Lesson Plan: Halloween songs, games and fun activities for children

I've been surfing the internet looking for Halloween games, songs and worksheets, over the past few days and this is what I came across.

For preschoolers:

Here's a list of catchy songs to learn or to use as a soundtrack during other activities:

Pumpkin Halloween Dance

The skeleton dance 1

The Skeleton Dance 2

--> Note that the Skeleton Dance will be perfect for learning body parts too.

Then I found these two games:

1) Circle game: Pass the Pumpkin

Form a circle and have the children sit on the floor.  Play Halloween music and pass a small pumpkin around the circle.  When the music stops, whoever is left holding the pumpkin receives a small prize or treat. (This game is from the book 52 Programs for Preschoolers).

I can imagine that smart children will fight for keeping the pumpkin, once they've discovered the trick. So I'm thinking that maybe it will be better to organize a half circle race without a prize.

Something like this, for example:

Have your students sit in a circle.

Choose two children at one point of the circle and give them, respectively, a picture of a pumpkin and a picture of a ghost, for example. The pumpkin will be passed by the first child to the next child on his right,  while the ghost will be passed by the other child to the next child on his left, and so on.

They must say the name of the card they are passing along. You should hear them saying "Pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin" and "Ghost, ghost, ghost"

The cards must travel as fast as possible till they arrive to the opposite side of the circle (opposite the first two children who started the race).

The children belonging to the half of the circle that's completed first, will be the winners. 

We're going to do the same with the pictures of a cat and a bat.

2) Halloween Hunt

Prepare sets of cards with the same pictures on each, representing typical Halloween characters. Use some blue-tack to stick them on the walls or on low surfaces in your classroom. Call out one of the pictures and the children have to find and touch the right one.

If you prefer something quieter, divide your students into small groups. 

Give each group the 4/5 different cards and then call out the one they have to show. This way they can do the activity sitting on their chairs instead of running around.

Next I'll give them a coloring page  representing one or more characters we saw during the games.

Finally, they'll learn about going trick or treating, 'cause I bought an enormous bag of Halloween candies!!!

ihihihhihhiih!!!

For older students I found these ideas: 

1) Introducing Halloween Vocabulary

2) Black Cat Hunt to practice prepositions of place

3) A Word Search

4) The Daily Routine of Monsters,  Zombies, Ghosts and Aliens

For Higher Levels:

The Murder Mystery

Happy spooky Halloween!!!

Lesson Plan: Teaching THE BODY to pre-schoolers

We accidentally started the new school year studying THE BODY.

It happened that I came across a really catchy action song connected to some parts of our body like arms, head, nose, hands, feet etc.

My students loved it and that's why I decided to make the most of their excitement  carrying on with the topic.

First, we made a little handicraft: I drew the head, the body, the arms and the legs of a puppet on different pieces of paper. They colored and cut them. Then, we connected all the parts with clips. You can appreciate the result in the picture!

They're still in my study but we'll hang them in class, as a decoration and also as a reminder.

Next we're going to play a circle game called 'Five in The Middle' to memorize these 4 parts: head, body, arms and legs.

You have to get the children to sit in a big circle. Give a flashcard to each of the children in the circle.

I prepared 4 cards for each body part, because I had 16 kids sitting in the circle. 

Five children have to sit in the middle of the circle without flashcards. 

The children sitting in the circle have to hold up their flashcards so that the children in the middle can see them. 

You call out one part of the body and the children in the middle have to run and touch the correct flashcard held by their classmates.

Children who touch the right cards swap places with the children that were holding them.

Then we'll sing the most famous song about body parts: Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.

Once they've learned the words and the movement try to speed up:

the faster you sing it the more interesting and fun it will turn out.

Finally we're playing Simon Says using verbs like move, touch, raise, lower, open and close.

In addition I'll use some worksheets I prepared where they had to complete some pictures with the missing body parts.

I'm also thinking about using a Mr. Potato Head. Will it help?

I'll tell you as soon as I find out.

More about teaching pre-schoolers here and here

ANORAK - Summer Special

Still on vacation? Don't miss the latest issue of Anorak magazine!

This month it is 100% dedicated to games and free-time activities. 

Your children will be amazed and entertained by more than 30 pages full of typical summer puzzles such as: find the differences, crack the code, spot the missing objects, join the dots, mazes and many more games.

As always there are great illustrated stories, book reviews and interviews with real children!

And last, but not least, kids will find out how to create peculiar characters that will inhabit their own comic strips! 

Brilliant!  

This August we won't run into any bored little faces! For sure!


More about Anorak - The happy Mag for Kids

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Scout Finch, the narrator, is a young girl who lives with her brother, Jem, and her father, Atticus (a lawyer), in Maycomb, Alabama.

At the beginning of the book she tells us how she spends the summer time with Jem and her friend Dill trying to convince, with all sorts of tricks, their mysterious neighbour, Boo Radley, to come out of his place and let them see his face. Boo Radley lives confined in his parents' house for some behaviour problems he showed in the past, and nobody has seen him for years.

We see, or better said, we imagine this character through Scout's mind and thoughts. At the beginning she is pretty scared of him, but, as time goes by, she changes her mind, showing a sort of pity for this unfortunate man, who, maybe, has decided not be seen by his peers, to avoid their hypocrisy and prejudice.

In the meantime Scout describes her surroundings: the people of Maycomb are easy to classify. By social status and behavior.

She also talks about her father, the lawyer Atticus. The only one in town who seems not to respond to small towns implicit laws: he is an absolutely fair man, who teaches his children that before judging anyone they must spend some time in someone's shoes.

Later, the plot focuses on the main story of the book: the event that will bring to the surface what politeness and good manners have been hiding till that moment--racial discrimination.

A Negro is charged with the rape of a white girl, and even if Atticus manages to objectively demonstrate his innocence, the all-white jury convicts him, just because he's black. That was how it worked those times.

The town is divided into two groups: the one which thinks that Negroes are subordinate and must be kept in their 'place', and the smaller group that wants people of any color to be considered human beings with the same rights.

So, while she wants to tell us how Jem got his arm broken at the age of 13, she ends up painting a detailed picture of Deep South American society in the 30's.
Thanks to the first person narrator we feel exactly what she feels: curiosity, fear, sorrow, powerlessness, anger. 

Furthermore, the author gets to completely suck us into this society that looks so far away, but that in the end is still alive nowadays, everywhere.

It's an enlightening book that every child (and adult) should definitely read, to remind ourselves that every day is a good day to try to understand people instead of judging them at first sight or according to what others say of them.

Prejudice will kill the mockingbird.

Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy... but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.

More about racial prejudices: The Lions of Little Rock

Classroom activities:

Lesson Plan 1

Lesson Plan 2

Lesson Plan 3

Lesson Plan 4

Lesson Plan 5

  

Lucy dedicates a lot of time and love to thinking about and writing the posts she shares with all of you. Because she believes that a better teaching is the key for a better future. If you find any help, value or joy in this blog, please consider becoming a supporting reader. A donation, in any amount, will be gratefully accepted. 

                                                   

Summer Camp in Madrid - Un resumen de mi campamento de verano en Madrid

It has been a hot July here in Madrid this year, but I was able to enjoy every single day of it thanks to the shadowy garden where I was teaching English to 4 adorable nearly - 4-year- old children. 

numbers and stamps

2 boys and 2 girls. 

The old women around us were surprised by their good manners and the attention they were paying me. 

As I've already told you, it was a great experience!

First of all because I only had 4 students: thanks to that it' was much easier to do anything I wanted, from playing active games to fingerpainting, with calm, positive attitude and a smile constantly stuck on my face.

Being affectionate is definitely a fundamental aspect, if your aim is to convince a young Spanish child that he or she is going to put up with you, speaking a foreign language, for 2 and a half hours from Monday to Friday, for 4 weeks!

glittery bees and flowers shining in the sun

The second important point about teaching only 4 children is that you can really make anyone happy, presenting activities that will suit each member of the group. 

That's also really important if you don't want to frustrate them in their attempt to learn English according to their aptitudes!

Last year I had a bad experience with a Summer Camp. Small children where forced to learn by heart some English sketches just to show off, to their parents, that they had learnt something. 

But it was a real torture! For them, because repeating several times the same unpleasant things at those ages is everything but fun, and for their teachers, who had to put up with their intolerance towards the routine…

So this year, since I didn't have a boss to please, I fiercely tried to avoid all of that. 

It has meant a little bit more of work and time spent thinking about a larger variety of games and activities, but I can tell you that parents were equally satisfied, because they found their offspring singing, saying words and expressing themselves in English, at home, more than usual.

And I firmly think that this is really all we can ask those little heroes.

Finally, I can say I've learnt every week a little more about what children like. 

Here's my list:

the glittery hungry gorilla

1) Glitter!!! : Put some glitter glue on anything you want them to pay attention to and they will take part in any game you'll introduce.

5) Fingerpainting: Painting with their fingers allows them to have a better control on lines and edges.

They're always required to paint inside the edged area and this technique gives them great satisfaction!

3) Plasticine: They can't make much more than snakes, snails and balls by themselves, but you'll gain their admiration forever if you can organize their beloved giraffe's birthday party or a green grocer's store with it.

fruit and vegetables made of plasticine

4) Stamps and stencils! They love them because, since they can't really draw anything artistically valuable, they help them to produce nice pictures without struggling too much with crayons.

5) Gifts: Give them their works to take them home. They will decorate their room with them and consequently they'll be surrounded by English stuff, for at least 2 weeks. Having constant references around it's the best way to make sure that they will never forget what they've learnt.

I REALLY HAD A GREAT EXPERIENCE!

More about the Camp: English in the Garden - Zoo Animals

English in the Garden - Zoo Animals

I'm a little busy these days. I'm teaching every morning a small group of children aged 3 to 4 in the garden of their house. 

The location is pretty nice: green grass constantly watered by sprinklers and tall pine trees to keep us in the shade during the hot summer of Madrid.

Here you can see some pictures of an activity I'd like to share with you, because the children found it easy, entertaining and satisfactory.

It's basically a big poster, representing a zoo -- inspired by the book 1,2,3… To The Zoo, by Eric Carle -- that the children have decorated with stencils of zoo animals.

The result was amazing! We've got rainbow tigers too!

    

CIRCLE GAMES - The Farmer in the Dell

Do you know this song? 

And this is the game you can play with your class

Children (10 or more) join hands and dance in a circle around the FARMER who stands in the center of the circle. 

When the FARMER chooses his WIFE, following the first verse, she joins him inside the circle. 

At the end of the second verse, the WIFE takes a CHILD. 

This continues until the last verse when everyone is in the circle except the CHEESE. 

The CHEESE gets to be the FARMER

Have fun!

Lyrics

The farmer in the dell,
The farmer in the dell,
Hi-ho, the derry-o,
The farmer in the dell.

The farmer takes a wife,
The farmer takes a wife,
Hi-ho, the derry-o,
The farmer takes a wife.

The wife takes a child,
The wife takes a child,
Hi-ho, the derry-o,
The wife takes a child.

The child takes a cow,
The child takes a cow,
Hi-ho, the derry-o,
The nurse takes a cow.

The cow takes a dog,
The cow takes a dog,
Hi-ho, the derry-o,
The cow takes a dog.

The dog takes a cat,
The dog takes a cat,
Hi-ho, the derry-o,
The dog takes a cat.

The cat takes a rat,
The cat takes a rat,
Hi-ho, the derry-o,
The cat takes a rat.

The rat takes the cheese,
The rat takes the cheese,
Hi-ho, the derry-o,
The rat takes the cheese.

The cheese stands alone,
The cheese stands alone,
Hi-ho, the derry-o,
The cheese stands alone.