Halloween is such an exciting time for children of all ages and there are many ways to celebrate this wonderful holiday in the classroom. From scary stories to dressing up, children like it all. Plus, it’s always great to take a little break from your ordinary classroom routine and celebrate Halloween.
Take a look at the list of seven fantastic ideas on how to celebrate Halloween in the classroom! Your students will definitely love them all!
1. A History lesson about Halloween
A history lesson about Halloween is one of the most useful classroom Halloween activities. Teach your students about how Halloween started and tell some of the past traditions associated with the holiday.
Also, you can tell them about how some other cultures celebrate Halloween. For instance, tell them about La Dia De Los Muertos, Central America. With older kids, you can talk about some local legends or the Salem Witch Trials.
You can educate the children on the symbolism of this holiday. For example, about the jack-o’-lantern, the reasons for using orange and black colors. Also, telling the kids about some popular Halloween legends is one of the most exciting classroom Halloween activities.
2. Halloween Music
Also, do not forget about the musical accompaniment, which will be the key to a good mood. Choosing suitable music is one of the most responsible classroom Halloween activities. For a holiday, you can take the music from the popular films of Tim Burton.
Tim Burton is a director who specializes in dark but very funny movies. In particular, he directed the cartoon The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride. Despite some bloodthirsty names, these are pretty good animations, the soundtrack perfectly matching the holiday theme.
3. Halloween Decorations
Such a holiday cannot be held without decorating the office with various popular scary things, which you can buy at the store or make your own Halloween decorations. In any case, this one of the best classroom Halloween activities must be done in advance.
Pumpkins should be in the classroom! Since pumpkin carving is a bit messy, I thought pumpkin painting would be perfect! You can allow your students to paint whatever they want or tell them to paint something specific to a lesson plan. They will certainly like getting into the holiday spirit with pumpkin painting, as it is one of the most exciting Halloween activities in the classroom!
Making it is not difficult, having a sharp knife and minimal skill. It is important to create several such symbolic attributes for a holiday and place them at the entrance, corridors, stage, and tables. You can also attach other decorative elements to them: artificial fog, scarecrows, cobwebs, figures of ghosts, black cats, etc.
More: 3 Homemade Halloween Costumes That You Can Make for Free
4. Photo Zone in Halloween Style
Also, an interesting idea will be a thematically designed photo zone, which will certainly amuse your pupils. This is one of the fun classroom activities with your students on Halloween Eve.
To do this, take small orange balloons and draw faces on them. Then, hang the guipure, bandage, or gauze on the wall where the photo zone is planned. This is a wonderful imitation of the web. Next, decorate the web with spiders and bats cut out of black cardboard.
Painting pumpkins or cutting out scary and cute faces is one of the best Halloween activities in the classroom. All this will arrange beautifully for a Halloween-style photo.
5. Halloween Costume Contest
Another one of the fun halloween activities in the classroom is to hold a Halloween costume fashion contest. For most children, dressing up in unique costumes is one of the fun classroom Halloween activities, and they want to show off how great they look.
Ask your students to come into class in costumes and write about what or who they’re dressed as. Hold a costume contest where the students show off their fun and unique costumes to the whole class. In addition, there should be several nominations, for example, “The most terrible costume,” “The most realistic costume,” and “The kindest image.”
It’s easy to vote – just write the name of the owner of that same suit and put it in a special ballot box. The winner will receive an intriguing present. It is an excellent Halloween idea, as someone will be able not only to have fun but also to go home with a small prize!
6. Scary Stories
If children didn’t love scary stories, they wouldn’t be so popular. The main goal is to entertain, transfer to a unique, a little gloomy, but mysterious reality, and add atmosphere to what is happening.
Take a small break during the school day and read scary stories to the kids. Although, telling scary stories is Halloween classroom activities for middle school, younger children can be scared. Therefore, you should remember that your stories must not be too frightening for your students. There are many stories online, so it will be easy to find some scary stories for kids.
More: Top 4 Kid-Friendly Halloween Movies
7. Do a Giant Halloween Word Search
Work on word recognition while having fun! This is one of the best Halloween classroom activities for Junior school pupils.
It is recommended to use words connected with Halloween. Don’t forget to use masking tape so you can easily remove it from the wall when you’re done.
8. Trick-or-Treat
Trick-or-treating is one of traditional Halloween activities, which you can try even in the classroom, as the candy is one of the best parts of Halloween! If you want to have a celebration your students will love and remember, have the kids go trick-or-treating in the classroom.
Firstly, split your classroom into two sections and have every kid bring a different bag of candy for this one of the best classroom Halloween activities. Every section can go around and trick-or-treat at the desks. After everybody is done, continue with the planned lesson as your students eat their delicious Halloween candy.
9. Lip-Synching Contest
Get your students into the holiday spirit with one of the fun classroom Halloween activities, lip-synching contest. There are many songs that go perfectly with Halloween. Start with splitting your students up into groups and giving every kid a sheet with the song lyrics.
Now give them time to learn the words and come up with a dance and let them perform. It’s great to videotape it and show it to their parents. It will even be better if the students dress up in costumes for their songs.
10. Stage a Show
If a lip-synching contest is not for your students, have them perform skits acting out scenes from a movie, play, or TV show, scary stories, or local folklore related to Halloween. It will certainly be one of the most favorite Halloween activities in the classroom and your students will love it! Don’t forget to invite their parents and other students and teachers!
11. Sweet Table
When the children frolicked enough at the competitions and wanted to relax, refreshments were announced. You can make a sweet table, a full dinner, or a buffet. However, in any case, all dishes should keep the Halloween style.
It is also an excellent idea to ask your students to cook some Halloween dishes at home with their parents. Maybe, it is one of the most suitable Halloween classroom activities for middle school. There is a great variety of Halloween recipes for children.
For example, kids love little creamy muffins. Decorating cookies for Halloween is a huge one to get creative with. Traditionally, delicious gingerbread cookies are decorated with colored icing, drawing cats, bats, pumpkins, and ghosts. You can dilute cakes and cookies on the festive table with fruits decorated in the holiday spirit.
12. Table Setting for Halloween
Themed table decoration for Halloween is not as difficult as it seems at first glance. And on Halloween, you need to cover the table with a white or black tablecloth, on which cobwebs, insects, drops of blood, and various other abominations are drawn.
You can use gummy worms and insects for this one of the fun Halloween classroom activities. Table setting for Halloween involves the use of orange paper napkins, black velvet cardboard that can be used to make candy vases, and a satin ribbon of the same color.
Dishes for a sweet table can be easily decorated by yourself. To do this, stock up on red, yellow, and black ribbons, colored paper, glue, and mystical figurines. Then, a drop of fantasy and original containers are ready! Moreover, this is one of the best Halloween classroom activities, as everyone can get creative.
If you are a teacher, try to incorporate Halloween, following these excellent Halloween classroom activities and your students will have an amazing day full of ghosts and ghouls. Children like to celebrate Halloween in any way and they will certainly like a really special day in class, which is so different from their ordinary school day.
So, what do you think of these ideas? Do you have any other ideas? Do you think it’s a great idea to celebrate Halloween in the classroom or do you think a teacher must stick to their ordinary lesson plan? Please share your thoughts in the comments!
Below, we have compiled a list of the most interesting questions about the fantastic ideas on how to celebrate Halloween in the classroom:
