October Projects & Activities

Monsters In a Jar Writing Project

First we listen to the story, Monster Trap by Dean Morrissey. In the story Paddy is visiting his grandfather, who runs a junk shop. After listening to "Monster Radio Theater," the kid is sure he hears monsters downstairs, so Pop uses bits of junk to create a monster trap, baited with Limburger cheese and fruitcake. The next morning, the trap is empty, so they build a bigger, better one. We used this idea to help us get started with our projects and stories.

After reading the story each student gets a copy of an empty jar and I ask them to pretend that they caught a monster and trapped it. I ask students to draw and color a picture of their monsters. The kids LOVE this! Then I ask them to think about how their monster ended up in the jar. Then the kids have to write a story to tell how they caught the monster that is now in their jar. These are seriously the most creative stories I get all year. I love them!

Bat Mask
(Idea from http://www.sandiegozoo.org/kids/craft_batmask.html)

Bats are wonderful and very special mammals. Special because they are the only mammals that can truly fly, and wonderful because so many of them like to eat insects. Make this Bat Mask and see how wonderful and special you can be!

What you need • 9-inch paper plate • Scissors • Hole punch • Elastic or string • Blue paint and paintbrush • Glue • Thin black cardboard • Glow in the dark stars, or aluminum foil. • Pipe cleaners (optional)

What you do

1. Paint the bottom of the paper plate blue to resemble a nighttime sky. (Remember, bats are awake when most of us are fast asleep!)

2. Cut the paper plate in half. Use one half of the plate for your mask and the other half for a friend. (Bats like to live with other bats in huge groups called colonies.)

3. While the plate is drying, use the thin black cardboard to make a simple outline of a bat, or follow the pattern given. The bat's wings should be a little bit longer than the plate, as in the photo. (Did you know that a bat's wings are similar to our hands?)

Open the Bat pattern PDF

4. When your blue plate is dry, hole punch a hole in each corner near the straight edge of the plate and put the string through so that it will fit around your head for a mask. (Bats like to sleep upside down, with their heads facing the ground!)

5. Glue the top of the black bat just above the straight edge of the plate. Put the mask up to your face and have an adult measure where your eyes are. Then punch a hole for each of your eyes so you can see through your mask. (Many bats use echolocation to "see" their way around in the dark.)

6. You can cut out stars and a moon from aluminum foil, but it sure is cool if you use glow in the dark stars!

7. If you like, you can add pipe cleaner feet, and cut out eyes and a bat beak, too. Now you're ready to fly!

Halloween Glyphs

Download Haunted House Glyph (PDF)	Download Scarecrow Glyph (PDF)

Literature Connections

The Biggest Pumpkin Ever by Stephen Kroll would be a great literature connection for the Huge Pumpkin Estimation Station discussed above or to introduce the class pumpkin sorting activity.
Bats on Parade by Kathi Appelt is a literary introduction to square numbers and the patterns they form as square arrays. The bats march in parade formation and different sections of the band, being different sizes, march in different arrays: "In nine rows of nine those trombones reported, while there, right behind them, the tubas retorted." The pictures and rhyme reinforce the mathematics of the patterns and teachers can easily ask students to predict how many bats will be in the next section or ask them to figure out how many bats are in the whole band before reading those pages. Add this book to your collection of problem-solving literature prompts.
Bat Jamboree by Kathi Appelt introduces the triangular number pattern as bats assemble for the final number beginning with 10 bats in the bottom row, 9 in the next row, etc. to the very top row with 1 bat. Students are introduced to the 55 bats in formation and their various acts but the book "isn't over until the bat lady sings." Students will enjoy this introduction to an important mathematical pattern. Teachers can find many problems that build upon this triangular number pattern and extend the experience. Look for several penguin problems in the Winter Math Activities that will be available on November 1st. This set of problems builds on the triangular pattern and is sequenced to develop student understanding of the pattern and student use of appropriate tables and charts to organize and record data.
Bats Around the Clock by Kathi Appelt takes a humorous dance through time. Click Dark and American Batstand introduce a new dance each hour. Students move through time, enjoy some rhyme and learn the names of some oldie-but-goodie dances along the way.