As a teacher, it has always been my desire to make learning fun, which is why I was intent on having a set of hands-on Halloween activities that were engaging, standards-based, and student-focused. I believe that what is going on the in the classroom should be reflective of relevant themes because it helps students identify with the content and connect it to their real-life experiences.  And, if you can’t escape the holiday excitement that your students bring with them to school, you might as well embrace it and incorporate it into their learning! Amiright?!

Today I’m going to share with you FOUR different sets of activities that you can use in the month of October to make learning FUN and teaching a BLAST! (FYI: not all of them are Halloween-themed in the event that you don’t incorporate that theme in your school!)

First up in the infamous Candy Corn Bandit! The premise of this activity is that a mysterious candy corn caper sneaks into your classroom and steals a treat! Your students must search out clues throughout the school building and use their best PREDICTION skills to determine where he hid them. This is one of those activities your kiddos will continue to talk about throughout the school year because it is SO FUN. And, the good news? Not only are they learning about predictions, but there are many more skills you can incorporate, too! See below.

Next up is Which Witch is Which?!  Three witches get into an unfortunate broom accident, confusing their names and possessions in the dramatic fall from the sky. Your students will get to practice using key details in the text clues to help them determine the names that belong to each witch and there respective ghoulish names. There’s many other skill-based components found within and  detailed weekly lesson plans OR one-day lesson option.

Because there are TONS of themes you might want to cover this month, this anchor chart and class posters pack will serve you well! It includes cut-n-paste templates for creating posters for bats, community helpers, pumpkins, fire safety, and spiders!  The intent is that you’ll use the templates to create the skeleton of your poster and then complete the poster with your students’ help!

I reference this last set as Fact Files! They actually pair really well with the posters above and will help individualize your students’ learning about bats, pumpkins, owls, community helpers, and spiders.  Students cut out the templates, paste them onto a file folder, and then fill them out as they complete the study of the theme. It creates an excellent reference for students to use, too!

You can learn more about these activities by clicking the links below:

The Candy Corn Bandit | Which Witch is Witch? | Anchor Charts + Class Posters | Fact Files

For your convenience, I also have a money-saving bundled option. Click HERE or the graphic below.

PS. Be sure to grab the two FREE directed drawing activities I shared for pumpkins and bats!