October is always so much fun for teaching because you can get really into the Halloween/Fall spirit. I’m definitely not unique with my love for theme-teaching. I’ve been posting on Instagram all month but haven’t done a blog post yet. I thought it would be fun to post at the end of the month to show them all in one place. Even though it’s too late to use them now, you could always pin now and use next year. 🙂 These activities were done with my RTI groups. These are those kiddos who are having a hard time remembering their letters. For them, we need repetition, repetition, repetition. The problem is, repetition can get boring and we need these kids’ full attention! So, our job is to find a way to give them repetition by teaching them the same thing over and over but in a way that looks different.
This first idea is simple! It’s nothing special but the kids loved it. I just used some small sentence strips (keep those handy always) and wrote the letters we were working on. Notice how there aren’t that many different letters. I set out the sentence strips with the same letters written in different order. Then I added a number to each one. Throw in a dice and a witch’s finger and you have a game. All we did was roll and read it. One student is working on sounds so she gave the sounds. The other needs to learn the letter names so she said the letter names. After they read the strip, they got a “point” which didn’t didn’t really lead to anything.
This is an app that I love. It does cost money, but it is a fabulous resource. Kids have to form the letters correctly or the little ghost starts over. I have them say the letter name and sound as they form the letter. We do the same letter several times. Here is an article on the importance of correct letter formation and handwriting.
This next activity requires your favorite Halloween clip art and a clothespin. Don’t we all have tons of clothespins laying around? 🙂 I used random scraps of card stock (from other projects) and wrote the letters we have worked on. When it comes to RTI, I don’t move on too far with new letters until most, if not all, of the letters I have introduced have been mastered. For this activity, I would either say a sound or a letter name and they would move the clip to that letter. Nothing fancy again, but about five minutes of repetition like they need. The more you involve your Halloween “characters”, the better. “Fly your witch to the..” or “land your bat on the…” “float that ghost to the..” Make it a short story. “The witch needs a certain letter for her spell. Help her find it!”
This is a favorite for sure. In my Fall Guided Reading Pack for beginning readers, I included an editable template. This was originally for sight words, but I ended up using it for just letters. Kids spin and read the letters under the picture they land on. Great for repetition and anything with a spinner is fun. You can make your own version! Grab your favorite Halloween clip art to make a spinner and use the same for the headers on the paper. You don’t have to type out the letter, you could just write them in. If you are good at drawing, you could do that too! 🙂
I made just a couple of these, but the kids had fun with it! They matched the initial consonant with the letter. I just cut up some small sticker labels and stuck them on the shapes. If you like this, you can grab it for free here. 🙂 I changed it so that it included more letters since we all teach letters in different order. You could use this as a center in class.
One last fun game to share with you! They roll and count that many spaces. They have to say the letter names or sounds that they pass. 🙂
You can get this game here.
Don’t forget to pin and save for next year. Hope you can use some of these ideas!
