Some Halloween Lesson Ideas and Activity for Kids and Teens
Halloween Warmers Halloween Party 1. Give a brief introduction to Halloween. Explain that children dress up in costumes and go trick-or-treating, but sometimes adults have Halloween parties and dress up too. 2. Tell the students they are going to a Halloween party but they have to come up with creative and interesting costumes. Have them draw the costumes. 3. Then have them explain their costumes to their partners. 4. After that, have them mingle as though they were at a Halloween party and they have to comment on each other’s costumes and ask questions about others’. 5. Students then vote on the best Halloween costume.
Hangman 1. Begin the class with hangman using the word Halloween. 2. When the students have guessed the word, elicit extra information about the holiday. When is it? What do people do?
Word-making 1. Write the word Halloween on the board. 2. Model that you can make the word hello from the letters in Halloween, drawing lines to connect the letters. 3. Put the students in pairs or groups. 4. Give them 2-3 minutes to make as many words from the letters as possible. 5. The group with the most words at the end of the time wins. 6. Conduct feedback.
Halloween Anagrams From abcteach.com
1. Write the following on the board. sgoth (ghost) tuscoem (costume) chitw (witch) otrcboe (October)thdneau ealwneohl (Halloween) hsoeu (haunted house) tbsa acdyn (candy) (bats) ignblo (goblin) kpmuipn (pumpkin) 2. Put students in pairs. 3. Elicit the first unscrambled word as an example (ghost). 4. Set a time limit. 5. The first group to unscramble all the words wins.
Monster Picture Dictation 1. Pre-teach relevant vocabulary for your pictures (body parts, monster parts, etc). 2. Put SS in pairs (if odd number, a group of three is ok). 3. Give each student in group a different monster flashcard (“it’s a secret, don’t show the other students”). 4. Each student must describe to their partner how to draw their monster without saying the name of the monster.
Halloween Flashcards A note about flashcards Flashcards can be photocopied and cut out. Some ideas for using flashcards: •
Match the picture cards with the word cards.
•
Drill the words by flashing the cards to the students.
•
Hide the cards around the room, and have the students find them.
•
Have the students hide the cards while one student waits outside of the classroom, then the students practice “hot/cold,” “yes/no” or directions to help the student find the card.
•
Make multiple copies of the cards and have the students play Go Fish, snap, or any other card-related game.
pumpkin
jacko’lantern
bat
Frankenstein
werewolf
ghost
witch
costumes
vampire
cat
broom
hat
cauldron
full moon
monster
Very Young Learners
Pumpkin Colouring Picture Teacher’s Notes Aims:
to practise motor skills, to practise colours
Age group:
Very Young Learners and Young Learners
Level:
Beginner and above
Organisation:
individual
Materials needed:
a copy of the worksheet for each student coloured pencils / markers
1 2 3 4 5
Using flashcards or the worksheet elicit/present the word “pumpkin”. Drill the word – with full class and individuals. Hand out one picture per student. Students must colour the picture. If students know colours, the teacher keeps all pencils/markers. Students must ask the teacher for each colour they want to use, e.g. “red please”. Students must return one colour to get another. 6 Collect all finished pictures for a classroom display.
Pumpkin Colouring Picture
Very Young Learners
Trick or Treat Colouring Picture Teacher’s Notes Aims:
to practise motor skills, to practise colours
Age group:
Very Young Learners and Young Learners
Level:
Beginner and above
Organisation:
individual
Materials needed:
a copy of the worksheet for each student coloured pencils / markers
1 Using flashcards or the worksheet elicit/present the words “ghost”, “monster” and “witch”. 2 Drill the words – with full class and individuals. 3 Hand out one picture per student. 4 Students must colour the picture. 5 If students know colours, the teacher keeps all pencils/markers. Students must ask the teacher for each colour they want to use, e.g. “red please”. Students must return one colour to get another. 6 Collect all finished pictures for a classroom display.
Trick or Treat Colouring Picture
Young Learners
Monsters Writing Words Teacher’s Notes Aims:
to practise motor skills, to practise writing, to learn some Halloween vocabulary
Age group:
Young Learners and Pre-teens
Level:
Beginner and above
Organisation:
individual
Materials needed:
a copy of the worksheet for each student
1 Using flashcards elicit/present the words “ghost”, “witch”, “vampire”, “werewolf”. Optionally, teach “monster” and “Halloween”. 2 Drill the words – with full class and individuals. 3 Write each word on the board in turn. After writing each word, get the students to spell the word. 4 After writing all the words, elicit them from the students by pointing to words at random. If students are not sure, use the flashcards to help. 5 Hand out a copy of the worksheet to each student. For each word students must copy it three times. Instruct students to write one word at a time, stopping them after each one before moving on to the next. 6 Monitor, help and check writing. 7 When students have finished, drill words again. 8 Tell students to draw a Halloween picture with the monsters. 9 Collect pictures for a class display.
Monsters Writing Words
Young Learners
Witch Writing Words Teacher’s Notes Aims:
to practise motor skills, to practise writing
Age group:
Young Learners and Pre-teens
Level:
Beginner and above
Organisation:
individual
Materials needed:
a copy of the worksheet for each student
1 Using flashcards elicit/present the words “witch”, “hat”, “cat”, “moon”, “broom”. Optionally, teach “Halloween”. 2 Drill the words – with full class and individuals. 3 Write each word on the board in turn. After writing each word, get the students to spell the word. 4 After writing all the words, elicit them from the students by pointing to words at random. If students are not sure, use the flashcards to help. 5 Hand out a copy of the worksheet to each student. For each word students must copy it three times. Instruct students to write one word at a time, stopping them after each one before moving on to the next. 6 Monitor, help and check writing. 7 When students have finished, drill words again. 8 Tell students to draw a Halloween picture with the words. 9 Collect pictures for a class display.
Witch Writing Words
Young Learners
Vampire Dot-to-dot Teacher’s Notes Aims:
to practise motor skills, to practise numbers
Age group:
Young Learners and Pre-teens
Level:
Beginner and above
Organisation:
individual
Materials needed:
a copy of the worksheet for each student
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Have all students stand up. Practise the number 1-47 by having the students count around the room in a circle. If a student gets the number wrong, they sit down. Draw an example of a dot-to-dot on the board with a simple picture, e.g. a fish. Trace lines between the numbers in order and show that you get a picture. Hand out a copy of the work sheet to each student. Tell students to draw lines between the numbers in order, saying each number out loud as they get to it. 8 Monitor to help and check. 9 When the students have finished elicit/teach the word for the picture “vampire�. 10 Drill the word - with full class and individuals.
Dot-to-dot
Young Learners
Cauldron Maze Teacher’s Notes Aims:
to practise motor skills, to practise directions
Age group:
Young Learners and Pre-teens
Level:
Beginner and above
Organisation:
individual
Materials needed:
a copy of the worksheet for each student
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Using a flashcard or the picture elicit/teach the word “cauldron”. Draw arrows on the board and elicit/teach “up”, “down”, “left”, “right”. Drill the words – with full class and individuals. Draw an example of a simple maze on the board. Show the students the start of the maze and elicit directions from them. Let the students tell you how to get through the maze and draw lines as per their instructions. Hand out a copy of the work sheet to each student. Demonstrate where students must start. Tell students to draw a line to the finish. Students should say the direction they are drawing out loud as they draw. Monitor to check and help. When students have finished revise the directions with TPR. Have the students “stand up”, “sit down”, “go left”, “go right” according to your instructions.
Cauldron Maze Can you get to the bottom without falling in?
Pre-teens
Halloween Crossword Teacher’s Notes Aims:
to practise Halloween vocabulary
Age group:
Pre-teens and above
Level:
Elementary and above
Organisation:
individual or pairs
Materials needed:
a copy of the worksheet for each group
1 Elicit the idea of Halloween by asking students if they know what 31 st October is. 2 Put students into pairs. Pairs must brainstorm any Halloween vocabulary they know for two minutes. 3 Do full class feedback writing useful words on the board. Drill any new or difficult words. 4 Using flashcards or by drawing pictures on the board teach any other key Halloween vocabulary: “bob for apples”, “bat”, “candy cane”, “costume”, “spider”, “trick or treat”, “pumpkin”, “carve”. 5 Hand out the crosswords to pairs of students. 6 Students must race to complete the crosswords. 7 Monitor and help. 8 Check in full class. 9 Give some candy as a prize to the fastest group (it is Halloween after all). 10 As a follow up, students discuss in groups how they celebrate Halloween, their favourite costumes, any Halloween movies or ghost stories they know, etc.
Halloween Crossword Answer the clues to complete the crossword.
Across 1 A _________cat (5) 3 If I put a sheet over my head I can be a _____________for Halloween. (5) 4 I spin webs (6) 5 _________or treat! (5) 7 Ring this and say trick or treat! (8) 8 Clothes to wear on Halloween (8) 11 Bob for _________ in a barrel. (6)
Down 1 We sleep hanging upside down (4) 2 A sweet treat (two words) (5,4) 6 A fun day to wear costumes (9) 9 Most candy has a lot of this in it. (5) 10 Carve me! (7)
Pre-teens
Halloween Word Search Teacher’s Notes Aims:
to practise word recognise and reading skills, to practise Halloween vocabulary
Age group:
Pre-teens and above
Level:
Elementary and above
Organisation:
individual or pairs
Materials needed:
a copy of the worksheet for each group
1 Elicit the idea of Halloween by asking students if they know what 31 st October is. 2 Put students into pairs. Pairs must brainstorm any Halloween vocabulary they know for two minutes. 3 Do full class feedback writing useful words on the board. Drill any new or difficult words. 4 Using flashcards or by drawing pictures on the board teach any other key Halloween vocabulary. 5 Hand out the word searches to pairs of students. 6 Students must race to complete the word searches. 7 Monitor and help. 8 Check in full class. 9 Give some candy as a prize to the fastest group (it is Halloween after all). 10 As a follow up, students discuss in groups how they celebrate Halloween, their favourite costumes, any Halloween movies or ghost stories they know, etc.
Halloween Word Search
bat black cat broom candy clown cobweb
coffin costume creepy Dracula Frankenstein ghost graveyard
Halloween happy haunted house jack-o'-lantern mask monster mummy
October party pillowcase pirate pumpkin scary
skeleton spooky trick-or-treat vampire werewolf witch
Pre-teens
Word Finding Teacher’s Notes Aims:
to practise Halloween vocabulary
Age group:
Pre-teens and above
Level:
Elementary and above
Organisation:
pairs
Materials needed:
a copy of the worksheet for each group
1 Elicit the idea of Halloween by asking students if they know what 31 st October is. 2 Using flashcards or by drawing on the board, elicit “pumpkin” and “jack’o’lantern”. 3 Demonstrate the idea of the activity by writing Halloween on the board and eliciting other words that can be made using the letters, e.g. “one”. 4 Make sure students understand that they cannot use a letter more times than it appears in the word. 5 Hand out the worksheet to pairs of students. 6 Students race to find as many words as they can. 7 Encourage students to use the clues to help as necessary. 8 Check in full class. 9 Give some candy as a prize to the fastest group (it is Halloween after all). 10 As a follow up, students discuss in groups how they celebrate Halloween, their favourite costumes, any Halloween movies or ghost stories they know, etc.
Word Finding
How many words can you make out of JACK-O’- LANTERN?
J A C K-O’-L A N T E R N ___________
___________
___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ Did you find?
Difficult:
___________
Birthday food. ___________ Winter wear. Army vehicle. ___________ An insect. A vegetable. ___________ The opposite of early. An animal with whiskers. ___________ A funny story. Put your back against something. ___________ Another word for rip. The past tense of eat. ___________ The past tense of run. A road for a train. ___________ Where you put a key. A wooden box.
___________
___________ ___________
Teacher’s Notes Pre-teens
Pumpkin Code Teacher’s Notes Aims:
to practise alphabet skills, to practise Halloween vocabulary
Age group:
Pre-teens and above
Level:
Elementary and above
Organisation:
individual or pairs
Materials needed:
a copy of the worksheet for each student
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Elicit the idea of Halloween by asking students if they know what 31 st October is. Using flashcards or by drawing on the board, elicit “pumpkin”. Demonstrate the idea of the activity by writing your name on the board scrambled. Hand out the worksheet to pairs of students (or to each student, if you’d prefer it to be an individual activity). Draw the second pumpkin on the board (the “candy” pumpkin) with the dashes and numbers under it. Elicit what the word is and write it on the dashes, and show that number 2 is “c” and number 9 is “d” for a code. Students race to unscramble as many words as they can. Give some candy as a prize to the fastest group to solve the riddle (it is Halloween after all), but make sure that, once they’ve found the answer, they keep it quiet. Check meanings on unscrambled words. As a follow up, students discuss in groups how they celebrate Halloween, their favourite costumes, any Halloween movies or ghost stories they know, etc. or students make a story using the unscrambled words (either writing it or as a circle story).
Pumpkin Code Unscramble these pumpkins to figure out the hidden message:
__
__ 18
__ 11
__
__ 25
__ __ __ __ __ 6 23 19
__ 17
__ 10
__ 15
__ 20
__
__ __ __ __ __ __ 16 8
__
__
__
__
__ 22
__ __ __ __ __ 4
__ 1
__ 13
__
__
__ 14
__ __ __ __ __ 2 9
__ 3
__ __ __ __ __ 5 12
__ __ __ __ __ 7
__
__ __ __ __ __ 21 24
Halloween Riddle: Use the numbers above to fill in the riddle. What do monsters have for breakfast on __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 __ 18 19 20 __ 21 22 23
Halloween morning? __ __ __ __ __ __ __ 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 __ __ __ __ __ __ 24 25
Teens
Spooky Skeleton Teacher’s Notes Aims:
to teach and revise body parts
Age group:
Teens and above
Level:
Pre-intermediate and above
Organisation:
any (individual, pairs or group)
Materials needed:
a copy of the worksheet for each group paper for drawing own monsters (optional)
1 Elicit the idea of Halloween by asking students if they know what 31 st October is. 2 Elicit some different types of monsters and creatures associated with Halloween (vampires, werewolves, ghosts, witches, skeletons, zombies, etc). 3 Give each student (or pair) a copy of the worksheet to complete. 4 To check, ask how many of each body part the skeleton has and how it differs from people (it seems to have less fingers than we do) 5 Give some candy as a prize to the fastest group (it is Halloween after all). 6 As a follow up, have students describe in small groups one of the monsters elicited in stage 2 (i.e. a ghost, or a witch) using the structure “It has/has got…”. The other members of the group must guess which monster/creature is being described or students draw and label pictures of the monsters/creatures elicited.
Spooky Skeleton
Teens
Ghosts Spot the Difference Teacher’s Notes Aims:
to practise Halloween vocabulary, to practise rooms of the house and furniture vocabulary, to practise prepositions
Age group:
Pre-teens and above
Level:
Pre-intermediate and above
Organisation:
pairs
Materials needed:
a copy of the worksheets A + B for each pair
1 Elicit the idea of Halloween by asking students if they know what 31 st October is. 2 Using flashcards or by drawing on the board, elicit “living room,” “basement,” “kitchen,” “bedroom,” “bathroom,” and “dining room”. Drill. 3 Divide the board into six sections (one for each of the rooms) and have students, in teams using different coloured markers, write as much furniture for each room as they can think of. 4 Check as a class, and elicit which prepositions of place can be used for each piece of furniture (i.e. in bed, on the bed, under the bed, next to the bed, over the bed, etc) 5 Teach the words “haunted” and “ghost.” 6 Divide the class into pairs and give each member of each pair one of the Haunted House pictures A + B. 7 Students try to find seven differences between the two houses without looking at their partner’s picture. 8 Students race to find the differences. 9 Monitor to provide vocabulary and check preposition use. 10 Check in full class. 11 Give some candy as a prize to the fastest group (it is Halloween after all). 12 As a follow up, students discuss in groups how they celebrate Halloween, their favourite costumes, any Halloween movies or ghost stories they know, etc.
Ghosts Spot the Difference
Ghosts Spot the Difference
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