Are your kiddos counting down the days until Halloween? Make use of that energetic focus and work on math and literacy skills with these ideas for Halloween centers.
setting up Halloween centers
To determine how many centers you can set up, block out some time in the morning, afternoon, or both when your students can work at the centers. Then consider how much time you’d like them to spend at each station. If you have an hour and a half and would like them to spend 15 – 20 minutes at each station, that would allow you to set up 4 -5 stations. If you have more time available you can set up a few more.
Divide up your students into small groups and start a group at each center. Then they can rotate through them as time allows.
Ideas for Halloween Centers
- Have words related to Halloween on separate paper slips, index cards, or sticky notes. Provide a place for them to write the words in alphabetical order. This activity lets students interact with seasonal vocabulary and practice their alphabet. Kids can manipulate the words while putting them into their alphabetical order BEFORE writing them down.
- Ask students to write their opinions about various choices related to Halloween. For example, you can have pictures (real-life photos or clip art) of different spooky Halloween items and ask students which they think is spookier and why. You could have a bat and a spider, a ghost or a zombie, or a witch or Frankenstein. Another idea is to ask them which they like better, apples or pumpkins. Or give them choices between candies or other Halloween foods.
- See how many words they can make out of the letters in the word Halloween. Or use other seasonal words. It’s very helpful if they have some way to physically manipulate the letters, so have letter tiles or magnetic letters for them to use.
- Use candies like M&Ms or Skittles to practice counting and graphing. Place a bowl of candies in the center and have students sort them by color. They can count how many there are of each and keep track in a simple data table. Take it a step further by having them create a bar graph to show the numbers of each color.
- See this earlier blog post for even more ideas!
Low Prep halloween centers puzzles and games
If you’re short on time to create your own centers, this resource will be of great help!
This resource includes learning games and puzzles that your students will love. Perfect for independent centers, morning work, small group instruction, homework, or even early finishers. Students can enjoy learning with some Halloween fun and these engaging Halloween puzzles and games.
There are vocabulary sorts, candy corn number puzzles, and games that include game boards and teacher instructions. Your students will enjoy this large variety of different Halloween activities!
You might also like these Halloween resources:
What’s your favorite Halloween center activity?
