Halloween Fluency, Singing & Subtraction Fun!

It’s almost Halloween – a re-post of a fun and popular activity for 1-3’s, encouraging reading fluency and reinforcing subtraction concepts from a Rafflecopter post last year!

Are you familiar with the classic song 99 Bottles of Beer, with its stick-in-your-brain-forever melody and uncanny ability to teach even the most math-challenged among us to rote count backwards from 100?

Kids of my generation sang it on bus rides and in long trips in the car, and its adhesive quality remains many decades later.

The activity:

Print enough black and white freebies for your entire class, and one for yourself. You’ll also see options for the color version, a full color story book, student readers and subtraction activities at the bottom of this post.
Plan enough time for each student to take a turn at the board. You’ll see why in a minute!
Have some early finishers color and cut out your freebie, mount on sturdy paper, laminate if you wish, and place magnets on the back for use on a magnetic surface.
Gather the class and draw a wall for your characters to stand on. If you have not read the story with them (optional purchase pictured below), then introduce the activity by discussing their thoughts regarding standing on high walls, predictions about what could happen etc. Throughout the course of the song, one character will be falling at a time.
Now, warm up that singing voice! “Mi, mi, mi…” Singing repetitive songs consolidates phrasing, and children who are singing what they read enjoy the benefits of reading fluency.
Give each child a chance to make a character fall from the wall as you sing this song:

5 Halloween friends on the wall,
5 Halloween friends …

If 1 of these friends has a big fall,
How many friends are left on the wall?

4 Halloween friends on the wall,
4 Halloween friends …

If 1 of these friends has a big fall,
How many friends are left on the wall?

3 Halloween friends on the wall,
3 Halloween friends …

If 1 of these friends has a big fall,
How many friends are left on the wall?

And you simply continue this way until there is one friend left on the wall.

1 Halloween friend on the wall, 1 Halloween friend…
If THIS one friend has a big fall, stay away from this crazy wall!

7. Invite your students to discuss what they noticed or found interesting about the song / story. Did they notice any patterns? Does anyone think that there was any math in the story? How could a number sentence be written about any part of the story? Was it fun to read in song?

8. Have fun!

(Want things to get really crazy? Have them act it out! Or save that for your kids at home…)