A chill is in the air, costumes are filling the stores, and Halloween is right around the corner. That means spooky season is upon us! Celebrate the season with these fun and creative Halloween activities and games. You’ll find party games perfect for a class Halloween celebration as well as more educational finds like writing prompts and STEM and math challenges. There are enough Halloween activities on this list to do something different every day in October and then some!
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Quick and Easy Halloween Activities
Try these activities as part of morning meetings or bell ringers, or to fill in when you have a few extra minutes at the end of a class or day. They’re all simple to pull off, with minimal (or no) prep needed!
Tell Halloween jokes
What’s a witch’s favorite subject in school? Spelling, of course! Share some belly laughs with our favorite Halloween jokes for kids.
Share Halloween quotes
Post a new quote daily to greet students (we’ve got 101 of them to choose from, with images that are all ready to display). Or ask students to choose their favorite quote and create an illustrated poster you can display in the classroom or hallway.
Try it: Halloween Quotes
Do a Halloween word search
Snag our free printable word searches, with options for easy, medium, and hard. They’re perfect for early finishers and extra credit!
Pose Halloween trivia questions
Whether you set up a class competition or just use these trivia questions as bell ringers or morning meeting openers, they’re sure to challenge students of all ages.
Try it: Halloween Trivia Questions (Free Slides!)
Crack the Halloween Code
Solving coded messages is fun, but it also teaches valuable skills like pattern-matching and logic. Grab our free worksheet to try it with your students.
Watch a Halloween video
Check out our roundup of terrific educational Halloween videos. Get some math practice, learn about Halloween around the world, or try some spooky yoga. You’ll find options for every subject and grade level.
Try it: Educational Halloween Videos
Complete a Halloween crossword
This crossword is just right for elementary students. Pair up younger kids to make it a little easier, or assign this as a fun seasonal homework or enrichment activity.
Solve a Halloween word scramble
We scrambled 20 themed words for kids to unscramble. The worksheet is designed at an elementary school level, but it makes a fun timed challenge for middle or high school students too!
Color Halloween coloring pages
Let’s face it, Halloween is a tough day to teach, especially by the afternoon. It’s totally OK to give yourself a break and pass out these coloring pages to end the day!
Halloween Books, Poems, and Read-Alouds
Use the seasonal picks in these roundups for story time, reading comprehension practice, book talks, reading groups, and more!
Best Halloween books for kids and teens
This collection includes all the classics (Room on the Broom or Bunnicula, anyone?) as well as new reads to discover. Our list includes picture books, chapter books, and even middle grade and young adult options.
Popular pumpkin books for kids
With both fiction and nonfiction options, this list gives you lots of choices for learning about Halloween’s unofficial mascot!
Try it: Pumpkin Books for Kids
Halloween poems for the classroom
Whether you prefer the classics like Poe (“Once upon a midnight dreary …”) or are looking for cute new options to share with little ones, you’ll find the perfect poetry picks on our list for all grades.
Try it: Halloween Poems for the Classroom
Best books about monsters
Halloween isn’t just about ghosts and witches—it’s also time for monsters to shine! From silly to scary, this roundup is full of Halloween-ready tales to share with kids.
Try it: Best Books About Monsters
Spookley the Square Pumpkin books
Pumpkins are round … right? Well, not always! The Spookley books are really popular with kids, and there are so many fun (and educational) ways to use them in the classroom. Check out our roundup and activity ideas to learn more.
Try it: Spookley the Square Pumpkin Books and Activities
Scary short stories for kids and teens
When you don’t have time for a whole book, short stories are the way to go. In short fiction, writers have to make good use of every word to capture the mood and draw readers into the tale. That makes this format perfect for horror and suspense tales, like the ones in our roundup.
Try it: Scary Short Stories for Kids and Teens
ELA Halloween Activities
Looking for some ways to bring the spooky season to your ELA classroom? We’ve got you covered! These activities help kids learn and polish their reading and writing skills.
Hang a Halloween word wall
Add a new word to your wall every day, or spend the whole month using spelling and vocab words from our huge list (225+) of Halloween words.
Give fairy tales a Halloween twist
How would the story have changed if Little Red Riding Hood were a werewolf, or it turned out that Cinderella’s Prince Charming was a vampire? Challenge your students to think outside the box and give new (spooky) life to old fairy tales.
Hold a Monster Adopt-athon
This is part art project, part writing practice, and totally fun! First, kids draw a picture of their very own monster, any way they like. Then, they write up a description of the monster, including its favorite things, where it was born, and the proper care and feeding to keep it healthy. Finally, kids present their monsters to the class, and other students choose the ones they’d like to “adopt”!
Hop on pumpkin letters
Use our free pumpkin templates to create a Pumpkin Hop course. Simply write a letter on each and tape them to the floor. You can add obstacles in between if you like, or simply have kids jump from letter to letter saying the name and sound it makes as they go. We love this for active learners!
Free Pumpkin Templates
Create a Pumpkin Hop with our templates! Kids can jump from letter to letter, calling out names and sounds.
Try it: Free Pumpkin Templates
Host a Halloween debate
Who would win in a fight: a vampire or a werewolf? Are kids ever too old to go trick-or-treating? What’s the best design for a jack-o’-lantern? Divide kids into teams and let them prepare their arguments using our free printable organizers. Then, hold a face-to-face debate or fishbowl discussion and let them (civilly) argue it out!
Try it: Free Printable Debate Graphic Organizers
Do some “ghost writing”
A ghostwriter helps someone else put their story into words (though they don’t usually receive any credit as an author). Pair students up, then challenge one to come up with the detailed plot for a spooky story, while the other “ghost writes” the story itself, adding description and dialogue as needed. This is the perfect writing activity to use with our free ghost templates!
Compose a Halloween poem
If your students groan when you ask them to write a poem, you need our poem-writing worksheet bundle! This free collection will walk students through writing seasonal poems like limericks, odes, haiku, couplets, blackout poetry, and more.
Try it: Free Poetry Worksheet Bundle
Sort Halloween words into alphabetical order
This quick and easy free printable activity is great for helping kids learn how to alphabetize. You can also use this list for spelling or vocab words.
Inspire with Halloween writing prompts
What is your favorite Halloween costume and why? Would you spend a night in a graveyard for $100? Why or why not? We have 18 more Halloween writing prompt ideas plus free printable writing paper for students to use!
Try it: Halloween Writing Paper and Prompts
Write a Halloween how-to
One of the best ways to work on writing clearly and concisely is by asking kids to create a set of instructions on how to do something correctly. Let them choose from seasonal topics like “How To Carve a Pumpkin,” “How To Trick-or-Treat,” or “How To Create a Haunted House.” Bonus tip: Choose one or two essays to read aloud in class, trying out the directions to see how well they work!
Assemble a Halloween acrostic
In an acrostic, the first letter of each line spells out a word or message. These are a lot of fun for kids to create, and we’ve made the process easier with our free printable worksheets!
Cook up cauldron sentences
You’ll need a large plastic cauldron for this activity (and if you like, a big mixing spoon and a witch’s hat!). Ask each student to write a Halloween-themed word or phrase on a piece of paper and toss it into your cauldron. Mix up all the “ingredients,” then draw them out one at a time and ask kids to use each one in a sentence. For more of a challenge, try to incorporate each sentence into a larger story.
Complete a Halloween vocab worksheet
Here’s another simple, no-fuss Halloween printable activity you can use anytime you need it. The vocab words are ideal for the elementary crowd.
Try it: Halloween Vocabulary Worksheet
Send secret messages via ghost post
Writing messages in code takes some patience and creativity, but it’s so much fun to receive and decode them. Use our free printables to help kids practice writing and cracking codes, then have them send messages to each other through a classroom post office box decorated with ghosts!
Try it: Free Printable Secret Code Worksheets
Give students Halloween picture writing prompts
Picture prompts give writers a lot to work with: They can help set a plot in motion, create an atmosphere or mood, and inspire writers to include more details in their work. Take a look at our big collection of picture writing prompts to find some for the spooky season, or browse the web to find the perfect picks for your class.
Try it: Picture Writing Prompts for Kids and Teens
Write a persuasive essay about the best Halloween candy
Kids have a LOT of opinions when it comes to this topic, and it makes a fun, low-stakes topic for learning how to write a persuasive essay. You can also have them make the case for their favorite scary movie or the best Halloween costume. Plus, we’ve got graphic organizers to help them get started!
Try it: Free Printable Persuasive Essay Graphic Organizers
Science and Math Halloween Activities
Give your science and math lessons a bit of seasonal flair with these fun Halloween learning ideas.
Work on Halloween-themed math word problems
There are so many spooky situations that could easily be turned into math word problems. Our collection includes free slides you can share with your students. Try using them as problems of the day all throughout October.
Sort flash cards into pumpkins
Pick up some plastic pumpkin buckets and label them with flash card answers. Then, see how quickly students can sort flash cards into the right ones!
Use candy corn for Halloween math activities
Pick up a few bags of candy corn and grab our free printables, then engage your students in meaningful Halloween math activities, from matching to multiplication.
Solve spider equations
Cut one large and one small circle from black construction paper to form a spider’s body and head. (Don’t forget the googly eyes for fun!). Then, cut and attach eight strips for legs. Use white crayons or chalk markers to write a target number in the middle of each spider. Finally, have kids brainstorm various equations that equal the target, and write them on the legs. For instance, if the target number is 8, kids could write 5 + 3, 4 x 2, 32 ÷ 4, etc. This is a fun way to work on fact families too.
Color Halloween math mystery pictures
Solve the equations and color the pictures. We love this free printable worksheet as an enrichment activity or Halloween week homework assignment.
Brew up some math potions
For this fun Halloween early math activity, you’ll need a plastic cauldron and “ingredients” like colorful pom-poms, plastic spiders, googly eyes, etc. Make up a set of “potion” cards with recipes like “3 spiders, 2 red pom-poms, 5 green pom-poms, and 5 eyes.” Little ones drop the correct ingredients into the cauldron and give it all a stir. This is such a fun way to practice counting!
Color in a Halloween coordinate grid picture
Teach coordinate grids for math or geography. Use the given coordinates to color in the squares and reveal a Halloween picture. Kids can also create their own pictures and give coordinates to their classmates.
Take a candy survey and graph the results
Survey your class to determine what their favorite trick-or-treat candies are. Then, use the results to make graphs: bar graphs, line graphs, pie charts, etc. This makes a fun homework assignment too: Ask kids to survey 20 people and create their own graph.
Tackle a Halloween STEM challenge or two
Our collection of free printable cards is perfect for grades 2 to 5, though older kids will enjoy them too. Challenges include options like “Build a spiderweb out of pipe cleaners,” “Make a brain with play dough,” and “Build a bone bridge with Q-tips.”
Make ghosts “dance” with static electricity
This simple little demo is so much fun! Cut small ghosts from white tissue paper, and blow up an orange or black balloon. Show kids how to rub the balloon on the right type of surface to create static electricity, then hold it over the ghosts to draw them up and make them dance.
Explode a pumpkin volcano
Carve a jack-o’-lantern, then use baking soda and vinegar to make it overflow with “lava.” Kids never get tired of this one! Get all the directions you need in our video.
Try it: How To Make a Baking Soda Volcano
Launch candy pumpkins with DIY catapults
Put a Halloween spin on this traditional STEM project. Give kids wood craft sticks, rubber bands, plastic bottle caps, and some glue. Then, challenge them to build a catapult that will launch candy pumpkins into a target.
Mix up some Halloween slime
Kids LOVE slime. Fortunately, it makes a really fun science experiment, and you can give it a Halloween twist with food coloring and mix-ins like googly eyes or pumpkin mini-erasers. Get four different slime recipes plus worksheets for the classroom at the link.
Try it: How To Make Slime
Fill a bat cave with bat facts
Ask kids to do some research about bats, and make a list of their favorite facts. Then, cut out bats from black construction paper and use white crayons or chalk markers to write in the facts. Turn one of your bulletin boards into a cave with some gray paper, and hang your bats for a truly fun and educational Halloween display!
Explore the pumpkin life cycle
Pumpkins take a long time to grow, and it’s not really practical to try this in a classroom (unless you’ve got a school garden, of course). Instead, watch our free video on the pumpkin life cycle to help kids learn more about it. And if you’ve got a strong stomach, you can try leaving a carved pumpkin out in the elements to watch it decompose!
Try it: Life Cycle of a Pumpkin Video
Make gummi worms dance
Use the same principles and method from our dancing popcorn video to see gummi worms twitch and writhe instead! Mix baking soda with water and drop in some candy worms. Then, slowly pour in vinegar and watch as the carbon dioxide bubbles make the candy rise and fall. Creepy and cool!
Try it: Dancing Popcorn Experiment Video
Blow up jack-o’-lantern balloons
Here’s one more baking soda and vinegar experiment you can easily turn into a Halloween science activity. Follow the instructions in the video. Use orange balloons, and before you attach them to the bottle, use a black permanent marker to draw a jack-o’-lantern face on them. It’s so exciting to watch the pumpkin balloons expand like magic (except it’s science, which is even better)!
Try it: Baking Soda and Vinegar Balloon Experiment
Halloween Games for Kids
These games make terrific choices for a class Halloween party, and they’re fun to play at home too!
Halloween Bingo
Everybody knows it, everybody loves it! Use our free printable Halloween bingo boards for a class-wide game. Each kid gets to cut out the cards and place them anywhere they like on their card, so no two boards will be the same!
Ghost and pumpkin bowling
Collect 10 empty plastic bottles and paint them white, then add ghostly faces. Line them up as pins. Use an orange ball (you can use a black permanent marker to add a jack-o’-lantern face if you like) to knock them down!
Freeze Dance, Halloween style
Start the music and dance, dance, dance! When the music stops, freeze in place. Anyone still moving is out for that round. Play until just one dancer is left standing. Our spooky Halloween playlist has all the tunes you’ll need!
Try it: Thrillingly Fun Halloween Songs for Kids
Ghost cup stacking
Give this challenge a seasonal spin by adding ghosts faces to white paper cups. Give each player 10 cups in a stack, and ask them to stack them into a pyramid and then back down into a stack as fast as they can. If the pyramid falls over, they have to start again. This one is always a crowd favorite!
Pin the spider on the web
Draw a spiderweb on your whiteboard, and give each student a paper spider with tape or a magnet on the back. One at a time, blindfold the players, start them about 10 feet from the board, and spin them around three times. Their goal is to make their way to the board and get the spider as close to the middle of the spiderweb as possible.
Witch hat ring toss
Grab some small plastic cones from the dollar store. Paint them black and add some silver or gold buckles with a paint pen, so they look like witch’s hats. Line them up and see if kids can toss rings around them to win a prize.
Halloween Make-a-Word
This one is fun and simple: How many words can you make using the letters in HALLOWEEN? Grab our free printable to make this game even easier.
Wrap the Mummy race
Break kids into pairs, and give each pair a roll of toilet paper. At the word “Go,” one player wraps the other in toilet paper as fast as they can, turning the player into a “mummy.” When they’re fully wrapped, the mummy races for the finish line.
Ghost and pumpkin hunt
Print and cut out ghosts and pumpkins from our free printables, then hide them around the room. Divide players into two teams, Ghosts and Pumpkins. Each team works together to try to find all of their ghosts or pumpkins first.
Try it: Ghost Templates and Pumpkin Templates
Halloween Charades or Pictionary
It’s a snap to give these classic games a Halloween twist when you use our free printable Halloween word lists! Whether kids want to act it out or draw it, we’ve got hundreds of words you can use for these games.
Try it: Halloween Words List and Printable Cards
Pumpkin beanbag toss
Make or buy orange beanbags, and draw jack-o’-lantern faces on them with permanent marker or a paint pen. Line up some buckets (pumpkin trick-or-treat containers or plastic witch’s cauldrons make this extra fun), then give each player a chance to toss as many as they can into the targets. Tip: Add different point totals to the buckets to give the game a bit of a strategic element.
Halloween Arts-and-Crafts Activities
Get creative throughout October and use these ideas to decorate your classroom or school hallways. Find more Halloween crafts for kids here.
Pumpkin carving
Pro-tip: Use our free templates to make the most impressive pumpkin carvings for your classroom. If you’d like to carve pumpkins with students as a class activity, consider using artificial mess-free craft pumpkins for a keepsake kids can display for years to come.
Draw a pumpkin
Use our free video to teach students how to draw a pumpkin. Once kids have this skill down, they can include pumpkins in all their Halloween art projects! Try having students draw their own pumpkin patches, adding their own creative flair.
Try it: How To Draw a Pumpkin (Printable)
Monster roll-and-draw
Draw a monster, but let the dice make the hard decisions! Roll a single die or pair of dice to determine how many of each of these body parts to include: head, arm, leg, eye, ear, mouth, nose, finger, and toe. This is a clever way to sneak some counting practice into art time.
Beaded pipe cleaner pumpkins
You’ll need orange and green pipe cleaners and pony beads for this Halloween craft. Take four orange pipe cleaners and twist them together in the middle, then fan them out so you have eight “spokes” of a wheel. String orange beads onto each spoke, then curve them up to meet in the middle, forming a pumpkin shape. Twist the ends to hold them in place, then add a green pipe cleaner with beads for a stem, and some green curlicues if you like.
Jack-o’-lantern lacing plates
This cute craft also provides excellent fine motor skills practice. Use a hole punch to punch even-spaced holes around the edges of orange plastic disposable plates. Cut out jack-o’-lantern faces from black construction paper and glue them in the middle. Give kids orange yarn and show them how to lace the yarn in and out of the holes.
Halloween painted rocks
You’ll need river rocks, craft paint, and brushes (or paint markers) for this creative Halloween activity. Decorate rocks to look like ghosts or jack-o’-lanterns, or paint them with spooky messages and pictures of witches, monsters, vampires, and more.
Drinking-straw skeletons
Cut white paper drinking straws into smaller pieces for “bones.” Give each student a handful, along with some black construction paper and glue. Ask them to create a skeleton in any pose they like, gluing it in place. For a fun expansion on this project, skip the construction paper and glue and use pipe cleaners instead. Kids string the “bones” onto the pipe cleaners, putting them together to form poseable skeletons.
Cotton ball ghosts
Try this cute activity with younger classes. Print and cut out our free ghost templates using white card stock. Spread the ghosts with a thin layer of glue, then have kids glue cotton balls in place to fill in the shape. When they’re finished, attach ghost faces made of construction paper.
Lite Brite pumpkins
Raid an old Lite Brite set for the colorful plastic pegs. Use a skewer to poke holes in a hollowed-out pumpkin (for a mess-free option, use craft pumpkins instead), and drop a battery-operated light inside. Push the pegs into the holes to create all sorts of spooky designs.
Yarn tassel ghosts
These ghosts are so easy to make! Cut a piece of cardboard about 5 inches wide, and wrap white yarn around it at least 20 times. Use a small piece of yarn to tie the top loops of yarn together, then slide the yarn off the cardboard. Tie a second small piece of yarn about an inch below the top to form the head. Finally, cut the yarn loops apart at the bottom and trim them if needed. Glue on small black beads for eyes and mouth, then hang your spooky creations!
More Halloween Activities for the Classroom
Rock your own Halloween costume
Need some creative ideas for Halloween costumes? Check out our roundups for inspiration from real We Are Teachers readers!
Watch Halloween movies
These kid-friendly picks are the perfect way to finish out Halloween in your classroom. Everything here is a no more than a little bit spooky or scary, but you’ll definitely want to watch in advance to make sure your choice is appropriate for your audience.
Try it: Best Halloween Movies for Kids of All Ages
Tell spooky campfire stories
Set up an artificial “campfire” in your classroom using orange and yellow streamers attached to a box fan lying flat on the floor. Turn out the lights and give everyone flashlights instead, then gather around the “fire” and tell scary stories. Check out our free collection to get things started!
Dig into Halloween sensory bins
Assemble sensory bins full of the sights, sounds, scents, and textures of Halloween. Include some of these: popcorn or rice dyed orange and black; black beans; slime; cooked spaghetti noodles; water dyed orange and black; cinnamon sticks; candy corn; candy pumpkins; letter beads or magnets spelling “Halloween;” mini-erasers of ghosts, pumpkins, etc.; plastic spider rings; large googly eyes; plastic skeletons; mini pumpkins or cauldrons for scooping; or Halloween-themed confetti.
Create a Halloween escape room
This one takes some dedication, but your students will absolutely love it! Our free printables will walk you through the process step-by-step. If you’re not up for crafting your own puzzles, buy a ready-made escape room game (there are plenty of them available), then add your own decorations to customize it for your class.
Try it: Create a Classroom Escape Room
If you like these Halloween activities, check out these Halloween Bulletin Boards.
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