We’re a full week into October and I haven’t shared any Halloween-themed resources. That’s unlike me. My excuse is that 2020 has been a year unlike any other. And even though we won’t be trick-o-treating or passing out candy this year, my daughters and some of my students are still excited about Halloween. On that note, here are some Halloween-themed resources for language arts, science, math, and physical education.
Language Arts
ReadWorks offers a collection of Halloween-themed articles for students. The bulk of the Halloween collection on ReadWorks features articles for a K-8 audience with a few 9-12 articles mixed in. The articles covered topics like the history of Halloween, pumpkin farms, and the history of ghost stories. Like all ReadWorks articles, you’ll find comprehension questions and vocabulary sets to accompany the articles. A read aloud feature is also available in ReadWorks.
Edgar Allan Poe died on this day in 1849. His work is often read in schools at this time of year as it does have a dark theme that coincides with Halloween. In the TED-Ed lesson Why Should You Read Edgar Allan Poe? students can learn about Poe’s guiding principles for writing, the recurring themes of his work, and the personal factors in his life that contributed to his writing. Find the complete lesson here or watch the video as embedded below.
Physical Education With a Halloween Theme
Keeping Kids in Motion is a great physical education blog written by Justin Cahill. One of the free resources available on his blog is Fitness is Spooktacular.
Fitness is Spooktacular is a kids fitness challenge for the month of October (adults can do it too). There is a downloadable calendar of little workouts that you can do with your students throughout the month of October. Each workout is represented by either a jack-o-lantern, a skull, or a bat.
Fitness is Spooktacular is a kids fitness challenge for the month of October (adults can do it too). There is a downloadable calendar of little workouts that you can do with your students throughout the month of October. Each workout is represented by either a jack-o-lantern, a skull, or a bat.
Science Lessons With a Halloween Theme
SciShow Kids has a playlist of videos covering topics that are frequently connected to symbols of Halloween. Those topics are bats, spiders, skeletons, and the changing colors of leaves. In the video about bats students learn how bats use sound to find their way at night, how and why bats hang upside down, and how they rear their offspring. In the video on spiders students learn about the role of spiders in controlling flying insect populations and how spiders create webs. In the video about the human skeleton students can learn about the functions of the skeleton as well as how bones grow and heal over time. Finally, in the video on leaves students learn about the correlation between chlorophyll, sunlight, and leaf color.
A Math App With a Halloween Theme
Number Chase – Math vs. Zombies is a free iPad game with a Halloween theme. The game is has three virtual worlds each containing ten levels of basic math problems. The object of the game is to correctly solve as many math problems as possible before the zombies catch you. The math of the game is basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
