Schools ,all over the World, have made many changes to keep students and teachers safe during the school year, and class Halloween celebrations have seen changes too.
All teachers, have to follow social distancing and other COVID protocols, every day.
Halloween was very different , in my classes,this year,as well.
With social distancing in place , many of the games and activities we love doing at Halloween were simply not possible this year.
As such, it has been quite difficult for me as a teacher ,to come up with fun Halloween games to do while safely social distancing.
Keep Your Distance
Ηere’s my list of fun social distancing Halloween games and activities that our students can safely do while keeping their distance from others. They worked in my class. I do hope, they will work in yours, as well.
What is it about Halloween that I love so much ? It’s its FUN element, I guess!
Therefore, I decided to try and bring some Halloween spirit to my class this weird year.
I attempted to teach my students Halloween themed lessons, and to elicit some excitement from them, following the protocols. I feel that we, at least, paid Halloween a pretty good tribute, against all odds.
A few of my favourite non-contact Halloween active games and activities
The first day I started thinking about how to teach about Halloween safely, for both my students and me, I ran into this highly inspiring English Teacher’s video, on Facebook! I decided to give it a try and see if it worked with my very young learners ! Guess what: it did!! We just loved it!
Highly recommended to all English Teachers! And, please, follow this amazing teacher! She is one of a kind, trust me!
Make A Spooky Puppet Theatre
If you’re looking for a spooky activity to do with your students this 
HalloweenHere’s an idea…Make your own Mini Puppet Theatre (out of a cereal box) and sing-along with 6 monster stick puppets. Watch the video to know more!
https://www.facebook.com/KidsEnglishTheatre/videos/2756291474687434
Another great game I ran into and decided to use in my classes ,both synchronously and asynchronously, is this one, below. I found even more social distancing teaching ideas for Halloween party games to try with my classes, in this amazing site.
Draw A Monster Game
That was a great game to play at Halloween while social distancing. In that game, the kids drew a monster.
To play, I asked each student to grab a piece of paper and something to draw with and then played the video. In the video, the students read a description of a monster. After reading the description, they tried to draw what they thought the monster looked like based on that description.
Once students finished their drawing, I/they played the video to see what the monster looked like.
My students, really loved this kind of activity, especially when their monster drawings looked very similar to the monster in the video. I asked them to work on this video at home, using our asynchronous e-me hive platform but you can follow the same steps, in a school class.
This activity can be easily done at Halloween while social distancing as the students can stay in their seats while they draw their monster, and do not need to be close to or share resources with others.
Halloween Bingo
This next social distancing Halloween game is a Halloween themed BINGO game.
To play, the students were asked to create a Halloween vocabulary Bingo card, in their notebooks, using any 9 Halloween vocabualry words/pictures they wished.
Next, I called out one of the Halloween words, in our vocabulary list, for example ‘ghost’. Then, the students should check their bingo card. If the ghost word/picture is on their card, then they had to cross that Halloween word/picture out.
Then, I called out another Halloween word and again students should check if that word was in their card and if it was, they should cross it out, again. The first student who crossed out all their Halloween words/pictures, was the winner.
Halloween Costume Fashion Show
This social distancing Halloween activity idea is a great way to let kids strut their stuff and show off their fun and scary Halloween costumes.
I always set up an area to be your ‘Halloween catwalk’ and then invite students one by one to walk down the catwalk and show off their great Halloween costumes.
This year, I did that with my 4th graders ,after I had sent them a Halloween vocabulary quizlet and these two relevant songs/videos, in our asynchronous class, first!
I also asked them to visit this , as well as that Thinglink walls , before they decided about what to dress up ,in our school classroom.
To make it feel even more like a fashion show, I snapped some pictures of them in their costumes and shared them with the students’ parents, in our asynchronous class!
Halloween Word Search
I am sure that we all have used word search worksheets ,to get our kids familiar with some Halloween vocabulary. But this online Halloween activity also has the added benefit of being perfectly safe to do while keeping a safe distance from others.
Click to download this Halloween word search or see all our Halloween worksheets.
Another cool web tool , which I personally used to create my own word search activities was Liveworksheets. A free teaching web tool, you will love!
Halloween Charades Game
With a little preparation, this classic party game can be turned into a safe social distancing Halloween game.
If you’re not familiar with charades, in this game one person would choose a card -or to make sure this Halloween game can be played while safely social distancing,the teacher shows him/her a card- and then try to act out what is on the card without using any words or sounds.
To make it into a Halloween game, I simply used cards with Halloween related things on them. For example,I wrote/drew Halloween words (ghost, witch, broomstick, etc), Halloween songs (The Monster Mash, etc) or Halloween Movies (Night of The Living Dead, etc). It’s diffrent ,for each different age/level we teach.
I ensured the student acting out the word and the students guessing the word were all at a safe distance.
HALLOWEEN QUIZZES
Usually, these quizzes would be played in pairs or small teams, but seen as that is not possible while social distancing, these quizzes can be played individually, both at home asynchronously ,or in class, using a projector and working in teams.
You can download this pre-made Top Five Quiz with ten questions.
I personally create my own quizzes, such as this one, on a favourite web tool which is similar to Kahoot, called Quizziz.
Students, love it!
Hot Seat
I thought that, this classic classroom game could be easily adapted so my students could play while social distancing.
This time, I decided to use my Halloween flashcards, to play this game.
I asked one student to come to front of the class and stand / sit at a safe distance from other students. Then standing behind the student I showed the rest of the class a flashcard.
Next, the students tried to describe the word on the flashcard without saying the word, and the student at the front of the class should guess what it was. Super fun!
We played apple bobbing and dangling donuts
- Apple bobbing – I gave each student their own apple in their own bowl of water, or asked them to hold their own apple tied onto a string and challenged them to take a bite without touching it.I made it a race and gave the winner a prize.
- Dangling donuts – Each student held their own donut tied onto a string. They took it in turns to dangle a donut for each other. The challenge was to eat it with no hands, as fast as possible.
Detail 1: there was spooky music playing ,in the background!
Detail 2: My students ,had to watch a couple of videos similar to this one, in our asynchronous class, when at home, before they attended our school class.
Let’s decorate our classroom
You can check out these Halloween craft activities and decoration ideas or print and colour these free Halloween posters to add a spooky message for passers-by.
In our asynchronous “e-me hive“, my students had the chance to watch several videos, such as this one, or this one, follow the directions there and make their favourite crafts and decorations to bring back to class, the following day.
I decided to ask my amazing 4th graders to watch a video with instructions about how to make paper ghosts using their footprints, at home, and make them ,either themselves or with their parents’ help. Then, they were asked to write about them and decorate their classroom bulletin board with them, after they had presented them in class, of course! Cute!
Let’s make spooky food
What better time to indulge in some jaw-droppingly tasty sweets, than Halloween time?
First, I posted a few delicious Halloween treats ideas, to our asynchronous class and asked my students to watch and prepare their favourite treats, bring them to school and share them, in our Halloween party ! Yummy!
A pumpkin carving contest
I suggest that you treat everyone in the class to their very own pumpkin and see who can come up with the best design. Ι have come to the conclusion that a safe way to get little kids involved is to post a video with instructions in an asynchronous teaching platform and tell them to ask their parents to do the cutting for them, first. Then let them scoop out the insides with a spoon. This how to carve a pumpkin beginners’ guide is a great place to start. This is where we started, in our school classroom.
Another nice video, which I posted in our asynchronous hive, to help my older students curve their pumpkins at home, was this one. For my younger learners, I used this video.
I hope, you will like them as much as we did!
Have a ‘scary’ movie night, at home-or a scary movie…. day, at school
At first, I told them that, during Halloween nights, the people who celebrate it take some tasty Halloween treats and wear their Halloween costumes or some cool Halloween PJs like these glow-in-the-dark skeleton ones.
Then, I asked them to watch the short film extracts ,which I had created, using one of my most favourite web teaching tools: edpuzzle, asynchronously, together with their families.
Here’s one example of such film extract ,which my youngest students, liked a lot: E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial .
I even offered them a choice of several other Halloween themed movies, to watch at home, using Quizlet.
Make a spooky music playlist
From Michael Jackson’s Thriller to the Ghostbusters theme tune, I decided to have lots of class fun compiling a spooky playlist to listen to, together with my students. I thought it was safe, to post the lyrics to our asynchronous class first and later,with the use of a projector, have a Halloween karaoke competition, in the school classroom ! It was so much fun! Although, it didn’t last long ,since our teaching hours last only about 40 minutes ! My students were given the opportunity to sing the songs again and again, at home, too, thanks, to our asynchronous class platform posts.
For my very young learners, I did the very same thing , using their favourite Halloween songs, such as this one , this one or even this one!
We all danced and sang happily- in safe distances, of course!
Story Reports
You don’t have to read a book on the page to write a story report. This Halloween, instead of having my students listen to an audiobook or story, I decided to have my wicked witch puppet, Amelia present herself to the class!
It was an active listening activity, using puppetry! I asked them to keep notes, while listening.
Then I had them write a story report based on what they heard, or give a summary of the story to our asynchronous class, in a padlet presentation.
Happy Halloween teaching!
ELT inspired 