What is it about Halloween that I love so much ? It’s its  FUN element, I guess….

I decided to try and bring some Halloween spirit to my class  this year, too. I attempted to teach my  students Halloween themed lessons, and to  elicit some  excitement from them. I feel that I at least paid Halloween  a pretty good tribute.

Some games and ideas were ones that I created and some came from my colleagues or the Internet.

Here are only  FEW  of my favourites.

The Donut Game

My students love this game – The day of the class party, they buy a  donut .

I divide the students into pairs  and give each pair a 3-4 foot long piece of strong string/butcher cord.Two pairs of students compete against each other.

While a student holds each end of the string, the other  student places a donut through the string and with hands behind his/her back, tries to take a bite of it, as the other student slides the donut from one end to the other by moving the string gently.

I make sure that the student doesn’t get too frustrated.

There is always spooky music during the game and when a music piece  is over, time is up and we decide which student has eaten most of his/her donut!  The winners are awarded Halloween stickers and the game continues. TONS OF FUN!

Halloween Spell Book

This is an amazing Activityvillage idea, which we finally turn into a class competition for the best spell! Put together your own book of common spells with this Activityvillage  fun Halloween printable!

Print the cover onto coloured printer card or colour it in yourself. Then print as many pages as you like and fill them in with lots of gruesome and interesting details.

The Pumpkin Patch chant

Setting: Small or Large Group
Objective: Oral Language development, name recognition
Materials: one pumpkin die-cut per child, Sharpie marker
Directions: Write the each student’s name on a pumpkin with a Sharpie. Sit the students in a circle in your large group area and place all the pumpkins in the middle of the circle on the floor face down. Have each student take a turn coming to the middle and turning over a pumpkin and reading the name. The entire class says the following rhyme:

“Who took the pumpkin from the pumpkin patch?
________ (insert name of student whose name appears on the pumpkin die-cut) took the pumpkin from the pumpkin patch.”
Student whose name appears on the pumpkin says: “Who me?”
Teacher and class= “Yes, you”
Student= “Couldn’t be”
Teacher and class= “Then who?”

I repeat the activity by having the student whose name was on the pumpkin turn another one over. I continue until all students have had a turn.

Bobbing for apples

An old-time-classic Halloween game! I put  lots of apples in a bowl of water and thenstudents  try to get them out! But, no hands!!You could make this traditional game a little more scary by filling the bobbing tub with milk and adding red food colouring. Add enough colouring until the milk resembles bright red blood….You could also use a large plastic “cauldron” rather than a bucket or tub.

What’s missing?

Very useful to teach and practice Halloween vocabulary! I stick Halloween word cards on the board and ask two students each time, representing two teams, to close their eyes or turn their back to the board.Meanwhile, I remove a card from the board and ask: ” What’s missing”?

The first student to find out and name the card missing, wins a point for his/her team! Fun!

Foot Ghost

I ask the kids to trace their foot  on white craft foam or paper . They cut foot pattern out of it. If they wish, they trace and cut a hand pattern and glue the hands on the back of the ghost . They can also draw a face and glue wiggly eyes , on the heel of the foot. They can use ribbon or other materials to decorate their  ghost.I later ask them to write simple sentences on the ghost  and finally put all ghosts on the classroom walls. Cute!

Halloween Spooky Tree
I build a spooky tree decoration using black and purple card, which I put up on the classroom walls.

 

I ask my kids to use web,  spiders,  little ghosts and  halloween words pictures  to decorate our tree. A great way to review Halloween vocabulary and decorate the class at the same time!

Pin the wart on the Witch’s nose

I draw a big picture of a Witch.I get lumps of green play dough, blidfold each child and let them put the wart on the Witch’s nose! Variations I have also tried: Pin the nose on Jack ‘O Lantern, Pin the tail on the black cat.

Wrap the mummy

I use loo rolls for this hilarious activity! I have the children work in teams and see who can wrap up their friend the fastest! Spooky background music, necessary!

 

Costume contest

We love it in my class when we take a vote on the best and scariest costumes. The kids actually decide what dress-up clothes or accessories to put on , on the spot! Sometimes, imagination works miracles!I always make sure that  I hand out some..spooky prize for the best costumes!

Horrible Halloween Recipes

I always give students a handout with Halloween party recipes and ask them to go home and try some of them and bring them back to class for their classmates to taste! This year, I asked them to try the “red/green  slime dessert” .They had to make an either green or red jelly, break it up with a fork, add some gummy worms etc in it , to make a slimy dessert. Yummy!?

 

Trick or Treat?

ALL my students love it when they go Trick or Treat to all the classes in school and get treats!!

 

Halloween cartoons and videos time 

I always have my classes watch Halloween videos and comment on them! This year, I had them watch a video about how to carve a pumpkin, a Disney Halloween cartoon story and some easy and fun Halloween songs for very young learners on youtube! There is such a large collection on line of all of the above therefore, I won’t suggest anything here…

Classroom party games are great for team building and student motivation in the classroom!!

Don’t try to play all these games at the same party. You won’t have time and you’ll be rushing through them. Keep something new for the next Halloween  school year party.

The main thing is to have fun and enjoy your students!!