Spiders and Bats!

There is no shortage of novelty themes in October!  It can also be a little overwhelming at times to choose what is best for meeting the standards while having a blast too!  Here are some ideas for incorporating spiders and bats into your learning!  (For pumpkins read this post)

First up, creepy crawly spiders! I love motivating writing with arts and crafts.  Writing facts is a terrific way to encourage stretching sounds.  Students are pumped about what they know and want to show you on paper!   The materials used for this project are sharpies, oil pastels, and a zillion googly eyes.  🙂

Spider math centers make independent practice way more fun than a worksheet!  Just add some fun seasonal poms, spiders, and bats to make those little dendrites hum with happiness!

If you didn’t catch my post on this little interactive spider book packed with spider science and writing check it out here.

Now to bats!  I can’t help but start with the art and writing fun!

Every year we enjoyed Stellaluna by Janell Cannon and we completed a week long book study.

It’s kind of a big deal!  It is simple enough that my first graders can do it in October.  In the picture below students are working hard I place one of the little bats on their table and that just makes life the best.

There are 4 activities to do with the book and then a grading rubric that I stapled to the packet for their scores.  Oh the excitement.

Last year I took the exciting science, vocab, and writing connections we make and turned them into a bat book bursting with activities!

October can be a long and tiring month for teachers!  I hope this can provide some excitement while filling up those empty places in your lesson plans! 🙂