This lesson is way up there on my favorite’s list! I LOVE it, and the kiddos really get into it! Essentially, this bundle is inspired by “Miss Alaineus: A Vocabulary Disaster”, and most of the lessons in the packet center around word explorations. The culminating activity is the word parade. Each child wears a costume to school and chooses a word to describe their costume. I encourage them to think of a really challenging, precise, WOW word, and I’ve been so impressed by words that they have come up with in the past, like “hypochondriac” and “foliage”!!! Seriously adorable!!! My older files weren’t quite as cute as I recalled, so this bundle was totally rebuilt from the ground up. This time around, I added a little word work activity to build words with pumpkins, costume cards to practice generating descriptive words, and I created much prettier templates. I feel so much better now!!!
I personally prefer to do this lesson around Halloween, because the kiddos typically have costumes at home. I don’t want parents to feel like they have to go out and buy anything, so I encourage the kids to wear their existing costume or to use materials that they already have at home. If they already have the costume, then they just have to focus on coming up with a fabulous word to describe it and work on a mini-presentation of their word and definition. Not too shabby! Even though I could plan this lesson (technically) any time of the year, I prefer to do it around Halloween, not only because of the costumes, but also because some kids don’t celebrate Halloween. At my old district, we always had Halloween Parties, and the kids dressed up in costumes. Inevitably, I would have a student that didn’t celebrate Halloween, and at times, those students were pulled from the party or didn’t come to school that day. I was able to navigate around this by having a Word Parade. The kiddos still got to dress up… just like everyone else did… but they wore a costume to represent a word. I changed the focus from Halloween to vocabulary, and made the Halloween Party our big Word Celebration. We did our presentations during that time… then we ate a few snacks. Of course, it could go the other way too, and the unit could be another way to celebrate the holiday. It depends on the spin you want to put on it with your kiddos! 🙂 I like having a seasonal file that easily fits into an intermediate classroom. It’s SO hard to make holiday lessons fit sometimes! 🙂 If you’re interested, you can check out the file HERE! 🙂 It’s on SALE for 20% off as part of the “Christmas in July Sale!” If you want to get a head-start on the holidays, you may want to check out the sale link to check out files from my blogging buddies at Blog Hoppin’. 🙂 Have a great day, friends!
Contents:
Title p.1
Directions p.2
Read Aloud Lesson Plan p.3
Tea Party Activity p. 4-9
Name Nouns Lesson Plan p. 10
Word Bracelets Lesson Plan p.11
Extra Lesson Ideas p.12
Photos p. 13
Vocabulary on Parade Parent Letter p. 14-15
Planning Sheet p. 16
Rubrics p. 17-21
Word Cards for Necklaces p. 22-25
Hallo-Words Word Work p. 26-35
Costume Words (Describing Lesson) p. 36-45
Thank You p.46
I love "Miss Alaineus." I tried the dress up day this year for the first time. It was a big hit. For the first attempt, I had the kids dress up on Leap Year Day. An extra calendar day for extra special words.
I blogged about the lesson.
I like the idea of Halloween timing. Great idea!
EmilyK
It's such a fun book! 🙂 Thanks for sharing! I love the Leap Year connection!
Love having a Vocabulary Parade! In past years we had a Vocabulary Parade school wide, but that ended about two years ago. Now I do my own in my classroom. Can't wait to check out your bundle on TPT.
I love how much fun it is for the kiddos! I have never done it school-wide. It's always been a classroom thing, but I bet it's fun to see the whole school dressed up! 🙂
It makes me sad your vocabulary parade ended! I think it's a fabulous idea. We did one inspired by book characters in the spring one year… I hope we at least go back to that. Though my students were dressed up as figures from the history of St. Augustine, so we were figures from the social studies book. LOL.
Oh this looks like fun! I will definitely check it out.
Thanks, Eileen! It's SO FUN!!!!
I ADORE this idea! We have a Halloween parade at our school, so integrating the vocabulary is awesome!!! So, thank you! Halloween will now be even more fun AND educational!
Grade Three is the Place for Me!
Yay! Thanks Janis! It's definitely not a NEW idea, but it's my take on it. 🙂 I hope your kiddos enjoy it!
Any ideas how I could incorporate this into math or science?? I am only going to teach this subjects next year and I LOVE THIS! I am moving up from 1st grade to 3rd so I LOVE fun things to do! I know we have math vocabulary but I don't know how hard it would be for the kiddos to dress up??
https://gblog.garlandisd.net/users/jrtunnel
Justi Tunnell
I think you could make it work. I had a student two years ago who chose the word elasticity. He just attached balloons all over his shirt and wore rubber bands on his wrist. I think it takes some creativity to do this… no matter what slant you want to give it. I think it would be cute though! 🙂 For math, they could honestly make geometric shapes to wear on hats or they could show parallel lines with a construction paper necklace. It doesn't have to be anything elaborate, and that's the beauty of it! Just get creative, and have fun with it! 🙂
What time of the year do you do this, Amanda? I've always wanted to do the costume parade inspired by Miss Alaineus, but I never wanted to schedule it close to the Halloween parade. Maybe in the spring… 🙂 Maybe it would be cool to link it to science (or math, though I don't teach math now). – Victoria
I actually blended mine with the school's Halloween Parade. It just made sense in my mind since the majority of the kids had costumes prepared already. I just prompted them to think about how they could describe their costume with a WOW word. 🙂 I think you could do it any time of the year with any subject though.
I tried to get on tpt to take a look at this product along with many others I was interested in snatching up during this awesome sale and it seems that the site is still undergoing maintenance. Since it's 5 PM here now I'm hoping they get it back up and running before midnight so I can pick up a few things before the sale time is up.
My sale has been extended, so hopefully you can snag it today. 🙂 I know that lots of other sellers are extending their sales too!
What fun this is going to be! I cant wait to use it and see all the kids dressed up as their word. I am having a problem with tpt. It keeps telling me the link is invalid. I have been able to get a few other items, but everytime I try to add it to the cart I says the link doesnt exist. 🙁 Any ideas of what to do? I did try emailing a 'work order' in tpt. Thanks!
Diane
adireland73@gmail.com
Hi, Diane! 🙂 I already replied to you via email, but thanks for letting me know about the problem. I am so happy it has been resolved, and I hope your students enjoy the activities!
I too can't seem to access this fun unit through Tpt. I tried at 11:54 hoping to still catch the sale. Just thought I'd let you know. Must have something to do with their site maintenance. This is such a great idea. Your students must love you and all the creative things you do with and for them. Thanks for being willing to share your ideas and resources.
Chris
christine.lilly@jordandistrict.org
Hi, Chris! I couldn't access it for a while either, but the problem has been resolved. My sale has been extended too. 🙂 Thank you so much for your kind words. I really appreciate your support!