Spooky Story Lesson for Halloween

Every year I get so excited about Halloween because there are so many fun activities that you can incorporate.  Around this time, the kids are usually pretty wound up, so it's always good to find lessons that will keep them focused.

For the last couple of years, I've used the 3:15 series by Patrick Carman, which is a collection of several multi-media short stories.  I first learned about this from the incredible, Erin Cobb of I'm Lovin' Lit.

What 3:15 stands for are the 3 elements that make up these stories:  listen/watch the introduction, read, and then watch the conclusion.  The 15 is because you're supposed to be able to do all this in 15 minutes.  But I'll be honest, my 6th graders haven't ever been able to do it that quickly.  I use this to teach story elements, which I go introduce prior to this story.  As I'm Lovin' Lit stated, this is a great story to use for teaching this skill, because the various parts of the plot are fairly easy to identify.  The ending is actually the climax and also leaves you with somewhat of a cliffhanger, wondering what may happen next.

To have your students complete this lesson, you will need the following, which I have included here:

• Link to Introduction Video
• Link to copy of the short story, "The Lift"
• Link to conclusion of story- you will need to enter the password- shred

As they're reading/listening/watching the story, I have them fill in a story pyramid to check their understanding of story elements.  As a supplement to this, I also use these Digital Reading Response Task Cards, which addresses main idea, setting, main/minor characters, predictions, author's purpose, and more.

What spooky stories do you use around Halloween?  What activities go w/ the stories?  I'd love to hear all about it in the comments below!

An InLinkz Link-up