12 Ideas to Celebrate Halloween in the Classroom
Each holiday is cause for celebration in the classroom, and each holiday can be incorporated into an existing lesson plan or classroom. Whether holiday activities are academic in nature, like incorporating miniature pumpkins into a mathematics lesson, or celebrating each student’s uniqueness by creating masks that can reflex the student’s personality in an art class, take advantage of the seasons and holidays to vary your lesson plan. Halloween is a fun and festive time, and it offers many different opportunities to teachers. Below are twelve different activities that can be used to add a bit of flare to your classroom this fall.
Pumpkin and Halloween Resources – Games, activities, and Halloween pages for k12 students
Classroom Games & Activities – Fun and frightful activities to add to your classroom’s Halloween celebration.
Creepy Creative Writing
To spark the creative writer in your classroom this Halloween, incorporate a seasonal writing exercise. Creative writing allows students to use basic writing principles and class material in a fun and unique way. This activity can also be used to teach seasonal vocabulary. Consider jazzing up your creepy creative writing activity with festive paper, this will help to get your students’ creative juices flowing! Writing keywords on the blackboard can also help to provide students with some direction for the activity and focus the classroom.
Creative Writing for Halloween – incorporate this creative writing activity into any Halloween lesson plan.
Halloween Theme Papers – Use these spooky themed printable paper templates for a Halloween writing project.
Star in Your Own Halloween Story – Create your own creepy story to share.
A Halloween Who, When, Where Story – This writing activity is great for beginners and includes prompts to help young writers construct their Halloween story.
Halloween Safety Checklist
Before your students take to the neighborhoods for trick-or-treating this Halloween, make sure they are prepared and know how to stay safe. Get your students together and brainstorm safety tips they can use when trick-or-treating. Including tips about everything from candy safety, to the importance of bringing a flashlight, and where to go are important to the safety and will reinforce basic safety knowledge that your students can use on a regular basis. Teachers can take this activity a step farther and use construction paper, yarn, and a hole punch to make a Halloween safety book that students can take along with them in their trick-or-treat bags.
Halloween Health & Safety – The Center for Disease Control and Prevention provides health and safety tips to pass on to your students this Halloween.
Halloween Safety Tips – A few tips to follow when trick-or-treating
The Official Halloween Safety Game – Test your knowledge of Halloween safety.
Trick-or-Treat Tips – Safety tips for trick-or-treaters and parents.
Pumpkin Carving
For teachers who are not afraid to get a little messy, pumpkin carving can be a great activity to include in your Halloween celebration. This activity lets your students practice their drawing and shape recognition. While traditional pumpkin may not be appropriate for young learners, teachers can carve a pumpkin as a demonstration, while students color a miniature pumpkin with markers or paint. Pumpkin carving can be incorporated to a lesson about texture and shape, and the seeds could be dried and incorporated into a Halloween craft project. To prepare for pumpkin carving, make sure to have a sharp, serrated knife, containers for the pumpkin innards, and an easy-to-clean surface.
Pumpkin Carving Stencils – Make carving a pumpkin even easier with these printable designs.
Carving Cautions – Keep in mind and safety risks that go along with pumpkin carving.
Pumpkin Guts – Don’t know what to do with all of the pumpkin goop left over from carving your pumpkin? Turn it into a delicious snack!
Carve-a-Pumpkin – An online pumpkin carving game that lets kids create their own pumpkin masterpiece.
Pumpkin Carving – Carve your own virtual pumpkin.
Halloween Party
A Halloween party is a great opportunity to invite your student’s parents into the classroom, or mingle with other classrooms. Let your students help with the decorating and party preparation. Decorations can be incorporated into a Halloween art activity. A few weeks before you plan to have the party, send students home with eerie invitations with party information for their parents. In the invitations, ask parents to send children or bring Halloween treats to share with the class. Use a CD with Halloween music or spooky sounds to set the mood and allows students to wear their Halloween customs during the party. Since most schools begin in early September, a Halloween party gives parents the opportunity to visit the classroom, socialize with other parents, and see firsthand what their child has been doing in the first months of school.
Halloween Treats – Ghoulishly good Halloween recipes.
Trick-or-Treat Critter Cups – These creepy cups can be used as giveaways at a Halloween party, or used as trick-or-treat bags.
Halloween Parade
While holiday parades are sometimes a school-wide affair, individual classrooms can also be fun for students. Organize students in whatever order you choose; arranging students by height may work the best, and have them strut their stuff around the school. This activity can be incorporated into a classroom Halloween party; make sure to tell parents to come prepared with a camera to capture their little ghoul in action. If students are not permitted to wear their Halloween customs on school grounds, consider having students make their own Halloween mask with construction paper, glitter, markers, and other elements.
Magnificent Masks – Create a fun and unique mask to use when trick-or-treating this Halloween.
Tips & Tricks – Create a Halloween masterpiece with these Halloween art activities.
Halloween Crafts
Bats, ghosts, and ghouls are Halloween hallmarks and offer tons of opportunities for young artists to explore the colors and symbols of the Halloween season. One classroom favorite is to use Ping-Pong balls, tissue paper or light fabric, string, and markers to create a hang-able ghost. Use the Ping-Pong ball as the face of the ghost. Cover the Ping-Pong ball with the tissue paper or fabric and secure with string or a ribbon. Use fabric markers to draw a ghostly face; washable markers are always best for young children and make clean up a breeze. Use glue to secure another ribbon in a loop at the top of the ghost to make the ghost hang-able.
Green Halloween – Don’t forget to be eco-conscious this Halloween. Use some of these recyclable crafts to entertain you students.
Halloween History Jeopardy
Following a lesson on the history and traditions of Halloween, separate the class into two teams, and host your own version of the popular game show Jeopardy. Test students’ knowledge of Halloween and incorporate class material at the same time. Use a game board hung or drawn on the blackboard with different categories and point values based on the difficulty of the questions. Include questions about history, Halloween traditions, and add in popular Halloween movies or characters if you would like.
Halloween Songs
Music is a great opportunity to incorporate seasonal selections, not only for the winter Holidays, like Christmas or Hanukkah, but year-round. Teaching children a new Halloween song that they can sing while trick-or-treating can be fun and easy. New songs can be created for Halloween using existing tunes from carols or children's songs. Teachers could also hand out Halloween caroling books to students to carry with them when they are out trick-or-treating. For upper elementary students, consider adding in instruments, like the recorder, or experimenting with singing in rounds for a more advanced activity.
Spider Poems & Songs – Kids will love singing these creepy carols for Halloween.
Pumpkin Songs – Learn a new Halloween song.
Halloween Jokes & Riddles – After telling one of these hilarious Halloween jokes, even the grumpiest ghoul will crack a smile.
Active Games
It is important to incorporate active games into a child's day to help release pent up energy and allow the student to focus on academics with a clear head. Physical education classes provide an outlet for students and are important for healthy and well-rounded development. Let your ghosts and ghouls run wild during gym class with a fun and seasonal activity. Zombie tag puts a scary twist on a traditional game of tag; while other Halloween games, like "Ghostbusters" are seasonal favorites.
Playing a game of "Ghostbusters" is a great way to get students excited for Halloween. In an open gymnasium, place ten to twelve large empty boxes, like the type a large piece of furniture or equipment might be delivered in, anything that is big enough to house a few students is sufficient. One person, usually the gym teacher, is the "Ghostbuster". When the lights are off, the students, or "ghosts", are free to move around the gym. Adding spooky music or sounds can kick this activity up a notch. However, when the lights are turned on, the "ghosts" need to find a safe box to hide in from the "Ghostbuster". If the "Ghostbuster" catches a "ghost", they turn into "Ghostbusters", too, and help to catch the "ghosts". After each round, remove one of the safe boxes to help eliminate the "ghosts".
Zombie Tag – Learn how to play zombie tag this Halloween.
Ghouls and Goblins – Ghouls and Goblins is a great game for any gym class this Halloween.
Fall Field Trips
Fall is the perfect time to take your class on a field trip; whether it is a walk around the school grounds to observe the changing of the leaves, or a trip to your local farm to choose a pumpkin for Halloween, it is important to offer students a hands-on experience this fall. A hayride, for example, is a wonderful opportunity for a game of nature “Eye Spy” to test the students fall vocabulary and their recognition of the natural environment. Before embarking on any field trip, make sure to take the proper precautions, obtain any consent forms, and have a backup plan in the event of inclement weather.
How to Pick the Perfect Pumpkin – If you are going to the pumpkin patch this Halloween, here is must-have pumpkin picking tips.
Field Trip Planning - Before you go on your field trip, make sure you are well prepared.
Halloween Scavenger Hunt
A traditional scavenger hunt can be modified to fit any holiday, and Halloween provides many different opportunities for students to explore fall and seasonal elements. Most scavenger hunts work best in large spaces that offer students a chance to run around and explore their surroundings. Consider doing your scavenger hunt outside on the playground or in the gymnasium. Teachers can hide pumpkins cut out of construction paper, or any seasonal pattern that may be preferred. On each hidden cut out, write a seasonal question, this is a great opportunity to work in lesson materials from a math, English, of science curriculum; add a Halloween twist to the questions to entertain students. The first team of students to find all of the hidden cut outs, and answered all of the questions correctly, may get a small prize.
Printable Scavenger Hunt List – This printable list is perfect for younger students.
Halloween Scavenger Hunt List – This is designed for a little bit of an older audience, but can be scaled down to work with a class of younger students.
An Indoor Alternative – This online Halloween scavenger hunt is a great alternative to an outdoor hunt that might be ruined by a rainy day.
Healthy Halloween Snack
With all of the sugar and candy that comes with Halloween, an activity to remind students to choose healthy foods is very important. A lesson about the food pyramid could be followed by an art activity that allows students to become familiar with healthy Halloween alternatives, and express their creativity. Veggie Monsters, ghouls made out of fruits, vegetables, and popcorn are an easy and fun activity for kids. Using a medium-sized rounded fruit as a base, use toothpicks to attach smaller fruits and veggies, like blueberries, olives, carrot sticks, tomatoes, and popcorn to create a great Halloween snack.
Healthy Halloween Treats – Healthy alternatives to candy for kids.
Halloween Health Bits – Learn how to make Halloween healthier this season
Healthy Alternatives to Halloween Candy – Halloween doesn’t have to be all about the candy, educate your students about healthy alternatives to add to their trick-or-treat loot.
Halloween and the fall season offer lots of opportunity to incorporate color, texture, and imagery into lesson plans and activities to delight your students. Reward students’ hard work with a fun field trip or an activity that will let them use their imagination and creative to create a ghoulish ghost or spooky treat.
Written by Michael S. Atwood