The week before Halloween, my school enjoys “Spirit Week.” Every day has its own theme and the kids (and teachers!) come dressed accordingly. We had a blast this year and my students loved the extra FUN activities that I added to our typical workstations.
In order to keep some semblance of normalcy, I keep the schedule the same on these “off days.” However, I add a twist to the normalcy. For example, during our math rotations, one of the new centers that I added was measuring with mini pumpkins. My students have been working at using nonstandard units of measurement, and this was a perfect (and FUN!) extension to this skill.
To set it up, I created this anchor chart:
During this center rotation, my students took turns measuring their center partner and then recorded their height in pumpkins on the anchor chart. This was completely independent work!
During guided math, my students also practiced measuring using nonstandard unit of measurement. This time, they measured our three, large, pumpkins!
We also counted pumpkin seeds one day during Guided Math groups. Each year I do this, and every year it gets better and better. Instead of having each group count ALL the seeds together, now knowing just how many seeds a pumpkin can have, I got smart this year. For each group I gave each child a double laminated 100 chart. The students had to scoop out the pumpkin seeds and put them on their tray and then place a seed on each number. This helped my kindergarteners not lose track of what number they were on and it also helped them count to 100!
We also had a parent volunteer come in for our math rotations one day and he carved a pumpkin with each group of students while the other students worked at other centers or with me for guided math. (As a note, I really loved doing it this way! We did not lose any instructional time and the kids had a blast with our dad volunteer!)
I asked this group of kids to “make the face your jack-o-lantern is making!”
It is one of my favorite pictures from this year thus far! 
I hope that you all enjoyed your week before Halloween and are now ready for all things November! Come back soon to see what we are up to!!