Halloween is an exciting holiday for our students. There’s costumes, trick-or-treating, carnivals and CANDY! As these thoughts fill the minds of our students it is hard to compete. So instead of trying to compete, use the automatic engagement of the holiday to grab your students’ attention and keep them learning right up to the big day! These Halloween activities will keep your students engaged and asking for more!
One of my favorite ways to connect learning to the holidays is through read alouds. But why stop with one reading when you can use a book study to help students dig deeper into the book while working on key reading skills.
Room on the Broom
Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson (#afflink) is a fun Halloween book about a witch who loses some of her belongings, but in finding them makes new friends.
Reading Comprehension
Your students will be engaged with this witch and her animal friends as they work on reading skills like sight words, vocabulary, cause and effect, character traits and comprehension.
Here’s some of the fun activities your students will work on during the Room on the Broom book study. Let’s start with reading comprehension. Who needs a reading passage with questions when you can work on the same skills with this fun and interactive tri-fold activity. Students will love creating their Room on the Broom brochure as they answer questions about the story and draw pictures.
As you dig into the events of the story, you can’t help but spend some time focusing on the main character. Students will learn about character traits and describing the main character. If character traits is a new concept for your class this activity makes a great whole class brainstorm activity. The class can work together to list out adjectives to describe the witch.
This activity can also be completed independently if students are familiar with the concept of character traits.
Vocabulary
And you can’t dig into a book like Room on the Broom and ignore the amazing vocabulary that it introduces to your students. Everything you need to create a vocabulary anchor chart is included with this book study.
I always love how quickly the students are to learn and begin using new vocabulary.
While these are just a few of the activities in the book study, there is so much more! Included are a number of no prep printable activities that students can complete independently to work on vocabulary, sight words, r-blends and other reading skills. These are perfect to use as independent centers and morning work. You can easily fill a week of lesson plans with this Room on the Broom book study.
You can find all of these activities in the Emily Education store.
Spookley the Square Pumpkin
Another book study that is perfect for Halloween is The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin by Joe Troiano (#afflink). A great book about finding the positives in differences, Spookley is a Halloween favorite for kids around the world.
Reading Comprehension
By using the same book over the course of multiple days students will be able to read and listen to the book at different levels. This is a great way to help students with higher level thinking. But we don’t start there. Instead start with the basics that allow students to read more into the story with each reading.
Reading for details is a great way for students to get a basic understanding of the story.
This trifold activity is a fun way for students to show what they know about the plot of the story. Using both writing and drawing, even primary students can really show their understanding of the story.
Begin helping students develop their comprehension by looking at story vocabulary. By introducing students to vocabulary they are able to better understand the story on the next reading. Additionally, they are adding new words to their listening and speaking vocabulary.
Retelling Skills
In the Spookley book study students will work the skills of retelling and sequencing. This is such an important reading skill for students to develop. They will love learning how to retell a story with the guide words and the instructional poster. Practice as a class retelling the story, then let students apply what they learned with this retelling craft activity.
In addition to these activities, the Spookley the Square Pumpkin book study includes a variety of no prep activities to help students learn and review sight words, sequence story events, and more. Some of the activities are ready to use digitally too! This is a great way to work easily build in technology skills with your lessons and activities. Your students will love learning with Spookley!
Pumpkin Jack
Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell (#afflink) is a fantastic way to connect literature and science! This cute story about a boy and his first jack-o-lantern creation is a wonderful way to teach and explain the pumpkin life cycle. And – just in case your lesson plans can’t fit this book study in before Halloween, it would be perfect the week after Halloween too!
The Pumpkin Jack book study is packed with book and pumpkin activities your students will be excited for. By using the book as the basis for pumpkin science you have built consistent background knowledge that your entire class will have.
Reading Comprehension & Vocabulary
Your students will love the story of Pumpkin Jack. As part of the book study, students will work on reading comprehension and story sequencing. Students can use this tri-fold activity to answer questions about the details of the story.
Then you can help students better understand the story by digging into the vocabulary. Create a vocabulary anchor chart as a class, and then let them create their own vocabulary flashcards.
Learning the story vocabulary will lead right into learning the parts of a pumpkin and the pumpkin life cycle. By connecting the two you will have utilized different learning styles and parts of the brain to help learning lead to mastery.
Pumpkin Science
Everything you need to teach the science of pumpkins is included in this resource.
Writing
Connecting writing to science is a great way to help young writers work on ordering thoughts in writing. Since many science concepts follow a set flow of events it helps to develop organized thinking that will later translate to personal narratives and creative writing.
A variety of pumpkin themed writing prompts are included. Some are science based and some will allow your students to practice different types of writing.
Whether you take a field trip to the pumpkin patch, do a virtual field trip or just imagine it, your students will love writing about the pumpkin patch. This cute writing craftivity is a fun way for students to write about visiting a pumpkin patch. You can encourage students to use the pumpkin vocabulary they have learned in their writing.
You can find these pumpkin and Pumpkin Jack activities in this Pumpkin Patch activity pack.
Halloween Activities for October
Quickly and easily fill your lesson plans for the month of October with fun and engaging skills based activities. You can grab all of these book study resources plus more in this October bundle. Here’s just a few of the many skills your students will work on with the activities in this bundle:
- Reading Comprehension
- Vocabulary
- Retelling & Sequencing
- Pumpkin Parts
- Pumpkin Life Cycle
- Writing
- Numbers to 100
- Sight Words
There’s more too! Grab the October bundle and get those lesson plans done. Then go and spend a little time enjoying the fall season.
Save these Halloween Activities
Just pin this to your favorite classroom Pinterest board so you quickly come back when you are ready for fun and engaging skills based Halloween activities for your classroom.
