Halloween Lesson Plan Ideas

Halloween, celebrated annually on Oc. 31, is a secular holiday combining harvest festivals with costume-wearing, trick-or-treating, and creating pranks and decorative imagery based on the changing of the seasons, death and the supernatural.

No matter how old your students are, chances are they'll feel cheated if you don't do anything to recognize what has become this most-beloved children's holiday. But creating creative lesson plans—even for a holiday that is so captivating for young students—can be a challenge. These activities can spark ideas to help you create lessons celebrating Halloween spanning all areas of learning across the curriculum.

Art

• Make a tiny witch doll and a pumpkin.
• Have your students paint a pumpkin.

Chorus

• Do your warm-up exercises making ghost sirens.

Classes with Computers

• Make iron-on graphics for T-shirts.
• Middle school students may enjoy a Halloween Hunt for facts.

Drama

1. Have improvisation exercises in which students randomly walk around the stage impersonating a ghost, bat, cat, pumpkin or Frankenstein.
2. Have groups present Halloween children's storybooks with one person reading and the others impersonating scenery and contributing sound effects.
3. Do the same as above with readings from "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allen Poe or with Excerpts from Ann Rice's novels.

English: Journal Topics

1. Describe your scariest childhood Halloween memory.
2. Describe the best Halloween costume made yourself or that you helped to make.
3. Describe the best way for children to celebrate Halloween.
4. How would you like to celebrate Halloween differently?
5. Describe Halloween from the viewpoint of a vampire bat.
6. Create a holiday you would like to substitute for Halloween.
7. Write an autobiography of a jack-o'-lantern.
8. Write a poem about Halloween.

English: Essay Topics

1. Describe a neighborhood street on Halloween night.
2. Describe a memorable Halloween party.
3. Describe in detail an unusual Halloween costume.
4. Explain why Halloween is celebrated today in the United States.
5. Explain why you think trick-or-treating is (or is not) dangerous.
6. Explain the likely consequences of vandalizing property.
7. Persuade a local merchant to give children candy on Halloween.
8. Persuade your parents to let you have a Halloween party on a school night.
9. Persuade your best friend to be the rear section of your _______ costume. (You decide what the costume will be.)
10. Persuade your school principal to show __________ all afternoon to celebrate Halloween. (Name a movie)

Science

• You and your students will enjoy these challenging monster math word problems involving addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
• Use Halloween as a reason to learn about bats.

Social Studies

• Learn about the history of Halloween.