Halloween Brain Breaks- TIme for Some Fun!

It's that time of year! I use so many celebrations and brain breaks in my virtual classroom and the kids love them. I teach several whole group and small group classes online everyday, and even though my students are at home, they need a break and like to have fun too! Many days they have 3 or 4 classes back to back and everyone needs to have a little bit of fun.  I like to use songs and dances as celebrations at the end of our class time too.  During seasonal holidays, it's just one way to bring in the holidays in our virtual world. Without further adieu, here are 10 Halloween themed brain breaks you can use in your classroom- virtual or "regular"!  Grab a free Google Slides version to use below!

1. Just Dance- This is Halloween
2. Halloween Freeze Dance
3. Monster Mash by Kids Music Shop
4. Monster Moves by Koo Koo Kanga Roo
5. If You're A Kid Halloween Remix
6. Bones! Bones! Bones! by Go Noodle
7. Gummibar Monster Mash
8. Skeleton Dance
9.  Just Dance- Ghostbusters
10. Monster Shuffle by The Learning Station

If you're looking for more Halloween themed resources check out some of mine in my TpT store.

Read my other Halloween & Day of the Dead blog posts for more fun ideas for your class!

Grab the FREE Google Slides Halloween Brain Breaks from me HERE.

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3 Strategies to Prepare For Testing

1. Review- ALL year long!

We all know that kids need practice! There are so many ways to review content year round:

• Morning Work
• Center Time
• Guided Reading or Small Groups
• Spiral Review

I now teach virtual school, so I include one problem a day as a warm up every math class.  Now, I plan on spending a bit more time incorporating my version of morning work or spiral review at the start of my live lessons everyday. My students can go into separate "breakout" rooms to work independently.  I can see what they are doing and pull examples that I want to be sure to review as a whole class after their first few minutes of warm up work.  These problems will include  everything we've learned so far in 3-5 questions each day.

2. Practice Test Taking Strategies from the the Start!

In addition to reviewing the content, we all know that our kiddos need to practice test taking strategies too! I like to show my students what I expect and test taking strategies that I want them to use from the beginning of the year.  I really like this RELAX strategy! (Grab the free poster by clicking on the picture.)

3. Build Reading Stamina!

Reading stamina is a HUGE part of test taking.  My students are expected to sit for two 80 minutes reading testing sessions!  That's a looooong time.  I like to start building up my kiddos reading stamina early in the year.  We start with doing this during independent reading time.  I start with 20 minutes in the beginning of the year and work our way up to 1 hour (when time permits) by testing time (in March/April).  I talk about how it's important that we build our reading muscles to be able to stay focused thinking and reading for longer and longer amounts of time, so that by the end of year we'll be spending lots of time reading what we love! We also CELEBRATE our reading stamina achievements with fun brain breaks and dances.

Are you still looking for even more great Reading Test Prep?

I've got a great resource for you- and it's FREE!

Check out my All About Mummies Non Fiction Reading Test Prep and all it includes:

• Original, engaging article
• Comprehension Questions
• Graphic Organizers
• Language & Editing Practice

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And if this sounds exactly like what you're looking for then how about 6 more? ;)

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