Who wants to teach dry or boring phonics lessons? No one, that’s who. That’s why short Halloween poems written especially for kids help make teaching phonics skills easier, more targeted, and definitely a whole lot more fun.
Halloween poems are perfect for teaching literacy mini-lessons in October
It would be a shame not to include some spooky themed lessons during the month of October. As far as I’m concerned, Halloween poems are the perfect vehicle for teaching in October. They’re typically short, language rich, and can be used to teach a wide variety of English language arts skills from phonics to vocabulary, comprehension, fluency and more…
Halloween phonics poems target well…phonics skills
By October, teaching should really be getting into a solid groove. Although there is not one Holy Grail scope and sequence for the introduction of phonics skills, there are some generally accepted guidelines.
However, schools that follow a scripted reading program (I still call them basal readers), introduce phonics differently than schools following a guided level reading program.
But that’s the great thing about poems. They fit in absolutely everywhere in every single type of reading program. Every single one.
I wrote Halloween phonics poems so you can easily pick and choose the ones that work within your own program and approach to reading.
Targeted phonics should always be brought back to text
Phonics instruction during a mini-lesson is most effective when it’s short and targeted, but always, always bring phonics back to reading real text. The whole point of phonics is to move away from phonics and focus on reading for content.
Here are just a few Halloween phonics poems to make your English language arts lessons a little spookier this October.
Phonics Poem #1:
“A Brooding Witch,” targets the -br consonant blend
Phonics Poem # 2
“The Spider,” targets the -sp consonant blend
Phonics Poem # 3
“Reading Stories Extra Creepy,” targets the long vowel digraph (vowel team) of ee/ea
Phonics Poem #4
“Mummy,” targets the short u vowel sound…but the poem works equally well for teaching medial double consonant letters in short vowel words: mm, bb, pp
Want more Halloween poems for teaching in October?
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Halloween Poems with Compound Word
