Lines of Longitude Pumpkin Craft

Making pumpkin balloon globes is a fun enrichment activity for your map skills and geography lessons. (It's also a fun way to sneak in a bit of Halloween fun without actually celebrating Halloween.) With minimal materials, your students will be able to create a pumpkin balloon globe that will help them remember where the prime meridian, International Date Line, the North Pole, and the South Pole are and help them remember what lines of longitude are. Keep reading to learn how to integrate making pumpkin balloon globes into your social studies lessons.

13 Halloween Treats for Your Class Party

Trick or treat!  Every year, children look forward to their Halloween parties at school.  Traditionally, children bring Halloween candy to school to share with their friends, get to wear their Halloween costumes, and march throughout the school in a Halloween parade.  Good times!  

The Halloween snacks featured in this round-up would be perfect for a Halloween party at school.  They were created by moms and teachers from all over the internet and are made from fresh fruit and/or prepackaged items.  These treats can be made at home or as a Halloween craft at school.  There are lots of tasty treats in this post, so let's dive right in!

Pumpkin Life Cycle STEM Activity ("Pumpkin Jack")

Autumn is the perfect time of year to learn about pumpkin life cycles.  You can find pumpkins at farmer's markets, grocery stores, and roadside stands.  And... you can even find them in coffees, teas, bread, pies, soups, muffins, and more!  Since pumpkins seem to be everywhere and in everything during this time of year, it makes sense to incorporate pumpkin life cycles into your science lessons in the fall instead of waiting until spring when other plant concepts are taught. Keep reading to learn about a fascinating pumpkin life cycle STEM activity and a popular children's book you can use as a part of your science lessons!

Disclosure: Affiliate links to Amazon are included in this post.

All photos in this post are used with the permission of Blakeley Kantor.

Matching Costumes by D.G. Driver

Matching is an important early childhood skill that helps in the classification of objects. Matching is the identification of the same or similar objects based on their common properties. Being able to match like and similar objects, themes, characteristics, numbers, etc. is a skill that will continue to be taught well into elementary school and beyond.  Matching Costumes by D.G. Driver introduces us to a little girl who uses her matching skills to pick out Halloween costumes for her and her puppy.  Keep reading to learn more about Matching Costumes and for a simple language arts lesson to go with it.

Disclosure: Affiliate links to Amazon are included in this post.

Oozing Pumpkins STEM Experiment

Halloween is coming!  Families will be carving pumpkins and decorating their houses with them.  When Halloween is over, these pumpkins will be thrown away, fed to animals, or tossed into compost piles.  But... these pumpkins can be used for something fun and educational before being disposed of... science!  Read on to learn more about a fun science experiment you can do with these leftover pumpkins.

Disclosure: Affiliate links to Amazon are included in this blog post.

Does Halloween Candy Sink or Float?

It's only September and the stores are already gearing up for Halloween.  Shelf after shelf after shelf is loaded up with bags of Halloween candy waiting for you to buy it and take it home.  Of course, we can eat the Halloween candy or pass it out to trick-or-treaters, but we can also use it to teach little ones about one of the basic fundamentals of science... does it sink or float?

Disclosure: Affiliate links to Amazon are included in this post.

How to Make a Paper Bag Pumpkin

 When I was little, my father taught me and my brother how to make paper bag pumpkins.  They were fun and easy to make.  We used them as a centerpiece for our dining room table, as decorations for autumn and Halloween, and as simple toys to play with.  Read on to learn the three steps to make your own paper bag pumpkin!

This is an updated version of a blog post I wrote in 2015.

Disclosure: Affiliate links to Amazon are included in this post.