I love to teach during the fall! There are so many engaging lessons that can easily be adapted to use a favorite fall item. One item I love to incorporate into my classroom is candy corn! Candy corn can easily be used for many different lessons but my favorite skill to teach using this candy is contractions! Add in the Fall Bowling Game, Candy Corn Treat Favor Containers, and Goofy Face Candy Corn Magnets to create an extra sweet fall lesson.
Print and cut out the free anchor chart pieces. Decide which pieces best fit your class's needs. You can use as little of the printable pieces as you want! Glue the anchor chart pieces onto Pacon Heavy-Duty Anchor Chart Paper. Hand draw a candy corn. Use Crayola Crayons and markers to color it in. Outline with a Black Sharpie. Model breaking apart a contraction by labeling each part of a candy corn as shown. If you want to model more than one, use a sticky note! This could also be interactive by having students do one section on a sticky note.
After modeling, now it's time for some fun! Have students grab one Candy Corn Treat Favor Container. Each Candy Corn Treat Favor Container contains a slip of paper that lists a contraction or the two words that create the contraction. Students will read their card and then walk around the room to find a friend with the matching card. Have partners share their matches with the class.
Who wouldn't love to bowl using the Fall Bowling Game? This is another great way to get students up and moving…while still learning all about contractions! I labeled the bottom of each pin with one uncontracted word using Mavulus Tape and a Black Sharpie. The words I chose were: are, is, will, had, and not. Students rolled the ball to knock down pins. Students then had to create a contraction that used the uncontracted word on each pin that fell. Download the bowling contractions sheet here to make this activity even easier.
I love to use hands-on activities to quickly asses if students are grasping the skill being taught. The Contraction Bonds Dry Erase Cards are perfect to easily see who is understanding contractions. This set of cards is also perfect for small groups or independent work.
Now that we've had a ton of fun learning about contraction it's time to see if students can add contractions in their writing. Using the Goofy Face Candy Corn Magnets as inspiration, students wrote a few detailed sentences. You can download the candy contractions writing sheets here.To differentiate this lesson, some students practiced writing contractions and the two words used to create each word. Students are guaranteed to remember this sweet contraction lesson! Make sure to check out this adorable candy corn addition and candy corn root word lesson for more fall-themed fun!
