Thursday, October 17, 2013

Round-up of Book Companions for my Halloween Collection

A couple weeks ago, I blogged about several companion units that I have included with my books about Fall and this week, I'm back with a summary on the activities that accompany my Halloween books.  This post contains links to products I obtained from my peers, books that I read to my son that he has since outgrown, and affiliate links to quickly order books and lesson plans that catch your eye.

1.)  The Little Old Lady who was not Afraid of Anything by Linda D. Williams and Megan Lloyd


Katie at Playing with Words 365 has a wonderful post she wrote a few years ago about this book that includes a plethora of activities that include:  story retelling, scarecrow creations, acting, and singing!  If you are looking for some pictures for story sequencing, then Ruth at Chapel Hill Snippets has some cute freebies in this post.  Finally, you can always count on Make Learning Fun for free worksheets, pictures, and activities.

2.)  Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson



I went crazy over this feelings activity from a free-guided reading link!  There are three worksheets, each targeting how the cats, witch, and reader feels at various points in the story.  PERFECT for perspective taking and identifying feelings and emotions.  I also found this cute sequencing activity for free at Live Love Laugh Everyday in Kindergarten.  If you need something to work on parts of speech, you can get this freebie on adjectives at Classroom Freebies Too!  Finally, The Teacher's Cauldron has a nice blog post about this book with possessive nouns, bubble maps, and inferencing activities.

 3.)  There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Bat by Lucille Colandro



Recently, Jenna at Speech Room News listed a HUGE companion pack on Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT). For five dollars, you can get all of the following activities:  retelling, rhyme, verbs, sequencing, numbers, comprehension, articulation, possessive pronouns, conversation starters, do-a-dot, temporal directions, grammar, writing, and a blank game board.  

 4.)  Dracula and Frankenstein are Friends by Katherine Tegen


I picked up this book for 25 cents at my local library sale.  The first couple pages describe the homes for each character.  Dracula keeps his room dark and Frankenstein has a laboratory.  It might be fun for students to pick another character like a witch and draw and describe her house.  As I flipped through the pages, I noticed that there were several figurative language lines including:

Variety is the spice of life
That's the way the cookie crumbles
The party had lost its fizz
Charity begins at home
All work and no play makes Dracula a dull boy
Nice guys finish last
The best is yet to be

Many of these sayings can be described using context clues.  Overall, I really like this book for my upper elementary students.

5.)  Bugs that go Bump in the Night by David A. Carter


The bug series is one of my all time favorite for toddlers and preschool kids!  I have this book included in my Halloween sensory bin that houses glow in the dark bugs, giant spiders, ping pong eyeballs, and more!  


6.)  Halloween Poems selected by Myra Cohn Livingston


This was another 25 cent score at a library sale!  I'm thinking about selecting a few poems to review and discuss various writing styles.  Next, I will have students use some of my vast collection of Halloween-themed foam stickers to create an image and then use one of the poems selected from this book as a guideline for writing his or her own poem about the craft.

For more Halloween lesson plans, you can browse through my Pinterest board!  Be sure to follow me on Bloglovin and Facebook for updates on new posts!

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