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 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 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!
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 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. You can grab this resource in my TpT store here.
Pumpkin Point of View Writing
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.
Spooky Owl Craft
Every year, my amazing mama comes to school to do a fall/Halloween craft with my class. These spooky owls are always a hit and make a pretty awesome decoration too! The main ingredients are: a piece of black cardstock, a small yellow circle sticker, pretzels for the body, head, and branch, googly eyes, feathers, and a piece of string! I usually make an example owl, but then let kids have their own spin on it and they always turn out awesome. Click {here} to read more about how I use this activity in the classroom!
I’ve found all of these activities help keep my students engaged and interested on Halloween, without being such a crazy day! Here’s hoping you have a sane Halloween in the classroom as well!
