Witch Time! 2 Fun Halloween Games!

Your Halloween celebration can include much more than  costumes and trick-or-treating. These simple Halloween games will help you  teach  a fun Halloween lesson!

 

1) Pin the Wart on the Witch

Materials:
· Large picture of a witch, preferably with a wart already on it
· Blindfold
· A paper wart for each player with his or her name on it
· Tape
How to play:
1. If the picture of the witch does not already have a wart on it, draw one.
2. Hang the witch on a wall where there is lots of space around it.
3. When it is a player's turn, blindfold the child and give her the wart with a piece of tape stuck on it.
4. Spin the player around (not too fast!) and tell her to stick the wart on the witch's nose.
The player whose wart is closest to the real one is the winner!

2) Walk on the Witches Hat
Materials: 
·  Big  picture of a witch's hat
·  CD player
How to play:
1. If you have a large picture of a witch's hat, tape it right on the floor before you play the game.
2. The players hold hands and shut their eyes.
3. The teacher is at the front to see that no one peeks. (Whoever peeks is out of the game.)
4. The teacher will control when the music stops and starts. When the music starts, the players begin walking in a circle (as in musical chairs) around the hat.
5. When the music stops, the person who is standing below the hat (as if he/ she were wearing the hat) is out of the game. The last player to circle the hat wins!

Eye on Multiple Intelligences: Are you able to identify your students' dominant intelligence?

The theory of multiple intelligences indicates that learning can occur through many different intelligences. In other words, not only logical, or verbal reasoning. You can also learn English (or anything else) through visual clues, musical clues, etc. In fact, teachers wanting to help students should use a wide variety of these in their English teaching lessons. It is sometimes difficult to know how to focus on a specific learning objective using a variety of approaches. As a starting point, teachers can take this quiz to indentify whether they are able to identify someone's dominant intelligence and  reflect on the different approaches available that take advantage of their  learning strengths.

1. Charlie Chaplin and Monica Seles are two extraordinary examples of the following intelligence:
  Spatial.
  Naturalist.
  Bodily-kinesthetic.

2. Jane Goodall and Jacques Cousteau are great examples of this intelligence:

  Logical-mathematical.
  Naturalist.
  Intra-personal.

3. Pablo Picasso and the architect Frank Lloyd Wright had the following capacity in great measure:

  Spatial.
  Logical-mathematical.
  Linguistic.

4. The famous attorney Marcia Clarke and the chess champion Gary Kasparov have the following intelligence in common:

  Interpersonal.
  Linguistic.
  Logical-mathematical.


5. Former president Jimmy Carter and talk show host, Oprah Winfrey are examples of: 
  Inter-personal intelligence.
  Intra-personal intelligence.
  Linguisitic intelligence.

6. What do Aretha Franklin and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart have in common?

  Spatial intelligence.
  Naturalist intelligence.
  Musical intelligence.

7. Authors Henry David Thoreau and Khalil Gibran had abundant:

  Inter-personal intelligence.
  Spatial intelligence.
  Intra-personal intelligence.

8. The works of Tennesse Williams, James Baldwin, and Virgina Woolf demonstrate:

  Naturalist intelligence.
  Linguistic intelligence.
  Inter-personal intelligence.

Answers:
1: Bodily-kinesthetic.
2: Naturalist.
3: Spatial.
4: Logical-mathematical.
5: Inter-personal intelligence.
6: Musical intelligence.
7: Intra-personal intelligence.
8: Linguistic intelligence.

Read more on: http://quizzes.familyeducation.com/

Halloween greatest hits!

Are you looking for some creepy soundtracks for your Halloween activities?

Set the mood with some classics! Check my top 5 Halloween Hit Parade!

1) Toccata in D Minor 

Bach’s “Toccata in D minor” is the quintessential Halloween theme, evoking images of Dracula, the Phantom of the Opera and other villains throughout time. Composed for the organ, this remains one of the best ways to greet trick-or-treaters at your doorstep.

2) Jaws - Main Titles and First Victim

Who doesn’t know what it sounds like to see a shark swimming towards you? From the movie Jaws, John Williams created what is perhaps the most famous of all movie themes. Listen to this and think twice before you step into the water…

3) Psycho - A Narrative for Orchestra

Step into the shower with music from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. Mastering the art of tension, Bernard Herrmann composed a narrative that will keep you on the edge of your seat. After hearing this, you’ll never take a shower the same way again!

4) The Ride of The Valkyries

Set this track as your alarm and wake up on a flying magical horse, with singing women praising your very existence. Written by Richard Wagner, “The Ride of the Valkyries” was prominently featured in the famous film Apocalypse Now. This is the ultimate theme to take command of the night for any Halloween-er, young or old.

5) A Night on Bald Mountain

Spending A Night on Bald Mountain is surely no easy feat. Inhabited by pagan-worshipping witches, this track places on the peak and takes you through the perils of living with danger. You’ll be rescued by dawn and a new day, but only if you can survive that long…

To listen to the songs go to: http://creepyfunhalloween.com/

10 Halloween Movies for kids! Just a bit scary!!!

Nothing makes Halloween more fun than watching movies that are just a bit scary. Check out these kid-friendly movies.

1) Monsters, Inc.
2) Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie .
3) Igor
4) It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
5) Hocus Pocus
6) Corpse Bride
7) Casper meets Wendy
8) The Haunted Mansion
9) Halloweentown
10) Harry Potter Series

Video Activity: Setting up the mood for Halloween

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU6iP0WLsU8

Objectives: set up the mood for halloween, review and present holloween vocabulary and work with listening skills.

Age: 12 or above.

Levels: elementary to intermediate.

Groupings: pairwork or groupwork.

Procedures:

1)   Teacher tells students they are supposed to write down as many words as they can remember related to Halloween. Students have 3 minutes to do this.

2)   Teacher writes on the board all the words students have brainstormed.

3)   Teacher tells students they are going to watch a video and they have to perform 2 tasks while watching: TASK 1 – count how many times the word HALLOWEEN is repeated. TASK 2 – say which words they have brainstormed are actually shown on the video and write down other words they see or listen.

Answers:

         Task 1 : the word halloween is repeated 31 times.

         Task 2: some of the words that are shown on the video are: jack 

         o’lantern, scarecrow, cemetery, ghost, haunted house,   monsters,  

         coffin, vampire, black cat, witch, werewolf, skeleton, bat, mummy…



Halloween spooktacular activities!

Halloween Riddles in a caldron!

The teacher puts all the answers for the answers in a caldron then plays a song and reads aloud a riddle. One student is invited to pick an answer in the caldron. If he gets a right match, everyone else in the group has to give him a treat = sweet and if he doesn't get he can choose between giving all students a treat or go for the TRICK!!! Then another student is invited and so on... As a follow-up activity students may vote for the funniest riddle and go around the school to tell other students and teachers.

Suggestions for riddles:

What do ghosts wear when their eyesight gets blurred?

Answer: Spooktacles

Why do skeletons always have a bad cold?

Answer: Because they are chilled to the bones!

What do female ghosts use to do their makeup?

Answer: Vanishing Cream!

Which fruit is a vampire's favorite?

Answer: Neck-tarine!

When does meeting a black cat brings the most bad luck?

Answer: If you are a mouse!

What is a skeleton's favorite musical instrument?

Answer: A Trombone!

Why do spooks speak in Latin?

Answer: Because, it is a dead language!

What looks and acts exactly like a black cat but is much smaller?

Answer: A Black Kitten!

What is the name of the witch who lives in the desert?

Answer: Sand-witch!

Halloween Tic-Tac-Toe

Add a ghoulish touch to a classic game with these ideas for Halloween tic-tac-toe games. It's always a thrill to cut out scary Halloween shapes to use as the playing pieces. Check out the illustration below.

Source: http://crafts.kaboose.com/halloween-tic-tac-toe.html

Spider Web




 Ask the kids to stand in a circle and give a ball of yarn to a player. He should take a piece of the yarn and throw it to someone else in the circle. This cycle continues until a spider web is created. This is amongst the popular fun Halloween games for kids. Variation: to make the activity more challenging the teacher can play a song while they are throwing the yarn to make the spider web and every time the song stops they have to say a word related to Halloween or make a witch scary laughter!!

The Apple Tree - Positive Reinforcement in Practice

Studies have shown that specific praise is very effective, while general praise is not. In other words, saying, “Johnny, excellent job adding those numbers,” is much better than saying, “Great job, class.” Keep this in mind when you praise or reward your students.

To make praise mean something, it must be given at the appropriate time. For example, if a student has a partially correct answer, you should not heap praise on her/him for answering the question correctly. Instead, you should point out the part of her answer that is correct and then help her dissect the question to come up with the complete answer.

Another point about positive reinforcement is that it must be evenly administered. It's not a good idea to keep praising the same one or two students in the class. Remember, even if you don't mean to play favorites, it is what the students perceive that matters.

An effective technique to put into practice the elements mentioned above, that is to say, specific praise - appropriate time for praising - even praise management is the Apple Tree. Check the procedures and illustration below:

Trees carry a symbolic meaning of development and concrete growth, so why not using it as a tool for behavior management in class to show that good behavior can be cultivated like an apple tree?  The idea is simple and all the teacher has to do is making a poster similar to the one on the illustration above and write the students' name on it. Everytime a student has a positive attitude he is given an apple and students put a lot of effort in having the tree full of apples!! Another positive aspect is that this technique deals with the idea of "catch them being good" and appropriate behavior is reinforced serving as a role model for the other students. It is really worthy trying  because it has proved to work marvels, specially with young learners. Have a try and enjoy a class based on positive behaviour reinforcement!

Special thanks to Fabiane for the beautiful poster! :)

TOP 10 difficult words to pronounce and spell in English!

	Verisimilitude The word is hard to pronounce and hard to spell. It means that something has the appearance of truth. . Get examples of how the word is used in sentences to help you apply the word to everyday speech or at least occasionally so you can show off how your dialogue has verisimilitude.
	Honorificabilitudinitatibus This word is a whopping 27 letters long and is harder to pronounce than just about any word in the English language. The word is from the Latin word honorificabilitudinitas. It means being able to achieve honor. The word appears in Shakespeare's play Love's Labour Lost in Act V, Scene 1. You'll also find the word in the novel Ulysses by James Joyce.
	Floccinauccinihilipilification Move over short words, this word is one of the longest in the English language with 30 letters. The word means "an estimation of something as worthless". The word made the Guinness Book of World Records (1992) as the longest real word in the English language.
	Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious This word is well known because it is heard in a song in the movie Mary Poppins. The word is fictitious, but has become such a part of the modern English language that it has been included in dictionaries and is used regularly. The word has so infiltrated modern culture that it has appeared in movies like The Nanny Diaries and on television shows like Saturday Night Live and The Colbert Report.
	Antidisestablishmentarianism Oxford Dictionary lists this word as one of the longest in the English language. The word means "opposition to the disestablishment of the Church of England". Oxford explains how you're unlikely to see this word in common use. It is usually a word that is only mentioned as one of the longest words in the English language.
	Onomatopoeia Words that have more four or more vowels in a row can be hard to spell and pronounce. This word means sounding like the animal sound it represents.
	Hippopotomonstrosequippeddaliophobia Does the thought of trying to spell this word scare you? The word hippopotomonstrosequippeddaliophobia means "the fear of long words".
	Phlegmatic Not only is it hard to spell, the word just sounds gross. It is hard to pronounce, especially for foreign speakers trying to learn the English language. The definition is "having solid temperament". Some synonyms of the word are undemonstrative and apathetic.
	Hepaticocholangiocholecystenterostomies This medical term is also one of the longest words in the language at 39 letters. It means to create a connection surgically from the gall bladder to the hepatic duct and from the gall bladder to intestine.
	Acharnement This word has French origins, but means "bloodthirstiness."