Fall is in the air! With students settling into routines it’s time to break out those fun learning activities for October! 2021 still poses many challenges for both students and educators. These October-themed learning activities are a fun way to continue to engage students while learning while incorporating a Fall Theme.
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Books and Crafts for October
Time to going ‘hunting’ once more with this fun Fall adventure. This book is similar to the popular, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, song. The best part about this read-aloud is that you can really take students out to hunt for leaves after! After, they can put their collecting into a fun little leaf scrapbook to take home. This little leaf activity is great for practicing sight words as well!
Room on a Broom is the perfect October-themed book for teaching sequencing. Several of the Witch’s things get blown away in the wind as she’s riding her broom. Several animals offer to help in exchange for a ride on the broom.
I found these fun sequencing activities to go along with the Room on a Broom read-aloud at Pencils and Pigtails on TPT.
The kids just love, love, love making the sequencing broom craft! They really get into character when re-telling the story. So much so I do not have them glue them right away and I can often refer back to the craft each time we do a sequencing activity later in the year.
October Themed Math Activites
Skeleton Bone Tally Marks
Spook-up tally mark practice with this fun hands-on, tally-mark activity! This low prep October activity will only require some Q-tips and number cards. It would be great for a math learning center. Students draw a card and use the quit tips to represent tally marks. I use a black piece of construction paper for a work mat.
Compare Numbers with Candy Corn
Candy corn is quite popular in October. Put the popular fall candy, candy corn to good use this month using it for the Greater Than, Less Than, and Equal Signs in this October themed math activity.
You can use number cards or dominoes for this activate. Students place two dominoes or number cards down, with a space between them. Then they place the candy corn in the center comparing the two dominoes or number cards. To bump it up a notch, have students write the equations on dry erase boards or paper.
Did you know they now make Caramel Apple Candy Corn? They do, YUM! I see a comparing and contrasting activity in our near future!
While you have your candy corn out, you can play this FREE candy corn counting game from our free library.
Counting and Cardinality Practice with Spiders
Using small plates with a spider web that has a number in the center, students count out the correct number of spiders and place them on the plate.
Monster Eye Math
Use that tub of googly eyes you have stockpiled in the craft cabinet to add a little fun to math activities this October!
Students can roll dice and count out the correct number of eyes. You can even let the kiddos draw their own ‘monster’ mats for more added fun.
Word Work Activities for October
Witch’s Brew Sight Word Activity
Write sight words or word families on popsicle sticks and place them in these fun little cauldrons. Students pull a stick and read the words to practice sight words or word families. If you have enough cauldrons, students could keep the sticks they collect in their own individual pots. You can add a couple of sticks with ‘Boo!’ on them and when that one is pulled, they have to put all their sticks back and start again. This will help keep the game from ending too soon during rotations or centers.
This activity can also be used for Math as well! Just create sticks with numbers or equations on them for a Math center.
Word Web
Students practice writing their sight words or spelling words in this fun web printable. Any image of a spider web will work for this activity. I used this free spider web printable from WorksheetFun.com and enlarged it a bit on the copier and it works great!
Spider Tic Tac Toe
Spider tic tac toe is an amazingly quick way to practice challenging words that require lots of repetition to make them ‘stick’. To take the monotony out of the repetition, I create quick little tic tac toe boards with those words challenging words. If you prefer to print tic tac toe boards, I found these premade tic tac toe boards on TpT. Students say the word and then place their spider on that space. Three spiders of the same color in a row and a winner is crowned. Pull the spiders off and repeat. It’s a quick low cost, low prep, and very effective method to get in a lot of sight word practice.
Ghost Tic Tac Toe
Students practice writing and reading sight words or spelling words on this Halloween-themed tic tac toe board. Sometimes I assign specific words and other times I have them practice with a list of words. Having students swap words each round gives them both the opportunity to practice all the words.
I found these fun and free Tic Tac Boo boards at Wiggles Academy on TpT.
Save your tic tac toe boards and reuse them at any time for reteaching or practice any time of the year, just switch out the spiders with another object to fit the new theme. Keep the tic tac toe boards in plastic sleeves to prevent damage. Then you can store them in a three-ringed binder for easy organization.
Acorn Bump
This editable word work game is a fun game to play in the fall. My students love BUMP games of any kind! This game requires 2 dice, the free editable acorn template from The Reading Mama, and any 2 types of fall-themed objects. First, type in the words you want students to practice print and add a fun fall object to cover acorns when the word is read correctly. If another player gets a number that already has an object they get the opportunity to ‘bump’ that player’s piece from the board and replace it with one of their own. After a set amount of time whoever has the most objects left on the board wins! This is a great partner activity during center time!
Music and Movement Activities for October
Fluency & Fitness+
Fluency & Fitness+ is a fantastic way to combine, music, and movement with engaging fluency practice with a fall theme! Students stand and respond to slides, after a few slides fun music plays as they do a corresponding exercise or dance denoted on the slide.
Go Noodle
Free to use Go Noodle has engaging October-themed dance songs like Bones! Students follow along with the silly skeleton dance moves while learning the names of the bones in the body.
Learning Station
The Learning Station has some fun October-themed guided dance songs to help get the ‘fall wiggles’ out!
Boom Chicka Boom Halloween Dance
To help you plan for October even more, check out these posts with more Halloween Activities and Pumpkin Activities.
