Newsela | Classroom Halloween Activities Your Students Will Love

Halloween is a fun excuse to bring a little suspense, silliness, and student choice into the ELA classroom. And the best part? You don’t have to sacrifice the literacy skills practice you already have planned. These classroom Halloween activities give students seasonal texts and questions they can read, discuss, compare, and write about.

Use the ideas to plan quick October lessons, build a scary story writing sequence, or choose a low-prep resource that fits your grade band.

[Scary story writing activities for Halloween ELA lessons](id-writing)

Text reading “Start the Scary Story Contest” on a Halloween-themed banner.

A scary-story writing unit is a seasonal way to teach writing craft and to practice revision. Students can read mentor texts, point to the moves that made them suspenseful, then try the same moves in their own writing drafts.

And with Newsela’s Scary Story Contest (back for its third year!), students can also practice writing for a real audience. Ask them to craft a 400–1,000-word scary story using descriptive language, unanswered questions, and/or dramatic irony.

But don’t just turn them loose on a blank page. The up-to-six-week writing unit can help you teach them how to build toward that final draft without pausing the rest of your ELA plans.

Entries are due to creativewriting.contests@newsela.com by October, 20, 2026. To be considered, each entry should include:

Student’s name.
Grade level.
School district.
Teacher’s email address.

Without these details, we can’t contact the winners!

Halloween ELA lessons

Scary story writing lesson sequence

Follow the sequence for a short scary story writing unit, or pull one lesson when your class needs practice with suspense, plot, theme, description, or revision. Before students draft, choose the 3–5, 6–8, or 9–12 narrative writing rubric that matches your students.

Resource	Purpose	Sample content or task
The Elements of Horror	Start the unit by helping students name the moves that make a story feel scary, strange, or suspenseful.	Read a scary mentor text once for understanding. Reread to highlight author choices that build fear or suspense. Create a class list of “scary scribe” writing moves students can use later.
Theme Thunderstorm	Help students connect scary story ideas to real fears, social problems, and possible lessons.	Read about zombies and what they can represent in different communities. Brainstorm current problems and lessons a scary story could explore. Turn theme ideas into possible story conflicts.
Hatch a Horrifying Plot	Move students from a story idea to a plot plan, with attention to rising action and suspense.	Watch a video on the elements of fiction. Read about rising action in literature. Use a plot diagram to plan how the conflict will build.
Suspense Strategy	Focus drafting time on suspense so students can make deliberate choices instead of just adding spooky details.	Watch “How to Make Your Writing Suspenseful.” Annotate suspenseful moments in “The Tell-Tale Heart” or “Vanishers.” Draft a story using the class list of scary story techniques.
Dizzying Description	Give students a revision focus for description, imagery, and the effect their word choices have on readers.	Watch “How to Write Descriptively.” Reread a scary story and annotate descriptive language. Revise a draft and, if useful, add peer feedback before submitting.
The Scariest Stories	Show students examples from the 2025 Scary Story Contest so they can see how other student writers handled suspense and voice.	The Monsters Downstairs The “Imaginary” Friend The Match of Doom Nightmare Hollow The Porcelain Watchers A Train in the Rose Garden

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Blog Extension

Want more support for the writing process? Get more ideas for helping students plan, draft, and revise scary stories before they submit.

Key Takeaways

● Match the scare level to the grade band. Younger students can still join the seasonal fun with poems, silly stories, and lighter Halloween texts.
● Use nonfiction when students need a different way in. Articles about costumes, candy, sound effects, haunted houses, and holiday traditions let students practice ELA skills without relying only on fiction.
● Save the heavier horror texts for older readers. Middle and high school students can dig into suspense, narrator choices, mood, and classic horror without making the whole lesson about Halloween alone.

Seasonal reading doesn’t have to mean picking one scary story to share with everyone. You can match Halloween ELA activities to all the readers in front of you. Choose from not-so-scary poems and fiction, nonfiction about holiday traditions, and horror fiction and poems for older students.

What not-so-scary Halloween poems and stories work for elementary students?

For elementary students, look for Halloween texts that feel playful instead of frightening. Funny monsters, rhyme, and just a dash of spookiness can feel seasonal without being scary. These poems and short fiction options work well for a quick read-aloud, mini-lesson, or brief discussion before students try their own silly-scary writing.

Elementary Halloween ELA

Not-so-scary Halloween poems and stories

Start here when you want Halloween reading that keeps the mood light. The mix includes poems for sound, rhythm, and word choice, plus a short fiction option students can read in English or Spanish.

Resource	Reading Level	Spanish?
“Won’t You Be My Frankenstein?” By Neal Levin Poem
“Monster Magic” By J.R. Parsons Fiction	440L–470L	Yes
“Werewolf Charm School” By Ben Eggertsen Poem
“Acro-Bat” By Karin Lynn Kandur Poem

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Which Halloween nonfiction texts help students explore holiday traditions?

Nonfiction is a great choice when students are hyped for Halloween, but you still want to keep lessons grounded in information, evidence, and discussion. These texts let students read about costumes, candy, and pumpkins, and then explore what those traditions reveal about culture and history.

Halloween nonfiction

Halloween nonfiction texts about traditions

Use this set when students are ready to move from “Halloween is fun” to “Why do people celebrate it this way?” The mix includes articles, an explainer, a recipe, and a job profile.

Resource	Reading Level	Spanish?
This Halloween, virtually explore a forest filled with witches’ marks Article	590L–1260L
Opinion: Even this candy acknowledges it’s the world’s worst Article	510L–1070L	Yes
Scary-good Frankenmuffins taste like bananas Recipe	500L–1070L
Inside the world of a Halloween sound-effects artist Article	350L–1010L
Pumpkin Carving Advice Explainer	460L–980L	Yes
Dream Jobs: Costume shop owner Job Profile	520L–1130L
The most popular Halloween candy in America, by state Article	410L–1300L
Hudson Haunted House marks 50 years of scaring the bejeebers out of folks Article	530L–1060L	Yes

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What horror fiction can middle and high school students read?

For older students, Halloween reading can lean into mood, suspense, and the buildup of fear across scenes. Introduce students to classic horror, gothic fiction, and shorter suspenseful stories to compare how different authors make something feel unsettling.

Introduce older students to horror fiction

Explore these stories in the horror fiction collection.

Edgar Allan Poe stories5 resources

Edgar Allan Poe stories
Resource title	Reading level	Description	Spanish?
“The Pit and the Pendulum”Edgar Allan Poe	970L–1030L	A prisoner sentenced to death by the Spanish Inquisition faces a series of terrifying dangers.	✓ Yes
“The Tell-Tale Heart”Edgar Allan Poe	820L–850L	A narrator recounts killing an old man and hiding the body.	✓ Yes
“The Cask of Amontillado”Edgar Allan Poe	760L–790L	Seeking revenge for an insult, Montresor lures Fortunato into a cellar with the promise of rare wine, then traps him behind a wall.	✓ Yes
“The Black Cat”Edgar Allan Poe	1040L–1160L	A man recounts his cruelty toward his cat, the murder of his wife, and how another cat reveals his crime.	✓ Yes
“The Fall of the House of Usher”Edgar Allan Poe	1240L–1450L	A narrator visits his childhood friend Roderick Usher at a decaying mansion, where the house seems to mirror the decline of Roderick and his sister Madeline.	✓ Yes

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Frankenstein excerpts2 resources

Frankenstein excerpts
Resource title	Reading level	Description	Spanish?
“Frankenstein” Chapter 5Mary Shelley	880L–1050L	Victor Frankenstein brings a creature to life and is horrified when he sees it for the first time.	✓ Yes
“Frankenstein” Chapter 11Mary Shelley	1050L–1160L	The creature recounts his first days after Victor abandons him: discovering fire, facing rejection, and finding a hiding place near a family’s cottage.	✓ Yes

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Stories by other authors7 resources

Stories by other authors
Resource title	Reading level	Description	Spanish?
“Firefly Tree”Marianne Murphy	1020L–1050L	A group of children discover a mysterious hollow in a tree inhabited by fireflies and receive visions after touching the food stored inside.	✓ Yes
“Vanishers”Josh Allen	550L–610L	Two friends, Jacob and Jakob, develop a story together about a mysterious group of monsters called the Vanishers.	✓ Yes
“The Buried Moon”Angela McAllister	880L–940L	Wicked creatures trap the Moon in the marshland, and the people of the marshland set out to rescue it.	✓ Yes
“The Dark Tree”Brian Gibbons	520L–570L	Sam faces her fears as she tries to rescue her brother from the mysterious Dark Tree.	✓ Yes
“Dracula’s Guest”Bram Stoker	970L–1070L	An English traveler ignores warnings on Walpurgis Night and ventures into a graveyard, where he encounters a supernatural threat.	✓ Yes
“The Red Room”H.G. Wells	980L–1140L	A confident young skeptic spends the night in a supposedly haunted room at Lorraine Castle to prove ghosts do not exist.	✓ Yes
“The Most Dangerous Game”Richard Connell	690L–730L	A celebrated big-game hunter becomes the prey after he is stranded on a mysterious island.	✓ Yes

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How can students close read “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe?

A favorite of the Poe Society (Gilmore Girls fans, IYKYK), “The Raven” gives students a lot to track in one text: Mood, sound, imagery, conflict, and attitude. Adapted from Poet.org’s “Teach This Poem” series, the lesson guides students through silent reading, listening, discussion, and creative writing practice.

Mini lesson plan: Close reading “The Raven”

Use this sequence when you want students to connect Poe’s language, visual interpretation, performance, and discussion back to one clear analysis question.

Lesson goal Students analyze “The Raven” and evaluate how the speaker’s attitude changes throughout the poem.

Lesson links

Warm-up

Students look closely at the raven drawing and think about how they might feel if they came across the bird or heard it speak.

Before reading

Use Man Seated in his Library, Looking at Raven to help students practice visual noticing before they move into the poem.

Read and listen

Students read the poem silently, annotate words and phrases that stand out, listen to the poem read aloud, and then listen to Anne Waldman’s performance.

Discussion

Which lines stood out to you, and why?
What is the conflict in the poem?
At the beginning of the poem, how does the speaker feel about the raven?
How does the speaker’s attitude toward the raven change throughout the poem?

Extension

Students write a prequel about what they think happened to Lenore or a sequel about what happens next, using details from the poem as inspiration.

[Halloween reading activities for ELA skills practice](id-practice)

Key Takeaways

● Give the reading a clear question. The activities use three BIG questions, horror-focused essential questions, and comparison prompts so students know what to track as they read.
● Make annotations lead somewhere. Students don’t just highlight seasonal texts; they use notes to summarize, cite evidence, reflect, compare, and write.
● Mix texts, topics, and formats. Paired texts, Día de los Muertos resources, horror nonfiction, and short videos give students more than one way to compare ideas and author choices.

Want to keep the Halloween theme but stay rooted in close reading? Have students annotate, cite evidence, compare texts, and respond to questions to build ELA skills while still keeping the seasonal vibes.

How can students use the three BIG questions with Halloween texts?

Students can use the three BIG questions by choosing one Halloween article, annotating their thinking as they read, and then using the final question to write a short reflection with text evidence.

Use this lesson created by Ethan Floerke, a library media specialist in Wisconsin, to get students to consider the questions: What surprised me? What did the author think I already knew? What challenged, changed, or confirmed what I knew?

Help students practice applying the three big questions from “Notice and Note’s” nonfiction signposts

Classroom routine

Three BIG questions for Halloween reading

Use this routine to help students pause as they read, name what they notice, and turn annotations into a short reflection with evidence.

Choose one article from the Halloween text set

Halloween article choices for the three BIG questions routine
Resource	Reading Level	Spanish?
Dear Science: Why do people like scary movies and haunted houses?	470L–1070L	Yes
The most popular Halloween candy in America, by state	410L–1300L
Halloween’s scary fairies	350L–1050L

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Question 1

Mark what surprised them

As students read, they highlight new, unexpected, or memorable details.

I was surprised when... I never thought...

Question 2

Notice what the author assumed

Students flag places where background knowledge, vocabulary, or context affects their understanding.

I did not know... The author assumed...

Question 3

Write the reflection

Students answer what challenged, changed, or confirmed their thinking, using evidence from the article.

At first, I thought... but now... My understanding changed when...

Why do people like horror stories, movies, and haunted houses?

Instead of jumping straight into a scary story, explore why they’re so popular. Melisa Miranda, an eighth-grade ELA teacher in Florida, created this text set to help students consider why people like to read horror stories and how writers make their writing scary.

Halloween ELA reading practice

The Thrill of Horror text set

Use the full text set to help students investigate why horror works, then write about a shared central idea across at least two articles.

The Thrill of Horror text set resources
Resource	Reading Level	Spanish?
Dear Science: Why do people like scary movies and haunted houses? Article	470L–1070L	Yes
Science of screaming: Acoustics that trigger our fear center identified Explainer	570L–1340L	Yes
Opinion: Horror is having a mainstream moment; will that alienate fans? Article	590L–1470L	Yes
Behold, the only six-fingered primates on the planet Article	570L–1150L	Yes
The CDC wants you to prepare for a zombie apocalypse (Yes, you read that right) Article	470L–1160L	Yes
Australian gamers shift from megabytes to “live action” Article	560L–1480L
Cute or creepy: Why humans love some species, loathe others Article	580L–1160L	Yes
A brief history of the haunted house Article	580L–1200L	Yes
How the dead danced with the living in medieval society Article	600L–1300L	Yes

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How can Halloween paired texts build comparison skills?

Halloween paired texts give students a concrete reason to compare texts. They can read one spooky story, then bring in a nonfiction article, author background, or related idea that changes how they understand the first text.

Start by asking students what they already know about the shared topic. As they read, have them annotate for genre-specific details, main idea, and supporting details in informational text. After reading both texts, students can compare main ideas, text structure, author’s purpose, genre, and style using a Venn diagram or paired-text analysis worksheet.

Halloween paired texts

Text sets for Halloween comparison practice

Use these paired text sets when students are ready to compare a spooky fiction text with nonfiction, author background, or another related idea.

Halloween paired text sets for comparison practice
Text Set	Comparison Focus	Paired Resources
“River, Carry Me Away” and Persecution by Society	Compare a mysterious story about being feared and shunned with a nonfiction text about persecution during the Salem witch trials.	River, Carry Me Away A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials
“The Changeling Child” and Body Doubles	Pair an eerie changeling story with a nonfiction article about doppelgangers so students can compare fantasy fears with real-world probability.	The Changeling Child Do you have a doppelganger? There’s a 1 in a trillion chance
“The Tell-Tale Heart” and an Introduction to Poe	Use Poe’s short story and author biography to connect narrator, mood, and the writer’s place in American horror literature.	The Tell-Tale Heart Authors: Edgar Allan Poe
“Dracula’s Guest” and a Sense of Place	Compare eerie setting details in fiction with a nonfiction article about the Transylvania castle connected to Dracula lore.	Dracula’s Guest You can now compete to spend one terrifying night in Dracula’s castle
“The Buried Moon” and Scary Stories	Connect a spooky tale about the moon with a nonfiction text about why scary stories can feel fun when students know they’re safe.	The Buried Moon Kids need horror, too: “The House With a Clock in Its Walls”
“The Cask of Amontillado” and Why We Like Horror	Pair Poe’s revenge story with a nonfiction text about the horror genre’s roots and why horror remains popular.	The Cask of Amontillado Opinion: Horror is having a mainstream moment; will that alienate fans?

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How do Día de los Muertos and Halloween compare?

Give students a direct comparison task this spooky season. Use this text set from educator Bertha Williams, and ask them to read about the histories and traditions behind both Halloween and Día de los Muertos, then use evidence to explain how the holidays are similar and different.

Halloween and Día de los Muertos

Texts for comparing holiday histories and traditions

Use the full text set to help students compare the histories, symbols, and traditions behind Halloween and Día de los Muertos.

Compelling question

What are the differences between Dia de los Muertos and Halloween?

Texts for comparing Halloween and Dia de los Muertos
Resource	Reading Level	Spanish?
Halloween owes its tricks and treats to the ancient Celtic New Year’s Eve	620L–1220L
Latino community celebrates Day of the Dead: “This is the one chance… to guide them back”	530L–1280L	Yes
Opinion: Disney’s “Coco” is a smash hit in Mexico, fueling big hopes for its U.S. release	580L–1140L	Yes
Mexican celebration Day of the Dead comes to life for American retailers	570L–1270L	Yes
Day of the Dead sweets and treats	310L–1290L	Yes
Skeletons aren’t meant to scare you on Day of the Dead	430L–1170L	Yes
Halloween’s scary fairies	350L–1050L
Time Machine (1892): The customs of Halloween	580L–1170L	Yes

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[Add short Halloween videos to your ELA lesson plan](id-videos)

Short videos work when students need a quick preview of a topic or an alternative entry point to an idea before they read, discuss, or write. Use one as a background builder for Halloween traditions, as a bridge into classic horror, or to craft a mini-lesson on suspense, poetry, or unreliable narrators.

Halloween ELA videos

Short videos for Halloween lesson plans

Use the full video collection to add a quick opener, author connection, or craft focus to a Halloween ELA lesson.

Seasonal background 2 videos

Seasonal background Halloween videos
Resource	Runtime	Grade Level
Feast and festivals: Halloween	2:17	2–12
Where does chocolate come from?	3:43	2–5

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Classic horror context 5 videos

Classic horror context videos
Resource	Runtime	Grade Level
Gothic horror	3:07	6–12
Edgar Allan Poe: Writer	4:53	6–12
The mysterious death of Edgar Allan Poe	2:16	9–12
What makes “Dracula” a classic?	3:37	6–8
What makes “Frankenstein” a classic?	3:35	6–8

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Reading and writing craft 3 videos

Reading and writing craft videos
Resource	Runtime	Grade Level
How to make your writing suspenseful	4:43	6–8
Before I got my eye put out—the poetry of Emily Dickinson	10:10	6–8
The role of the unreliable narrator	7:53	6–12

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Plan classroom Halloween activities with Newsela Learning Suite

Halloween lessons can be seasonal without turning into a one-off “filler” lesson. You can use writing activities and multimodal content to keep students reading, annotating, and discussing throughout October.

The Newsela Learning Suite can help you build timely lessons like these throughout the year. If you’re not a Newsela customer yet, sign up for free to get a 45-day trial of premium and differentiated content and activities for any lesson you plan to teach all year.