Let’s hear it for Halloween! Teachers Pay Teachers has a haunting line-up of resources that’ll bring the mummies back to life and make the witches cackle. We’ve got science activities that span the grades and a recipe for Witch’s Brew that’s sure to make your toenails curl. So grab your trick-or-treat bag and enter our haunted house of Halloween resources.
Safety First
Mrs Beattie’s Classroom knows the importance of teaching about safety — she’s created a Halloween Trick-Or-Treating Safety Sorting Cards FREEBIE and says, “Halloween is a great opportunity for fun crafts and spooky stories, but it’s also a time to focus on safety. I always spend part of my day reviewing Halloween safety tips with my students so I’m sure to have them all back in my classroom the next day.”
And that’s not all: She’ll be blog hopping with a group of TpT bloggers starting October 17th — fill up on the goodies they’ll be offering!
Halloween Science Experiments — It’s ALIVE!
Try these tricks at home! That Rocks Math Science and ELA says, “Middle school kids are at the awkward in-between stage — not quite adults, not quite kids, but Halloween can still be fun! It’s the perfect time to break out the dry ice! The ideal concoction consists of water, dish soap, food coloring, and bits of dry ice placed in a very science-y looking flask. As you talk about sublimation and other phase changes, kids can touch the cold but harmless bubbles flowing out of the flask. Another fun activity with dry ice is to press a metal spoon to a chunk of it and hear it ring as the spoon vibrates.” Be sure to check out their Halloween Fun- Six Logic Puzzles and Brain Teasers for Middle School.
Scienceisfun agrees! “Halloween rocks — it’s the PERFECT time to do cool science activities! I also think it’s a great way to manage the excitement the kids have around Halloween.” See if ghosts can really fly with her Halloween Science Inquiry force experiment- Newton’s 3rd law- balloon rockets.
Also try Getting Nerdy with Mel and Gerdy’s Punnett Square Practice – Jack O’ All Traits Halloween Genetics. “We love to have a good time. We can’t pass up doing the same with our students. Middle schoolers have a hard time NOT thinking about candy and costumes during Halloween, so when you can’t get them to focus, throw a pumpkin-themed science lesson their way to get them thinking and get those creative juices flowing! Students really enjoy our Jack O’ All Traits Halloween Genetics activity. They love the engaging Punnett Square practice problems as they flip coins and use the chart of traits to help the Lanterns determine what their newest little pumpkins will look like. Kids create a Jack (or Jill) O’ Lantern, and teachers can display their scientific art around the room.”
Science for the “Young” Frankensteins
The ghouls, I mean, gals at (haunted) Curriculum Castle say, “We love Halloween! It’s a great time of year for us to investigate pumpkins, learn all about nocturnal animals such as bats, and even make a scary concoction in the classroom — Witches’ Brew! The kids especially love learning the science behind how dry ice works to give off such a cool and spooky fog-like effect. In our Halloween Thematic Unit, we’ve explored all of the above and more!”
Speaking of Witches’ Brew, Erin Waters raves, “Last year, my class did Rachelle Smith’s Witch’s Brew activity, and it was THE BEST ever! I will definitely be doing this from now on. It’s full of so many educational activities disguised as fun, and it really captured their interest all day long — which is close to impossible on Halloween. I highly recommend it to any elementary teacher during this crazy time!”
Read more about Erin’s spooktacular day in her blog post, Wonderfully Wicked Witches’ Brew.
And be sure to try Mini”Punkin Chuckin”: An Engineering Exploration of Levers and Forces, brought to you by the duo behind Get Caught Engineering – STEM for Kids. “For many years, Halloween has been an excuse for a complete day of messy science for our students. ‘Would you like to be mad scientists today?’ sets the tone for activities that keep them excited and engaged from 9:00am – 3:00pm. And it also allows all students to participate even if they don’t celebrate Halloween. Mixing dry ice experiments with soap and hot water for the ‘bubble bubble toil and trouble’ effect; concocting slime, Oobleck, and silly putty for the ooey gooey sensations; building haunted houses with flashing lights out of boxes and circuits to add STEM to the day; dissecting cow eyes to add that important gross factor; measuring ingredients for your own orange colored ice cream; and creating catapults with mini candy pumpkins for a ‘Punkin’ Chuckin’ contest, keeps everyone busy!”
Halloween Costumes Scream Creative Writing
“I absolutely love Halloween. The best part of it is when my students ask for my ‘witch laugh.’ If the broom fits! Between grades 3 and 6, I have a series of activities to keep the students engaged for the entire month of October,” says Sandra Naufal. For instance, “If you’d like to start a great homeschool connection or addition to your literacy writing station, my Halloween Costumes Write About book is the place to start. A helpful planning sheet is included for your struggling writers. This activity will encourage writing at any grade level.”
Can’t Stop Smiling also likes to incorporate kids’ costumes. “We try to keep our students very busy during the morning because the afternoon is filled with a huge parade and a party. Students come in very excited to show off their creative costumes. In the morning, students draw their costumes. They also have to write a description, and other students have to guess what they’ll be. I also use this time to review and practice grammar skills using new Halloween- themed grammar packets that are CCSS aligned.”
High school students also like a little creepy fun, says Room 213. “Most of the teachers at my high school dress up for Halloween and probably about 1/3 of the kids do, too. Student Council has prizes for the best costumes, and we usually have some pretty creative and original ones. We high school teachers don’t always get to dive into holiday activities, mostly because we’re so tied to getting the curriculum covered by the end of the semester. I’ve come up with some activities, though, that ELA teachers can use during Halloween season that still focus on the skills we need to focus on, like those for research, speaking, and listening as well as persuasive and creative writing. They’re short, easy-to-incorporate lessons that allow teachers to have some Halloween fun while still keeping the kids working.”
See her Halloween Activities for Secondary ELA.
Spooky Special Resources
Special Ed Pro says, “I enjoy Halloween, and as a resource specialist I use this simple Halloween: Pumpkins are… activity to promote writing, and display an eye-catching bulletin board throughout October and into November. The letters and pumpkin graphic are from TpT’s Graphics from the Pond! And it’s a freebie.”
“As an art teacher, I love Halloween! I’ve been teaching for 15 years and have never repeated a Halloween activity,” says Mary Straw. There are so many fun processes and images that scream (no pun intended!) Halloween. Who doesn’t want to make jack-o-lanterns, bats, black cats, skeletons, witches, spider webs, ghosts, scarecrows, candy corn, haunted houses, spooky trees, mummies, and owls? So much fun.”
Give her Halloween Activity Coloring Pages 1-3 a spin… if you dare.
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Well, dear ghouls and goblins: We’ve only just scratched the surface of the many resources available for this most monstrous of holidays! Don’t be afraid to peek in the closet for more creepy surprises… mwahahahaha.
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(Cover image: Thanks to Education Geared Graphics for the mummies and spider, Mrs Ks Class for the haunted house, Clip Art Engine for the cat and bats, and TeachesThirdinGeorgia for the spider web font.)
