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October is such a fun month in kindergarten! However, it can also be a tricky month for keeping students engaged in learning. In this post, I wanted to share some of my favorite October themes for kindergarten. Thematic units are a great way to keep learning on track while enjoying some seasonal fun in your classroom.
A spider thematic unit is a great way to show kindergarteners that spiders aren’t just spooky Halloween decorations!
You can use non-fiction books to help students learn more about spiders. They can document what they’ve learned by writing sentences in this flip book.
Fictional text can also serve as inspiration for literacy practice! After reading “The Very Busy Spider” by Eric Carle, students can practice sequencing. They can complete this lift-the-flap activity to put the spider’s visitors in order.
Students can also practice sequencing with The Itsy Bitsy Spider! Students can put the events of the rhyme in order using this fun flip book.
You can also bring some spider fun to literacy practice! Students can match spiders to their correct webs based on beginning sounds.
This spider book is also full of interactive activities that allow students to practice reading and writing about spiders.
Spiders can make math practice more fun and engaging! Students can create fingerprint spiders to complete this counting worksheet.
Students can also use spider rings for this fun spill and count game! This is a great activity for math centers!
For even more counting fun, students can practice counting on from a number by adding spider legs until they get to eight. Each page of this mini-book starts with a different number of legs on the spider.
Another fun math activity during a spider unit is a class vote! Students can vote whether or not they are scared of spiders. After everyone has voted, students can complete this graphing activity where they record and interpret the data from the class vote.
This fun spider treat uses sandwich cookies, candy eyes, and pretzel legs. This is always a hit with students at the end of the thematic unit!
Students can create a spider craft to share everything they have learned about spiders during the thematic unit.
You can also help students create this fun retelling craft for Itsy Bitsy Spider! They’ll be excited to show off their retelling skills to their families using the craft.
This math spider craft is another fun way for students to practice one-to-one correspondence!
You can use these fun bat activities to put together another engaging thematic unit during the month of October.
You can start by reading nonfiction books about bats and having students document bat facts on this graphic organizer.
When you’re ready to move onto fiction, “Stellaluna” by Janell Cannon is a perfect addition to a bat thematic unit!
Students can review story elements as they complete this hands-on and engaging book about Stellaluna.
Since “bat” is a CVC word, this makes your bat unit the perfect time to build even more CVC words!
Students can also use the letters in the word “bat” to complete a beginning sound picture sort.
For even more bat fun, students can practice one-to-one correspondence as they match quantities to numbers.
Students can also practice counting bats in this mini-reader! After counting the bats on each page, students will write the number in the blank before reading the completed sentence.
This adorable bat craft and book is a great way for students to share everything they have learned about bats during your thematic unit.
It wouldn’t be October without some fun pumpkin-themed learning activities!
You can start by reading nonfiction pumpkin books together as a class to learn more about how pumpkins grow.
Students can then complete their own pop-up book about the pumpkin life cycle.
After reading “The Biggest Pumpkin Ever” by Jane E Garver together as a class, students can complete this Venn diagram to compare and contrast the characters.
Pumpkins can also help students organize a beginning sound picture sort!
For a fun fall literacy center, students can unscramble the words in a sentence about a pumpkin.
A class pumpkin can serve as inspiration for a variety of math activities!
Students can learn all about circumference as they use yarn to make a prediction about how big the pumpkin is. After measuring the pumpkin, students can decide if their prediction was too long, too short, or just right.
For some graphing practice, students can graph and interpret the results from the circumference prediction activity.
Students can also use this sorting activity to explore how the weight of the pumpkin compares to other items.
After measuring the pumpkin, you can cut open the pumpkin and count the seeds inside! Students can follow along using a counting mat and crayon.
Finally, students can practice nonstandard measurement in many ways! For example, students can use snap cubes, paperclips, and crayons to measure different pumpkins.
A pumpkin glyph is a fun craft for students to create during the month of October!
Students will create their jack-o-lantern faces by answering different questions. They can also write sentences to go with this craft!
All of the activities shown above (and much more!) can be found in one easy-to-download bundle of October thematic units. This bundle has everything you need to add some seasonal fun to your classroom during the month of October. If you’d like to take a closer look at everything included in this bundle, you can find it in the A Spoonful of Learning shop or on TPT.
Be sure to save this post so you can come back to it later! Just add the pin below to your favorite board on Pinterest. You’ll be able to quickly find these fun seasonal thematic units when you’re working on your October lesson plans.
For even more seasonal fun in your classroom this month, be sure to grab these six free Halloween activities. Just fill out your information below and I’ll send them straight to your inbox!
These alphabet books will have students dive deep into learning about each letter of the alphabet while eager to see what activity they get to complete next!
