Do you have any spooky reading plans for October? With Halloween around the corner, I thought it would be fun to share some tips for Halloween reading activities today. Whether you celebrate in a big way each year or simply look for a few moments to make a Halloween connection, I have some tips to share with you. These six tips aren’t all spooky, but I couldn’t help including an alliterative spin on the title!
In today’s blog post, we’ll take a look at the awesome resources from Capstone and how you can use them alongside your Halloween plans. If you’re looking to get students excited about reading this October, these tips have you covered. I’ve included a few specific articles and resources for your consideration, too, but you can customize these tips for any Halloween reading experience.
6 Halloween Reading Activities
There are lots of reasons why you may want to try out these activities alongside the fantastic resources from Capstone. But, before we jump into the list with Halloween reading, here’s a little background on Capstone. With Capstone Connect, you can quickly and easily locate articles and ebooks for K-5 students. You might remember my blog posts from earlier this year, where I featured their awesome resources, including 5 Tips for Differentiating Instruction with Technology and 5 Ways to Introduce Informational Text Features.
On this platform, you can access a robust collection of Capstone resources, including PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next. This is also where you’ll find Capstone Interactive. Students can also access interactive ebooks by searching through a digital collection through Connect.
Let’s jump into the list of Halloween reading activities!
Point Out Halloween Topics
There are lots of resources in PebbleGo related to Halloween. You might introduce students to an article on a related topic like Pumpkin Harvest, or head straight to a Halloween reading experience. The search bar at the top of the page is very helpful when looking for content related to a theme or topic. For example, you might want to pull up the article on Spiders if you’re talking about creepy creatures during the Halloween season.
Practice a Keyword Search
As you might have noticed in the screenshots in this blog post, you can perform a keyword search in PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next, as well as the ebook library. This is a great opportunity to have students brainstorm vocabulary words related to a topic, in this case, Halloween. You might prepare by creating a list related to passages you want students to explore as a backup and then have them brainstorm what other words to add to the list.
Make a Fall Connection
If Halloween isn’t a favorite topic for your students, you might make a fall connection instead. There are plenty to choose from in PebbleGo. This includes autumnal articles like Apple Harvest and Animals in Fall. This seasonal connection could be instead of or in addition to a Halloween reading activity you set up for your students.
Try a Biography
In addition to pumpkins and apples, you might take a spin on a Halloween reading topic by including a few biographies, too. In PebbleGo Next, you’ll find articles in categories such as “Composers, Musicians, and Singers” as well as “Explorers and Pioneers.” So if you want to make a Social studies connection, or you know that students in your class are choosing historical figures for a Halloween costume, you can definitely make a particular connection. If your students are dressing up as a historical figure for Halloween they can learn more about that person by reading an article in PebbleGo. For example, they might dress up like Amelia Earhart and read an article all about her, too.
Read About Careers
During Halloween, children often dress up in costumes connected to a career they’d like to have one day. A great Halloween reading connection is to ask students to think about a dream career or a profession that they’d like to dress up as for the holiday. Then you can share a selection of reading passages, like the ones in the “Jobs in Life Science” article. Students can read about Botanists, Zoologists, Marine Biologists, and more. It might even inspire a future Halloween costume!
Encourage a Spooky Response
In PebbleGo Create, students have the option to create a reading response right from within the platform. Although there are lots of ways they can respond in this space, voice recording is a great option for a “spooky response.” Students can record their voices with a spooky tone for a quick Halloween connection — no matter what topic they’ve read about.
Ready to get started with these Halloween reading tips? Head over to Capstone’s website to learn more about PebbleGo, PebbleGo Next, PebbleGo Create, and all of the ebooks you can access on their platform. And if you’re already using Capstone’s resources, I’d love to hear about your favorite ways to make a Halloween connection! Snap a picture or share your story by tagging @ClassTechTips on Instagram or Twitter.
