Can’t Do Halloween? Try Mad Scientist Day!
If you cannot celebrate Halloween at your school, here’s an alternative: Mad Scientist Day! Mad Scientist Day is a fun-filled day of hands-on science experiments, some of which are done with candy! The children get to dress up as scientists, “mad” or otherwise! This helps keep the focus of the day on academics rather than just candy and spooks. I first learned about this wonderful idea from Reagan Tunstall on her amazing blog, Tunstall’s Teaching Tidbits . It sure looked like a LOT of fun, so I introduced the idea at my school last year when I discovered that the kids are not allowed dress up on Halloween. (My new school does have a big “Pumpkin Night” carnival type of event right before Halloween each year, but the school day is reserved for academics only.) My teammates were excited about the idea, and the principal was happy to give permission for this academically focused event! So last year, both the first and second ...