“Is there room on the broom for me” squeaks a little voice from the kitchen. I round the corner and there are my twins playing with the characters laid out on the table for their morning invitation. This children’s book has become a Halloween tradition in our home and clearly they didn’t need any reminding this year about the story or characters before jumping back in on their own.
Standing in the doorway I watch while they go back and forth. They take turns being the witch and the different characters and giggling. Inevitably one of them spots me and quickly they race over with Room on the Broom – “Read it again Mama!” they shout.
Room on the Broom Read & Play
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Books about Witches
Room on the Broom
by Julia Donaldson
This week’s Virtual Book Club for Kids featured book is this classic and spectacular rhyming adventure by the amazing Julia Donaldson. I feel like I’m on the verge of gushing but there is a reason this is a Halloween favorite year after year.
A Very Brave Witch
by Alison McGhee
I love how this book discusses fears. My daughter has a lot of them surrounding Halloween spookiness and this one gently talks about facing fears and realizing that not only does everyone have them, but we are all afraid of different thing.
The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything
by Linda Williams
This is hands down my favorite book to read aloud this time of year. It is a bit spooky, but I think more than anything it is empowering and ultimately funny.
Also Read: Ultimate Halloween Story Time Idea Round Up
Morning Math Invitation
Did you know there is a whole website devoted to Room on the Broom with lots of extras (including the cards we used below!). My room with Morning Invitations is to keep it simple and this is a huge help in that area.
This invitation to play and learn uses one of those resources and teaches simple addition in preschool and early elementary friendly terms.
Materials
- Room on the Broom Printable
- Number Manipulatives (We used the ones from our IKEA puzzle, this set would also work)
- Plus, Minus, and Equals Symbols – ours were created by writing symbols on rocks with a sharpie.
- Stick, pencil or something else to use as a broom.
- Copy of Room on the Broom
Set Up
- Lay out the book and other witch books, if desired.
- Put the number manipulatives and math symbols in a basket in the middle of the table
- Spread the printed cards out on the table or a set for each in each kid’s spot with one “broom”
Activity
This is a basic hands on addition activity for preschoolers. Even very young kids can do basic math problems if they are given a context and manipulatives to make abstract ideas like addition concrete and meaningful.
I put this activity out as a morning invitation. These are presented as open ended explorations. You would be amazed how much kids can figure out if left to explore some materials on their own for a while. In this case my kids;
- Read Room on the Broom.
- Put the characters in order on their brooms to retell the story. They seemed to remember a ton of details about the book in their retellings. And yes, they were able to read it on their own – but I’ve done many morning prompts like this long before they could “read.” Just by “reading” the pictures, preschoolers can retell many familiar books.
Then during breakfast, I re-read Room on the Broom aloud.
When they finished eating I asked if they wanted to do some math with the Room on the Broom characters. They seemed excited so I asked them to each find their “broom” again.
I asked them who we needed to start with on the broom. They found the witch and her cat. We applied the number 2 to this picture.
Then we proceeded through the book again together and added to the broom. Each time we reached a new character, we added the photo to our brooms and created an equation to match.
Note: younger kids may just want to talk and count through each equation. Older kids will be more ready to assign abstract math symbols and create equations.
When we were done we put the materials in their playroom for the rest of the week so they could repeat the activity or re-enact the story with the book as they wanted. Repetition is good!
More Activities about Witches
Are you a member of the amazing Weekly Virtual Book Club community on Facebook? It is free and fantastic weekly fun. Together a team of co-hosts (including yours truly) share a favorite children’s book and related activities each week. Join our community of over 6,000 creative parents, teachers, and childcare providers!
These are the activities from our team of co-hosts this week! I can’t wait to see what you do with our bookclub book this week.
Literacy Activities
- Alphabet Activity: Room on the Broom Sequencing from Growing Book by Book
- Witch Potion Alphabet Printable Worksheet from The Moments at Home
- Witch Themed Alphabet Hide and Seek Game from The Educators’ Spin On It
- Cauldron Drawing Pre-Writing Activity from Mama Smiles
- Print these finger puppets & retell the story
Math Activities
- Room on the Broom Witches Potions Measuring Volume from Rainy Day Mum
- Edible Witches Potion from Clare’s Little Tots
- Learning Ordinal Numbers with Room on the Broom from Rainy Day Mum
Science, Technology and Engineering Activities
- Edible Witches Brew Slime from Teach Beside Me
- Bubble Games – Blowing Bubbles in a Brew from JDaniel4’s Mom
- Fizzy Potions Juice Lab from Inspiration Laboratories
- Room on the Broom sensory bin from Still Playing School
Shop for More Inspiration
What a neat idea to use the pencil as the broom.
Thanks Jodie. It worked well!