Halloween Poems and FREE Printables

Oh you guys! I am so sad!! I just knew that in one of my teaching tubs I had a gold mind of great Halloween poems, art and writing ideas. It is not there (cue HUGE gasps and possibly some tears)! We have been going through boxes and cleaning out our basement (read about it here). All of my teaching boxes are now in one spot, which may or may not be in the middle of my garage. I needed to get my caterpillar/butterfly books, models, papers, etc. I looked through each box twice. They are not there.

I’m not going to lie, I’m a bit heart broken and super sad about this. First of all I loved teaching about caterpillars. I had invested a lot of time and money into getting many wonderful books, models of the life cycle of the butterfly and many more things. I just can’t believe it. So instead of having many books for play school (a mix of play group and preschool) I found the tiniest book of The Hungry Caterpillar. It’s so small it fit in my back pocket. It’s darling, but SMALL. The little kiddos didn’t seem to mind and had fun.

But, you don’t want to hear about my woos over the loss of my caterpillar supplies. You want to hear about the woos over the loss of my Halloween supplies. Because they are NO WHERE to be found either. I was 4 months pregnant while I was packing up my classroom and also packing up my apartment because we moved the day after school got out. Not a smart plan…

Since I couldn’t find my hard copies I thought I would go to plan B, find my USB drive with all my files from work on it. I thought and thought about where it was. Then it hit! It was in my purse and has been for a little over 3 years since I stopped teaching. I was so excited I about cheered out loud.

I kept thinking about the awesome sauce poems I would find. They would be all ready to add to today’s post. I couldn’t wait for my kiddos to get to bed so I could work on it. The moment of truth came as I put the UBS drive into my computer and opened the files. They were not in the Halloween folder. That’s weird, I thought.

So I went down to my song and poem file. I had a big packet of poems that I copied each year. My students and I had such a fun time learning them and repeating them so many times. Guess what?! I only found 3 poems. I’m super bummed and sad that I don’t have this awesome packet of Halloween poems to share with you.

I may try to do some digging to see if my old teaching team has them anywhere. Or I’ll find some online to send out in my weekly email [so now would be a good time to subscribe… :)].

Until then I have 3 sweet Halloween poems/songs to share with you. I’m not just going to give them to you. First I’m going to teach you why poems and songs are so awesome! Then I’m going to teach you some ways to use poems/songs to your young-ins. Last you’ll get the poems/songs. Let’s get to it.

Why Poems and Songs are so Awesome!

Have you tried to learn something and had a hard time remembering it? That’s probably true for most of us. That’s probably also true for most kiddos. Now, have you tried to learn the same thing with a poem or song? How did it go? If I was a betting gal, I’d bet you could probably recall that same information much better then you could before.

Why is that? Well, music has a more emotional connection then just rote memorization. Many times you can recall a song from your childhood or years ago. You might remember where you were when you learned it or what you were doing.

I don’t know about you but for me, memorizing things can be hard. But putting it to music has helped. One reason is it can be easier with a tune or with good flow like in poems.

Ok, so here are my reasons why poems and songs are so cool:

• They are a lot of fun.
• They will help with learning and remembering important (or non important) information.
• They can be used in many ways.
• Children can get really excited to sing or read poems.

Teaching and Using Poems and Songs

If your child can read then teaching them the poem or song will be easier. Get a written copy of the poem or song and go through it together. You can help with any words they do not know. You can talk about what it means. You can read it together. Have your child read it to you or to a pet or stuffed animal. The point is to get them reading it enough that they start to memorize it and become a more fluent reader.

If your child is unable to read it themselves then you should start by reading it to them. You can point to each word as you read it so they start to see the words as you read them. By reading it to them many times they should start to remember parts of it. As you get to the end of a line stop reading and see if your child fills in the blank.

The more you sing and read the poems with your child the more they will have it memorized. They will have fun and will be able to join you.

Some fun ways to use songs and poems:

• Singing is fun! Sing with and to your children.
• Use it as a timed clean up. As you all sing the song your child should be cleaning up. Can they beat you?
• Word searches: Have students look for certain sight words or word families.
• Teach about a concept or subject.
• Teach certain words that are repeated often.
• Come up with actions and get moving.
• Sing and have a dance party.
• Read to practice reading out loud.
• Rereading out lout will help with reading fluency.
• Have your child draw a picture to match the song or poem.

The Poems and Songs

Click on the link below and download your poems. 🙂

Halloween Poems

Have fun with these Halloween poems and songs. What are some of your Halloween favorites?

Xoxo

Steph