One Tired Teacher
One Tired Teacher
OTT 263: Pumpkin Projects with Purpose: Turning Halloween Chaos into Meaningful Learning
Ever found yourself torn between Halloween excitement and curriculum demands? You're not alone. That tension between creativity and standards alignment represents a false choice we don't need to make.
Remember that administrator who once told me schools shouldn't have crayons and children should practice sight words during recess? That mindset risks creating environments where children learn to hate learning. The truth is, creativity isn't expendable—it's essential. Crafts develop crucial fine motor skills (especially important for today's digital natives), provide visual learners opportunities to shine, inspire meaningful writing, and build classroom community.
The transformation happens when we add a STEM lens to traditional crafts. Instead of prescribing exactly what to create, we present open-ended challenges that encourage critical thinking: "Your ghost needs to hide at a crowded party without being recognized. How might you solve this problem?" This shift from directed crafting to problem-solving allows for diverse solutions and authentic engineering processes.
What's fascinating—and troubling—is how children's problem-solving abilities often diminish after third grade as test preparation increasingly dominates the curriculum. By continuing to provide design thinking opportunities, we can counteract this trend and nurture innovation.
Halloween offers perfect opportunities for meaningful creative learning. From ghost disguises to "Spookly the Square Pumpkin" STEM challenges, October activities can develop critical thinking while honoring creativity. These aren't just seasonal distractions—they're powerful learning experiences developing tomorrow's innovative thinkers.
Ready to transform your October classroom? Grab my "Disguise a Ghost" and "Spookly the Square Pumpkin" resources in my shop for complete, ready-to-implement activities that balance joy with learning. How will you say yes to creativity this Halloween season?
Disguise a Ghost Template Halloween Door Decor Opinion & Narrative Writing Paper
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Disguise-a
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Welcome to One Tired Teacher. Episode 263, pumpkin Projects with Purpose Turning Halloween Chaos into a Meaningful Learning. So today we're heading into the Halloween zone, but don't worry, this isn't a sugar rush episode. We're going to talk about how to turn fun Halloween activities into meaningful creative moments with STEM and crafts Things that kids love and admin respects. Hope you stick around. Welcome to One Tired Teacher. And even though she may need a nap, this teacher is ready to wake up and speak her truth about the trials and treasures of teaching here. She is wide awake. Wait, she's not asleep right now, is she? She is awake, right? Okay, from Trina Devery Teaching and Learning. Your host, trina Devery.
Speaker 1:Hey, so today we're talking about something that often gets pushed aside in the rush to meet standards and stick to curriculum deadlines or timelines, and that is creativity, and we're also feeling like we're not allowed to do anything creative. I remember being in a school oh gosh, this made me so mad and they were doing some blue ribbon school. They wanted to be a blue ribbon school, which was so annoying, and the woman came in and told us that, like, kids should be practicing sight words on the playground and that we should not have crayons in our school and I wanted to puke. I was so irritated. I'm like, are you kidding me? Like, what kind of children are we trying to raise if we are teaching them that it's 100% work all the time and that even during our play, joyful playtime or our choice time, we're going to be practicing sight words, like it? Just, ah, talk about getting kids to hate learning, like that's a surefire way. I'm like, are we going for blue ribbon? Or like worst environment ever, that's that's oh, that makes me so mad. Anyway, all right, so I I'm like we've got to do things. Yes, we want to be standards aligned, and STEM often does that, but there are some reasons for doing crafts as well, and I want to talk about that today. So, first of all, let me tell you a little story, one besides that one I just told, because that one really gets me riled up.
Speaker 1:One October I was doing a disguise, a ghost craft, with my class. You know the simple kind where students they color, they cut, they glue outfits onto a paper ghost to hide them in plain sight. It was so adorable, it was low stress, it was a little slice of fun and a chaotic season. It got them calm. They were quietly little like a buzz of conversation, but also got to put on their creativity hats. But as I watched my kids go all in on glittery capes and camo suits and crown like princess crowns and all the things, I had a thought what if this was more than just a craft? What if it was a challenge? Okay, so here that's when the design, a ghost disguise challenge was born. I asked my students how could a ghost sneak through a crowded hallway without being noticed? What if the ghost needed to hide in plain sight at a costume party? What disguise would be the most effective? And suddenly this wasn't just coloring, it was design thinking and it was problem solving, it was collaboration, it was testing ideas and imagining possibilities, and that's the magic of STEM.
Speaker 1:Now let me be really clear. Stem isn't anti-craft. Sometimes it feels like that, especially when we're talking to hardcore STEM creators and hardcore STEM people. But it's not anti-craft, it's just a different layer of thinking, one that pushes kids beyond the surface. But that doesn't mean that crafts don't matter. In fact, I want to take a moment to say this really clearly Crafts are meaningful.
Speaker 1:Cutting, gluing and creating aren't filler. They're foundational. They're foundational for children, they're important for children's lives, they're important for all of our lives. I know that I love even doing a good craft. It has so many benefits for my emotional well-being which we have to care about with our kids. Another thing that crafts do they support fine motor development and, let's be real, our kids need more than that now than they ever have before, because they don't get it, they never cut, they don't know how to cut. I mean we're raising a generation of kids that can't cut. I'm not even a great cutter and I was raised in the 70s and the 80s, so we have to care about them being able to cut and glue and do things with their fine motor skills. It also helps kids with their artistic side and visual learners shine in a world that is often only valuing reading and test taking. Crafts also help inspire writing, especially when a child loves what they made.
Speaker 1:I created a resource and it's on on my shop on TPT Trina Devery. Teaching and Learning it was a disguise, a ghost and in the disguise of growth. Teaching and Learning it was a disguise of ghost and in the disguise of ghost. Yes, it is a craft, but it also includes an optional writing extension. For this very reason, it has two different writing extensions. One of them is more of like a narrative, where they're talking about, you know, a story that they go on with their ghost, or what their ghost does with their costume and how the story plays out Creative writing that we have let go of for I don't know what reason. It's really adorable and definitely affordable on my shop and I'll link to it in the show notes, but it also has an opinion writing as well, so that they can express their opinion of why they think their disguise is the better.
Speaker 1:Disguise. Crafts also create community. We hang them on the door or the hallway and you've built a sense of belonging. So that's another thing that's actually included in that resource. Disguise a Ghost are letters for, like a door, like a decorating your door, because guess who? It's very fun.
Speaker 1:I actually did the door in my own house because I wanted to see what it looked like and I was like, oh, it's so cute. It was so cute, it was so fun. I took pictures and then I was downstairs with Kobe and all of a sudden I hear this like noise upstairs and I'm like my gosh, is somebody in the house? Like it was. Ooh, you know, I just had worked on a ghost product. So I was like what's going on? And it ended up that I had taped this to my door, because this is my, you know, this is my door to my office. I'm not going to hot glue, because it's not the same kind of material as a door that you find at school. Anyway, it had all fallen onto the ground. So and you know, some of us know what that's like anyway when our schools are kept up too high of a temperature and we come back, everything's peeled off the wall. I can't stand that All right.
Speaker 1:So my point is, yes, there's value in both. There's value in crafts and there's value in STEM. But when you add a STEM lens to a craft, you're elevating it into something deeper, and this is what really attracts administrators, or they can at least begin to see how skills are intertwined and how kids are problem solving and thinking. And so, you know, maybe we get to do the craft on the side and then we get to develop it into a STEM challenge. So, instead of asking kids, I'm going to give you some examples. I actually didn't do a STEM activity inside my disguise a ghost but I am thinking that maybe I want to add that because I have had some brainstorming while I was thinking about this episode, so let me give you some examples so that you have them, instead of asking kids to build. This is the difference. I want to share the difference.
Speaker 1:Okay, so with a craft, we're asking kids to do the same thing and like, let's say, we want to make it a challenge and we're asking kids to build a ghost trap. You see what I just did. I told you what to make. I didn't allow you to think about how you would solve a problem.
Speaker 1:A craft is. The outcome is basically the same. It's just you know your creative version of a ghost trap in this case. But what if I told kids the problem? Or I told them the scenario and allowed them to kind of figure out what the problem is and then start to develop from there? So what if I told kids that here's the situation you are a ghostbuster and you need to trap a ghost? You're going to use simple materials to create a solution to trapping a ghost. Yes, that can mean making a trap, but it can also mean that they build something that lures the ghost to a specific place, or they create a trick to get the ghost to come to a location. We're going to let them problem solve or to figure it out. It doesn't have to look the same. Their answer, their solution, may be totally different than the team's solution that sits next to them. So do you see the difference? Instead of it being like, this is the answer. We're all going to do the same thing and when we think about design thinking, we think about allowing them to solve the problem. It's going to be open-ended, it's going to mean it's going to look completely different.
Speaker 1:And let me tell you, kids come up with the best solutions. They come up with the best solutions until around third grade. I know, isn't that insane? Like third grade, because we start getting into this like test prep grade. And then fourth grade is even worse. They can't. They're like their problem solving ability has been shut down and then they can't think of solutions.
Speaker 1:But this is what we want. We want them to think through solutions. We want them to be able to problem solve and think critically through solutions. We want them to be able to problem solve and think critically. It really matters, and it's really upsetting to see that this gets worse. The younger they are, the better they are at it. The older they are, the worse, they are at it. It's like we've shut this down for kids, and that's heartbreaking.
Speaker 1:Okay, let me give you another example. Instead of designing a camouflage cloak, we can give them a scenario where the ghost needs to get through a crowded party without being recognized. We can let them come up with a camouflage cloak as the answer, or whatever their imagination provides. Yes, they're going to get stuck. Yes, they may get frustrated, but this is the point. We can't give them the answers to everything. We want to encourage them to deal with productive struggle. This not only helps them build perseverance muscles. This will help them socially and emotionally. It helps them deal with struggle and failure in a safe place. Do you see the difference? When you allow kids to solve problems and think critically, you will watch them come alive. Speaking of coming alive and valuing different thinking.
Speaker 1:Another activity, another fun thing to do in October that kind of puts us into going from chaos into meaningful learning is it has to do with another, a book that I love called Spookly the Square Pumpkin, and this is another October favorite. It's cute, it's kind, it's packed with a message, but it's also right for a STEM connection. I created a resource for Spookly as well, but in this case I, like, gave you everything. I gave you reading responses, I gave you lessons, I gave you writing, I gave you a craft, I gave you bookmarks, I gave you math and I gave you two STEM options. I gave you a simple STEM or a bigger build.
Speaker 1:So if you don't want, you don't want my resource or directions or my list of materials or my challenge cards or my design, thinking, graphic organizers or any of the reading, writing, math and craft things, that's okay. You can simply ask kids to think about these questions. Can you design a fence that will keep pumpkins safe in a storm? How can we help Spookly feel included and safe? What structure would help protect square pumpkins from tipping over? Now we're not just talking about kindness and inclusion, we're building it.
Speaker 1:So if you're looking for a low-pressure, high-engagement way to add creativity to your classroom this month, then I've got a few things that might help. You can grab that Spookly mini unit with STEM included, and you can grab my Disguise a Ghost craft and writing resources. They're simple to prep, they're meaningful to implement and they give your class a reason to light up during October. Remember you are doing incredible work, even on the days that it doesn't feel like it. Let this October be one where you say yes to creativity. Let this October be one where you say yes to creativity, honor all types of learners and find the joy in watching kids imagine, build and dream. I'll be back next week with more encouragement, ideas and probably a little candy corn. Hang in there, tired teacher, and sweet dreams and sleep tight.