Elementary Halloween Lesson Plans
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Halloween is right around the corner and my kids are getting excited! I am a big fan of working with your kids’ excitement. It is honestly easier than fighting with them to concentrate. These Halloween lesson plans are a way to learn traditional academic subjects while still having fun. It is a win-win situation!
I usually plan a small break from our normal curriculum to have a little Halloween fun in the days leading up to Halloween.
Halloween lesson plans let me add a little education to an otherwise fun day.
These Halloween lesson plans are intended for elementary school grades, but many can be adapted to be easier or harder, depending on what you need. If you are teaching older kids be sure to check out the middle school Halloween lesson plans.
Elementary Halloween Lesson Plans
There are a variety of activities for just about every subject. Pick and choose whatever you think would benefit your family the most and include those in your Halloween lesson plans.
Halloween Science
There are so many amazing science Halloween lesson plans floating around Pinterest that it is hard to choose just one. Luckily, you don’t have to!
1. Halloween typically involves quite a bit of candy. Let’s lean into that and experiment to see which liquid dissolves candy first.
2. Ghost pumpkin eruptions using jack-o’-lanterns are always a crowd-pleaser. My kids love anything that explodes or erupts.
3. A creepy density experiment is a fun way to learn all about density. The finished result looks pretty creepy!
4. All you need for this experiment on static electricity are balloons and tissue paper. It looks a little like magic, which naturally encourages kids to ask why the activity worked.
One way to enjoy all of these fun science activities is to set up Halloween science centers. This works really well as a co-op activity too. Parents from each family ‘host’ a table with one science activity, and kids rotate through all of them.
Need more Halloween science ideas? Check out this post by Kristin Moon Science!
Halloween History
My kids found the origins of Halloween quite interesting. I read this post to them, but older kids could read it independently. Did you know that the Celtic people originally carved jack-o-lanterns in turnips to ward off evil spirits?
I didn’t!
1. Carving turnips sounds like a fun nod to the historical origins of the holiday. I don’t expect to scare off any evil spirits, but it does seem like a conversation starter with trick or treaters at our door! Hopefully, the neighbors don’t think we are too crazy.
2. Halloween is also the perfect time of year to learn about the history of candy. My kids enjoyed reading the book and then doing the related activities.
3. Learning about the history of chocolate is a great unit study to do around Halloween. If we are going to be surrounded by chocolate we might as well use it as a learning experience.
Halloween Reading
1. Reading is one of the easiest subjects to add to Halloween lesson plans.
Options include:
2. A Halloween tea with poetry is always fun too. Maybe we will invite a few friends and turn it into a poetry party.
3. Literary Adventures for Kids offers a few online book clubs that would be perfect for Halloween
- The Runaway Pumpkin
- Stellaluna
- Travel Guide for Monsters
- Frankenstein
- Poetry and a Movie Mini-Course – Poe
- The Wizard of Oz
- Miss Peregine’s Home for Peculiar Children
Halloween Grammar
Mad Libs is the perfect way to practice parts of speech. There are so many Halloween varieties!
I typically sprinkled a few of these through the month of October and my kids always begged to complete another one.
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Yep, they begged for extra grammar practice. This makes them a fantastic addition to grammar Halloween lesson plans.
Halloween Writing
Why not combine all of the language arts activities and head to a local coffee shop? Bring a Halloween poetry book, Spooky Mad Libs, and the Halloween roll-a-story for a combined Writer’s Workshop and tea with poetry.
Halloween-themed journal entries are another easy writing activity that doesn’t really require any planning. These free Halloween writing prompts are perfect for kindergarten.
Halloween Math
Halloween math activities can be a little tricky because it is harder to jump around in a math curriculum than in something like science or history. However, we can use this as an opportunity to review previously learned skills.
1. These Halloween math printables practice skills typically learned in elementary school.
2. This post has excellent Halloween math ideas for using mini-erasers and Q-tips as hands-on math manipulatives to practice math skills such as classification and tallying.
Halloween Art
Halloween art is a great addition to Halloween lesson plans because it can double as Halloween decor.
1. Silhouette art can be a great Halloween art activity! We will use the basic strategy outlined here, but the kids can silhouette any Halloween icon – bat, witch hats, pumpkins, etc. – that they want.
2. Salt-painted spider webs are a fun twist on painting.
3. Making haunted houses seems like a Halloween art activity that many kids will enjoy. They can be made in several ways:
- Popsicle stick haunted house
- Paper bag haunted house
- Gingerbread haunted house – make a regular gingerbread (or graham cracker) house and give it some spooky decor.
Special Halloween Foods for Kids
I really love making holidays special for my kids. They are only young once, so I want to make the most of the time. One way I put a little extra effort into holidays is to serve fun food.
Breakfast
I don’t like to serve junk at breakfast.
Well, I rarely serve junky foods at any time of day, but especially at breakfast. The kids need a breakfast that will give them sustained energy through the morning.
Black and orange fruit salad (blackberries and orange segments) and almond flour grain-free pancakes will fill their tummies without a sugar crash. I’m going to attempt to shape the pancakes like pumpkins to make them different from our standard pancakes.
Lunch
These jack-o’-lantern quesadillas will be quick to prepare while we are busy with schoolwork, and if we use corn tortillas, they will be gluten-free.
Clementine pumpkins will be a sweet side dish. Just peel a clementine and stick a tiny piece of celery in the top to act as a stem. Quick foods are extremely important on busy days.
Dinner
Dinner time can be crazy on Halloween!
The kids are so anxious to go trick-or-treating that they don’t want to eat dinner first. I am busy helping them into their costumes, so I don’t have much time to cook.
The crockpot is the solution to these problems!
I like to make macaroni and cheese (gluten-free) in my crockpot. It is ready and warm whenever my kids are ready to eat – whether that is before donning their costumes or after working up an appetite trick-or-treating.
Another option is to pull out a prepared freezer meal and just heat it up.
Snack
I have been making banana ghosts for my kids since they were babies. It doesn’t feel like Halloween without them!
It makes me feel good to load the kids up with healthy treats before they go trick-or-treating. Once they get home, they will binge eat sugar until they get sick (this has happened – it is not pretty).
Keep reading . . .
- Halloween Chapter Books
- Halloween Tea with Poetry
- Not Too Spooky Halloween Books for Kids
- Halloween Lesson Plans for Middle School
- The History of Candy
- Fun Candy Corn Activities for Kids
- Halloween Boredom-Busting Basket
- Spooky Halloween Science Activities for Kids
- Fun Halloween Homeschool Ideas
- October Homeschool Activities
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