Week 11 of kindergarten means peeling kids off the ceiling all week. It’s Halloween week, and so we know it’s gonna be fun, wild, and exhausting. Hopefully, this blog post will help with some low-prep, Halloween classroom ideas to save you some time and stress this week. And PRO TIP: EAT ALL THE CANDY! You can’t beat ’em, so join ’em!
This year is a little different for me because I get to be a stay-at-home dad, so I can spend more time with our daughter and prepare for our second daughter, due on December 21!! So, each week for Schedulin’ Sunday, I will post ideas and resources that I use in my classroom for that week in the school year. Each post will also contain links to previous years’ lesson plans!
Kindergarten Lesson Plans: Week 11
Click the links to download our FREE Kindergarten October lesson plans for week 11!
2022-2023
2023-2024
2024-2025
You can get our editable lesson plan templates by clicking this image:
Low Prep Halloween Classroom Ideas: Phonemic Awareness
Phonemic Awareness Bootcamp continues. This week, we are on skill four: identifying rhyming words or words with the same ending sounds. Here’s what makes Phonemic Awareness Bootcamp unique. We do our phonemic awareness circle chart to determine the beginning sound by attaching the sound to pictures (no letters), so we can focus on hearing the sound.
Low Prep Halloween Classroom Ideas: Phonics
We are working on CVC words in phonics. We are using Word Family Bootcamp for explicit phonics instruction. With Word Family Bootcamp, we are segmenting, spelling, decoding, and writing CVC words and reading them in decodable text!
Teaching Sight Words
Here’s what I want us to remember: don’t memorize words. We segment the sounds, blend the sounds, decode the word, spell the word, write the word, and use the word in context, all to help our brains map the word so we actually learn it!
Each week, we learn four words. We learn the word on Monday, and on Tuesday and Wednesday, we use the words in sentences. On Thursday, we do a sight word grid, and on Friday, we play a game to practice the word!
Creepy Carrots! Creepy Underwear! And Creepy Crayons: Low Prep Halloween Classroom Ideas
Our yearly tradition for the week of Halloween is to celebrate all three creepy books with creepy days!
Each day, we use a different story to work on reading comprehension, writing, and graphing plus we make a snack and do an art project!
Low Prep Halloween Classroom Ideas: Halloween Week Read Alouds
Here are some other great and easy read-alouds for this week! We actually use these on Halloween because… believe it or not..I try to keep my morning on Halloween normal. Stick with the routine as much as possible. Including read-alouds and a comprehension activity!
Pumpkin Phonics Project
Our Pumpkin Phonics Project is the perfect activity for this week because it’s fun, it’s cute, it’s standards-based, and it keeps kids busy! We love doing this monthly because they make a great assessment tool, they’re fun, and they make a cute hallway display!
I assess the kids one-on-one. For each pumpkin they get correct, they color that pumpkin and add it to their truck or vine. For this project, we focus on letters and sounds!
Halloween Day
Halloween Day. Fun. Full of memories. Laughter. Overstimulation. Exhaustion. Embrace it. Make it memorable. And if you can’t celebrate Halloween, do pumpkin stuff. Scarecrows. Candy!
Our classroom tradition for the last 13 years has been our pumpkin project! Each kid gets a pumpkin and they clean it out and plant a flower inside! THE. BEST. The reactions when they clean out the guts is a highlight of the year for me! And the end result is so cute!
Halloween Math: Monster Math
For Halloween math we use all kinds of things to practice adding and subtracting: spider rings, candy corn, monster math!
Halloween Art Projects
Here are some of our favorite, easy art projects for Halloween week!
Directed Drawings
Dia De Los Muertos
November 1 is Dia de los Muertos and we spend some time learning about the holiday and doing an art project.
WEEK 11 RESOURCES
Here are some more resources that can make your planning and prep easier!
FREE FILES!
