The Dollar Tree is a B.F.F. to many teachers. That definitely includes me! With one of my favorite months of the year coming up, I headed there for some inexpensive Halloween classroom decorations. I walked out, $12 later, not only with some fun decorations, but also with enough spooky-fun stash to create several fun learning centers for my fifth graders! Take a look at what was in my shopping basket:
Halloween Straws, Eyeball Ping Pong Balls, Caution Tape, Halloween Craft Sticks, Fuzzy Spiders, Squeaky Rate, Candy Corn, Treat Bags, Haunted House Box, Pumpkin Ice Cube Tray
I honestly wasn’t sure what I was going to do with some of the items, but I knew I could come up with something that would make learning a little more fun for my students. Try these ideas or use your imagination to come up with your own spooky centers:
Multiplication Matching Game
Write products in the bottoms of the ice cube tray compartments. Write matching multiplication problems on the eyeball ping pong balls. Have students carry the ping pong balls to the correct compartment by inhaling through the straw. This center was a huge hit with my fifth graders! (They also loved that they got to keep the fun straw when they were finished.)
Candy Corn Perimeter and Area
Create a learning mat with construction paper and markers. I drew 6 rectangles of various sizes on this mat. Have each student find the area and perimeter of each shape, using candy corn as the unit of measure. Answers can be written on Post It notes and left on the mat for easy checking. Once all answers are correct, the student can eat their candy corn!
Studying the 4 types of sentences?
Try this creepy, crawly activity. Your students will love it AND the sentence types will be greatly reinforced! Create a learning mat with construction paper and markers as shown above. Place the fuzzy spider in the center. Have 4 students sit around the mat and write a sentence about the spider, using the type of sentence shown in their section. Then, spin the mat so that each student gets the next section. Keep repeating the activity until each student has written a sentence in all 4 sections. Share sentences with the entire class. Make a display on the wall with the finished mats.
Prepositions are easy with the Rat in the House Center!
Using the haunted house gift box and the squeaky rat, have students use prepositions to complete the sentence “The rat is ___ the house.” It won’t take much encouragement to get them to move the rat near, around, under, over, and in the house!
Witchy Words Alphabetical Order
Write Halloween-related words on the craft sticks. Have students race to put them in alphabetical order. Make it even more interesting by giving students a stopwatch and allowing them to time each other.
Spooky Word Sort
Using the same spooky craft sticks with Halloween words, have students sort the words into nouns, verbs, and adjectives.
Caution Tape Writing Scene
Set the scene for creative writing by taping caution tape across the classroom doorway. Have students write a short story about what might have happened in the room to have it taped off with “Do Not Enter” tape.
Trick or Treat Task Cards
I found this awesome little Halloween treat box that is perfect for fueling students’ creativity! Just $1! 😀 I then used the pictures on the box as inspiration for writing task cards. Place the task cards inside the box and let students choose one and follow the directions!
All of these centers were quite simple to set up and create! If you are really short on time (which, as we know, tends to happen in the world of teaching), you may be interested in checking out these easy-to-download Halloween resources to use in your classroom. Simply Print and Go!
Writing Activities
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