Spooky Season is Here! Make It Interactive

Ahh, the Spooky Season approach-eth! Time for ghosts, goblins, and ghouls to appear during this pumpkin carving, costume donning, trick-or-treating time of the year. 

In taking advantage of the season and the needs of my 4th grade teachers and their classes, I concocted these two seasonal interactives using Canva Code. Starting with simple prompts (and about 2 dozen revisions, modifications, and versions later), I made these two 4th grade-friendly Halloween activities centered around nouns, verbs, and adjectives! Fun fun for everyone!

Here's how my first interactive started in Canva Code:

Create an interactive game for 4th graders to help them learn and identify nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Include front matter to instruct the difference between the parts of speech. Do not use helping verbs, but do include verbs in present and past form. Include common versus proper nouns. Identify the difference between the two of these in the instructional front matter.  Have the sentences focused around kid-friendly fun Halloween sentences when the student must identify the part of the speech within the sentence. Create 20 sentences to provide opportunity for them to learn. Put each sentence on its own slide so that the game presents in a slide deck. Provide feedback if students make a mistake so that it is both self grading and a learning tool. Add graphics that fit the sentence.

From there, my directives helped tweak the activity and double the questions. Then, it inspired a secondary activity along the lines of magnetic poetry. Feel free to play or share with your students!

Halloween Parts of Speech Interactive Game for 4th Graders by Dabrowka, Ms. Vicki

Halloween Magnetic Poetry Game: Nouns, Verbs & Adjectives for 4th Grade by Dabrowka, Ms. Vicki

Image created at Canva.com; Interactives created using Canva Coding & found here: https://www.canva.com/design/DAG1rf-ggmM/4aUtUZrydJDlTfcFZdbn0g/edit?utm_content=DAG1rf-ggmM&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton and https://www.canva.com/design/DAG1rqGMrrM/GGcja46E7fit5uYufcaEfA/edit?utm_content=DAG1rqGMrrM&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

Fashion's Footprint

Fashion, particularly "fast fashion" (you know the stuff--the cheap and easy quickie clothing purchases at the department or box stores) has a significant footprint when it comes to global impact, manufacturing, resources, synthetic fibers, microplastics, carbon footprint, and more. 

I landed on this graphic from 1 Million Women's Facebook page which details what makes up our clothing. The numbers are striking, and it may make you rethink your wardrobe, where your purchasing dollars are going, and if you truly need that next new "flavor of the month" outfit (which may really only be an impulse buy). Also, worth consideration as you are planning your Halloween costume!!

As I was reading their post, 1 Million Women mentioned their source for the image as Fashion Revolution. A few clicks let me to both their Facebook page and their website.

Fashion Revolution is an organization that began in 2013 by people in the fashion industry who are sustainably-minded, valuing "people over growth and profit." Knowing that human and environmental exploitation can be a part of the fast fashion industry, their aim is to create safe and humane working condition on the supply side, conserving resources & moving away from a throw-away mentality on the environmental side, and living wages for the workers on the economic side. 

Here is a video from their website. Additionally, they have loads of resources there where you can learn more.

Image from https://www.facebook.com/1MillionWomen/posts/pfbid023aLQXZvyfa5dhtjuMUrjCunZrkHWLk9gTT4fejR1oK6rvUaD8BoAQ2rsTjujKJxHl, Video from https://www.fashionrevolution.org/fashion-transparency-index/

Still Thinking About Jane & Her "Famous Last Words"

I'm still thinking about Jane Goodall, here well over a week since her passing. I ran across this art from Eco With Em's Facebook Page and it felt powerful in this day and age. I'm already missing Jane's courage of her convictions and the fight backed by hope that she always led with.

If you like Eco with Em's style, check out Emily Ehler's website and her book: Hope is a Verb: 6 Steps to Radical Optimism when the World Seems Broken.  I wrote about this book my February 9, 2022 post A Trio of Messengers of Hope. This post also includes mention of Dr. Jane Goodall's book: The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide For Trying Times.

Also timely, last weekend, Netflix released their first episode of "Famous Last Words," a show concept where many famous people are interviewed individually, with the conversations kept under wraps until the event of their passing, at which point Netflix will air the interview postumously and as a celebration of the life of a cultural icon. Their first episode: Dr. Jane Goodall. Conceptually, this program stems from a similarly named show in Denmark “Det Sidste Ord” (“The Last Word”), created by Mikael Bertelsen.

For more on Netflix's first episode from Variety Magazine, click here. To watch the 55 minute documentary "Famous Last Words: Dr. Jane Goodall," check it out on Netflix. Watch this two minute trailer--which will leave you wanting more for sure! 

I found myself wanting for a world where there was more time for this amazing, compassionate, wise, optimistic, wonderful woman.

Image from:  https://www.facebook.com/ecowithem/posts/pfbid0YjqDLzNF5BTA6HpfNMVjjXLtDqiXr2n3RKBrzJoT4P9yi2cxppdeuCEjVhGJT6ksl, Dr. Jane Goodall "Famous Last Words" image and video clip from https://youtu.be/1BZ0je7I90E?si=HT6TdQbL4Iiy5ha4

Saying Goodbye to Dr. Jane Goodall

As a person who has curated their Facebook to have a plethora of environmental education sites, I feel like every other post I am seeing since Wednesday is paying tribute to the amazing Dr. Jane Goodall. A brilliant woman ahead of her time, a primatologist, conservationalist, environmentalist, and global advocate for the planet… Her loss hits hard.

I got the opportunity to meet her at my former “green school” school (Gibson Island Country School) in 2008 at the culmination of our Bay Week. How we managed to secure such an incredible speaker still is beyond me. As luck would have it, her visit was a day—one side or another—from her 74th birthday. 17 yrs ago. Jane Goodall and her sense of environmental hope have been a guiding light in my life. Upon news of her death on Wednesday almost all folks in my house (including my children) were like “noooooooo!” Jane Goodall most certainly is a global treasure whose expertise, guidance, and wisdom will be missed.  We thank you Dr. Goodall for your service.

Here are the 10 articles I have written about Jane Goodall here in GTG over the years, detailing her books, her philosophy, her grace, her wisdom, and her role as a leader. May we all be more like her in our pursuit for the betterment of our planet and society.

• Happy 91st Birthday, Dr. Jane Goodall  (Apr. 5, 2025)
  
• Presidential Medals of Freedom  (Jan. 15, 2025)
• Jane Goodall's 90th Birthday--Environmental Champion  (Apr. 24, 2024)
  
• A Trio of Messengers of Hope  (Feb. 9, 2022)
  
• Women's History Month, Environmental Style  (Mar. 24, 2021)
  
• 60 Seconds with Jane Goodall  (May 16, 2020)
  
• 3 Decades of Time, On Either Side  (Oct. 9, 2019)
  
• Jimmy & Jane (Fallon & Goodall, That is!)  (Sept. 23, 2017)
  
• The Love of Books... And Jane Goodall  (Aug. 29, 2015)
• Happy 80th Bday Jane Goodall!!  (Apr. 2, 2014)
  

Jane Goodall duo pic from https://deadline.com/2025/10/jane-goodall-dead-1236567674/; Collage created using Pic Collage and my photos.