Spooky Fact Station!

I can’t ever resist good decorations- so my promise to myself was to make my room cute in October while still maintaining a learning goal. After a few trips through Target’s seasonal department, I came up with an entrance activity for my kiddos. When my kids come in my room, they are coming from three different homerooms, so let’s just say they *trickle* in. They need to have an activity to get started on right away so they get in the learning zone and don’t get off-task while we wait for everyone to arrive. For the month of October, I set up a Spooky Fact Station outside my classroom door. Each day, the students can take one slip of paper from the bins and answer the question or solve the math problem. They then write their name on it and enter it into the Witch’s Bin. On Friday I do a weekly drawing. My rule is that there must be a name on the entry and the answer must be correct! My class has been working hard on not rushing through our work (especially math problems), so this is also a lesson to them on slowing down and doing it right, not just doing it first. The weekly winner can choose from three prizes:

• $5 Cool Cash (I use a money behavior system)
• One Free Homework Pass
• One prize pick from the prize bin

The names not selected on Friday go into a bigger drawing that will take place on Halloween. I have not figured out what my grand prize will be, but these weekly drawings are keeping the kids engaged and excited. What do you do to incorporate the holidays/seasons while still keeping it educational?

Take a look!

Speaking of Halloween, I have been using some of the wonderful resources from Farley at Oh Boy 4th Grade. For example, this Halloween Math Bundle with tons of games and activities for math centers and morning work. I also got these Halloween Common Core Math Centers from Jennifer at Teaching to Inspire 5th. It never ceases to amaze me how Teachers Pay Teachers has changed my teaching life! So many resources at my fingertips.