While we do usually teach Halloween words, for us the main aim of a party class is to give students a break from studying, relax, and learn a little about western culture. Traditional games played in England for Halloween include bobbing for apples, and the classic game of trying to eat marshmallows hanging from string, and it would certainly be fun to teach these games, students may have allergies, or may just refuse to eat the food on the grounds that they dislike the taste. Also, with the current problems with the Coronavirus parents may take issue with children eating at the school. For these reason, despite pumpkins being an intrinsic part of the Halloween festivities, the games here do not include any food.
Lesson length : 30 to 40 minutes
Class size : Small Group class
Preparation time : 20 – 60 minutes to prepare the “Halloween Fishing” game (Depending on the level of detail), 20 – 30 minutes to prepare the “Halloween Can Stacking”, and 10 minutes per pocket (Because this craft requires glue to dry, prepare atleast a day before) to prepare “Magic Pockets papercraft”, 30 – 60 minutes to prepare the “Search for it” game, and flashcards.
Materials :
- For “Halloween Fishing” game : Fishing rods for each team made with a magnet on a string, tied to the end of a long tube; Lots of halloween animals and monsters with paperclips attached with tape. *We played our games in boxes with a web of string to make the games more challenging.
- For “Halloween Can Stacking” : Empty tuna cans; large Halloween images that can be cut and glued around the sides of the tuna cans; a timer; a tool to pick up each can, made from 4 pieces of string tied equidistant around the edges of an elastic band
- For the “Magic Pockets papercraft” : A sheet of transparent plastic; a printed copy of the appendices; stick glue; scissors; colour pens, pencils, or crayons; a permanent marker.
- For “Search for it” : A picture with lots of halloween images in for each team (Search for "Halloween I spy" on Google and you should find any number of images to use). Lots of cards with square sections from the picture on them. A square frame with the centre cut out for each team.
Instructions
1. Teachers show the flashcards to the class, and have students repeat the new Halloween vocabulary after the teacher. If students have come in costume, and any students are wearing the same costumes as the flashcards, match those to the students.
2. Play “Halloween Fishing” : This game is essentially the rules of our fishing game, but with halloween monsters or insects instead of fish. We played our game inside a box, and made a web of string across the opening of the box to make it just a little more challenging for the students. Left click the button below to see full instructions for our original fishing game.
3. If students are a little older and have a steady enough hand, play the “Halloween Stacking” game in teams with the elastic band, however this can be a little harder to coordinate with younger students, so teachers may just wish to play the game as a simple puzzle, with students working together to pick up and place the cans on top of each other using their hands, and creating the images. Left click the button below to see full instructions for the "Halloween Can Stacking game".
4. For a craft that is sure to wow younger learners, and that is easy to make, try the "Magic Pocket craft". Left click the button below to see full instructions, and download our free printable materials.
5. In the unlikely event that there is still time at the end of class, teachers may wish to play a game of "Search for it". Teachers show one of the cards with sections of the picture in them to the class and students must race to find that section of their own picture sheets with the their frames. We played this game in our online infant classes, too. See a clip in the Halloween game compilation video below.
We chose the themes of insects and monsters in our Halloween fishing games
We chose to create the can puzzles by hand in our class above with younger students
All off the materials for the "Search for it" game are free and readily available online