Autumn is my favorite season of the year. Why? My top reason– the heat of the Texas summer is behind us (hopefully). Coming in at a close second is decorating cookies with the TCEA staff and their families. It is such a delight to hunt for Halloween sprinkles and decorating supplies for this fun activity. Of course, the third reason I love fall is because I get to find and create activities for students and teachers!
Are you ready to get your spooky-ooky on? Carve out some time for fun in your classroom with these seven fa-boo-lous activities for 2021!
Difficult Dictionary Dress-Up Day
Mr. Donnie Piercey is a teacher in Lexington, Kentucky. I love that he has his fifth-graders dress up around Halloween as a difficult dictionary word. Can you match the words below to students in the photo?
- Incognito
- Zegal
- Disheveled
- Memorandum
- Fortuitous
- Lethargic
- Lackadaisical
- Brawny
- Sagacious
Check out Donnie’’s Dictionary Day parent letter here for the details and some tips on how to put an educational twist on Halloween costumes. Also, you should follow him on Twitter! He’s the 2021 Kentucky Teacher of the Year and he is always tweeting good stuff.
Halloween Adjective Challenge
Since last year’s Halloween Synonym Challenge was a success, this year I have added the Halloween Adjective Challenge. This Google Form has ten images. Your challenge is to read the three sentences and choose the sentence that has correct adjectives for each image. The challenge has been created as a Google Form quiz, so look for your score and answers after submitting. Try it out here.
Halloween Synonym Challenge
Last year, the Halloween Synonym Challenge was released. To be honest, I forgot I had even created this challenge. Imagine my surprise when I opened up the results spreadsheet while writing this blog and there were 1,000+ entries! One of the best things about teaching is that there’s always an opportunity to make things better. So I changed the original Halloween Synonym Challenge into two separate challenges because I thought a 20-synonym activity was a bit long for one sitting.
The redesigned Synonym Challenge is housed in a Google Form that is set up as a quiz. So look for your score and answers after submitting.
Trick-or-Treat Scratch Game
If you are a Scratch user and want your students to code a Halloween Scratch game, I found just the activity for you. Find the how-to blog here. Maytal’s blog includes the lesson plan, an introduction video, and a four-step video series on creating the Scratch game.
The Halloween Scratch Lesson videos include:
Step 1: Drop One Candy!
Step 2: Clone Those Candies!
Step 3: Handle Those Clones!
Step 4: Add Score!
This is a fantastic Scratch activity because it can be used to introduce the concept of variables while still keeping things simple. Use this link to request the Starter Project.
Digital Breakouts
Also, I have two digital breakouts for Halloween. Won’t you join the 4,678 students and teachers who have solved The Boo Breakout? And if you are up for more, check out The Trick or Treat Breakout. This breakout was just created last year, but it already has 600 finishers. Will you become one?
If you are new to digital breakouts, read more about them here. The American Library Association has also written a comprehensive article explaining all the details of digital breakouts. The article also lists many places to find breakouts you can use throughout the year.
And remember educators, if you need the answers to The Boo Breakout, The Trick or Treat Breakout, or others – email me at preimers@tcea.org. Please include your school information in the signature line.
Fun for Home
Teachers, if you are looking for a variety of ideas for your own little ones, Country Living has the 43 Best Halloween Activities that Are Wicked Fun: “To-dos for the whole family that are downright spooktacular.” From looking at these, I am definitely liking the creepy-crawly hairdo, and I think I am going to make myself the candy corn party hat. The “DIY Your Kids’ Halloween costumes” are a must to scroll through. So creative!
More Ways to Get Your Pumpkin On!
If you are looking for more ideas, check out these previous blog posts packed with plenty of pumpkiny goodness:
- Hauntingly Good Halloween Activities
- Fall Into Learning: Autumn Activities and Websites for Students
- Spooky Breakout and Games
- Discovering Autumn-Themed Choice Boards
- Elementary Autumn Resources
- Fall Digital Breakouts
- Fall Websites for You and Your Students
- Thanksgiving Digital Resources
Go out there and be the ghosties with the mosties. Eat, drink, and be scary! And just make sure you have a happy and safe Halloween.
Featured image: Designed by TCEA staff.
5 comments
Great stuff! Thank you!
Isn’t Peggy fantastic? We’re glad you enjoyed it!
How do I get a copy of the Halloween Adjective Challenge? Thank You!!
I’d like to make a copy of this for my students- how can I go about that?
PLease email me at preimers@tcea.org with your request. Thank you. Peggy