Halloween

Last week I helped organize some Halloween activities with the 4th and 6th graders.  For the 4th grade, I printed out some “scary” pictures of vampires, ghosts, ghouls, goblins, witches, pumpkins, etc. and laminated them (which was actually a pretty entertaining way of spending 45 minutes).  Then, I printed out some blank Bingo cards and gave them to the students to fill-in with either the Halloween word under each picture that I showed them, or the picture itself.  This seemingly simple task, like most things I do with the 4th grade, took about half an hour.  But, once everyone had every space on their card filled-in, and they stopped yelling “Bingo” because they thought the had won (before the game even started…), the game went really smoothly.  I bought some small Halloween candies as gifts for every student, and then I bought some bigger, marshmallow witches and vampires for the students that actually won the Bingo game.  One important thing that I learned from this experience was that kids will do almost anything for candy (especially listen and be quiet), so it’s the ultimate bribing technique that I’ll be sure to employ over the course of the year.  Along with Bingo, I also helped the kids make Jack-O-Lantern masks and witch and ghost puppets for their pencils.  It was great.

With the 6th graders, I asked them two weeks ago what they wanted to do to celebrate Halloween at school, and the only solid answer I got was, “We just don’t want to do anymore worksheets.”  So, I told the 6th graders to form groups and come up with their own Halloween skits (either a play, a dance, or a song).  The students that didn’t want to do a skit were in charge of decorating the English/Science classroom and the hallway outside of our room.  The kids really enjoyed doing the skits, and it was my job, practically every period that I spent with the 6th graders last week, to help correct their English and organize their skits.  It ended up being a lot more work than I thought it would be, but I think the overall result turned out really well.  Two groups put on Halloween plays (which both ended with everyone being murdered…) and three other groups danced to songs (Thriller, a Chris Brown song, and a song from the movie Halloween I think).  They were pretty entertaining, and I invited the 4th graders to come watch the performances.  All in all I think the Halloween party last Friday was a success, and I’m going to try to post some pictures and videos to give you a better idea of what went on. The videos will be on my photo website.

Also, on a side note, everyone is scared of Swine Flu (Gripe A is what it’s called in Spain) and kids leave school and go home whenever they feel a slight chill coming on.  It’s kind of ridiculous.

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