Over several weeks, we shared many Halloween stories, read lots of Halloween poems and sang numerous Halloween songs.  The children were very enthusiastic and excited about all the Halloween activities that they were involved in.  They were especially excited about the many writing activities that we were involved in.  We made several class books where the children each contributed a page, and the children made many personal books.  Many of the books that we made followed simple and repetitive story patterns that were easy for the children to follow.  This assisted them with, both the writing and reading of these class and individual stories/books.

 ON HALLOWEEN NIGHT!

One of the initial writing experiences that the children participated in was one which allowed them to brainstorm and use Halloween vocabulary.  We did the brainstorming as a class, and then each of the children chose one "Halloween Word" to use on their personal page.  This writing activity also allowed the children to use descriptive vocabulary in their writing.  They used words such as "creepy," "scary," "ugly," etc.  This class book used the story starter "On Halloween Night I See..."

SPIDER SURPRISE!

This was a FUN writing activity because of the special SURPRISE at the end of the story.  As a class, we talked about the "silly" places that we might find a spider and what people's reaction would be to find a spider.  The children then took the brainstormed ideas, as well as some personal ideas and wrote personal books that followed the pattern "A spider is on my..."  The special SURPRISE at the end of the story is "And...there is a spider on...YOU!!"  At the end of the story, the children put a plastic spider on the person they were reading the story to!  There were many "squeals" of delight when the SURPRISE was given to the unsuspecting listeners!