If it is Halloween or your class is reading C.S. Lewis's wonderful book, "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" then you will probably be exploring witches. Here a some lesson ideas that can be done with any pictures of witches.
You can find plenty of free witch coloring pages on the internet. Start any of the lessons below by giving your students one of them to color in.
Play Pen Yard
1.TELL US WHO THE WITCH IS
Look at the witch in the picture. Write full sentences to answer these questions. You will have to imagine what the answers will be. What is this Witches name? How old is she? Where does she live? Is she friendly? What spells does she like to do? What is her favorite food? What does her cat look like? What else can you tell us about her?
2.WRITE A SPELL
The witch in the picture is looking for a spell that will turn her cat into a toad. Can you write it for her? Write a heading - How to Turn a Cat Into a Toad. Include 7 ingredients (ideas for these could be brainstormed with the class before hand - eye of newt, cedar tips, toe of rat, cockroach blood, three hairs from a dead cat plucked when the moon is full). Write clear step by step instructions (grind the cedar tips, stir the cockroach blood for 2 minutes) Make the page look like it has come from a witches spell book -use light brown paper, include a decorative border and add illustrations of the ingredients.
3.WRITE WORDS
Write 30 (more or less depending on the ability of your students) words that relate to Witches. The words could be nouns (clothing, ingredients for spells, things that you might find in a witches home or friends that a witch might have). These words could also be adjectives that you could use to describe the nouns or the witch herself (dark, dank, old, ugly, beautiful, creepy, rusty, rotten).
4.BRAINSTORM
Working in small groups of 4 to 6 brainstorm everything you know about witches. Think of the questions who, what, where, when, why and how? This works well if the groups are given a large piece of paper and felt pens or crayons to write with.
5.DRAW A HOUSE
Draw a house for this witch to live in. Include lots of detail. Here are some ideas: a stone well, a herb garden, a skeleton hanging on the wall, a bat, a cat, a grave in the yard, a rusty old gate, broken windows, spider webs, a fire with a cauldron on top, a chimney with strange colored smoke coming from it, a few warty toads, a dead tree, an owl, a moon, stormy clouds over head and a flying broom leaning on the wall.
6.WRITE A STORY
Use the picture of the witch as an illustration for a one or two page story. Here are some possible titles. My Aunty is a Witch and She is Coming to Visit! The Witch that Saved the World! Help - The World's Scariest Witch Moved in Next Door! I Bought a Magic Potion from a Witch at the Markets.