5 Easy Classroom Halloween Activities
Halloween in the classroom is usually wild and chaotic! When I went to a new school, I was a little relieved to hear we didn’t do Halloween parties, but I still wanted to make Halloween a special day for my students. I decided to make holidays, review days and here’s why…
1. If you’ve been in the classroom on Halloween, you know that focusing is not the easiest for kids. Trying to introduce a full day of new content just isn’t going to be as successful as it would on a different day.
2. Centers are the perfect way to review concepts, but keep kids engaged and excited!
3. I love spreading out the groups all over the room and even on the floor because it keeps the noise level down and allows me to pull students for interventions!
Here are a few of my favorite low prep Halloween Activities:
1. Spider Web Spelling – Grab some white crayons, or metallic permanent markers and black paper! Have students draw a web on their paper by first making a giant +, then a giant X, then connecting each line. In the web, they can hide a spider and their spelling words!
2. Bat Research – Pull out bat books from the library or computers if you have them, and have students research bats! National Geographic Kids and Pebble Go are great sites for this! There is something about informational books and real photographs that kids just go wild for.
I paired this Bat Research Activity with these one page flip flaps for them to record their work. I loved that they are just one page, front to back so it’s little prep on my end! (If you’d rather research spiders, I have one for that here too!)
3. Candy Corn Math – Use candy corn for addition, subtraction, or place value practice! I used the big pumpkins as 10’s and regular candy corn for 1’s. Who wouldn’t love math they can eat!?
I put together a set of Candy Corn Place Value Mats and addition with regrouping task cards too in case you need them!
4. Design a Pumpkin Art Project – I found this freebie on Glitter Meets Glue’s TpT Shop! You could use water colors, or if you want to keep it simple just use markers or crayons!
5. Slime Science – This is the perfect spooky science activity! You could dye it creepy green, or pumpkin orange. This would be perfect to do with a parent volunteer too! I use these scientific method booklets with my students because it helps teach them the science behind the slime. It’s always hard to squeeze in science throughout the year, and Halloween is the perfect time to experiment!
I hope these center ideas give you some inspiration for ways to make Halloween special without losing the academic piece! Centers really make holidays more relaxed and enjoyable! Students still get to have all the fun, and the teacher avoids the chaos!
I’d love to hear how you use these Halloween activities in your classroom! If you found this post helpful, take a screenshot and tag me @thesprinkletoppedteacher so I can give you a shout out right back!