Thursday, October 16, 2014

Halloween Weeks 8-9

Week 9



For my elementary students week 8 is midterms, so we are busy reviewing and testing. Its all serious business. Reality is scary enough. But if by chance we have some time at the end of testing, say just 5 minutes, then I’d like them to get them moving. I love wii Dance, kids love it too. Check out a timeless classic made into a dance, just in time for Halloween. “Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters!”


During their oral exam, Grasshopper class illustrated their costumes and watched The Nightmare before Christmas.

I will give them a group reading and do some rhyming of Halloween vocabulary. If we have time we can play some online interactive games with the vocabulary. Here are some links:

Halloween Monsters Memory Game
Halloween vocabulary Memory Game 
Matching Quiz 



For my G7B class we have been studying Genre and Fantasy as an introduction to their unit on JRR Tolkien. I am also giving my G8A a break from their book this week. So I’ve dedicated this week to learning Halloween vocabulary and a lesson on Stephan King.

Halloween Vocabulary List 1: 
costumes, “ In Halloween kids wear costumes.” "Let’s see some costumes."
Vampires, skeleton, witch, Boogie Man, Frankenstein, Werewolf, Freddy, Cemetery, Fog, Enchanted (Haunted House), black cat, parade, bonfire,
“Trick or Treat”
Halloween candies, pumpkin shop, Jack O
’Lantern, pumpkin pie, Halloween Cookies



My Junior High kids are interested in scary movies, and one way to link this to contemporary American literature is introducing them to author Stephen King. Reading any of his stories in English is beyond their level right now, but at least they can be exposed to some of his more famous works through film adaptations.



Top 10 Stephen King Adaptations:

#10. The Dead Zone
           Johnny Smith wakes up from a coma with psychic powers.
#9. The Stand
         This story is Stephen King’s own “Lord of the Rings.”
#8. It
      About a scary clown  terrorizing a small town.

#7. The Mist
      A monster movie and survivor story. A fog brings in scary creatures that prey on           town folk.

#6. Carrie
     The shy Carrie is bullied at school. She realizes she has psychic gifts.

#5. Stand By Me
     A coming of age story about a group of boys traveling to see a dead body.

#4. Misery
     After crashing his car, an author is taken care of by his biggest fan.

#3. The Green Mile
      A spiritual story about a black, simple, mystical prisoner, who is wrongly killed.

#2. The Shining
       REDRUM is backwards for____________. This movie is about cabin fever. 

#1 The Shaw Shank Redemption
   A convicted killer finds friendship.



In one of my Junior High classes, I want to celebrate “Vocabulary day” based on Debra Frasier’s book, “Miss Alaineus: A Vocabulary Disaster.” Students choose a word from our massive vocabulary list, and design a creative interpretation of that word for their costume. I think we would only have time to sketch a costume. When thinking of a creative costume, students must be able to define the word in a creative manner. For example, if a student chose the word “miscellaneous,” he can interpret this word into a costume by placing a collection of unrelated objects onto his clothing.



No comments:

Post a Comment