Halloween Rigor

If your students are anything like ours they are fired up in anticipation for this upcoming holiday. :) These are the times we see a lot of fluff in the classrooms. I wanted to give you some alternatives in case you were looking for something to do with your kiddos that involved higher order thinking.

S.C.A.M.P.E.R

If you are not familiar with this acronym, it's a great way to add rigor to your activities. It lends itself well to holidays like this.

S-Substitute-substitute something else for pumpkins to decorate for Halloween. I like to give them areas where pumpkins may not be plentiful-Africa, Alaska, Hawaii-what would they use to decorate?

C-Combine-combine Halloween with another holiday-what would that look like? You can even incorporate rules from Depth and Complexity here. What is always true about Halloween?

Adapt-Adapt Halloween celebrations for other places or other creatures. How would a monster celebrate Halloween? How would a tiger?

Modify-Modify Halloween candy to make it healthier-invent your own new healthy candy.

New Use for an everyday thing-what is a new use for a pumpkin or halloween candy.

With Kaplan's Depth and Complexity:

Rules-using what is always true about Halloween, create a new tradition or way to celebrate.

Details-using details we know about characters-what do you think they would dress up as for Halloween (my favorite has always been the student who said Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz would dress up as Woody from Toy Story.

Multiple perspectives: compare the perspectives of a Jack-o-lantern and a plain pumpkin.

Write from the perspective of a haunted house, etc. How would it feel, what would it see, what would it wish?

Trends-analyze the trends in Halloween costumes over the years, predict what future trends will look like.