Halloween : That time of the year again

[SJW]

I'm looking for English activities , connected to Halloween, where the
kids (P3 , Chinese) get to do more than dress up and look cute .

I'm not going to have time to practice ,rehearse or pre-teach anything
much , so something with quick access is vital ! Halloween party games that I can come up with don't require the use of much English ...so any ideas or links gratefully received !

[revel]

Good morning.

I'd say you are a very prepared teacher, SJW, I certainly haven't thought about halloween activities at the end of August before.

Someone recently explained a couple of variations of the "monsters" game. Don't remember where. Using a spinner or a die, kids draw monsters based on number of body parts assigned to numbers. My version is a board game, as they march around the board they accumulate numbers of noses, heads, etc, of different colors, and once they have everything they need, they spend ten to fifteen minutes drawing their monster to then have it posted on the cork board.

Only thing that comes to mind, I personally don't "celebrate" any holidays in class except Christmas which is difficult to avoid, since it is days in coming and involves so much marketing. Halloween in Spain is still a curiosity that mostly comes from ESL teachers doing activities. I usually skip over it except perhaps a brief explanation of its origins for more advanced learners.

peace,
revel.

[SJW]

" I haven't thought about Halloween activities at the end of August
before"

This made me laugh (hopefully not the only time today) Welcome to
the wonderful world of teaching in Hong Kong!

Thanks for your idea. I think it is workable ( with some adaptation cf:
180 students at one time.....don't ask.)

Ok , now only another 6 activities to come up with ......



SJW ( * Heading off to think about St Valentines Day )

[revel]

Hey, SJW!

I won't ask about that number, but will send you energies to face your challenges....

Soooo, do an Easter Egg hunt of some kind (getting you ready for the bunny dates). Give each child a personality, for example, a scarry character (a witch, a vampire, a mummy, a frankenstein, etc) and have them draw their character on a small piece of paper. Then have them dash about the room looking for others who have the same character..."Are you a vampire?", until they form pairs or small groups. Once these groups are made, have them play some team-oriented game, so that at the end of the activity you can say "The vampires have won! They are the scarriest of all monsters!" With 180 in the class, you ought to wear earplugs for this one. Good luck!

peace,
revel.

[Leo]

There are loads of quick and easy Easter activities here:

http://www.eslkidstuff.com/HalloweenGames.htm

[glcote]

I would appreciate some assistance in completing a project.
I built a web page listing online resources for Halloween that could be useful to teachers. These are listed under the following headings:

History & Traditions - Pumpkin Patch -
Language Activities - Puzzles - Quizzes -
Activities, Crafts, Game, Songs & Stories -
Clip Art - Colouring Pages - En français -
Other Useful Online Resources

The web page is at the following address:
http://www.caslt.org/research/halloween.htm

Although the list is quite extensive, I know I have certainly missed a number of excellent online resources. Suggestions of resources I could add to this list would be most welcomed

Thank you,

Gilles
[email protected]

[yoda]

There are also some good Halloween Worksheets at Boggle's World.

[yoda]

Here's some more fun cards with possible Halloween themes:

The Monster Cards (teach prepositions)
The Monster Fashion Show (teach clothes)
The FairyTale Cards (Many good Halloween Characters)

[yoda]

Just finished making some new Halloween Flashcards to add to the Halloween materials we have posted. They can be taught at two levels.
Easy: A skeleton, a witch, ghost
Intermediate: A skeleton at the cemetery, a witch flying a broomstick, a ghost at a haunted house.