BOO! Favorite Things Fall

Fall is here or so I am told.  The trees are still green in my little corner of the world.  I love where I live but I want the trees to start changing.  To me, that is the real change to the fall season.  I am a little worried that we are going straight from summer to winter this year. 

Jake Olsen Studios shared this picture on his Facebook page with permission to use.

With the fall season comes Halloween and Thanksgiving.  Halloween is one of my three favorite holidays (Christmas and Independence Day are the top two).  I love to decorate the outside of the house (haven't done it yet but plan to work on it next weekend) and always have candy ready for trick-or-treaters.  One day (hopefully) I will have my own children to go trick-or-treating with and it will make the holiday even better.

I have been boo-ed by the fabulous Denise from Sunny Days in Second Grade. It is fun way to share resources blog-style.

How it Works:

If you've been booed, copy and paste the above pic and these "rules" into your post.
  1.  Give a shout out to the blogger who booed you and link back to their site!
  2.  Share 3-5 October activities, books, products (yours or someone else) or freebie(s) that you love!

  3.  Share the Boo love with 5 bloggers- make sure you check this link to make sure you don't boo 
       someone again:  Tori's Teacher Tips.  And don't forget to tell them that they have been BOOED!

  4.  Link up {here} so that others can find you and read about your October ideas!  And while you 
       are there... check out the other great blogs!

Favorites for the FALL season

I Need My Monster by Amanda Noll is a great twist on the "monster under the bed" story.  One of my favorite things about this story is that it is a great Halloween read but never mentions Halloween.  So if your school does not allow holiday parties/activities, you can still read this book!  I found an YouTube video of the book also.

My students LOVE the drama circle activities created by Runde's Room.  We started the year with her Back to School drama circle and a few weeks ago did her Any Day Fun drama circle.  They beg me to do these.  She even has one for Halloween!  We are going to do this one, you probably already guessed, on Halloween to kick off our party.  

They are very easy to prepare for:  print the cards and cut them out.  Each student gets one-two cards (depending on the number of kids you have).  I give them time to read the card and think about what it is asking them to do.  Then I let them talk to a partner about what the card is asking them to do.  If they still can't figure it out, they can then ask me.  We get in a circle and the student with the first card (they are numbered) steps into the circle and preforms the task on the card.  That student steps back and the next student steps into the circle to perform.

Ashley Hughes from the School Supply Addict and Krista Wallden from the Creative Chalkboard have some really cute monster graphics.  Ashley has a set called Monsters and Krista has two sets called Monster Mash and Monsters Under the Bed.  I own all three sets because they are so adorable and colorful.

Looking for more places to get great graphics?  Check out Second Grade Math Maniac's blog hop:  Where do you get your Graphics?

Now for some FREEBIES!!!

Denise from Sunny Days in Second Grade makes fantastic Bump games to go with everything.  She made one for October that has students practice addition using three numbers.  This would make a great center activity.  I would also use on Fridays as a reward game because it is FUN to play.

 Stephanie from Teaching in Room 6 shared homework passes she plans to give her students instead of candy on Halloween.  Fantastic idea!  I know that some schools do not allow candy to be given out, so these are an excellent alternative.

Mary from Sharing Kindergarten shared a fun comprehension game for the book Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White on the new blog Freebielicious.  The game includes a cute game board of pumpkins and 36 question cards.  There is an answer key included also.

Sharing the BOO!

Here are some fabulous bloggers to follow.  I love going to their blogs because they all share great teacher ideas. 

A French teacher from Canada sharing her love of teaching.  Even if you don't teach French, she shares ideas that can be adapted to other subjects.  She has a beautiful blog design also!

A homeschool mama that shares everything she does with her littles for FREE.  She has a fantastic preschool curriculum that she adds to as she creates it.  I love it so much I added a preschool resources page to keep everyone up to date on the lessons she has posted.

A blog full of ideas, ideas, and ideas on how to keep students engaged in all things school related.  I shared her homework passes above.  Another great recent post is about how to use all those Scholastic book order forms teachers get to have students practice adding, subtracting, and multiplying with decimals.

Innovative Connections is not only a blogger but she also creates fun border graphics.  She is always sharing the great things others are doing.  She is a Mississippi State fan, but what can you do.  :)   I probably shouldn't say anything because they are doing much better than my favorite team, the Razorbacks.

Debbie is author/performer who shines happiness.  She loves connecting with children through song and literature.  She shares all the wonderful ideas she sees through her school visits.  She is also a Pinterest queen and you must check out her boards.  Wow! is all I can say about them.