Need some educational Halloween activities for your classroom? These days there is no time to waste in the classroom but we still want students to experience and enjoy class parties. The solution is to provide educational activities during your class party. I will be sharing a few of my favorites in this blog post.
Test Their Memory
One of my favorite low-prep activities for Halloween in the classroom is to arrange 5-10 items on a tray. I try to pick a variety of Halloween type items such as witchy fingers, spooky eyeballs (really just a bouncy ball), and plastic spiders. Arrange them on a tray and share it under your document camera. Provide one minute for students to visually memorize the tray and then hide it.
I like to have students list what they saw afterwards but if students are having trouble writing they could draw pictures. Play this game several times, re-arranging the objects, taking them away, or adding to the tray each time to change it up. Students won’t be touching these objects so it’s perfect for keeping germs to a minimum.
Test Their Listening Skills
Another of my favorite low-prep ideas is to do a directed drawing activity. Proud to Be Primary has a free Frankenstein activity on her blog post here. I also love all of the ones from First and Kinder Blue Skies. If some students do not celebrate Halloween you could choose a Fall themed directed drawing activity.
During directed drawing, you provide step by step how to create the finished product. I like to keep the end goal a secret and I do not model as I go. This is just preference because I find it more of a challenge for students to really listen to the directions and they like guessing as we go to figure out what we are drawing.
Another educational and fun way to test their listening skills is to have the class do a hidden picture hundreds chart. This activity requires students to have a hundreds chart with the numbers (or blank to make it even more challenging).
Provide clues to the numbers for students to color such as “This number has a five in the ones digit and a four in the tens place. Color this number red.” Students follow along and if done correctly will have created a picture in the end. Search Halloween hundreds chart mystery pictures to find a favorite to use on Teachers Pay Teachers.
Practice Spelling Words
All year my class is practicing spelling sight words. Why not continue that during our Halloween celebration but with a fun twist?
This activity will require each student to have a stretchy headband. You could also use pipe cleaners twisted together to make a headband or cut and staple strips of construction paper. I find the dollar store tends to have multiple headbands in a package to make them more affordable. Each student (or pair if you are allowed to share materials) will need a set of sight word cards. My students usually have a set of five words they are practicing. Read about my sight word process in this blog post.
There are two ways to play this game. First, players can see their partner's card and have to read and spell it. The second way (my favorite) is that the player wearing the headband is trying to guess what word they are wearing. In order to play the second version their partner must put the card in the other player’s headband while they are closing their eyes and not looking. Their partner must provide clues such as number of consonants, syllables, or vowels. If the player guesses within three tries they can keep the sight word. The player with the most cards at the end wins.
Write a Spooky Story
This is a popular activity to do for most classes every Halloween. Having my class write a spooky story is also how I introduce my students to the beginning of my fiction writing unit. What better way to warm up their imaginations than to write a spooky story?
First I lay down some ground rules about what can be in a spooky story - or rather what can’t be in their stories. This means extra gory, bloody, and horror is out. I tell them to keep it school appropriate.
During the week of Halloween, I teach a four day lesson on how to write a spooky story. Students learn a brief introduction to add characters' thoughts, feelings, and actions to the story to help make it extra spooky. They also work on crafting a setting for their characters. If you are short on time you can teach the lessons in sequence within a day or two. The lessons could also be done whole class and a class story created rather than individual spooky stories. Click on the picture below to purchase the lessons and slides.
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