Don't Be A Hallo-weenie!!! Tips for Surviving the Halloween week and a Freebie! !

We all know that one teacher who HATES Halloween. Don't get me wrong - I don't love the jacked up kiddos that invade my classroom this week, but I LOVE Halloween. I learned a few years ago - if you can't beat them - join them! I theme things in my room around Halloween and put all that energy to good use!! This is my 5th year at my current school, and my seventh year teaching, and I have put together some survival skills for surviving the week of Halloween and the day(s) after!

1) The Candy Man..........The first two years, I thought I would never get through all the candy days that followed Halloween. I didn't want any candy in the classroom, but at the end of the day I would find candy wrappers all over the room! They were sneaking the candy at their desk during art, music and guidance!! My solution now? Let them eat candy! Say what, crazy lady?! Yes -- let them eat the candy. Two pieces. THAT'S IT! I tell them on Halloween right before we leave, "If you want to bring in some candy tomorrow to eat, you can bring two pieces to enjoy during lunch." No more wrappers, no more gorging of candy, and I usually get a snickers or two out of the deal :)

2) Costume Stories..... My cousin's brother's sister's friend and I were going down the road......If I listened to every child's Halloween story, I would be stuck at school until Thanksgiving!! My solution - November 1 letters! Students practice their friendly letter skills by writing a letter to someone in the room (we use one of our partner systems) explaining the great night they had. They get to tell ALL about their story, and you practice writing letters! I've also done journal entries - but letters are more fun, because you can exchange them!

3) Excess Energy - Two Words -- Lysol Wipes. It's cold and flu season y'all. Seriously. Too much energy? Set the timer.... I say the phrase, "You have __________ minutes to finish" about fifty million times a day. I set the timer. When the timer goes off -- we are DONE. If you didn't finish, you have to keep working while those who are finished cleans the room! This gives those fast finishers somewhere to put that energy. We clean keyboards, whiteboards, chairs, desks-- ANYTHING that we touch gets the wipe down. Students who need more time have it, and your early finishers aren't driving the other kids crazy.

4) I like to move it move it....... Let your kiddos MOVE! Move around the room. Seriously. Doing a two part assignment? Turn in one part at one table, pick up the other part at another table across the room. Let them move around, and get some of that energy out.

5) Halloween Themed Things - Want them to pay attention to your lesson that you're teaching when all they can think about is Trick-or-Treating? Make your lesson Halloween themed! I know that on Thursday my kiddos won't want to be even THINKING about our money unit - so I created this AWESOME worksheet packet that has all kinds of money word problems!

One LUCKY reader will win this worksheet pack for FREE!! To enter to win, leave a comment about your favorite Halloween thing to do with your kiddos!! (This is a sample page -- there are 4 pages of problems!)

You can also purchase the product on my TpT account here!

Hope everyone has a happy and safe Halloween!!! Our school is hosting Trunk-Or-Treat, and 3rd grade is performing for PTO -- wish us luck!! :)