The Learning Lounge: No Tricks, Just Treats
Festive Learning In Action 🎃
Halloween week can be a tricky time in schools — full of energy, excitement, and maybe a little extra sugar! However, weeks like Halloween are also one of the many times when classroom management meets creativity. Recently, we spoke to various K-5 teachers from across Kentucky, and they shared some of the ways they turn seasonal excitement into powerful learning opportunities. This week in The Learning Lounge, we’re sharing their inventive lessons, engaging activities, and school-wide initiatives, which remind us that even the most spirited weeks can also be full of focus, joy, and growth.
Many teachers find it fun and beneficial to incorporate the Halloween theme into classroom activities. For example, an elementary teacher for Simpson County Schools in Franklin, Kentucky, fills a plastic pumpkin with Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (CVC) words as well as some festive plastic spiders. The students take turns pulling the CVC words out of the pumpkin, and they work together to pair the words. Another classroom activity this teacher found successful was using Halloween-themed erasers for their “ten-frame” mats. The goal is that students will learn about the different ways they can build the number ten. One way to accomplish this is by making groups based on the kinds of erasers they have in their set of ten. For example, four black cats and six spiders.
An elementary teacher from Webster County Schools mentions the importance of “keeping the students within their normal routine even when doing Halloween-themed activities.” One activity she found useful in her classroom was having Halloween-centered coloring pages to work on uppercase and lowercase letter skills. This “color by letter” activity has students pair the capital letter on the color guide (i.e., A: orange) with the corresponding lowercase letter on the coloring page.
An administrator from the same Webster County school finds it beneficial to incorporate rewarding activities into the school day to encourage students to stay on task. During Halloween week, their school holds what they call a “Candy Parade,” where local businesses put on a Trunk or Treat for the students. Similarly, a third-grade teacher from a school in Shelby County, Kentucky, echoes the importance of not allowing for any lulls or “giving students a void to fill” during a week where there may be some extra excitement. He said, “Even with the Halloween party, that doesn’t happen until after recess. So throughout the morning, I [he] set the expectation of focus on the learning.” He finds that having something special for the students to look forward to encourages attention to the task at hand.
One of the ways they reward students for staying on task during this exciting week at school, a principal from the same Shelby County school shared, is through a “Vocabulary Parade.” Students are encouraged to wear their Halloween costumes and walk around the school with a vocabulary word of their choice pinned to their costumes. Parading down the hall with these words encourages them to engage with their vocabulary terms in a unique way. They can ask other students about the words on their costumes, as well as answer questions about their own. Such as, “Can you spell your vocabulary word without looking at it?” Or, “How does your vocabulary word relate to your costume?” Even teachers enjoy getting in on the fun for this activity, one stating that this year she plans for her word to be “tacky.”
Another educator from Webster County Schools talked about how fulfilling the Day of the Dead altar is at the front of the school, where they invite every student to bring pictures of lost loved ones to be remembered! Doing so provides an opportunity for teachers to introduce this holiday within their classrooms and makes space for students who partake in this tradition in their homes to feel recognized.
Whether it is through classroom-based activities, a reward for focused learning, or using Halloween-themed PowerPoint slides, finding strategies that work on keeping students engaged during excitement, such as Halloween, opens an opportunity for students to experience valuable learning creatively.
We’re grateful for the educators who opened up their classrooms for us to explore a few of the ways they mix the spookiest of seasons with classroom success. Let’s keep this conversation going! What activities do you find engaging during the Halloween season?
Happy Halloween!
🎃 The GRREC Team 🎃
