Take on Halloween week with Engaging Guided Reading Activities and Free Resource

Hey friends,

Happy Fall! I know Halloween is a few short days away, bit don’t worry there is still time to work in some fun and focused activities.

I don’t know about you, but fall is my favorite season here in Washington. It’s chilly, sunny and the colors of the trees are amazing! As a teacher I love it because I’m obsessed with all the Halloween books. I might have a slight problem… I buy them all. HA! I decided to take some of my favorites a few steps further with focused standards based activities and a craft of course! I try to work in art based activities whenever I can even if it has to involve other academics as well.

For my Halloween theme week, I focused on character analysis. Halloween books typically have hilarious characters with great animated emotions, as they go through unique situations.

In each unit I packed it with print and go elements for when I didn’t have a lot of time, but wanted an engaging activity that checked off the standards. I also included a plethora of extensions for when time leant to further exploration. I wanted something that was almost scripted but allowed for flexibility and choice to keep it fun and interesting for not only the students but for us as teachers!

Each engaging unit has:

Mini-lesson ideas to introduce the focus
Comprehension cards to accompany the book to review throughout the book or for discussion after you read
Parent communication: letter home going over the weekly focus with suggested conversation starters around literature
Book talk bookmarks for guided reading groups, at home support or independent student use
Posters supporting the target skills
Bulletin board headers and posters
Skill cards: character, setting, problem & solution, etc.
Some units include morning work or fast finisher activities
Multiple worksheets covering current skill and precious weeks skills
Writing prompt(s)
Graphic organizers & writing paper
Craft

You can click on any of the images below to look closer at what’s included in the resource.

If you want to get a glimpse of what one of these units is like, I have created a smaller version inspired by the book “Room on The Broom” Simply click on the link to download your copy!