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celebration

Hauntingly Good Halloween Activities to Electrify Your Classroom

by Peggy Reimers September 27, 2024

written by Peggy Reimers

If you are a long time TCEA TechNotes blog follower, then you will know my favorite time of year is coming up soon: Halloween! Creating activities for educators and students ranks in the top three of my favorite things to do at TCEA. So, if you are looking for hauntingly good Halloween activities to electrify your classroom party or a personal party, this blog is just for you!

So fresh out of the bubbling and creative cauldron, are TWO brand new Halloween activities:

Name That Costume | Canva Presentation with 26 Costumes

Halloween Connections Game | Two Games Housed in Canva

This blog also is your one-stop-shopping-spot for a total refresh of my Halloween edition of “Would You Rather?” and my other spooky-ooky standards.

Name That Costume

Many full moons ago, I used to play a pencil and paper version of Name That Costume with my fifth and sixth graders, and now I have converted it into a Canva presentation. How does NTC work? A page is set up with a word list of several parts and pieces of a Halloween costume. Students are to guess and identify the costume. The following page contains the answer and a picture of the costume.

Access Name That Costume

Edit Name That Costume

The Connections Game (Halloween Edition)

Have you ever played a word association game? The Connections Game is similar, but with a Halloween twist! This word association game is where you must organize 16 words into four categories of four words each. Each group is linked by a common theme. Your job is to figure out what that connection is.

For example:

Words: bat, pumpkin, skeleton, ghost
Group topic: Halloween symbols

I have two Halloween-themed Connections games ready for you to try. Each game has a different set of words and a unique connection to discover. See if you can crack the code! For more information, check out this blog.

Access Connections

Edit Connections

Would You Rather: Halloween Edition

I also have revamped my Halloween Would You Rather. The original was set up in Google Slides with only text on each slide. I have transferred this presentation into Canva and added monsterific-graphics.

If you are not familiar with Would You Rather, it is a fun activity where you’re presented with two hypothetical situations and asked to choose one. It’s a great way to spark conversations, test your preferences, and learn about your students’ thoughts and opinions. The resource has 29 questions.

Directions

Take turns asking questions: One person asks a question, and everyone else answers. Or one person gets a question all to themselves. Your choice or think up another way to play WYR.
Explain your choices: After everyone answers, share why you picked your crazy choice.
Have fun! The goal of the game is to have fun and spark interesting conversations. There are no right or wrong answers!

Here are a few examples for WYR:

dunk for apples or carve a jack o’lantern?
wear a creative costume or wear a scary costume?
get attacked by a giant spider or a spooky skeleton?
explore a corn maze or visit a haunted house
be a member of the Brady Bunch or the Addams Family?

Access Would You Rather

Edit Would You Rather

Two Digital Breakouts

Also, I have two digital breakouts for Halloween. A little history for you, The Boo Breakout was the first digital breakout I ever created seven years ago, in 2017. As I write this blog, 8,217 students and teachers have thus far solved The Boo Breakout!

And, if you are up for unlocking more fun, check out The Trick or Treat Breakout. This breakout was created in 2020 and it is so close to cracking the 2,000 finish line.

Halloween Adjective Challenge

Looking for a fun and spooky way to celebrate Halloween? Check out our Halloween Adjective Challenge! This Google Form quiz presents you with ten images. Your task is to read the three sentences below each image and select the sentence that uses the correct adjectives to describe the image.

How to Play:

Access the Quiz: Click here to start the Halloween Adjective Challenge.
Read the Sentences: Carefully read the three sentences provided for each image.
Choose the Correct Sentence: Select the sentence that best describes the image using the correct adjectives.
Submit Your Answers: Once you’ve completed all ten questions, submit your quiz.
Check Your Score: After submitting, you’ll receive your score and correct answers.

Halloween Synonym Challenge

Get ready to test your vocabulary skills with my spooky Halloween Synonym Challenges! These two quizzes, housed in Google Forms, will put your word knowledge to the test.

Level 1: This challenge focuses on more common Halloween-related words, such as “candy,” “horrible,” and “yell.”

Level 2: If you’re feeling brave, try our Level 2 challenge. This quiz features more advanced words like “afraid,” “gross,” and “shiver.”

How to Play:

Access the Quizzes: Click on the links below to start each challenge.
Read the Words: Carefully read each word presented in the quiz.
Choose the Correct Synonym: Select the word that best means the same as the given word.
Submit Your Answers: Once you’ve completed all the questions, submit your quiz.
Check Your Score: After submitting, you’ll receive your score and correct answers.

Level 1

Level 2

Halloween Charades

Get ready for a frightfully fun Halloween activity! I’ve created 48 Halloween-related words. These cards are housed in Google Slides, ready for print. All you need to do is click on the link and make a copy. The goal of Charades is to act out words without speaking, using only gestures and expressions. Your teammates will try to guess the word based on your performance. You can view the slide deck here or get your own copy of the game here.

How to Play:

Divide into teams.
Choose a player. This player will be the actor.
Select a card. The actor draws a card and reads the words silently.
Act it Out: The actor uses gestures, expressions, and mime to convey the meaning of the words.
Guess the Words: The actor’s team tries to guess the words within a set time limit (e.g., 30 seconds).
Keep Score: Each guessed word earns a point for the team.
Switch Players: After a few rounds, switch players and continue the game.

As you gear up for Halloween season, I hope these activities spark creativity and fun in your classroom or personal celebrations. Whether it’s guessing costumes, cracking word connections, or diving into a digital breakout, these resources are designed to engage and entertain students of all ages. From revamped classics like Would You Rather? to fresh takes on challenges, there’s something here for everyone. Don’t be afraid to customize these activities to fit your classroom needs and watch the spooky magic unfold. Here’s to a hauntingly good time for you and your students—Happy Halloween!

More Fall-Themed Activities for the Classroom

Fall Into Learning: Autumn-Themed Activities for the Classroom

Fall Activities for the Classroom

Trick or Treat Digital Breakout

Spooky Games and Breakouts

7 Spooktacular Activities for the Elementary Classroom

Fall Into Elementary Autumn Resources

Falling for Digital Breakouts

Discovering Autumn-Themed Choice Boards

Celebrating Day of Dead with Crafts and Learning

3 Fall-Themed Activities for the Classroom

Fall Websites for You and Your Students

The Dump Truck Incident: An Elementary Problem-Solving Challenge

11 Thanksgiving Activities for Joy and Learning

The Gobble Gobble Breakout

September 27, 2024 3 comments

Announcements/Important Dates

Back to School: A Reason to Celebrate Each Day

by Peggy Reimers August 16, 2021

written by Peggy Reimers

So we all know the “biggies” of the fall holidays. Each month has something to celebrate: Labor Day in September, Halloween in October, Thanksgiving in November, and Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa to round out December. But as we enter the new school year, why not find a reason to celebrate each day? Just in case you want to throw a few mini-surprise celebrations with your students, I have a couple of great resources for you.

National Today Website

The National Today website is the place to go. This is the ultimate resource for 1,783 fun, unusual, and unique national days, international days, and holidays. The website has several ways to find out what is happening every day of the year, and it even provides ideas for ways to observe. You can visit the site and look for reasons to celebrate by trend, date, topic, or month. The website provides a ton of information for each national and international special day, such as:

History
Timeline
FAQ’s
Importance
Ideas for Activities
Traditions
Stats

National Day Calendar

Screenshot by author

National Day Calendar is another resource for celebration. It tracks 1,500 national days, national weeks, and national months. (Keep in mind that this website has plenty of advertisements on it, so it is a teacher resource and not geared toward student use.) In my opinion, the best part of the National Day Calendar website is the ability to sign up for the daily calendar notifications that are delivered right to your inbox. I must say that, every morning, it is a delight to find out what fabulous things are getting celebrated daily.

As a bonus to educators, the National Day Calendar research team has organized monthly observances for teachers in what they call the Classroom. They have designed projects, lessons, and puzzles centered around most national days. They continue adding and growing their content all the time, and if you are a foodie, the recipe section just might be the cherry on the top.

I dare you to celebrate the out-of-the-box, extraordinary, and unique days of 2021-22. By the way, Dare Day is June 1. Start your planning now– I double dare you.

Featured image created by author.

August 16, 2021 0 comments

Celebrate National Writing Month

by Dr. Bruce Ellis November 4, 2016

written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

November is National Novel Writing Month and can affectionately be referred to NaNoWriMo. As Ernest Hemingway once said, “We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.” Whether you want to become an accomplished writer of novels or just need to improve your writing skills, here are some online tools tailored just for you. Also, if you are an English, reading, or writing teacher, consider using some of these tools with your secondary students.

NaNoWriMo Website

Yes, a robust website has been developed and dedicated to helping folks improve their writing skills as they learn to share their story. NaNoWriMo.org has pep talks from authors, regional groups to facilitate meeting other budding (and recognized) writers, as well as support to help you plan out your novel. Besides using it to develop your own story, secondary teachers may find this a perfect resource for those students who find writing to be a great expression of themselves.

Wridea

Wridea may be the perfect tool for you if you are the type of person who likes to keep a notebook of ideas. As a digital version of your notebook, Wridea will let you organize and share your ideas with others. You can even share ideas with friends and have them vote on their favorites to help you choose the best idea to run with.

oTranscribe

If you are like me, I’m not able to write for very long before it seems laborious. At that point, my sentences (and thoughts) start getting very succinct…possibly too much so. For people like us, there is a tool called oTranscribe. Though not as good as having someone else transcribe for you, it allows you to upload an MP3 or video and play it so that you can type in the area provided. To make it nicer, you can adjust the speed of the audio to match your typing speed. You can use any device to record your audio or you can use a free online tool such as Online Voice Recorder.

SpeechNotes

SpeechNotes is a simple speech-to-text tool that will type what you say as you speak into your microphone. Power-users will find the voice commands handy for making the process even more effortless. You are able to type as well, although you’ll probably find the transcription to be very accurate and easy. SpeechNotes also allows you to set the language so you can speak in a language other than English and have it transcribe in that language. When done, upload your file to Google Drive, save as a Word document or text file, or send it as an email.

Rewordify

If you are trying to write to a broader audience, it is important to consider your writing vocabulary and examine it for readability purposes. Rewordify is a simple tool that will examine your writing for you and make suggestions based on your preferences. You can have Rewordify automatically swap out higher vocabulary with simpler synonyms or show the suggestions within the context of the writing itself. You can paste your text in the tool or paste a URL for it to examine a specific web page.

Hemingway App

The Hemingway App is another simple tool that gives you feedback on your writing. Besides calculating the readability of your text, it will also make highlights for you to consider revising, including sentences that are hard to read, possible adverbs to remove, suggestions for simpler text for various phrases, and a check on your use of passive voice. If you like stats, you’ll find that it gives you the basics stats regarding counts for paragraphs, sentences, words, characters, and letters, as well as how long it will take the average reader to read your text. While the online version is free, a desktop version is available for purchase if you want to work without the need for Internet connectivity.

Additional Resources

If you find that you are looking for even more writing tools, then consider checking out one of the following lists:

I’ve shared several tools to help you in your journey of using technology to support your writing and hopefully make it more enjoyable for both you and your reader. We’d love to hear from you; post your comments below and tell us what tools you use to help with writing or even your favorite author to read.

November 4, 2016 0 comments

Seasonal Activities

Celebrate Creativity, Courage, and Collaboration on International Dot Day

by Lori Gracey September 4, 2015

written by Lori Gracey

International Dot Day, a global celebration, began when teacher Terry Shay introduced his classroom to Peter H. Reynolds’ book The Dot on Sept. 15, 2009.

The Dot is the story of a caring teacher who dares a doubting student to trust in her own abilities by being brave enough to “make her mark.” What begins with a small dot on a piece of paper becomes a breakthrough in confidence and courage, igniting a journey of self-discovery and sharing, which has gone on to inspire countless children and adults around the globe.

You and your students can also celebrate International Dot Day by downloading the free Educator’s Handbook (free registration required) with student handouts and activities. Then visit the gallery of past projects for more inspiration and ideas.

Please share with us how you will celebrate on (or around) International Dot Day!

September 4, 2015 0 comments