How do you know autumn is upon Texas?
The temp drops below ninety.
Football season is in full swing.
School zones are blinking with lights.
My favorite holiday is near
Bats, ghosties and pumpkins, oh dear.
Signs are out for pumpkin spice
And TCEA rolls out some fall resources that are ohhhh, so nice.
I am an elementary teacher at heart and always will be. One of the things I miss about teaching is designing fun activities for my kiddoes. I hope you and your students enjoy the following activities. By all means, share these resources with your fellow teachers.
The Boo Breakout
The Boo Breakout is a Halloween-themed breakout with five digital locks. You can find all the answers in the hidden links from the breakout site. I did not include any external links to eliminate annoying ads or possible inappropriate content. Fourth graders and up should be able to solve The Boo Breakout. Don’t forget that you can always email me for hints if you get stuck on the puzzles.
Little Monster Sorting
A big shout out to Eric Curts and his Control Alt Achieve blog sorting activity, “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish” for being my inspiration for this next activity. Last spring, Eric designed a graphic organizer to sort fish based on their characteristics. I was inspired to create my own sorting activity with Venn Diagrams. My design is centered around little monsters. Make a copy here.
Autumn Pixel Art
Another one of my favorites from Eric is his Pixel Art. Designing ghosts, pumpkins, and fall leaves can easily be created in this medium. Check out his directions and templates.
Leaves FALL Down Digital Breakout
Tonya Coffey just released her newest digital breakout, Leaves FALL Down. Currently, Tonya has eight holiday and three seasonal digital breakouts for elementary students. She has designed four teacher breakouts as well. Tonya creates digital breakouts for the second to fifth graders at her school. When asked about grades levels, she comments, “Depending on the level, additional support will need to be given. If you want students to work independently, I would say fifth grade.”
Stop Motion Autumn Animation
Try this easy-peasy stop animation with Google Slides for your little ones. Check out my example.
Steps to the Stop Motion Animation Jack O’Lantern
- Open up a new Google Slide presentation
- Draw and decorate a large Jack O’Lantern
- I used the polygon tool and connected the ends. If you connect the ends, you can use the fill bucket.
- Duplicate the slide.
- Change the color of the eyes, nose, and mouth.
- Publish your Google Slides presentation to the web.
- Under File: choose Publish to the Web
- Under Auto-advance slides: choose every second
- Select: Start slideshow as soon as the player loads
- Select: Restart the slideshow after the last slide
- Copy and share the link.
Pumpkin Building
Check out this worldwide collaboration project. I designed a Google Slides presentation for students to turn a pumpkin into a jack o’lantern. This project can double as a digital citizenship lesson. The collaboration of artwork reinforces the concept of respecting each others work. You can build on my slide deck which is Shareable with the World or you can Make your own Copy to Use in Your Classroom.
For even more (and I mean PLENTY MORE) autumn resources, check out this blog post. Happy fall, y’all!
Featured image and activity screenshots by author.
