Look. I’m not trying to be a party pooper. I swear. But….Halloween at school stresses me out! All I want on Halloween is a quiet day. No party. No costumes. No craziness.
On the other hand, I don’t want to be *that* teacher. So I’ve found a few ways to save my sanity and still have fun with these Halloween activities for upper elementary students!
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Halloween activity #1: read aloud
Even the big kids enjoy a fun read aloud! There are so many great ones out there – but here are a couple of my favorites. Click the links to grab them for your classroom!
Creepy Carrots: Jasper Rabbit loves to eat carrots…until they start following him!! My class loves this creepy (but not too creepy!) story and the pictures are awesome.
I Need My Monster: This has a fun twist on the traditional “monster under the bed” story. Not just ANY monster will do!
halloween activity #2: spooky youtube
Find a spooky YouTube music channel and keep it on all day! It sets the Halloween mood and doesn’t interfere with the students working. I found one that was kid friendly, instrumental music. It was perfect for the background of the day! (I used the one below last year, but there are tons if you search YouTube.)
halloween activity #3: halloween math
Even though we don’t have a party, that doesn’t mean we can’t use our math skills to plan a pretend one! This Halloween Math resource is perfect for some Halloween fun while practicing decimal skills. There are word problems, party planning, and using information in a table. My class had a great time thinking of all the ways to spend some Halloween money! There are also some fun Color-By-Code pages so they can practice decimals and math facts AND color.
Halloween activity #4: collaborative poster
You can’t go wrong on Halloween with a little bit of quiet coloring! Every kid gets to color a piece of the collaborative poster. Plus, it makes for a pretty cute classroom decoration when you’re done.
Halloween activity #5: writing prompts
This was a spur of the moment activity that turned into a class favorite! We were working on point of view in our writing and reading units, and then we turned that into a fun Halloween writing prompt. These stories turned out to be hilarious and the class had a great time writing and sharing.
I’ve found all of these Halloween activities for upper elementary students help keep my class engaged and interested on Halloween, without being such a crazy day! Here’s hoping you have a sane Halloween in the classroom as well!
If you need a Halloween craft idea, check out this post!
