Halloween is the first major holiday you usually get to celebrate with your students. But with costumes and candy involved, it can also get pretty crazy. Here are tons of fun activities you can do with your students to celebrate, while still keeping some academic focus!
Candy Corn Number Puzzles
These candy corn number sense puzzles make a great Halloween math center activity! Students have to match the numbers, fingers, and 10-frames to build each candy corn. This is perfect hands-on practice for reviewing numbers 1-10.
Halloween Writing Center
The writing center is an area in my classroom that is set up all year long and I simply change out the themes every few weeks. So of course, in October a Halloween theme is fitting!
When students go to the writing center, they can choose from tons of different literacy activities, from working on beginning sounds, labeling, writing stories, etc.
5 Little Pumpkins STEM
“Five Little Pumpkins” is a classic Halloween rhyming book that my students always love! And one thing that makes it even better is this fun STEM activity to go along with it. After we read the book, I give students 5 candy pumpkins and tell them they can only use clothespins and popsicle sticks. Their job is to build a gate that will hold up all 5 pumpkins off the ground. This is create for problem solving and critical thinking skills. Plus, it’s so fun to see how creative they get!
Color By Code Activities
Color By Code activities are always a huge hit with my students. They are great for reviewing skills we have worked on, such as letters and numbers. I use them all the time as early finisher activities, morning work, and even in my writing center that students can visit during free play time.
Pumpkin Directed Drawing
Each month, I love to do a directed drawing with my students. We learn to draw the picture together as a whole group, then students get to color their drawing. Afterwards, we hang them up on our student work display board.
In October, we draw some cute little pumpkins. This is a great simple one for one of the first directed drawings of the year and really helps students to build their confidence with drawing!
Halloween Count the Room
Count the Room is always my students’ favorite math center! They love it because they get to move around the room to find the pictures and I love it because it’s super easy to differentiate. I put up one set of picture cards, but use three different recording sheets for students of all levels to use. Later on in the year, I will also start doing teen numbers and addition and subtraction!
Halloween Bingo
BINGO always makes the perfect, fun holiday activity! If you plan on having a class Halloween party, then this is a great activity to include in that. It’s easy and engaging and you can even give away prizes, which students love!
Halloween Read Alouds
Story time is my favorite time of the day in kindergarten! As with any holiday, I love to incorporate some fun themed read alouds. In my personal opinion, October has some of the best read alouds! Some of my favorite Halloween books include Room on the Broom, Pumpkin Town, and The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin.
Check out all of my favorite October read alouds below!
I hope you were able to get some ideas to help keep your kiddos engaged during the crazy Halloween time of the year!
