Favorite October Activities for 3rd and 4th Graders

October is such a fun time in the classroom. Today, I am going to share a round-up of all my favorite ideas for teaching in October.

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Bat Week

One of my favorite weeks is BAT WEEK! The kids LOVE it so much and I can make it so rigorous for them.

We do a bat cave challenge that is beyond rigorous and so engaging. We research, write, do stem, and so much more.

Read all about Bat Week here!  

Visualizing with I Need My Monster

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this book! It is so cute. (click the book for my affiliate link)

So, here is what I do!

1. The kids need a white piece of paper and coloring utensils.
2. I read the story the first time, but  DO NOT show any pictures.
3. I stop several times while reading and allow them draw. They are coloring or drawing what they think Gabe, the monster, looks like. Their job is to listen to the words that the author says in order to form what the monster looks like.
4. Then, once we read it, we go back through and retell the story while looking at the pictures. They look at their pictures and match them up to the actual illustrations.

We then can talk about how important it is to listen to the author’s words and visualize what is going on in our heads.

Read Aloud GALORE

These are my FAV read aloud for October. Click each read aloud to head to the affiliate link for the book!

Mystery Week

I LOVE the mystery reading genre! It is one of my favorites with my kiddos!

During mystery week we complete SPY related reading centers, read Cam Jansen books, do a SPY word problem race, learn about cardinal directions and more!

>>Check out my mystery week here<<<

Halloween Math Party

Instead of your typical party, I like to have a party that works on some skills!

I use LOVE these Halloween Math Party ideas from Around the Kampfire! Read about it here! 

Fall Slide Decks

I am a big fan of Google Slide Decks in centers. When we are reading and learning about different fall themes I have them complete a slide deck during their reading centers. These slide decks have them play games, read stories, do word work, and more!

>>Check them out here!<<<

Research

October is a GREAT month to have kiddos researching all the time!

We research something new every week in the month of October.

We can do research on bats, spiders, the history of Halloween, fire prevention, our family history, and more!

Don’t make this hard on yourself. Just give children a topic and let them research. I typically will have them use kiddle.co for research. I give them the topic and have them find 5-10 facts on that topic. Then, we write an informational essay using their newly research information. Make it even better and let them do a directed drawing to go with their writing.

(Check out my Bats research here)

Scary Stories

I do this in three ways…

1. Students write scary stories and illustrate them.
2. We sit in a circle and students get to tell their scary stories using a flashlight.
3. We create “team scary stories”. This means I write a sentence and hten I pass my paper and the next person writes another sentence. This keeps going around until we have full stories written.

The World Series

The World Series is in October, so I love to do a baseball focused lesson.

Easy baseball ideas include:

1. Cam Jansen and the Mystery of Babe Ruth– This is a great read aloud to teach students a new series. The best part of this series is that it is lower level, so you lowest readers can become confident when reading chapter books.
2. Close Reading- We do a fiction and nonfiction close read around the world series! Grab it here!
3. Baseball Math– We go outside and students play “catch”. Each time they catch the ball they have to complete a math problem. So, I give them a worksheet and they throw the ball to their partner and do number one. Then, they toss it back and do number two. This is a fun way to make a simple worksheet engaging.

Get Outside

I love the fall. We use October as a time to explore nature often.

Simple ideas include…

1. Doing your read alouds outside
2. Nature Writing– Students will go outside and find two things in nature and then write a short story about them.
3. Task Cards– Take task cards for a subject and hide them around the playground. Students must find them and then they can answer the questions.

I hope that some of these ideas can make your October in the classroom more engaging for your students!