Thematic units are a huge part of my planning and teaching. I love the month of October as there are so many engaging activities to cover – now that we are somewhat settled into the new school year! Below are some of my favourite October activities.

Art Ideas

1. I get a lot of inspiration from Instagram. I’ve been following Art With Mrs. E for a long time and love using her lesson plans. I highly recommend following her page on Instagram. We tried these sugar skull skeletons last year. (Total credit to Kaitlyn for this lesson) Below are some lesson notes from me:

• I used A3 card from Lidl for the base and the paper packs for the skeletons.
• Make sure you have an example or two to show the children before you start.
• We watched a scene from the Disney movie COCO as a discussion stimulus.
• To make the skull – fold a piece of A4 paper vertically and draw a half outline of the skull to make it easier! (Cut out when it’s still folded)
• I used Art With Mrs. E’s Sugar Skull Clip Art resource on TPT as a visual reference for the kids while they worked.

• When it comes to using black paint in the classroom – less is more! My trick is to give the students thin paint brushes and limit the amount of time they have to paint on their skeleton.
• You can also spend some time teaching your students the history of sugar skulls and their importance in Mexican history. You can find lots of information on The Day of the Dead online.

2. Another idea I loved on Instagram was this Haunted House lesson from Michelle’s Innovative Ideas. You can see a detailed lesson in this post!

Gaeilge

3. Studying the Ocaidí Speisilta are such a fun way of getting students involved with the Irish language. I encourage my class to use the vocabulary and phrases they learn in school over the mid-term break. Last year, I created a huge Oíche Shahmna resource with worksheets, display materials, comhrá cards and games! I’ve since uploaded them to TPT!

Literacy

4. Autumn is a great time for writing poetry. I like to take my students on a Nature Walk (socially distanced of course) and ask them to use all of their senses to notice the things around them. In previous years, I have written Acrostic Autumn poems with my class. One year, we made an Autumnal tree to accompany our poems.

For autumn trees…

• I printed the leaf shapes onto black card before we started!
• We used ear buds and lots of poster paint to print on to black card!
• I outlined the tree shape and asked the early finishers to paint it!

5. Vooks is a fantastic website that hosts a hug number of storybooks read by fabulous authors. I signed up for a free year last month. This Leaves book is a perfect discussion starter for any October themed lesson.

6. Spooky writing tasks are a great way to engage your students. Use simple spooky-themed prompts to create some Halloween themed Narrative Free Writing sheets as a base!

Extra Ideas

7. The last week before a break is always a bit of a last push to the finish line! Halloween Booklets are a great way to keep students engaged and busy for the last few afternoons. Generally, I keep any worksheets in a folder and photocopy a booklet with a mix of tasks for the last week!

8. This year, I’ll be using these Halloween focus tasks for early arrival and brain breaks. I threw them together in a pack that you can find on TPT by clicking the image below!

Happy teaching!

Claire