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Who doesn’t love a fun holiday-themed activity? But for certain holidays (and certain school subjects), finding relevant, engaging lessons that fit the theme and provide some educational value can be tricky.
That’s why this year, we’re celebrating Newselaween across our products, including Formative! We’ve got you covered with a selection of Halloween activities for schools in multiple subject areas and all grade levels that are both fun and educational.
Pumpkins, changing leaves, and skeletons, oh my! Check out these themed science lessons from our Formative fall activities bundle:
The pumpkin life cycle activity is perfect for grades K-2. Students watch a video to learn more about the life cycle of a pumpkin. Then they answer questions about how pumpkins grow.
Each question features an audio track and visuals—like pictures or colored text—in the answers to help students still learning to read answer them.
Have your students ever wondered what gives leaves their colors? This experiment encourages students in grades 5-8 to collect data and learn about the pigments in different colored leaves.
The activity uses a variety of question types—like short answer, drawing, and free response—to help students define new vocabulary, explain a hypothesis, and conduct the chromatography experiment.
Younger students may be familiar with the skeleton dance and know the toe bone’s connected to the foot bone. But older students should learn that the metatarsals are connected to the tarsals.
This activity for grades 7-12 uses a diagram to encourage students to name 23 different bones in the human skeleton.
Help students in grades 11-12 practice their physics equations with a fun twist. Each problem uses a Halloween theme like witches in flight, running werewolves, and rolling jack-o-lanterns.
The numeric question type allows students to show their work for each problem. The built-in calculator integration allows students to calculate their answers right in Formative without outside tools.
Start a fall-themed STEM challenge with students in any grade! Discover how to build a sturdy bridge that can hold varying amounts of candy. Students use the engineering design process to plan, build, observe, reflect, and iterate on their designs.
Extra, extra! Read all about pumpkins, poetry, and the season of fall. Check out these themed ELA lessons from our Formative fall activities bundle:
“Goosebumps” by R.L. Stine is a spine-chilling favorite series of many students. In this activity, students will watch two videos about the series, Stine’s writing process, and why humans get goosebumps. Then they’ll answer questions about the books and the science behind scary stories.
Use fall-themed content to make learning the rules of English more engaging. In this activity for grades 1-2, students fix sentences about leaves and pumpkins by adding capitalization and punctuation.
Other questions encourage students to practice their oral reading fluency, comprehension, and knowledge of sentence structure.
Teach students about the wonders of poetry using fall themes as inspiration for haiku poetry. Students in grades 3-5 can learn about the haiku poetry style. Then they can brainstorm what they know about the season of fall and use all the information they’ve collected to write their own fall-themed haiku poem.
Build students' reading comprehension skills with a pumpkin-themed activity. Students in grades 3-5 can read or listen to an informational text about how pumpkins grow. Then, they can review the comprehension questions and answer based on what they learned.
How many pumpkins could a pumpkin picker pick if a pumpkin picker could pick pumpkins? Check out these themed math lessons from our Formative fall activities bundle:
Help students visualize their multiplication problems using the harvest with this math activity for grades 3-4. Students can use the drawing, short answer, and free response questions to create arrays and complete the problems.
This activity is aligned to the Common Core Mathematics Standards for third grade and has the option to include the Engage NY rubric.
Give students in grades 4-5 more practice with word problems using this apple-picking activity. Through the five sections of this assignment, students will follow four friends on their adventure to go apple picking and then make a variety of fall treats with the fruit, like applesauce and apple pie.
Give your geometry lessons a Halloween spin with this pumpkin measurement activity. Perfect for students in grades 5-8, they’ll practice measuring real pumpkins (not included) for things like circumference, diameter, radius, mass, height, width, and volume.
Each question provides space for students to show their work as they calculate each measurement.
Core subjects don’t get to have all the fun! Check out these themed music lessons from our Formative fall activities bundle:
How does music make us feel different emotions? Students in grades 6-12 can find out with this Halloween and horror music activity. They’ll explore the elements that make music scary, like the tempo, dynamics, pitch, dissonance, and instrumentation.
Give students the opportunity to learn more about Halloween traditions, figures, and literature during independent practice time. Our Halloween-themed practice sets are perfect for individual and small group work, independent practice centers, or students who finish assignments and other work early.
Students can choose their favorite way to practice with one of four modes:
Help students brush up on some of their favorite Halloween traditions with these practice sets. They’ll answer questions about favorites like haunted houses, costume parties, and trick or treating.
How much do your students know about the scary creatures that walk the Earth on Halloween night? Use this practice set to test their knowledge of characters like ghosts, vampires, and mummies.
What are some of the symbols we most commonly associate with Halloween? Students can find out using these practice sets that look at the pictures and definitions for objects like broomsticks, cauldrons, and scarecrows.
Let students test their knowledge of their favorite scary stories with these practice sets. Each flashcard or practice item contains the name of a famous scary story—like The Raven, Dracula, or Frankenstein—and a short synopsis of the plot.
Have an idea for a great Halloween activity your students will love, but aren’t sure where to start? Luna, your AI-powered assistant, can help! Chat with Luna or upload a document or image file to your conversation to get started.
You can also try or adapt one of these Halloween prompts to get started:
The Formative Library and practice sets aren’t just for holiday content! They have a variety of pre-made activities developed by our curriculum experts and educators like you. You can use these templates as-is or customize them to fit your instructional needs.
Use the library’s sort filters to browse content by subject and grade level to find what you want. Create your own if you don’t see a template that matches your instructional needs!
Log in to your Formative account and choose how to customize your lessons or practice sets. You can chat with Luna or DIY an activity and create new slides with various multimedia. You can also import content from Google, enhance a PDF or existing document, or import any .CSV or .TSV file to create a practice set.
Don’t have a Formative account yet? Sign up for Formative for free today and start creating activities for Halloween and beyond!
