Halloween

Halloween
1) History
http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/articles/holidays/halloweenhistory.htm
This article explains the history of Halloween for kids in the elementary level. The article is easy to read and understand for second language learners. It explains how Halloween changed over the years and how we adopted the name Halloween.
Aprial Guerra


2) Safety
http://www.halloweenmagazine.com/play2.html
This website is very helpful for teaching children about trick or treating safety etiquette in a fun and interactive way. The home page is decorated accordingly for Halloween. There is a black background with orange text. At the top of the page there is a sign that looks like a yield sign maybe that says, “The Official Halloween Safety Game,” in fun and spooky font. Then it gives the instructions for the game. The instructions are short and to the point to limit confusion. It tells the child to first read the safety guidelines and rules for Halloween and then they will be directed to the game where they will be given a situation and then presented with two choices of what they should do. They can only move on to the next scenario if they answer the question correctly. Under the directions there is a link in big font that says, “Click here to play NOW!” Next the child is directed to a page of about 20 rules for Halloween trick or treating. The rules are once again short and to the point so that they are not too hard to read but they still get the point across clearly. At the bottom in large orange font, there is a link that says, “Play the Official Halloween Safety Game.” The child is then directed to a page similar to the homepage with the yield sign again and underneath another link that says, “Click here to play.” Once the child clicks to play, the scenarios begin. For instance, the first scenario is a picture of a flashlight and in the light it says to always use a flashlight and it tells the child to click on the flashlight. Once they click the flashlight a street with houses on it pops up and only one has the porch light on and it asks the child to click on the house that is safe to trick or treat at. If they choose incorrectly, they are directed to a page with a skull with a funny face on it and he makes a spooky and funny laugh and gives the correct rule, “only go to houses with a porch light on!” The child is then given the chance to try again. At the end of the game the child is given an award where they can enter their name and it says “Congratulations! Cecily has demonstrated knowledge of Halloween safety and common sense by successfully completing the official Halloween safety game.”
The website makes learning these safety rules in a fun and interactive way by creating a game to test their knowledge. By giving them a reward at the end, it makes the child feel accomplished. This website can be used by children of all ages because the vocabulary is not difficult and there isn’t an overwhelming amount of text to read. The pictures make the child excited to move on to the next scenario. I like how when the child is wrong, the website will tell the child the rule for that scenario and then let them go back and choose the right answer to reinforce the rule and make sure they don’t forget it.
Cecily Augustine



3)Typical Halloween Characters
http://www.apples4theteacher.com/coloring-pages/halloween/cat-on-pumpkin.html
Halloween is a holiday celebrated in many countries across the world, but customs vary by country. Because of the differences in traditions between cultures, it would be an introduction for many ELL’s to some of the typical characters of Halloween’s haunted houses, decorations, and stories. Seeing images together, such as in this picture of a cat and pumpkin, students can relate all of these things to the holiday they are learning about, Halloween. There are many pictures for students to “color” online and hear the sentence on their computer.
The website suggests some great activities for different purposes, making this one activity meaningful in many ways!! For beginning reading ELL’s, the can read the simple words in the sentences below and also have the computer read the words aloud, one by one, highlight each word the student presses. It also suggests for students to print out their colored work and then the teacher or a parents can do a comprehension check asking the student to read the sentence aloud without the help of the computer. Another activity is to print out all of the pictures and then cut off the bottom sentence and have the student match them, along these same lines, students of a higher competency could also look at each picture and identify the nouns in the picture or create a sentence about what is going on in the picture, at an even more advanced level, students can explain how each sentence fits the picture. My favorite idea that this website suggests is using it as a following directions activity. In this activity, students would each have the picture up on their page with the color palate in front of them, some of the sentences mention colors and the students would have to read the sentence (students who are having trouble reading can click the audio to hear the name of the color) and then color according the sentence. Teachers could also tell students to color a certain object one color, showing that they knew the word for each object, matching it to the picture, and the word for each color, again, matching it to the picture.
Elyse Prevot


4) Traditions
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/bitesizeprimary/
The website that I found was called Bitesize. This website was created for the younger children. It is fun and interactive for the children. The website starts off with many pictures of different cartoon people that are different colors. I really liked this site because it really goes out to the children. There are many tabs that you can click on that will take you to different areas of learning. It has one link where it talks about the school and different things going on. When you get more into the site it starts to talk about Halloween, which is one of the events that takes place during the school year. Many people celebrate it, but they don't know what it is. This has a lot of information on the many traditions that could be involved in Halloween. There are tabs you can click on that explain the different traditions that may be going on during Halloween and what it means. It explains of a tradition such as apple bobbing and the Jack O'Lantern. It is explained in detail of it is and where it really derived from. There are pictures of different pumpkins that have been carved and some ideas that could be used. There are even tabs where the student can find different activities that they could do for Halloween. It has things where the children are able to learn. Things like fill in the blanks and mask cut outs where they can draw and color. One of the other tabs that is on the side allows the children to find links where they can also have access to other games, and jokes, and things teaching them about Halloween. Even a cookbook is available for the children that they can go through many of the dishes.
Gabriel Gonzalez


5) Halloween Origins, How Halloween came to American, Today’s traditions and Superstitions
http://www.history.com/topics/halloween
When October comes, kids think about Halloween. They want to dress up as their favorite characters so that they can walk around their neighborhoods to receive candies. When they are about to receive candy they have to say the special words “trick or treat”. Most kids don’t know why they are saying trick or treat, why they are receiving candy, how Halloween started and how traditions are changing. In this website it explains how Halloween started in America, how traditions are now, and how it was long time ago. This will help students see how traditions changed. In this website, there are videos to explain Halloween’s origin and more. This will be a good website for English as a second language and younger students because they can see the videos to understand and make connections. These videos and different pictures will let students understand what Halloween is.
Soo Yoon