5 Tips to Help Teachers Survive Halloween
Halloween is on a Monday this year! If that doesn't scare you I don't know what will. Halloween can be one of the most challenging teaching days of the year. For me it was always more challenging than I'm sharing my top 6 tips to help teachers survive Halloween.
1. Admit Defeat The sooner you accept it the better, no new content is going to be taught today. Hyper students, costumes and meticulously planned lessons do not mix. Find some fun Halloween themed review activities and call it a day. (Check out my October Pinterest Board for some ideas.)
2. Choose a Comfortable Costume
Remember if you choose to dress up in fun teacher or grade level costume, you are going to be wearing it for 6 hours or more! Make sure that you will be comfortable. Another option is to bring comfortable clothes that you can change into during recess or lunch. 3. Enlist Parent Help
You have enough to do without spending 5 hours cutting out skeleton parts for a Halloween craft. Chances are you have tons of parents that would be happy to volunteer to plan a special party for their kiddos. One easy way to organize a class party is in stations. If you can have one parent volunteer plan and prepare the activity for each station then you are free to roam the party to help with management. Some stations you may like to have are:
craft
game
movie
snack
bingo
story
4. Choose Sugar Free Snacks
I think we can all agree that kids do not need anymore opportunities to eat sugar on Halloween. A class with a sugar high will only make classroom management more of a challenge. If you are having a classroom party ask parents to bring sugar free snacks. Some easy sugar free Halloween party snacks are:
Veggies and Dip
Crackers and Cheese
Popcorn
Pretzels
Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
Grapes
5. Plan for the Day After
The day after Halloween students are anxious to stuff their pockets with candy as they head off to school. The next thing you know there will be melted chocolate, and candy wrappers everywhere. I always tell my students that I will eat any candy that I see outside of the lunch room. This scares my students so much that I have never had to follow through on promise!
