Happy October! How in the world is 2021 almost over. For me, I’m glad to see it go. Personally, it’s been worse than 2020. I know, right? October is chock full of holidays and teachable moments. So, for the first week’s episode I wanted to give you ideas of things you can do for each one, and how to execute it virtually of course. Whether the plans fit in your lesson plans and scope and sequence or not, it’s sure to give you ideas for the future, and hopefully a better idea of how to execute your favorite lesson virtually. In today’s episode, we’re talking about National Bullying Prevention Month, Fall, and of course, Halloween. Stick around, because we’re just getting started.
How ready are you for October? Are you ready for the sugar rushes (the pre Halloween ones included?) The start of the busy season? Are you ready for the time of year when spring testing starts looming overhead? Or when some new behaviors start to kick in because they’re comfortable? I don’t know about you, but October was always just one of those months for me. Kind of like March Madness (and I’m not talking about basketball. You teachers know!), but in the fall.
If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em
So, instead of fighting it, I decided to lean in. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, right? So, I always worked to find the child in me. I brought out toys, candy, manipulatives, everything I could think of to keep my students engaged while actively learning. Now, let’s include the added challenge of keeping them engaged virtually.
Fall always brings a freshness and excitement. Once it’s officially fall, students (and myself if I’m being honest) start to feel the closeness of the holidays. We can feel the season starting to change. And us in the south? Well, we were just ready for the first freeze. Good riddance bugs, sweating, and humidity! So, I leaned into fall.
What do you think of when you think of fall?
What do you think of when you think of fall? Changing leaves? Falling leaves? Pumpkins? Crisp, cool air? Sweaters and boots? Halloween? Honestly, you can formulate a lesson around all these things. But, for the sake of time, let’s just pick a few today.
If you do a quick internet search, there’s tons of lessons about pumpkins. Weight, counting seeds, size, and on and on. This was so easy to incorporate in the classroom. The teacher could buy a bunch of mini ones, or a few big ones and break his or her students into groups. But what about those at home learners? You can’t expect them to have it all. So, what do you do?
Let’s start planning
Well, let’s break it down by subject, shall we?
Math: estimate the seeds. Graph different sizes of students that already have pumpkins at home.
Science: life cycle of a pumpkin. Read about it, grow it! Talk about the nutritional benefits of pumpkin. Roast the seeds, make pumpkin bread!
Reading: Find a story about pumpkins. Do word work on pumpkin pictures. Spell pumpkin, seed, pulp, and orange! I know some of these words seem easy, but honestly, orange sounds way different than it’s spelled. Where is the ‘J’?!
Social Studies: Where do pumpkins grow best? Find it on the map! What is the climate like there? How is climate different from temperature?
How do I do this virtually?
Now, you’re probably thinking cool, Allyson. But, didn’t you say you were going to tell me how to do this virtually? You bet I am! Let’s go back to subject by subject.
Math
In math I mentioned graphing pumpkins. Very quickly, you can have your students hold their pumpkin to the camera, take the camera to the pumpkin, or bring a picture they took before your lesson. They all have cell phones, tablets, digital cameras – something they can use to show their picture! From there, you can use bar graphs to show size after you’ve agreed what is big, medium, small. You can graph them from smallest to largest using the student’s name. Personally, I would have them graph this on paper, because it’s good practice, but if you want this virtually too, the National Center for Education Statistics (nces.ed.gov) has a super kid friendly website for this.
Estimating seeds? Well, I would do this one as a demonstration, and they all estimate the seeds from my pumpkin.
Science
Talking about the nutritional benefits of a pumpkin? Find some resources that are kid friendly that your students can peruse independently. Give them places to show their work. What vitamins is pumpkin high in? What’s the sugar content? The fiber content? Any healthy recipes?
Growing a pumpkin? Again, do this as a demonstration, make a video yourself, or just find one on youtube or teacher tube. Offer extra credit to those who grow one on their own using one of their pumpkin seeds. Are they willing to photo document it? How cool would that be?!
Reading
I know, read alouds are nothing new, but they are new to the virtual world. How in the world do you read aloud to a group of students who aren’t gathered in the carpet area in front of you? Well, if you missed it, I tackled this a couple weeks ago. You can find it inside Episode 15: How to Improve Read Alouds in the Virtual Classroom or the blogpost here. But, super quickly, in case you don’t have time for another episode: your document camera will be your best friend.
Social Studies
Where do pumpkins grow best? Well, everyone has access to maps. Again, find a website you want them browsing independently, or provide them with independent or group reading. Then, have them show their learning by identifying the area pumpkins grow best on the map. For the temperature graph, well have them use the internet to research the temperature at their school that week. Then, graph it! I love it when a lesson crosses subjects! Then have them research the average temperature for the past 5, 10, however many years. What is the climate? How fun would it be to have them all show their learning through Flipgrid!
Again, you can hear a Flipgrid tutorial inside Episode 7: Online Teaching Tool Swap 5.0 – Bring Student Centered Discussions to Your Virtual Lessons with Flipgrid or the blogpost here. But, if you’re not familiar with Flipgrid, it’s kind of like a Tik Tok, but much less curated, and specifically designed for learning. It’s just short videos.
Whew, this one was meaty teachers. So, next week, I’m going to bring you ideas for National Bullying Month, and then the week after that we will do Halloween! I hope this gave you inspiration. I hope it wasn’t too overwhelming. And finally, I hope you found some tips and tricks to take with you into your online classroom with whatever lesson and unit you are teaching. Chat soon!
Im very happy to find this web site. I wanted to thank you for your time just for this fantastic read!! I definitely liked every bit of it and i also have you book-marked to see new things in your website.