The best free Halloween lessons and activities can help educators overcome the most terrifying sight of all: an unengaged student. So bring your classroom back to life – or just un-deadism – with the resources here. From science experiments to history exercises and fun opportunities for active learning to spooky game-building, these Halloween lessons and activities will have your students doing the education version of the “Monster Mash” in no time.

You might also start a lesson by discussing how Halloween grew out of ancient Celtic traditions around Samhain and was brought to the U.S. by immigrants from Ireland and Scotland. The holiday also coincides with All Saints Day on November 1, and was originally called All Hallows Eve.

Best Free Halloween Lessons and Activities

Read and analyze Halloween poetry

This delightfully creepy (and sometimes comic) collection of Halloween-themed poems features diverse voices, from 16th-century Shakespeare to 21st-century poets such as Rae Armantrout and Michael Collier. Poetry is meant to be read aloud, so have your students choose their favorite to read in class, then discuss as a class what emotions and ideas the words evoke.

Learn about the Salem Witch Trials

What happened during the famous Salem witch trials of 1692? Return to this time when witches were not considered imaginary entities, but rather living beings who might be your neighbor or friend. This rich collection of teaching resources from the Salem Witch Museum includes lesson plans by grade, primary sources, video FAQs for students, and links to videos and articles exploring Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, modern witch hunts, and archaeological investigations.

Play a Halloween Game Online

Give your students a break from Halloween history and poetry to play fun, fast-paced Halloween online games. For a more educational slant, check out these Halloween Word Search Printable Puzzles, which range from easy to expert.

Teach Halloween-Themed STEM Topics

Science need not be scary when it involves fake blood, ghostly puppets, and candy chemistry. Each complete lesson includes a difficulty rating, background, step-by-step instructions, vocabulary, and much more. Truly a treat for both students and teachers.

Do Halloween Math

Your students will already be eager to count their candy this season, but you can add to the Halloween mirth with these Halloween math exercises. Examine the math of a spiderweb or make predictions about the size of a pumpkin and how many seeds it has, and much more.

Play Halloween Themed Games

You’ll find Halloween-themed quizzes, worksheets, puzzles, and other fun games and exercises at BogglesWorld. These games and activities are suitable for younger students and will get them excited to study vocabulary as they develop problem-solving skills.

Survive The Zombie Apocalypse

The Zombie Apocalypse I: STEM of the Living Dead — the TI-Nspire is a free activity that teaches students the math and science epidemiologists use to track and prevent the spread of real-world diseases. Students will learn about graphing geometric progression, interpreting data, and understanding various parts of the human brain. Also, there will be images of bloody zombies to look at.

Learn About Halloween Word History

You and your students can look up the history of words associated with Halloween, such as witches, boo, and vampires. A team at the Preply online language learning platform used data from Merriam Webster to determine when these and other words first gained prominence. Halloween, for instance, made its way into the English language in the early 1700s. See below for more details:

Read a Scary Story

Reading a scary-but-not-too-scary story in class or having older students read a creepy story aloud can get students who are fans of Halloween excited about literature. Here are some favorites for younger students; and recommendations for older students.

Create a Floating Ghost

Create a floating ghost with tissue paper, a balloon, and the power of electricity by following these instructions. Crying out, “It’s alive, it’s alive!” afterward is optional.

Conduct a Halloween Themed Science Experiment

The world of the undead may be beyond the comprehension of science but experiments can be the perfect way to get your students in the spirit of Halloween. Little Bins Little Hands offers instructions for a variety of free Halloween science-based experiments including a bubbling cauldron and a fun-if-gross puking pumpkin.

Learn About the History of Halloween and Similarities to Other Holidays

Have your students research the history of Halloween on their own or share this story from History.com. Then examine the differences between this U.S. holiday and The Day of The Dead, which is celebrated right after Halloween but is a distinct and more joyful celebration.

The Haunted Hayride: An Immersive Experience

Avantis Education, creators of ClassVR, is offering a free “Haunted Hayride” lesson in which teachers can take students on an immersive virtual adventure exploring a haunted trail that winds through a pumpkin patch. As students navigate the trail, they will learn about the origins of Halloween including how Celtic customs shaped modern Halloween – and enjoy some spooky surprises along the way!

• Best Free Indigenous Peoples Day Lessons and Activities
• Best Cybersecurity Lessons and Activities for K-12 Education

In earlier posts I have shared Google Docs templates for creating Emoji Rebus Stories for both Wintertime and Valentine's Day. With Fall coming soon, I have put together a Halloween-themed version.

Anyone who grew up reading Highlights magazine in the dentist waiting room will quickly recognize a rebus. Basically it is a story where some of the words are replaced by images. This can be a fun activity for students, both to create and to read. It may even help with younger students who are not proficient at spelling but can choose the image for the word they want.

Get the Template

Click the link below to get a copy of the template:

• Halloween Emoji Rebus Story Template - Google Docs template

The template includes directions, and a collection of sample Halloween-themed emojis the student can use in their writing.

[What's New in Google]

Directions for Use

After you get a copy of the template...

• Write a story that uses text, but also with images in place of key words.
• For the images, you can use the emojis that are included with Google Docs.
• You can copy and paste emojis from the sample emoji bank provided at the top of the document.
• Or you can add any emoji of your choice by clicking "Insert" then "Special characters" then "Emoji"

• From that window you can browse, draw, or type in a search term to find the emoji you want to add to your document.

For more projects using emojis in Docs, see my original post on this topic, which can be found here:

• 5 Emoji Learning Activities with Google Docs - Blog post link

Note: Emojis appear differently on different operating systems. Because of this, the images may not look the same on every device. If you are using any modern computer or device (Chromebook, Android, iOS, Mac OS, Windows), the emojis should display well. However if you are using an older version of Windows earlier than Windows 8.1, the emojis do not appear in color and many may be missing.

More Halloween Fun

For another great Halloween-themed activity, be sure to check out my earlier post "Build a Jack-O-Lantern with Google Slides". This activity allows students to use their creativity to make their own jack-o-lantern, while learning helpful computer skills, and then work on their writing skills by describing their creation.

cross posted at www.controlaltachieve.com

Eric Curts is an education trainer and consultant with over 20 years' experience throughout the U.S. He is an authorized Google Education Trainer and a Google Certified Innovator. Read his blog at www.controlaltachieve.com and follow him on Google+ and @ericcurts on Twitter.