stapled mine shut along the bottom of the pumpkin so you can hardly see the staple.

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IWkw6ukGqQ2WGoe2Aw2DKABsSjo3c_ps-ZJOkXB-N4s/edit

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17T2KkmfkqcM1h3Fv6kJxK4s9e8tXCw5xsdyzRDH2Avk/edit