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This year, we’re kicking off Newselaween, serving you up a variety of ELA, social studies, and science Halloween activities, events, and resources that you can use to make the holiday both fun and educational in your classroom!
[Explore spine-chilling stories with ELA Halloween activities](id-ela)
Once upon a weekday dreary, teachers pondered, weak and weary, over many a curious, unhelpful internet search for lesson plans.
Don’t be one of those teachers stuck in an endless Edgar Allan Poe poem! Use our ideas for ELA Halloween-themed activities instead:
Join the Newsela ELA Scary Story Contest
Calling all creative writers! Our Newsela Scary Story Contest is back for its second year. Students can write a 400-1,000-word scary story and submit it for a chance to be featured on our platform. A select number of top entries will be published on the site, and then our readers will vote on the winners.
To help your students write their scary stories, we’ve created a collection of lessons that you can teach to help them learn literacy skills and practice their writing, all while preparing for the contest. Try:
The Elements of Horror: Discover what elements make a story scary, and how students can add them into their own writing.
Theme Thunderstorm: Explore what types of themes appear in traditionally scary stories.
Plus, join us on Halloween for a fun in-class event that you can stream live to your students to hear the top entries read live and hear from a real creative writer about their work.
Share silly, not-so-scary poems and stories with elementary students
Share themed reading with your youngest students with these silly poems and stories to celebrate the scariest (or not-so-scariest!) holiday of the year:
“Won’t You Be My Frankenstein?” by Neal Levin
“Monster Magic” by J.R. Parsons
“Werewolf Charm School” by Ben Eggertsen
“Acro-Bat” by Karin Lynn Kandur
Dig into your students’ favorite Halloween traditions
Pumpkin carving, costume hunting, and candy collecting, oh my! Share articles about your students’ favorite Halloween traditions, like:
Some of the most popular Halloween candy trends in the last decade.
How to take the guesswork out of carving the perfect pumpkin.
A note from candy corn, and how this treat knows it’s a least favorite in trick-or-treat bags.
Have students answer three BIG Halloween questions
“The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe
“Frankenstein” excerpts by Mary Shelley
“The Pit and the Pendulum” by Edgar Allan Poe
“The Red Room” by H.G. Wells
Teach “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe
A favorite of the Poe Society (Gilmore Girls fans, IYKYK), introduce students to one of Poe’s most famous poems, “The Raven,” with the following lesson:
First, have students read the full text of the poem as a whole class or in small groups.
Finally, ask students to write a prequel to the poem where they explore what they think happened to Lenore, or a sequel to the poem to explore what happens next.
Planning to start a whole-class novel this fall? Or do you just want to give your students some seasonal options for independent reading? Try these terrifying tales:
[Try some scary science Halloween activities](id-sci)
Even some of Halloween's most mysterious happenings often have a scientific explanation! Help students learn more about the science that makes our favorite treats, powers our bodies, and makes neat illusions with these activities:
Try seasonal STEM Halloween activities
After learning about some interesting Halloween science topics, help students get hands-on and try these fun (and even some edible!) experiments:
Create a lava lamp
Any good Halloween party (or trick-or-treat-ready stoop) needs some good decorations. Help students create their own with this lava lamp activity:
Create your Halloween lava lamps using cooking oil, water, and antacid tablets.
Build background knowledge on the history of lava lamps and why this 1960s decoration is still popular today.
Teach students why lava lamps work by looking at the two types of mixtures: Heterogeneous and homogeneous.
Test your senses with illusions
Help students learn how the eyes and mind can play Halloween tricks on them with this STEM activity:
Create an optical illusion using white paper and brightly colored markers.
Discover the science behind how our eyes process and make sense of light.
Learn more about why some people like to be scared or tricked—such as with haunted houses.
Make rock candy
Halloween is all about the candy. Your students can make their own and learn more about the science behind confections with this rock candy experiment:
Read an article that tries to answer one of the world’s biggest questions: Why does sugar taste so good?
Explore how candy makers use chemistry to affect their creations' size, shape, and textures.
Make rock candy in class with sugar, food coloring, and other candy-making supplies.
Virtually visit the M&M Factory
Take students on a virtual field trip to one of the tastiest places on earth: The M&M Factory! During your trip, help students complete the following activities:
Take a virtual tour of the M&M Factory in New Jersey.
Explore the history of chocolate and the M&M brand, and chart the key events on a timeline.
Have students test their knowledge of the candy’s history and production with a trivia quiz.
Discover if the human body could move without a skeleton
Skeletons are a popular Halloween decoration, but they also hold our bodies up and help us move. Use this activity to explore the everyday mystery question, “Would you still be able to move your body without a skeleton?”
Discover the three types of muscles inside the human body: Cardiac, skeletal, and smooth.
Learn more about whether there’s a single strongest muscle in the human body and how scientists measure its strength.
See how bones and muscles work together to help our bodies move.
Learn why spiders don’t get tangled in their webs
Students may wonder if flies and other insects can get tangled in a spider’s web, so why doesn’t the spider get stuck while spinning it? Use this everyday mystery text set to explore that fact:
Learn more about how spiders weave their webs and how their body structure prevents them from getting tangled while they do.
Discover what spiderwebs are made of and why they’re so strong.
Explore why some people fear spiders even though they’re beneficial to humans.
Discover even more interesting facts about spiders
Teach students even more about these creepy-crawly creatures by taking a deeper dive into the world of spiders:
Read more about the ecological importance of spiders, such as what they eat and how they affect human life.
Discover how some spiders use their webs rather than ears to hear what’s happening around them.
Explore the scientific experiments used to determine how some species of spiders can fly.
Take a look at the probability of zombies existing outside of science fiction
Zombies are a science fiction staple, but could they ever exist in the real world? Have students explore this question with resources like:
An explainer article examining why and how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is encouraging people to prepare for the zombie apocalypse.
An article uncovering why more American universities are offering courses about zombies, like the philosophical zombie course at Rollins University.
An article explaining the rare phenomenon of “zombie fires,” which can emerge in the far North after warmer-than-normal summers.
Discover which moon will be out on Halloween night
Even though there won’t be a full moon out this Halloween, the Waxing Gibbous may still be out to light the way for trick-or-treaters. You can teach students more about the phases of the moon with resources like:
A video that explores the moon’s phases and how the cycle repeats.
An article that shares fast facts about Earth’s moon.
An activity idea to encourage students to keep a moon journal and track its shape and position in the sky.
[Dive into haunted history with Halloween social studies activities](id-ss)
Do your students know why they dress up, get candy, or carve pumpkins for Halloween? Help them build their background knowledge on the holiday with some interesting social studies activities:
Explore the hair-raising history of Halloween
How do people around the country—and worldwide—celebrate Halloween, and where do our traditions come from? Look at the holiday’s roots with articles on topics like:
The Celtic festival of Samhain, which served as the original Halloween, marks the end of the harvest.
How Airbnb rented out the real-life castle that inspired Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” for Halloween night.
How the word “boo” came to be associated with ghost stories.
Read an article about how people hid from faeries and other supernatural creatures during the Celtic Samhain festivals.
Watch an interactive video about how people celebrated Samhain, or Nutcrack Night, as a ritual to prepare for the beginning of the “dark half” of the year.
Have students read about the history of zombie lore that appears everywhere, from cultural folktales to television shows.
Explore how certain noises—like zombies’ moans—became part of the traditional Halloween sound effects.
Extend the lesson by having students create and record their own Halloween sound effects using items from around the classroom.
Find out why we visit haunted houses
Some people love the thrill of visiting a haunted house. But when did they become so popular? Explore the history and significance of haunted houses with your elementary students:
Assign an article to teach students about the history of haunted houses and how people have turned them into an entire Halloween industry.
Have students use what they learned in the article to write a recipe to create the perfect scary haunted house.
Add a STEAM challenge and ask students to design their own haunted house. Ask them to label the important features and write a paragraph describing what makes their haunted house special.
Want to make this activity even more locally relevant? Here are three tips you can try:
Discuss local haunted houses and Halloween attractions in your community, city, or town. What makes these activities similar to and different from each other? What elements make them scary?
Take a field trip to a local Halloween attraction during the day. You can also look for behind-the-scenes tours from the venues or local TV news reports of these attractions online. Discuss what makes the elements of these attractions scary after dark vs. during the day.
Research local lore for places that are considered “haunted” or paranormal. Ask students to compare and contrast these local “scary stories” with the history of haunted houses and attractions.
Newsela’s subject products are all treats, no tricks!
Use Newsela’s knowledge and skill-building products to create timely, engaging lessons all year. If you’re not a Newsela customer yet, sign up for Newsela Lite and get a 45-day free trial of all our premium and differentiated content and activities to help you plan more exciting activities through October and beyond.
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