HALLOWEEN ACTIVITIES: FUN IN LEARNING

By Teach To Tell

Grades 3-6

Like to have a Halloween themed display in your classroom? This free decorative banner will surely highlight your students' reading and writing activities during Halloween.

But before you scroll to the end to get this Halloween freebie - do stop and read all the fun activities your students can engage in during the week of Halloween.




THE HALLOWEEN SCAVENGER HUNT:
There are so many activities that generate fun whilst learning and perhaps one of my favorite is the Halloween Scavenger Hunt - a superb activity that involves movement and also perfect to assign during the week of Halloween when kids are in a frenzied state of excitement.

There are 32 fact cards featuring information on Halloween. Students will need to read the information on each card in order to respond to the question on their recording sheet. This involves reading and comprehending effectively - a vital skill that all students need to possess in order to ace any English Language Arts standardized test.

What makes reading all the more fun is that each fact is presented on a single card - consequently, information is presented in manageable chunks and is not too overwhelming for the student.

The fun aspect of this learning activity arises when students get to walk around the class trying to find the task cards in order to answer the questions on their recording sheets. My kids love this and it's interesting to watch them clipboard and pencil in hand, enthusiastically walking up and down the classroom trying to find the hunt cards.

If the learning goal is to integrate technology in the activity, I use the hunt cards that have QR Codes which when scanned provide students with the answers to the questions.

To make it more challenging, students need to make an educated guess prior to scanning the code for the response. Interestingly, they are still learning as they think, read and write their responses on the recording sheets.

EVIDENCE OF LEARNING:
After students have finished the hunt, they gather together on the mat and I project the cards on the interactive whiteboard.

We go through the responses for each question accordingly. Students assess their own work - this way they constructively re-think any incorrect responses.

 

There are bound to be some students who will zip through the activity and finish all 32 questions - for these students you can assign the reflecting writing task, whereby they write 3-4 facts on a writing template of choice. This would make a perfect bulletin board display.

         

Recording information on flipbook templates is also a favorite activity in my classroom.
Moreover, the assembled flipbook makes an impressive bulletin board display.

Another favorite activity that my students enjoy is the Halloween creative writing story activity.
This is an interactive notebook activity and unlike the Scavenger Hunt that involves movement, it focuses on motor coordination and students' creative writing expression.

Students write out their stories observing the elements of a plot on the response template.

They choose a cover to glue over the response template and cut out the sections.

 Folding back the cut-out sections reveal the story below.

This will be another perfect addition to the bulletin board display.
And finally, here is the colorful free Halloween themed banner that you can put up in your classroom and display students' work below.

Here's to your students having a fun memorable Halloween activity week in your classroom!