Channeling Halloween Energy and Excitement into Cool Learning Lessons

As the first of the fall holidays approaches and the harvest moon rises, there's a shift in the mindset of our students. They've moved past the excitement of starting back to school, and now they are refocusing on the coming holidays.

Halloween can be a great time to teach some scary literature, read some bizarre history, learn world cultures, take a virtual ghost tour, and work some spooktacular math. There are wonderfully creative websites designed to use all of that "trick or treat" energy in a positive way and make learning lots of fun.

For elementary students, there are a host of fun-filled websites for every subject.

This Spruce Crafts website gives us 23 great sites to visit. Some of my favorites are a matching game, Jacko Matcho, a mind challenging game, Frankenbrain, a Halloween themed Sudoko, a direction following recipe game for spooky virtual potions, Witchmart, and even a typing game, Typing Monster. Click HERE to try all of them.

PBS kids also has a great array of fun, Halloween-themed educational games. Take a look HERE.

The younger children might also enjoy

For middle school students, they might enjoy games with a little more challenge and spookiness.

Ben and Jerry's ice cream offers a stroll through the Flavor Graveyard. This could be used as a quick end of class poll after giving students a quick 5 to browse the deceased flavors and pick their favorite resurrection flavor. Check it out HERE.

For a great Halloween list of sites suitable for middle school students in various subject areas, try clicking HERE. However, if you'd like some real learning included in the interactivity, you may want to try more specific sites.

If you teach reading, try Poe's The Raven site, complete with colored codes figurative language examples. Find it HERE. The Simpsons also have a great video version of The Raven. Of course, Halloween wouldn't be complete without a few ghost stories, so scope out the most appropriate ones at this site by clicking HERE.

There are many other sites that could be used in other subjects. For instance, the cultural aspects of Halloween around the world is summarized briefly when you click HERE or HERE. What a great start to develop a virtual scavenger hunt to gather more details and pictures about each countries traditions for the spooky holiday.

A thorough list of Halloween-related social studies interactive game sites can also be located HERE.

High school students love the wierd and spooky thrills, too.

From Day of the Dead video history to the Salem Witch Trials (history and culture) to Diagnosing a Zombie and Oozing Pumpkin (science), this site covers every core subject with some great spooky activities for teens. Learn more HERE. Halloween even offers games for algebra and other math skills. Those can be found HERE.

Making learning fun will keep it fresh and focused for your students. Happy Halloween! May your tricks be treats!

Region 17 Specialists Who Can and Want to Help You in Your Content Area

Fine Arts and TEKS Resource System - Jarard Lafuente - jlafuente@esc17.net

Social Studies - Sabrina Blankenship - sblankenship@esc17.net

Lesson Study and Math - Heather Sherrill - hsherrill@esc17.net

K-2 Core and Grade 3 Reading Lang Arts - Julie Rogers - jrogers@esc17.net

Bilingual and ESL - Linda Musquiz - lmusquiz@esc17.net

Reading - Alyson Earhart - aearhart@esc17.net and Cynthia Hobbs - chobbs@esc17.net

Instructional Technology - Misty Castro - mcastro@esc17.net

Gifted and Talented - Greg Reeves - greeves@esc17.net

Career and Technical Education - Heather Blount - hblount@esc17.net

If you have observations and mentor rubrics completed in October please upload those ASAP. Our program must complete monthly TEA reports as part of the ongoing audit of all programs.

Please remember to pre-conference and post-conference with CT's and interns before each observation. These may be done by phone or Facetime, if face to face is not an option.

There is an upcoming edTPA one hour training on supporting teacher candidates in edTPA. If you would like to join, please register.

October 20, 2021, 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. Register HERE for the webinar. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

November 17, 2021, 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. Register HERE for the webinar. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

This is the final edTPA deep dig for the year. It focuses on Curriculum Inquiry. It is offered on November 12, 2021 from 9:00 AM -12:00 PM. Register HERE if you want to attend.

Please remind MENTORS of the upcoming mentor webinar date if they did not make the one in September.

Webinar Dates, Times, and Registration Links

• November 16, 2021 from 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. Register HERE for the November 16 webinar.