New Favorite Halloween Book!

While I was at Hastings this weekend, I happened to see this book, paged through it quickly and bought it on a whim. Well, I read it to my 4 kiddos tonight and it is now our new favorite Halloween book!

"Room on the Broom" is a very cute story, perfect for talking about helping each other. The illustrations are fun and it entertained all of us (kids range in ages from 5 to 12!) Plus, it would be perfect in the classroom! It lends itself to sequencing - which item did the witch drop first, 2nd, 3rd? Or predicting what happens next by looking at the small inset picture to predict which animal will catch the dropped object. The text is repetitious and  rhyming, and it was a fun read aloud! I am definitely going to use this book in my lessons this month. As I develop activities I'll share them, but I thought I'd give a heads up in case you want to purchase it for yourself. By the way, this books is by the same author/illustrator team who wrote "The Gruffalo"!


I've been seeing tons of sweet little owls on blogs lately and decided I just had to make my own! I found two templates online and also bought an owl cut out which I traced. I enlisted the help of my 12 year old and 5 year old and here's what we came up with:

 The whole flock!

 My daughter made this cute pair, plus their speckled egg! I thought that was a cute touch :)

 This is the one I made with the template a traced from an actual Halloween decoration. It might be a bit hard for Kindergarten students to cut out, but I'm thinking my firsties should be able to manage it.

 Here's one with a Halloween theme - I think my boys will go for this one!

 This is the one my 5 year old made. He chose all the paper, I traced the pieces and he cut them out and glued them. Not a bad job I'd say!

I can't wait to see what my firsties come up with next week when we do this activity in class! Here are the two sites I got the templates from: Blue Sky Confections  and All Kids Network.

While I was browsing blogs I also found this adorable page corner book mark monster that Vintage Teacher posted about. My daughter whipped one up really quick and I think it'll be a perfect activity for my firsties for our monster unit! Here's how Moira's looks:

Sorry for the bad pictures - I have horrible lighting in my house! But, I think you can see how cute this is, and it's definitely something a 1st grader could do!

Before you leave, there are 3 giveaways I'd like to pass on:
Kerri at Ms. Kerri and Her Krazy Kindergarten is having a giveaway to celebrate 56 followers! The prize is a $10 Dollar Tree gift card.
Also, Mrs. Bainbridge's Class is having a giveaway for her super cute Little Crtitter unit! Hop over there to enter before Wednesday!
Finally, don't forget to enter my giveaway here for a chance to win a free blog design from Kelly (she did my design!)

I'm linking this up in 2 places! First to Ginger Snaps' Halloween-spiration party where you'll find great ideas for Halloween in your classroom, and then to Learning with Mrs. Parker's Books for October party where you'll find some great books to use this month! check them both out!