Beyond the Garden GATE: Help the Police Arrest This Witch and Save Halloween For Children Everywhere!

Halloween Idea #4: Criminal Witch Listening Activity

Police Sketch Artists Needed

Throughout the year, I work hard on my students' listening skills. It is so frustrating how they can be looking right at you, but their minds can be somewhere else! I know we all deal with this in our classrooms. So whenever I can, I have my students participate in an activity that requires only their listening skills. This is one of those activities.

I give my students a worksheet that has boxes for specific descriptions, such as eyes, ears, hair, etc. Then I read them a story that I have written about a rogue witch that is somehow making it so there will be no trick-or-treating if she is not stopped. There is a child witness that gives a rambling description of the witch, and the students need to listen carefully and take notes on their worksheet. They are police sketch artists, and they must create a composite sketch of this witch so she can be arrested and stopped. I have included arrest photos of four other witches - but the witness insists that none of these are the witch in question here.

The description is fanciful and fun, and the student drawings come out just wonderfully! They make a great bulletin board! After they have created their sketches, there is a follow-up writing activity that goes along with it.

This is one of my favorite Halloween activities, and it is one that I have put together as a product in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. If you like what you see, you can check it out.