Did you know that Halloween is based on a festival from thousands of years ago?
Witches, ghosts and pumpkins are just some of the things we associate with this spooky time of year.
Teach your children about the Halloween using our handy topic guide!
Teaching Ideas
- Introduce some German Halloween vocabulary with this PowerPoint or try this Spanish version.
- Write Halloween stories on this Halloween paper.
- Give your children one of these images and ask them to complete the rest of the Halloween scene.
- Ask your children to design a pumpkin.
- Watch the short film Ghostboy and try out some of our teaching ideas.
- For a fun PE starter, have a game of Witches, Goblins and Monsters.
- Try this geography idea, where children paint the continents onto a pumpkin.
- Read The Witches and try out some of these ideas.
Resources
- Our Halloween Inspiration Posters make great discussion and writing prompts.
- Make your Halloween Topic planning easy with our Halloween Teaching Pack.
- Brighten up your Halloween display with our banners and display letters. You can make your own titles using our ghost or pumpkin display letters.
- Use one of our large Halloween pictures; Chose from a pumpkin, Count Dracula, a haunted house, or a witch.
- Support your children’s writing with this Halloween word mat.
Halloween Facts
- Halloween is a shortened version of “All Hallow Even”, meaning the night before All Saints Day. It falls on the 31st of October.
- Many Halloween traditions come from the pagan festival of Samhain, which was a time when the divide between the living and the dead was believed to be very thin, and spirits could return to Earth.
- The tradition of dressing up at Halloween comes from Samhain. People would dress up to scare away evil spirits.
- Jack O’Lanterns were originally carved out of turnips or beets; when the festival began to be celebrated in the USA, people there used pumpkins instead.
- Trick or treating is believed to date back to medieval times when poor people would be given sweet treats to pray for the souls of rich people’s relatives!
Videos
How To Carve A Halloween Turnip
Learn about the history of Halloween lanterns and how to make one with a turnip. Children will need adult help and supervision to make one.
Running time: 2:40
A Pumpkin’s Life
A fascinating time-lapse video showing a pumpkin patch from planting to harvest.
Running time: 3:01
Skeleton Dance
A fun animation of the well-known song about the skeleton.
Running time: 2:19
Meg and Mog
TEXT
Running time: 3:52
Books
Room on the Broom
This well-loved rhyming tale is perfect for younger children.
The Worst Witch
Jill Murphy’s tale of life at a boarding school for witches.
The Graveyard Book
Bod lives in the Graveyard, brought up by ghosts. But the assassin who killed his family is still looking for him. A terrific read for older children.
The Ghost of Thomas Kempe
Who is causing all the trouble at James’ new house? It’s not James…
The Witches
Can anyone stop the Grand High Witch?
Don't Read This Before Bed
Spooky, true stories from National Geographic Kids.
Links
- Try out these Worst Witch Challenges from CBBC.
- Test your memory skills with this card matching game.
- Try one of the Primary Games collection of educational Halloween games.
- The British Council site has games, songs and stories about Halloween.
- Learn more about the history of Halloween on the DKfindout site.
Are you teaching your children about other topics? Explore our full collection of guides!
