Bippity Boppity Whew!

What a week!  The end of the marking period...conferences coming up...and Halloween! Aren't you just so thankful when the Halloween party is done and over with? Out of the three parties we have (Halloween, Christmas, and Valentine's), Halloween is by far the most exhausting, right?  Though I have found one thing that seems to make my Halloween party go a little smoother which I will share as I link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five For (thank goodness it's) Friday!



My husband and I try to walk at least fifteen miles a week at the walking path in our town. It's looks so pretty this time of year!  


This was at the beginning of the week before all the dreaded rain came!  Our Halloween was a complete washout!  Did you end up with decent trick-or-treating weather?


My Duck Dynasty 5th grade cohorts are a riot!  


The beards in particular just kill me, especially the one that looks exactly like the beard on Yukon Cornelius!  I just couldn't make myself do it, so I opted for this look, which is actually closer to the real me...



My friend Melissa (Wild About 5th Grade) and I decided to start a Literary Lunch Bunch for students who wanted to get together at lunchtime to talk about a book that they are reading as a group.  We got the idea from Laura Candler over at Corkboard Connections. (How did I go so long without Pinterest?!)


Laura offers a cute Literary Lunch Bunch bookmark for free at her TPT Store!  The students fill in how many pages they are supposed to read for next time along with a question or section to discuss.  Thanks, Laura!



I have joined up with Deb over at Crafting Connections for Classroom Tested/Teacher & Student Approved.  I tried out her Point of View Craftivity.  This was the perfect week to use it as we are getting ready to start reading Wonder, one of my favorite read alouds ever!  Wonder, by R.J. Palacio, is written from the perspectives of several different characters in the story.  So, I think it's a great time to talk about point of view and perspective.  

I started out by using my point of view materials to introduce the different points of view and then we were ready to do Deb's craft, "Presenting" a Story with Different Points of View.



The students read four different stories and determined the point of view which they wrote on a present.  Under the lid of the box, they wrote the evidence of the story being that particular point of view.  Here is one of my student's finished products.



You can find my Point of View Handouts at my TPT Store and you can check out all of Deb's craftivities at Crafting Connections.


Last but not least, the Halloween party!  One of my biggest pet peeves about this occasion is students constantly getting out of their seats and wandering around the room.  I know it's because there is only so much sugar and excitement a ten year old can handle in one spot for any extended length of time.  

A few years ago I started doing stations at my party which naturally meant students would get up and move after only about 15 minutes.  It has worked like a charm!  This year at my Halloween party we had three stations. The first station was food, which we kept simple, apples with caramel dip, doughnuts, and cider.  

The second station was the ol' stand by...Bingo!  I made up a cute Halloween Bingo game that the students sat on the carpet to play with one of my party volunteers.  You can find it at my TPT Store.  (Maybe for next year!)


The third station was Halloween Boodoku, which are puzzles I modeled after Sudoku.  The kids had fun cutting out all the Halloween pictures and figuring out where they fit in the puzzle.  This is also available at my TPT Store.  


And that's it!  One party down and two to go!  

Don't forget to check out Five for Friday at Doodle Bugs Teaching as you are recovering this post Halloween weekend!







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