[Free October Resources] Celebrate Halloween with Edmentum

Celebrate Halloween in your classroom with a free topical resource packet from Edmentum. In this packet, you’ll find spook-tacular critical thinking questions, fact sheets, activities, and a fun poster to help your class explore the traditions of Halloween, learn about the lifecycle of pumpkins, and even take part in a slimy experiment.

Educators embrace Halloween in the classroom in different ways. While some teachers still observe traditional spooky-themed Halloween celebrations, others have moved toward putting an educational spin on the classroom costume party. Your classroom may not be the place for witches or ghosts this year, but there are creative ways you can incorporate a fun, educational Halloween day into your lesson plan on October 31. Take a look at these three education-appropriate ideas to help celebrate Halloween at school.

Book Character Day

What could be better than playing dress-up at school and celebrating your class’ favorite books? Many schools have embraced book character dress-up days and even hold schoolwide “storybook parades,” where students can march in front of other classes and schoolmates to show off their character costumes.

For emerging readers, help your students select a book from your school or classroom library. Have your students read the book at home and then on a designated day, come to in-person or virtual class dressed as the main character from that book. For students with stronger literacy skills, you can ask students to present a short book report to the class where they describe their character. Whether it’s Corduroy, Ms. Frizzle, Rainbow Fish, Fly Guy, Willy Wonka, or another favorite, your students will have fun bringing their favorite characters to life!

History Report

Another great way to tie an educational theme into a fun Halloween celebration is to have your students dress up as a historical figure or a person living during a different time in history. To make things simple, type up a list of historical figures featured in the curriculum you’ll cover throughout the year and have students choose one from the list. Or, draw student's names randomly from a hat to ensure that you don’t end up with multiples costumes of the same person or historical period.

Tie-in a writing lesson by having your students research the person or time period they have chosen and write a brief biography about the figure, or describe what a day in the life might look like for someone in their assigned time period. On dress-up day, students can present their costumes and biographies to the class and share with their classmates.  

What I Want to Be

Imagining future careers is a fun way for your students to learn about different jobs and share their aspirations with their teachers and classmates. Before Halloween, have your students write a brief report where they describe a career that interests them and why, as well as what a day in the life might look like for someone with that career.

On Halloween, have your students bring a prop item or dress up as they would for their future job, or as a well-known person in the industry they have chosen. You can have students present to the class about what they want to be, or you can have them gather into groups and discuss how their different careers might work together in a community.

Do you love free stuff? Then check out our Free Resources page for classroom packets, workbooks, and more!