For me, October is one of the hardest months of the year. The first full month of school without any days off. This month is also often the month that contains parent teacher conferences, open houses, picture day, etc. On top of all of that, are a group of middle schoolers so excited to stuff their faces with candy and have spooky fun. The vibe of the classroom in October is often excited, distracted, and honestly a little chaotic. The challenge is, how do I keep my students focused on academic work while also letting them be kids and be excited for this time of the year? One way to channel that energy productively is to add a festive, Halloween-themed twist to your ELA lessons.

Why Halloween ELA Activities Work

I can assure you that engaging themes increase student buy-in without compromising rigor. Themed activities can feel like a break, but still reinforce key skills. They’re easy to integrate into existing pacing with minimal prep work. 

As I’ve mentioned in a blog post before, my crime scene investigations are one of the only lessons I have ever experienced where all 100+ of my middle school students not only participate, but willingly participate. I have seen students who never even bring a pencil to school, happily participate in these activities. I am not a psychology expert by any means. But, I can’t help but think that students are watching to see if their teachers truly care about whether or not they enjoy their activities. Something about knowing your teacher wants you to have fun during the class makes you want to participate. 

So, I am going to show you some of my favorite activities that I use during the Halloween season that are sure to get engagement!

Grammar & Sentence Skills

Let’s talk about the struggle first. Grammar & sentence skills is one thing that I have struggled with for my entire teaching career. Students traditionally dislike grammar (and honestly I used to dislike teaching it as well). However, doing something as simple as changing the theme or the context can add a little joy to this topic. 

One activity that I have used for this during the Halloween season is my Verb Tense Matching Puzzle Game. Students work either alone or with a group/partner. They read spooky sentences and match them to the verb tense card. Students love to look at the little pictures on each sentence card too! If you want to turn it into a game, reward the fastest group with some Halloween candy or another Halloween-themed prize. Otherwise, you can also use them for interactive notebooks and have them glue them into their notebooks for future use. 

My Halloween-Themed Sentence Purpose Color by Number is another activity that I use every October. Students are given a Halloween-themed picture. They identify a series of Halloween-themed sentences and decide what each sentence’s purpose is. Each sentence answer gives them a color, which they then use to color the picture. Easy, low-prep, and it feels like a fun activity to the kids!

Reading Comprehension & Critical Thinking

At the beginning of the year, we are often covering topics like identifying conflict or identifying the author’s purpose. Having Halloween-themed passages makes this practice way more engaging!

One of my best selling resources in my store is my Halloween-themed Author’s Purpose Sorting Cards. Students read a series of Halloween-themed passages and sort them by author’s purpose. I always hype this activity up and make it a competition. First group to correctly sort ALL of the passages gets a prize! I even laminate my cards and give the kids expo-markers so they can write on the cards!

The same goes for my Types of Conflict Sorting Activity. Students read a series of Halloween-themed passages and sort them by type of conflict! This is usually a topic that is hard to teach in a short amount of time. Usually, you have to have your classes read at least one story for each type of conflict. But, my sorting activity allows the students to experience each type of conflict in a short and concise (Halloween-themed) piece of writing. 

Figurative Language & Writing Style

Halloween is rich with vivid imagery (perfect for figurative language lessons). It is a great opportunity to teach topics like suspense or sensory detail. An activity I like to use to teach this topic is my Figurative Language Pumpkin Stacking activity. Students sort through pumpkins. Some pumpkins have figurative language terms, some have definitions, and some have examples. They are asked to match term, to definition, to example to make pumpkin stacks. Once they have done this, they can use these pumpkin stacks in interactive notebooks OR just shuffle them back up for the next group/class to use.

Morning Work or Bell Ringers

October is so important when it comes to keeping strong routines. As one of the first full months of the school year, students are still getting used to you and the way you run your classroom. My October Interactive Digital Journal for ELA Warm Ups is another one of my best selling products. Every day of October includes an ELA task. Some days they are asked to complete a writing prompt, other days they are asked to scour the web for an image, other days they are asked to reflect on themselves. This warm up set requires ZERO prep for you. As long as your students have access to Google Slides, they are good to go!

The best part of this activity is that I have a version for every month! So, you can make this part of your routine now and stick with it for the rest of the year.

If you want a ready-to-go set of activities, there’s a discounted Halloween bundle available in my store. You can get all of these activities that I mentioned PLUS more all for a discounted price.

Final Tips

You do not have to go all-out to make October fun this year. Every one or two themed activities can make a big difference in engagement. Many of these activities are ones that students will remember. I still have students that I run into years later that mention some of my lessons and how they wish they could do it again! Give yourself grace during this hectic month and remember to have fun!