This week I am coming to you with some ideas that you can do during the week of Halloween or leading up to Halloween. These 3-5th grade Halloween activities may save your sanity during one of the craziest weeks of the year. Did I also mention that you’ll stay on task and even be able keep students engaged while working on academics as well?
Choice Boards
Have you ventured into choice boards yet?
Let me tell you – they are so much fun. The kids buy into them instantly because they are able to choose their own activity.
Each student gets a cover page.
The cover page has 9 different halloween related activities that the students can complete. You can let them choose 3, you can choose 3 (not so much fun) or you can assign all 9.
Each activity has some type of academic content related. Take a look at F. The students have to create a brew for the witches.
All the pages allow the students to think outside of the box. They aren’t just working on math constantly, they are working on a skill that possibly needs strengthening. Of course you can choose what you want them to work on if they need a specific skill to work on. Check out the Halloween Choice Boards here!
Science Experiments
Whenever you get close to Halloween time, you start to see a ton of amazing experiments or cool effects. What if I told you that this Halloween activity was simple and made you look like a witch?
Yeah- you’d probably say- SIGN. ME. UP.
That’s what I would say.
You will need:
- water
- Soap
- Huge plastic bowl
- Dry ice (+ gloves to touch it or tongs)
- Yarn/string
When it’s time, you’ll take a chunk of dry ice and place it in the bowl with some water. Make sure you are super careful because the dry Ice can burn you. Wear gloves or use tongs to handle appropriately.
The dry ice will smoke out of the water. That is fine and it won’t hurt you.
In a separate cup, mix water and soap. Place the middle portion of the string inside the soap and water cup.
Slowly make a bubble over the plastic bowl using the string. I take one side and roll it across the bowl. If you can make a good bubble, you’ll be able to build what looks like a crystal ball in your classroom! This Halloween activity is fun and if you use my dry ice pack, you’ll also have a ton of steps in the scientific method that the students can work through. Now you’ve connected science with Halloween activities and became the coolest teacher at school.
You can check out the Dry Ice Experiment Pack here!
Crystal Ball
History Projects
My first school that I taught at had a ZERO Halloween tolerance. The kids LOVED Halloween but we weren’t allowed to do much. If we related it to a standard – we were good!
That is how I ended up creating a Google Slides project called the History of Halloween. These slides were great because the students were engaged. They loved the history behind Halloween and why they celebrate Halloween.
These can be used as Social Studies centers!
1. Directions
2. Passage (Paper & Digital)
3. Illustrate it (Paper & Digital)
4. Watch & Respond (Paper & Digital)
5. Google Slides File (+ Directions to give to your students)
- 1.Organize Facts (Found in Google Slides ONLY)
- 2.Research it (Found in Google Slides ONLY)
- 3.True or False (Found in Google Slides ONLY)
- 4.Define It (Found in Google Slides ONLY)
6. Write about it (Paper & Digital)
7. Google Form as a Final Assessment (+ Directions to give to your students)
Let’s Enjoy!
This day doesn’t have to be stressful. You can get your entire day set up pretty quickly. Print your activities and go! You can bring some engaging 3-5th grade Halloween Activities to your classroom!
