Halloween is my favorite holiday. There are so many good stories to read and fun tactile experiences to have. Each year I try to outdo myself from the year before. My students get to help choose what the theme for the month is. This year, it was a unanimous choice to focus on pumpkins.
I know you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but since I’m a rebel, I totally chose this book based on the cover. There are many great books out for Halloween, but this cover appealed to me. The three children pictured are of different races and wear different costumes. There’s a young boy using a wheelchair and wearing glasses. This provided me an opportunity to talk about how different our friends can be and how that makes our lives so magical. We used our low vision devices to view the picture and investigate the cover further by doing a ‘picture walk’ with it. We counted the leaves and found what was hiding by the moon. I loved this opportunity to observe my students’ sensory efficiency and device skills.
After reading the book, their homework was to find another book for us to explore. They could get one from their classroom, their school library or bring one from home with their parents permission. Every book choice was celebrated as amazing, and they heard me say, “Oh, wow! I love this book!” Or, “This is cool! I’ve never seen this one before! What do you love most about it?”
Focus Skill
- Prewriting skills – making intentional marks on paper
- Book knowledge (i.e. page turning, image walking)
- Develop hand and eye coordination – coloring an image, placing stickers on an item
- Develop finger and hand muscles – opening packages, sticker use, etc.
- Appropriately soliciting assistance
- Express feelings and ideas
- Communication – favorite books and why
- Self-advocacy – sharing their interests and desires for the monthly crafts
Activity 1
My elementary students wanted to build a pumpkin. I found a great activity on this blog site to do just that: PJs & Paint – Create Your Own Jack-O-Lantern. My students all use different crayons depending on their needs. Some options I use are:
- Triangular crayons
- Jumbo crayons
- Egg crayons
- Finger crayons
- Peanut Crayons
- Easy Grip Crayons (my latest find!!)
To help with coloring, two students used the lightbox to see better. Most of my students, however, used a clipboard to help secure their work as they colored. One day I forgot to bring the clipboard from my car. One student found success in holding his paper with his right hand as he colored with his left! This was such a surprise and helped me realize that I have an opportunity to step back a bit as my students grow and learn to do more with less support.
One tip I have found helpful is to ask parents or student organization groups needing service hours to cut out all the pieces for lessons. Normally, I have my students cut out their own pieces, but this month is crazy busy. Trying to get to everything that I wanted forced me to use shortcuts I might not normally use.
Activity 2
The ghost craft was my choice. I wanted my students to work on peeling and applying stickers. If this is a struggle, then I wanted them to work on soliciting assistance. I chose the Disco Ghost Mosaic from Oriental Trading as all the pieces came in a nice package. I know they sell out of the items frequently. If I needed more, I knew I could reproduce the craft easily with a trip to the craft store.
The instructions were enlarged as needed. For this craft, I tried to recreate the sample from the website so that my students could preview what we were going to make. Once the package was opened, the sample was put away because I wanted them to focus on their own creativity rather than what I had made.
Activity 3
One of my students creates a greeting card each month. When she struggles with coming up with a greeting for the inside of her card, the internet is wonderful for her to find something to choose from! She practices decision making by choosing the color of cardstock to use, what stickers or items she wants and the people she wishes for me to deliver her cards to. She creates an original image for each of her cards. No two cards look alike. She frequently struggles to remove the sticker backs, so this offers her an opportunity to work on soliciting assistance goals.
Extension Activities
- Infuse some cool Halloween jokes into the lesson, either verbally or in the student’s literacy media.
- Encourage students to lead a craft lesson in their classrooms by collaborating with the classroom teacher.
- Research other crafts to try.
- Create a coloring portfolio to share with peers or family.
