Halloween Activities For The Classroom

This ultimate list of Halloween activities for the classroom is here! We all know that during this time of year our calendars are completely full, and students get oh-so excited about every single holiday that will occur in the next few months. I try to embrace the crazy and enjoy the season. However, we don’t want instruction or learning to suffer, so I love using resources and Halloween activities for the classroom that can be used to allow students to have fun in a purposeful and educational way.

This post includes a list of my favorite Halloween activities for the classroom that you can use in your upper elementary classroom. Hopefully these ideas will inspire you as they did me!

Halloween Math Centers

Students LOVE these 4th grade Halloween math centers and 3rd grade Halloween math centers that are great for reinforcing math concepts taught in the first quarter of the school year. The Halloween activities were designed to be used as centers that can be organized with file folders or any basic container or storage device. I like to attach each center activity title page to the outside of a file folder and attach the center’s directions on the inside of the file folder and laminate the folder. The only prep needed is to print the task cards and/or recording sheets, laminate, and place the cards inside the corresponding file folder, and you’re ready! If you want to see more you can check out these blog posts: third grade centers or fourth grade centers.

The Day After Halloween

I’ve come to the conclusion that one of the only days more challenging than Halloween is the day AFTER Halloween. There is nothing quite like a room full of children who’ve eaten nothing but candy over the past 24 hours. I’ve heard many teachers say that November 1st should be a school holiday, and I think that sounds like a great idea!  I don’t see that happening anytime soon, so I’ve tried to find ways to go with it rather than fight for my students’ attention all day. You can see each of these activities on TpT here or you can see each of the included activities on this blog post.

The Halloween activities for the classroom have been updated and includes a Google Slides version for distance learning! This is included with the original file.

October Word Problems

These October Weekly Word Problems are one of my favorite Halloween resources. There are four weeks with of word problems and word problems are broken into Monday through Friday segments. There are three word problems for each day of the week, and on Friday students write their own word problems. I use these every day of the year, and they make a HUGE difference. When I have students solve these, I require them to write the equation they used and to reference the answer, rather than just writing a number. This forces students to think about the problem and its meaning. I have a third grade version and a fourth grade version.

This has also been updated and now includes a digital version!

Halloween Activities For The Classroom – Choice Board

This Halloween Choice Board resource is different from my Halloween centers, because this is designed to be finished in a day or two, and it doesn’t include ANY task cards or prep work. Some years I let students complete one activity a day, and other years I give students a choice board and they complete three activities in a row or column.

This resource is more geared toward third grade than fourth grade, but you can make it work for almost any classroom. Each of these lessons has been updated to Google Slides as well.

Halloween Multiplication

Creative Thinking / Creative Writing

While I prefer teaching writing through writing workshop, I occasionally like to give my students creative thinking or creative writing prompts. I use this for a little extra, not my actual writing instruction. You can print these as a booklet, one page at a time, or display them on your projector. You can just click here to download your prompts for FREE! I always like having options, so I thought the task card version might be helpful for you too. You can download the task card version here.

Halloween Resources Add-On to Centers

Since we don’t all teach the same concepts at the same time of year, I didn’t want to replace any set of my 4th grade math centers with seasonal centers. Instead, I added a Halloween option to the third set of math centers. This gives us options and flexibility. You can use the Halloween version or you can totally skip it and only use the original. I’ll share more about the original version as soon as I take some pictures. In the meantime, you can click here to see what’s included in the Halloween edition of the Multiplication Math Centers.

Halloween Activity For The Classroom

You’ve Been Booed

There’s absolutely nothing academic about “booing” classes, but this Halloween activity for the classroom is something students will remember forever and look forward to every year.  To do this, you’ll need some type of basket or container. Place some type of treat or goodie in the basket. You could add candy, silly straws, erasers, pencils, stickers, spider rings, or anything fun. Just make sure you have enough for each student that will be receiving it.

Place the goodies, direction sheet, and We’ve Been BOOED sign in the basket and SECRETLY deliver the basket to another classroom. You can place it outside a classroom door or place it inside a classroom while the teacher and students are away from the room. The class gets to keep the treat, and then it’s their job to replace the goodies with something different. Then, it’s their turn to boo a different classroom. Once a class has been booed, they should place a We’ve Been BOOED sign on their door, so everyone can have the chance to get booed. You can download You’ve Been BOOED here.

I hope you’ve found a few new Halloween activities for the classroom that your students will enjoy. If you’d like to read more about how to integrate engaging seasonal activities with high quality content, be sure to check out this post!