Halloween Lessons for Teachers

Catch the Poetry Bug
for more poetry, lessons, and learning.

Printer friendly version of Scary Costume

Lesson by Robert Pottle.
Illustration by Jonathan Siruno.
All lessons, poems and images
Copyright © 2001

Blue Lobster Press
All rights reserved

Intro: Read all but the last line of the poem Scary Costume to students in Groups 1, 3, 4, and 5 before they do their activities. Read all but the last line of Scary Costume to students in Group 2 after they do their activity. Tell all groups the last line of the poem is missing. It is important not to read the last line of the poem until the conclusion of all activities.

 

Note to coordinating teachers: Labeling the papers will spoil some of the tasks. The easiest way to keep tack of what papers are supposed to be matched together is to make a copy of each paper produced and label the copies while using the originals for the activities.

 

Round 1: Read all but the last line of the poem Scary Costume to students in Group 1. Tell them the last line of the poem is missing. It is important not to read the last line of the poem. Discuss descriptive words in the poem. Have students discuss what the costume looks like. Ask students to draw themselves in this costume. Encourage them to make their picture as detailed as possible. Return all papers to coordinating teacher.

 

Round 2: Give half of the students pictures drawn by Group 1. Do not let the other half of the students see the pictures. Put the students into pairs, one with the picture and one who cannot see the picture. Upright books may be useful as a dividers. If there are an odd number of students, make a group of three students in which two cannot see the picture. The object is to have the student who can see the picture describe the picture to the other student. That student is to draw the picture from the description. The student drawing may ask questions, but the students giving the description may not look at what the other student is drawing. When this is complete have students compare pictures and discuss what types of descriptions where useful. Then switch groupings and roles so that those who were drawing are now describing.

Review effective description, and ask students to write a description of their picture detailed enough for some one else to draw the picture using only the description. Read all but the last line of the poem Scary Costume to students in Group 2. Tell them the last line of the poem is missing. Explain that students in Group 1 heard this poem, and drew these pictures to illustrate the poem. Return all the descriptions and original drawings by Group 1 to coordinating teacher.

 

Round 3: Read all but the last line of the poem Scary Costume to students in Group 3. Tell them the last line of the poem is missing. Show students the pictures that have been drawn by Group 1, and the descriptions written by Group 2. By sure that the pictures and descriptions are not matched to their mates when sharing them with the students. Explain what the other groups have done. Display all the pictures on the chalk tray or on a table. Give each student a description and ask them to match it with the picture. You may need to double up students or descriptions depending on your numbers.

After the pictures have been matched with the descriptions have all the students review the matches as a whole group and decide if there are any changes to be made. Return all papers to coordinating teacher. Paperclip drawings with descriptions and return all papers to coordinating teacher. Leave papers matched together so that the coordinating teacher may report the results to Group 3.

 

Round 4: Read all but the last line of the poem Scary Costume to students in Group 4. Tell them the last line of the poem is missing. Show students the descriptions written by Group 2. Tell the students that these are descriptions written by Group 2 of the costumes drawn by Group 1. Tell them their job is to draw a picture of the costumes by reading the descriptions. Paperclip drawings with descriptions and return all papers to coordinating teacher.

 

Round 5: Read all but the last line of the poem Scary Costume to students in Group 3. Tell them the last line of the poem is missing. Give Group 5 the pictures drawn by Group 1 papercliped together in one pile, and the pictures drawn by Group 4 papercliped together in one pile. Display all the pictures drawn by Group 4 on the chalk tray or on a table. Give each student a picture drawn by Group 1 and ask them to match it with the picture drawn by Group4. Return all papers to coordinating teacher. Leave papers matched together so that the coordinating teacher may report the results to Group 5.

 

Conclusion: Staple all matching original papers together and circulate to the different groups so that all students who worked on this project can see what the other groups did. After they have viewed the papers read the entire poem - including the last line - to the groups.





My voicemail calls you for free! Click below enter your name & number. My voicemail will call you. You can leave a message!

Web Site Design, Graphics, Funny Poems, and Code by Robert Pottle.


Send an e-mail to Robert Pottle at


Robert Pottle owns the copyright to all of the poems (whether they are funny or not) at robertpottle.com

If you would like to share anything on this page you may share the URL, which is: http://www.robertpottle.com

Here is some more information about what copyright means on-line.