Halloween learning centers will get your kids excited and engaged in their learning during the month of October! If you don't know where to begin, I have a bunch of cute ideas for you this month!
Spelling Center
Adding a few Halloween props to your October learning centers will make them so much more fun and engaging for your students. You'd be surprised at how excited they get with a fancy pen or silly hat!
Something new for your Spelling Center this month is this spooky words game. Students write their words in white crayon and then paint over them with watercolors. And just like MAGIC, they appear!!
Another fun activity for your October learning centers is Pumpkin Spin A Word. The students spin the spinner and follow the directions to write their spelling words – in all capital letters, fancy letters, rainbow writing, etc. You never know where the spinner will land!
Math Center
If you need some cute Math ideas for your October learning centers, your students will love these! This month we're working on addition skills with Halloween math games. It's important to have activities that work for all of your students – struggling, on level, and advanced.
How To Differentiate For Everyone
At the Math Center, there are a variety of activities that meet the needs of all students. Each child can come to this center and choose the game or activity that works best for them.
I found these cute Halloween cups, removed the straws, and filled them with different Halloween toys and goodies that we use for the counters. Spider rings, Halloween mini erasers, and tiny pumpkins all make great counters for this type of activity!
Struggling students who are still working on number recognition can work on this counting activity. In this activity, the students choose a cup that's filled with spooky Halloween toys. Each cup is numbered on the bottom. Students count the objects in the cup and write their answers next to the picture with the matching number.
Students who are working on-level can use the same Halloween cups with goodies with a different worksheet to create an addition fact with the objects in the cup.
Advanced students can use this worksheet where the kids use the same Halloween cups with counters and they make an addition fact and also the related fact, by changing the order of the addends.
Another fun game for your October math center is Ten Frame Addition. In this game, students match the addition facts to the correct ten frames.
This Halloween math game is perfect when we do our monster unit in October. Students feed the Halloween addition cookies to the monsters with the correct sum.
Another great addition to your October learning centers are these spooky story problems called “What's In The Witches Brew?”. With easy-to-read sentences, students can solve the problems using fun Halloween toys and the witches brew work mat.
Finally, students can practice counting tally marks with these “count the bones” task cards.
Another great way to keep students engaged at your October math center are boom cards. These digital task cards can be played on a computer or tablet and are easy enough for students to do on their own. These Halloween-themed boom cards are super engaging and kids love them.
Library Center
Students love to sit and read in a cozy library! Add a few new Halloween books, a witches hat, and witches fingers for pointers and you MAGICALLY have some engaged kiddos reading books!
Some of my favorite Halloween books include Bone Soup, Room On The Broom, and Go Away Big Green Monster. We do some great writing units with these fun books.
Big Book Center
During the month of October, we learn about adjectives. I found a cute poem and the kids add different adjectives on sticky notes as they read the poem. I added this poem to our big book station along with some great October books, a monster hat, and some skeleton hands to use as pointers!
Word Work Center
A fun word work idea for your October learning centers is to build sight words with letter tiles and work on the “ck” ending. I found these cute little plastic pumpkins and filled them with letter tiles. Each pumpkin has the letter tiles to build a different sight word.
Students dump them out and arrange the letters in the right order, then write them on the Pumpkin Words worksheet.
Students can also work on word families at this October learning center. These haunted houses and ghosts are a huge hit with my firsties! They match the ghostly word families to their haunted houses!
And of course, an all-time favorite at our October learning centers is this Halloween Write The Room freebie. This month the students are searching for Halloween words!
Finally, at the Word Work Center is the game, Pickin' Pumpkins in the Patch. Students are working on sight words in this game. It's great fun, but don't land on the rotten pumpkin or you'll have to go back to start!
Add a tablet to your word work center where students can practice different phonics skills with these fun Halloween-themed boom cards!
Art Center
During the month of October, add some easy Halloween crafts to your art center like a witch, pumpkin man, and ghost. These crafts are all super simple, with just 2 or 3 patterns, and easy for the kids to do on their own with no help from the teacher.
If students finish these simple Halloween crafts early, add some other open ended activities at the art station like play dough, markers, fancy scissors, construction paper and glue.
Writing Center
Your literacy centers wouldn't be complete without an October writing center. This month, students can work on labeling and making lists. Add colorful mini word walls to spark their imagination along with story starters to this center to help with writing.
Add a basket with student's October writing journals to your writing center. Students can choose from a variety of writing genres to practice including labeling, making a list, writing a story, writing their opinion and more.
Ready to add some spooky fun to your October and Halloween learning centers? Head over here to grab everything you need!
SAVE THESE OCTOBER LEARNING CENTER IDEAS FOR LATER!
Take a minute to save these tips to your favorite October Pinterest board so you can remember them later!
Need more fall classroom ideas? Take a look at these posts:
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When do you introduce all these centers
Hi Kelli….whenever I put something new at a center I make sure it is a skill we have been working on in class. For instance, we've been working on addition and changing the order of the addends for quite some time in our Math lessons so I was able to put those addition strategies at the center. We've also been working on adjectives in our Grammar lessons and we did that little poem together at whole group. I just transferred it back to the big book station, after we had done it whole group. I usually only add new activities to my stations once or twice a month. I have other activities at the stations besides the ones I posted in my blog, so there are always things for the students to work on. I usually put new activities out on a Friday and then I will introduce them to the kids before they go home that day. They have something to look forward to on Monday morning. Then, usually on that first day I will walk around quickly and remind them of the new activities. Hope that answers your question 🙂 Do you do centers in your room too?
Could you please add the candy corn art project to your TPT Halloween bundle? 🙂
~Lindsay
Hi Lindsay….I would love to add the candy corn to my bundle but that particular station was not my original idea. I have had it so long I have no idea to even give credit to! I found it or was given it by a colleague many years ago! Can't even remember….however I found a template for a free candy corn online that you could use to make your own pattern. Hope this helps! Here it is: http://twistynoodle.com/candy-corn-2-coloring-page/
Love the "invisible ink" option. I think kids would really get into this!