From pumpkin painting to spider web creating, Halloween can be one of the most festive (and exhausting) days of the school year. This year, Halloween falls on a Monday, which for teachers means keeping your students engaged throughout the week. Learn360 has all of the spooky videos, audios, printables, and games to keep your students—from energetic kindergarteners to lethargic high school students—at the edge of their seats. Turn your classroom into a week-long spooktacular adventure with these five Halloween themes.
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Pumpkins
My favorite thing about pumpkins is that they can stay on your classroom walls through Thanksgiving. From Halloween to Thanksgiving, these beautiful gourds keep your classroom decorated and provide ample opportunities for learning. With Learn360, students can learn everything from How to Draw a Pumpkin (Item #274965) to how to sell one with Biz Kid$ (Item #129735) Consider Integrating science into your Halloween festivities and use pumpkins to explore Seeds and Germination (Item #184399). With Day-by-Day Plans: Pumpkins (Item #211587) and new Personality Pumpkins (Item #281841) interactives, Learn360 is sure to keep your students busy until Thanksgiving.
Spiders
There’s nothing like a classroom filled with cotton web and yarn to inspire even your most reluctant learners to ask questions. With Learn360, students can explore questions from How Do Spiders Make Webs? (Item #206938) to What Distinguishes Spiders from Insects? (Item #276198). Teach critical thinking with new interactives: Spiders (Item #281843), Spiders Cloze Reading (Item #281844) and Venomous Spiders Compare and Contrast (Item #281846). For squeamish students, consider sharing I Am (Not) Scared (Item #279701) and launching a writer’s workshop with one of The Mailbox®’s Spider Journal Prompts (Item #211942). We recommend posing the following journal prompt: “How would your life change if you had eight legs instead of two?”
Bats
From adorable Stellaluna (Item #66314) to terrifying Vampire Bats (Item #932010), bats have long frightened and fascinated students of all ages. Set a spooky mood for your classroom with Learn360’s audio effects, including Bats: Single Bat Squeak (Item #96876). Then take the mystery out of these intriguing animals by exploring Inside the Bat Cave (Item #241051) and following Missing Bats in Sensible Flats with Cyberchase (Item #278170). Practice close reading with Bats (Item #281837) reading comprehension and start Batty Writing (Item #211882) with The Mailbox®. Consider closing your lesson with a haunted rendition of a classroom favorite, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat (Item #97828).
Witches
For all the students who daydream of having magical powers, Halloween is a time to embrace imagination. From The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Item #210997) to Macbeth (Item #147845), literature and history is filled with stories of witches. Embrace the magic in these stories with A Very Brave Witch (Item #130142). Learn how to laugh (Item #100387) and sing (Item #95626) like a witch, and explore all their “supernatural” pets, from owls (Item #276192) to frogs (Item #279987). Consider integrating history in your celebrations by challenging your class to Examine the Salem Witch Trials (Item #281842) and reenact characters from the Salem Witch Trials (Item #238949).
History of Halloween
For students, Halloween is so much more than costumes and candy corn; it’s an opportunity to explore the fine line between reality and fantasy. Take your students back in time to Halloween Eve, 1938, with War of the Worlds (Item #238898) or on a historical adventure with The Original Headless Horseman (Item #205084). Whether your students prefer a Halloween filled with mythical creatures (Item #204772) or feasts and festivals (Item #277092), Learn360 has all the multimedia content to spark your students’ curiosity and have them questioning reality. Practice separating fact from fiction with reading comprehension activities The Making of a Mummy (Item #281845) and Friday the 13th (Item #281840). From National Geographic’s Sleepy Hollow (Item #68375) to the History of Halloween in the United States (Item #204761), let Learn360 add some magic and mystery to your classroom.
What Is Learn360?
The ultimate streaming multimedia resource for the K–12 educational market, Learn360 is a vetted, easy-to-use media library that is correlated to standards, organized for educators, and full of K–12 content from the industry’s top producers. Learn360 gives teachers, students, and parents access to more than 191,500 media resources—videos, interactives, printables, audio content, and more—on any Internet-enabled device, anytime, anywhere.
Learn360 includes a wide range of exciting, current, and diverse content and features that make it a powerful tool for flipped classrooms, blended instruction, project-based learning, and 1:1 environments. Teachers can use this versatile resource to find content for lesson plans, to introduce topics, as assignments, and much more. Students can use Learn360 independently for research, homework help, or self-directed learning; to enhance projects and assignments; or even just for fun. Plus, Learn360 was created with school budgets in mind, making it a sustainable resource year after year.
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