Halloween Themed Activities for Any Subject
I love Halloween and no matter what the age of my students, it is always fun to take the opportunity to weave some Halloween themed activities into my classes. Here are a few of my favorites:
Halloween Pixel Art
Using conditional formatting in Google Sheets, you can make a custom pixel art puzzle, where an image will reveal itself only after the correct answers have been given.
For Halloween I've created a general Halloween trivia puzzle, where students of all ages can test their research skills as they race to unlock the image (just don't forget to delete the answer key tab once you've copied the answers!) Make a free copy of the Halloween Trivia Pixel Puzzle here.
Or, if you want to stick to your content area, I have created a DIY template that you can edit with math equations, science formulas, or whatever your heart desires. Make a free copy of the template here, and watch the video below for instructions on how to get the image to appear/disappear.
Conditional formatting custom formula: =$B$2<>2 OR =$B$2<>"answer"
Note: the text in red will change depending on the row your answer will be entered into and the answer itself.
Halloween Blackout Poetry
Blackout poetry is a fun, approachable way to get students excited about creating their own poems. Instead of starting with a blank page and adding their own words, students start with a page full of words and blackout everything except the words they'd like to become a part of their poem.
For this Halloween version, the texts students can choose from to create their "blackout poem" include:
The Raven, by Edgar Allen Poe
A Ghost Story, by Mark Twain
The Witches, by Roald Dahl
If you haven't checked out some of the pre-created tours on Google Earth Voyager the Google Earth Haunted House Tour has you travel around the world looking at and learning about haunted houses. This would be a great, fun, low-stakes activity to start with (especially for social studies or geography teachers who might want to use this tools as the year progresses).
I might use this as a jumping off point to have a discussion about why humans of all different cultures are fascinated by haunted places and why many people enjoy visiting them. Or to conduct a mini-research project, and have students research other "haunted" places that weren't included in this tour.
Halloween Podcast
In years past I have played a ghost story episode of the Radio Lab podcast while students sketchnote along with the audio. For more details, you can read about the activity and access the podcast here.
Get PUNny
Every year my Halloween costume is dedicate to a play on words of some sort, typically a pun or an idiom. I use the first 10-15 mins of class to teach the students about puns and idioms and use a Pear Deck to have students guess what different Halloween costumes are. You can make a free copy of my Pear Deck Google Slide here.
