4 Awesomely Creepy Creatures to Learn About This Fall

It's time for cooler weather, field trips to the apple orchard, watching football, carving pumpkins, and enjoying the beauty of the changing landscapes. Autumn may bring the return of school and fun holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving, but many other things make this season the best one of all!

I am excited to kick off the fall season with some creative and hands-on resources. After several requests to bundle our Autumn resources, we have released the Fall Activities Bundle! Students will love the many activities in this bundle as they learn about spiders, pumpkins, owls, and bats! This resource has 4 separate units rolled into one huge pack with more than 150 pages in all!! These activities are designed to be fun, interactive, and engaging!

These units are a super easy way to integrate science standards and literacy skills across the curriculum.

Give a Hoot for Owls

Owls are amazing birds! Did you know that owls are one of the oldest species in existence? Fossils of owls have been found dating back over 60 million years ago. People in countries from all over the world have always had a fascination with owls. Many cultures have made up stories or myths about owls for thousands of years. In this activity pack students will learn all about Barn Owls, Snowy Owls, Life Cycle of an Owl, Body Parts, and how owls help humans. Inside this unit you will find reading passages to learn all about owls and many hands-on activities to reinforce learning.

Posters Make an Attractive Bulletin Board in a Snap!

Introduce the eight vocabulary words with the real-life photo posters included. You could post these posters around the classroom and have students travel around to match up and define the words in their flip flaps or use as a center activity.

Students can read the informational articles all about owls and the life cycle of an owl to give them a clear understanding. They will love the fun character studies where they will Meet Hoot, a barn owl and Meet Snowy, a snowy owl. The informational articles are written in the form of a mini-booklet with questions and scenes for students to connect, color, and assemble. Pages can be stapled at the top to make a full-sized booklet or be cut in half to create a half-page mini-book.

Lots of Hands-on Activities Allow for Differentiation

Students can complete the Barn Owl Mini-booklet and writing activities to complete their study on owls. These make excellent activities to do independently at centers. They can use the articles as a reference source to help them complete the pages of the Mini-booklet. Lastly, they cut, color, and assemble the Mini-booklet. Mini-booklets can be glued or stapled inside their interactive notebooks, file folder, or a 12 x 18 piece of construction paper folded like a book cover. Students could then decorate the cover of the booklet. Hoot! Hoot!

Plus students will love meeting two owl characters:

  • Meet Hoot (a barn owl)
  • Meet Snowy (a snowy owl)

What's Inside:

✔Reading Passages (4)
✔Mini-booklet all about owls
✔Compare/Contrast Activity
✔Life cycle of a barn owl
✔A Life Cycle Chart
✔Color the Owls with True Facts
✔Create an Owl Mini-booklet
✔Owl Organizer
✔Vocabulary Posters (8)
✔Spotlight on Vocabulary
✔Owl Writing Project
✔Great for the Fall Season
✔Common Core Aligned

Click Here to See the Unit on Owls

Go Batty for Bats!

Bats are amazing little creatures that are very helpful to people! Bats are mammals just like us! But the one thing that makes bats unique from all other mammals is that they can fly! Students will love learning all about bats with these high-interest informational articles, creative character bats, and fictional bat story.

Informational and Fictional Passages to Compare and Contrast

Start off the unit with three fun and factual character bats: Buddy Boo (a megabat), Berry Boo (a fruit bat), and Bitty Boo (a microbat). Students will love learning about them.

Read a fictional story about a bat called “An Uninvited Guest” and answer the questions to pique their interest and build background knowledge. These are perfect for guided reading groups with two sets of skill-based questions. This is also a great discussion starter for real life situations.

Students will learn all about bats with informational articles on:
✔Diet
✔Body parts
✔Echolocation
✔Hibernation
✔Ways bats help people

Reading passages and activities are great for centers too. One of the activities to complete is a accordion book. This unit was updated in 2016 to include a flip booklet. They will color, cut, and build their batty books. Once completed these can be glued inside their interactive notebooks.

Your students will go batty for this creative hands-on resource! This non-fiction unit focuses on 1st and 2nd Grade Common Core ELA Standards with lots of fun activities that are perfect for interactive notebooks, too!

This unit has been newly updated and now includes the Life Cycle of a Bat and a Bat Flip Book!

Shine a Spotlight on Vocabulary

Introduce the 6 vocabulary words with the real-life photo posters included. You could post these posters around the classroom and have students travel around to match up and define the words in their flip flaps or use as a center activity. In addition, the vocabulary flip flaps are a great hands-on activity that works well in their interactive notebooks. Shine a spotlight on vocabulary!

Click Here to See the Bats Unit

Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere

Pumpkins come in all different shapes, colors, and sizes just perfect for students observation and exploration. In this unit students will predict, explore, and estimate all about their chosen pumpkin. In this unit, they will combine a variety of reading, math skills, and scientific observation skills to learn all about pumpkins. Just in time for Halloween!

Start the Unit by Reading the Kid-Friendly Passages

Have students read the passages and complete the different activities. You could have students work with a partner or in small groups. Putting one article and a related activity at each center or station works well with intermediate students.

Students will learn all about pumpkins including:

✔Life cycle of a Pumpkin

✔Parts of a Pumpkin

✔Fruit or Vegetable Activity

✔Homemade Pumpkin Treats

Pumpkin Activities are Perfect for Science Centers

There are lots of activities included in this pack including a 6-page flip book. Have students complete the flip booklet and build it page by page. I usually have them do one page at each center or station. They can use the articles as a reference source to help them complete the pages of the booklet. Lastly, cut, color, and assemble the booklet. Flip up books can be glued or stapled inside their interactive notebooks, file folder, or a 12x18 piece of construction paper folded like a book cover.

This unit includes many interactive activities including:

✔Meet Alexander - a young botanist

✔Summarize How to Grow a Gigantic Pumpkin

✔Create a Pumpkin Facts Mini-booklet

✔Math Task Cards

✔Fruit & Veggie Pocket Sort

✔All About Pumpkins---Fact and Opinion

✔Mystery Flaps

✔Vocabulary Posters

✔Spotlight on Vocabulary

✔Vocabulary Flip Flaps

✔PLUS 6 page Flip Booklet

Vocabulary Posters with Real-Life Photos

Life cycle information and diagrams are included in all four of these units. At the end of the unit, students will be able to compare and contrast the life cycle of pumpkin to bats, owls, and spiders.

Click Here to See the Unit on Pumpkins

Who Doesn't Love Those Awesome Arachnids?

Learning about spiders can be fun! This unit includes informational articles, hands-on activities, and vocabulary posters for those creepy, crawly creatures. This unit focuses on Arachnids, Life Cycle of a Spider, Black Widow Spiders, Wolf Spiders, and Tarantulas. There are lots of hands-on activities and organizers for students to show what they know. This pack can be set up as five fun activities for centers for a week long investigation.

High Interest Informational Articles Highlight 3 Types of Spiders

✔Black Widows
✔ Wolf Spiders
✔Tarantulas

Use the Fact Sort to Compare and Contrast

Compare these three types of spiders with a fun cut-n-sort activity with hidden words. Students can use the articles and their newly acquired knowledge to sort the facts and put them under the correct spider. After sorting all the facts, students can move them around to spell out a hidden word. This a fun comparison alternative to the usual Venn diagram.

What’s inside At a Glance:

✔Informational Articles About Awesome Arachnids, Black Widows, Wolf Spiders, Tarantulas and Life Cycle of a Spider
✔Black Widows Close Up
✔Spotlight on Wolf Spiders
✔Tarantulas Uncovered
✔Compare & Contrast All Three Spiders--Cut-n-Sort Activity with Hidden Words
✔Black Widows Fact Wheel
✔Wolf Spider Fact Wheel
✔Tarantulas Fact Wheel
✔Labels the Parts of a Spider
✔All about Spiders Fact or Opinion
✔Life Cycle of a Spider Diagram
✔Spiders Flip Booklet (5-pages)
✔Vocabulary Flip Flaps
✔Spotlight on Vocabulary
✔Spider Vocabulary Posters

Click here to See the Unit on Spiders

The standards addressed in these 4 units:

  • Ask and answer questions to demonstrate the understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
  • Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text.
  • Determine the meaning of words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 2 topic or subject area.
  • Identify the main purpose of a text, including what the author wants to answer, explain, or describe.
  • Summarize the life cycle of animals including birth and developing into an adult.
  • Describe how the structures of plants and animals complement the environment of the plant or animal.
  • Describe different animal adaptations including camouflage, defense mechanisms, movement, hibernation, and migration.

How to Use Flip Books as a Learning Tool

Have students complete the flip book and build it page by page. I usually have them do one page at each center or learning station. They can use the articles as a reference source to help them complete the pages of the booklet. Lastly, they cut, color, and assemble the booklet. Flip books can be glued or stapled inside their interactive notebooks, file folder, or a 12 x 18 piece of construction paper folded like a book cover. They could also decorate the outside of the folder with a colorful design of their own.

Click Here to See the Fall Activities Bundle with All FOUR Units

This bundle has 4 AWESOME units all rolled into one! The best part is you can rest easy knowing that your students will be excited and motivated as they learn about these favorite fall creatures!

Fall Activities Bundle for Kids Pin 

Grab our Spiders and Insects Freebie!

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