Happy Halloween: 5 spooky lesson plan ideas

We don’t know many kids who don’t love Halloween – and who can blame them? They get to dress up as their favourite spooky characters or superheroes for the day and have fun with a little trick or treating!

So, why not use Halloween to show that learning can be fun too? Here’s a round-up of our favourite spooky lesson plan ideas that will make your students shriek with delight! (Mwah-hah-hah….)

5 spooky lesson plan ideas:

1) Spooky stories

There are some epic scary stories out there, in fact some of the greatest works of literature have a spooky slant to them. Read a story together in class and create a worksheet about it or ask students to choose their favourite spooky tale and present a report on it. Just make sure they’re age-appropriate!

Here are some of our all-time favourite spine-chilling stories:

• Dracula – Bram Stoker
• Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
• Goosebumps – Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski
• The Twilight Series – Stephenie Meyer

2) The science of skeletons

Teach your little folks all about the human body with the help of a dummy skeleton or cardboard cut-out. Label all the bones and get students to memorise them in the run-up to Halloween. Introduce health-related topics to the lesson, for example discussing what you need to build healthy bones. You could also talk about physiology and which muscles are connected to which bones.

At the end of the week, test how many bones students can remember by asking them to label a blank skeleton.

3) Halloween history

Most kids will enjoy hearing about the origins of Halloween and the various customs and rituals associated with this holiday, including trick or treating. Create some colourful props to use in the lesson and talk about other superstitions or unusual holidays such as Mexico’s ‘Day of the Dead’. You can give students a quiz at the end to see how much information they took in.

4) Getting crafty with Halloween decorations

Halloween just wouldn’t be Halloween without decorations like pumpkin lanterns! The world is your oyster here in terms of what you ask students to do. Younger students might enjoy making masks, for example, whereas older kids might like painting pumpkins or even creating spooky Halloween costumes. Let your kids’ imaginations run wild and have fun with it!

5) Tempting Halloween treats

Your students are unlikely to turn their noses up at a Halloween snack or two. Use your school’s Home Economics lessons to get creative and make some Halloween-themed cookies (think spiders, ghosts and bats) which they can decorate as outrageously as they like! If you need any inspiration, just take a look at the many suggestions online.

So, try out these spooky lesson plan ideas and give your students a chance to have a little fun, express themselves and celebrate this unique holiday!

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