🎃 Spook-tech-ular!

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 By: Samantha Wilkinson

We have some spectacular seasonal technology activities to use with students this October. They bring in some fun as well as build valuable tech skills that align with the Maryland Digital Learning Standards.

As Lumio says, "It's not a trick- dive into our basket of treats!" They are referring to the Lumio library. Dozens of October, Halloween and monster inspired activities including a Halloween Integer Crossword, poetry collection, brain breaks, autumn mindfulness, writing prompts and more. One that I love is the Halloween diamante poem lesson. This walks students through the parts of speech, has them do a sorting activity, complete a collaborative poem, and then write their own. Perfect for teachers to practice using the various interactive presentation types in Lumio.


One of my favorite resources is the Halloween channel in Discovery Education. Have you seen it? With just a quick search you can find the channel. And the best thing is that you can narrow down your search by grade level bands K-5, 6-8, 9-12. Content includes myths, audio books on Edgar Allan Poe, skill builders on the skeletal system, fictional book read alouds with ready to use activities, and lots of great informational resources on pumpkins, bats, and black cats! Not to mention, some very cool virtual field trips with great instructional follow-up activities.



Wixie is always chock full of monthly resources, whether it is an Elementary Halloween choice board, an October Sudoku, or a dark night newsletter. Many of the resources for this time of year can be found under the Curriculum folder in the subfolder "Month by Month". The haunted house book provides an open canvas for creative writing, writing a spooky setting, or taking on the perspective of the moon or creepy, old house. Other fun books for students to use to get creative are called "Zombie", "Science Fiction.




Finally, for our Google lovers. Eric Curts from Ctrl, Alt, Achieve, developed a great lesson using Google Sheets. The "Skittles & Sheets" lesson involves students estimating, comparing, addition, division and graphing based on candy sorting. He also developed a fantastic Halloween Rebus Template for students to practice using emojis to tell a Halloween- themed story. 


We hope you enjoy the holiday fun that October brings using these digital options. Our apps are amazing at providing ready-to-use templates and project ideas. Don't forget our Digital Take-Out website which has engaging tech projects for every season, including many more examples for October! 

For more information on any of the resources in this article, reach out to your school's eCoach.

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