Five for Friday: Halloween Week

Hooray! I made it to Friday! The week has had it ups and downs of fun, frustration, and loads of excitement.
With it being Friday, it is time to link up again with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday, with lots of pictures.

It was time to get back on track with a normal schedule, but honestly with a mock writing test, 2 IEP meetings, Halloween, and an end of the week fundraiser walk, how could the week be considered normal? Being that it was a week with interruptions, it was time to get the kids moving through some centers. 

Early in the week we played "Pop! Eye need a comma." I projected a few cards from this great set and they "popped" out of their seats when they knew the answer to the question on the task card. On Halloween it was one of many centers the kids rotated through. Love the eyes on this set and the kids easily understood how to complete the answer sheet. Also led to a quick discussion of puns and palindromes. This activity was created by Catherine Reed - The Brown Bag Teacher. 

If you can't beat them, join them! Candy, candy, candy corn. I rarely pass out sweets in my class, but this week I made an exception and the kids loved the treat. One made a point to say thank you at the end of the day, loved that! 
Diane at Fifth in the Middle created this awesome Candy Corn Math set and I could not wait to try it out, apparently I was so excited that I requested copies the day I downloaded her set and filed them away. Being that was a month ago I forgot, and requested them again, so I am prepared to run this activity for next year and I will most definitely! I plan to post more about it soon, so for now I am just posting some pictures. 

Measuring the length of the desk with the candy corn.

How many candy corn in a foot?

Groups of 10

Graphing

The kids had a lot of fun with the activities and was a perfect activity for my restless natives. 

When I say it was a hectic week, I mean hectic, which meant my desk and working area was a mess, something of a teacher horror show. Many days of my kids going bonkers, the witching hour has set in, and I need to get out of my windowless dungeon meant leaving before things looked perfect. Time for a "let's get real" picture.

Papers needing to be sorting and removed from my working area. 

Piles of papers to put away.

Centers waiting to be finished

I am so thankful for Teachers Pay Teachers. Not only do I now have a few dollars stashed away for our spring break trip but I also have some awesome activities by other teachers to work with my students. I used many TpT teacher created activities this week and it made for a better Halloween and a break in the monotony. 

I have a student who does not celebrate holidays so I planned to respect that and stick with only fall themed things this week. I was excited to use the Fall Language Arts Centers created by Diane at Fifth in the Middle,  but when she was out on Halloween, I added to my centers rotations with some great freebies I found on TpT. 

Wow, what a glorious day! The kids rotated with a partner (I was nice and let them select a partner - only 2 groups caused any issues) for about 8 minutes to complete several tasks. We will finish up the rotations today and Monday to help them during their post-candy consumption withdrawal period.  

Halloween Idioms matching

Idioms are still tough for my kids to comprehend, so I loved the Halloween idioms set by SLP Madness, where they matched the idiom to its meaning. This activity produced many giggles. 

Sort Similes and Metaphors - created the mat with a cute graphic from Graphics from the Pond. 

Halloween similes and metaphors by teaching with a Mountain View. were also a hit and the discussion amongst the partners were fantastic as they debated the difference. 

Here are some pictures from the awesome ELA Centers set created by Diane at Fifth in the Middle. 

Antonyms and Synonyms

Making words with "October"

Sentence Shuffle

So we made it through the beginning part of our day with very few issues. Well, keeping them settled in the last part of the day was my next big task. Traditionally post-recess they are off-task, interrupt my lessons, chit-chat, and do not want to take notes or work. That meant, I could not plan a lesson that would be anything but engaging. Time to get out of the microscopes, and it worked magically!  

I cannot sign off though without sharing a picture of my own little goblins. 3 boys means there are no tutus. This year my oldest showed me how much they are growing up. "Mom, boys like scary, please just let me do this." 

My youngest brought a few tears to my eyes as he wore the costume that was purchased when he was born. The costumer was for his then 2 year-old brother. My  now 6 year old, was obsessed with Where the Wild Things Are and he wore that costume the year, and a few years after, his younger brother was born. This year the youngest combined a Batman mask with the Max suit as he squeezed his body in and showed me this is the last time one of my sons will wear it. Here they are as they are about to collect their loot...

Hope your week was full of mostly treats!