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Halloween Activity - Bats



Looking to have a little fun with your students just before Halloween? Try taking a break from your regular science class (or you can even do this in your ELA block if you can't go "off task" in your science class) and introduce them to the wonderful world of bats.

In ELA you can read the story Stellaluna or, if you want, show it on your Interactive White Board. The website Storyline Online has a member of the Screen Actor's Guild reading it aloud. You can actually download the video of it from YouTube with your YouTube Downloader (you can get the downloader from this site - CLICK HERE). After the story have students write down some facts they learned about bats.

Next show the video The Magic School Bus: Going Batty. The full episode can be found on YouTube and can be downloaded using the YouTube downloader. Please watch the entire video (22 minutes) before showing it to your class. I show Magic School Bus videos from Discovery Streamline Education so I don't need to worry but I always proceed with extra caution when showing videos from YouTube.

During the video have students write more facts about bats.

Next have students make a popup bat booklet using the template from Robert Sabuda's (popup guru) site. Once students have completed the booklet they then decorate the cover and write their bat facts inside the booklet (either in bullet form or full paragraph form depending on your timeframe and the skill level of your students).

You can easily make this a three day activity (three days leading up to Halloween).

Day 1 - Read/watch Stellaluna book. Maybe do a visit to the library to check out other bat facts using the computers, books, and reference material. Let your media specialist know ahead of time and she can create a little bat fact center for the kids to explore and write down their findings (I suggest they have a minimum of 10 facts).

Day 2 - Watch the Magic School Bus Going Batty video. Have students add their facts and get them started writing a solid paragraph or two about bats using the facts they have collected.

Day 3 - Make the Bat Pop Up book. Write their paragraphs or bullets in the booklet. Color and decorate.
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Carrberry Creations said…
Oh my goodness I wish I had seen this before Halloween. I LOVE it! Thanks for sharing!
November 3, 2012 at 1:39 PM
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