BOO-tiful October Craft and Free Color-by-Code Resource

Two little teacher-authors sitting on the gate,

The first one said, "Oh my, it's getting late!"

The second one said, "There're witches in the air."

The first one said, "Witches & Frankenstein make quite a pair!"

The second one said, "Bats + pumpkins + candy corn..."

The first one said, "And a new resource is born!"

Whoooo went the wind and clouds covered the sun,

And the two teacher-authors posted some 

COLOR BY CODE fun!!

Flubber October Freebie 

We hope your October has come in like a.....oh, wait, that's March. Well, regardless—we hope your October is off to a BOOming start!

We've made a fall Parts of Speech freebie for you - it's a fun way to practice identifying nouns, verbs, and adjectives.  Just click on the link in the picture caption and it's yours.

Color by Code: Multiplication

If you like this color-by-number activity, be sure to look for our newest math resource for multiplication!  This product offers four resources to give your students practice with multiplication facts and relating multiplication to division!


Here's a little cutie to share our wishes for a BOO-tiful October—isn't it precious? You can make your own, too!  If you Google "Floating Ghost" or "Cheesecloth Ghost," you'll get a bunch of different methods and even a few videos to help you see the steps, but it's not hard.  You need just a few special items; the rest of the supplies are probably items you have at home:

• cheesecloth (easy to find in grocery or hardware stores)
• Elmer's glue, liquid starch, cornstarch, or spray starch
• water
• mixing bowl or small bucket for glue/starch + water
• pipe cleaners, wire hanger, or florist/craft wire to make outstretched arms
• a tall glass, cups, paper towel tube, or even a water bottle to give your ghost some height
• styrofoam ball, a ball of foil, small pumpkin, or a balloon for the rounded head
• a trash bag, plastic tablecloth, or waxed paper to protect your table 
• googly eyes, black construction paper or felt for eyes and/or mouth

From what I've read, it looks like if you use glue, you'll need 2 parts glue to 1 part water.  If you use liquid starch, you need 3 parts liquid starch to one part water.  If you use cornstarch, you will need to 3 cups of water and 3 tablespoons of cornstarch, which you boil to get a gravy-like consistency. (For us, it's just easier to use purchased glue or liquid starch, but I'm intrigued by the idea of creating my own binding material using something cheap like cornstarch!)

We've done this with students for a fun fall activity - and while it's a bit of a mess, we channeled our inner Ms. Frizzle from The Magic School Bus and went with it - embracing the idea that learning is messy!  Plus, the squadron of ghosts drying around the room was just about the cutest Halloween decorating our classrooms have ever seen!

It would be fun to have students test out the glue method vs. starch method to see which actually works better!  If you try this, please be sure to leave us a comment below - or search for us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook to tell us how it went!