Halloween lesson plan

“Happy Halloween!”

Special lesson Level 2 Age 5-7

Lesson plans for ESL kids teachers

Special lesson

Halloween

In this lesson, students are introduced to some well-known Halloween characters, learn a Halloween song, read a story about Halloween, make a Halloween mask and play lots of fun Halloween games.

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Age: 5-7 years
Time: 50 mins – 1 hour 10 mins
Objectives: Recognize and identify 8 Halloween words and sing a Halloween song.
Structures: “Happy Halloween!“, “What’s this?”, “What noise does it make?”.
New vocabulary: Halloween, mask, ghost, monster, witch, black cat, wizard, mummy, bat, zombie.

Lesson materials

Flashcards:

Halloween flashcards: ghost, monster, witch, black cat, wizard, mummy, bat, zombie

Printables:

Happy Halloween reader worksheet
Halloween find worksheet

Songs:

Hello song
Goodbye song
10 Little witches

Readers:

Happy Halloween

Supplies:

name tags for each student
a glove puppet
[hide_on_uk]colored[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]coloured[/hide_on_us] crayons / pencils
Halloween decorations
cardboard boxes and creepy objects for the “Feel in the boxes” activity
paper plates with elastic straps (for masks)
mask decorations (e.g. glitter, felt, wool, stickers, colored card, tape, glue, etc.)
cushions (1 per student)
device to play the songs on

Notes:

In this lesson, students are introduced to some well-known Halloween characters, learn a Halloween song, read a story about Halloween, make a Halloween mask and play lots of fun Halloween games.

There is a craft and some activities that require some pre-class preparation (see these sections below: Set the atmosphere, Play “Feel in the boxes”, Do “Halloween paper plate mask craft” and End with some fun Halloween activities).

Lesson procedure:

Warm up and maintenance:

1. Set the atmosphere and greetings
Let’s get the atmosphere of Halloween started right from the beginning of class.

Note:

Not too scary! Some of the activities in this lesson could be a little scary for younger students so make sure you get the right tone – fun and safe!

Before class, think about how you can make the room and lesson come to life. This all depends on your resources, but some ideas can be:

lights – turn off some lights and close curtains to make the room darker. Place some jack-o-lanterns around the room.
get some glow-in-the-dark stars and shapes and stick them around the walls
rearrange the furniture
have some eerie music playing in the background
hang decorations around the classroom, such as bats and ghost crafts (if you have other classes you can build up the decorations as you do crafts each lesson)
dress up as a Halloween character (if possible, one of the characters you are teaching in this lesson).
in a previous lesson ask your students (or their parents) to come to this lesson in Halloween fancy dress. This is great fun and you can have a fancy dress party during the lesson with prizes for best, scariest, funniest, etc.

Have everyone wait outside the classroom until it is time to go in. Stand at the door and as each student enters greet them by name and say, “Happy Halloween!” and have them reply “Happy Halloween”.

2. Play “Feel in the boxes”
Before class, prepare some cardboard boxes. These are going to hide Halloween-related things that the students have to feel and guess what they are.

Prepare the boxes by cutting a hole in one side, just large enough to put your arm through. You can even put on a material flap to cover the hole and stop prying eyes. Inside the boxes place some Halloween type objects which you can pick up in discount stores, party stores and supermarkets, such as:

plastic bats, spiders, etc.
goo or slime
[hide_on_uk]jello[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]jelly[/hide_on_us] shaped as a brain
spider webs
cooked, cold spaghetti noodles (worms)
peeled grapes (eye balls)
fake fur (monster hair)
cooked rice (maggots)
tofu (can be anything gross)
dried pasta (teeth or bones)
mini hot dogs (toes)

Allow the students to wonder around the classroom and feel inside the boxes and try to guess what each object is. This is bound to cause a lot a screams and laughter, but everyone will thoroughly enjoy it and it will be well worth the effort of setting it up.

Finally, have everyone sit down and ask what they think is in each box (e.g. “I think it’s worms!”) and then take out each item to show everyone what it really is.

Before continuing, get everyone to help you clear everything to the sides of the classroom.

3. Name tags
By now your students shouldn’t have any problems writing their names, so there is no need to give them name cards to copy from. However, keep their name cards handy, just in case some students still have problems.

Simply give a blank name tag to each student to write their name on in pencil and stick it on.

Introduce glove puppet - greetings and introductions activity

4. Glove puppet greetings
Bring out your glove puppet bag and have everyone shout “Hello!“ into the bag until he wakes up and jumps out of the bag. Then model chatting with the glove puppet …

Puppet: “Hello”, What’s your name?”
Teacher: “My name is…”.
Puppet: “How are you?”
Teacher: “I’m fine, thank you”.

… and then have the puppet say hello to each student and ask them the same questions. Then have the puppet ask any other questions practiced in previous lessons. Finally, go around saying “Goodbye” and “See you” before going back into the bag and back to sleep.

5. Sing the “Hello song”
Sit in a circle and sing the song (clap along or pat knees).

Lyrics for the “Hello song”

Hello, hello,
How are you today?
Hello, hello,
How are you today?

I’m fine, thank you,
I’m fine, thank you,
I’m fine, thank you,
And how about you?

Hello, hello,
How are you today?
I’m fine, thank you,
And how about you?

Gestures for the “Hello song”

These are quite straight forward. First time you play the song do the gestures and encourage everyone to do them with you.

Wave as you sing the “Hello, hello” parts.
Gesture to others as you sing, “How are you today?”
Point to yourself as you sing, “I’m fine, thank you”
Hand gesture towards another student as you sing, “And how about you?”.

[hide_on_uk]Short sample (members get full-length song):
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[hide_on_us]Short sample (members get full-length song):
 [/hide_on_us]

6. Homework check
Check each student’s homework that you set in the last lesson. Ask each student some questions about their homework worksheet (e.g. “What’s this?”, etc.), give lots of praise, and then put some kind of mark on the homework sheet (e.g. a sticker, a stamp or draw a smiley face).

Finally, tell your students to put their homework back into their bags.

7. Do “Exercise routine” activity
Say the following and have the students follow your lead:

“Stand up” (Teacher stands and so does everyone else)
“Hands up / hands down” (do 4 or 5 times)
“Jump” (4 or 5 times)
“Kick” (4 or 5 times)
“Run! / Stop!” (4 or 5 times)
“Turn around! / Stop!” (4 or 5 times)
“Wiggle!” (a few seconds)
finally “Sit down”.

New learning and practice:

1. Teach new vocabulary and play “Flashcard ghost chase”
Before class print out the flashcards for these Halloween characters: monster, witch, black cat, wizard, mummy, bat, zombie. Then on 2 or 3 backs of these cards print a ghost picture.

Explain you are going to play “Ghost chase”. Show one flashcard and teach / elicit the word. Then quickly turn over the card – if the back is blank everyone is safe (“phew!”). If the back of the card has the ghost image, shout “Ghost!“ – everyone jumps up and runs to keep out of your way. You have chase everyone and tag them (they have to sit down). You can even have one of the students act as the ghost.

Finally, return everyone back to the middle of the floor to continue with the flashcards.

2. Do “Halloween paper plate mask craft”
Before class prepare enough paper plates for each student. They are going to make masks and wear them so you will also need elastic to keep the masks on.

Also prepare things for making the masks – [hide_on_uk]colored[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]coloured[/hide_on_us] pens, glitter, felt, wool, stickers, [hide_on_uk]colored[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]coloured[/hide_on_us] card, tape, glue, etc.

Put the class into groups and each group sits together. Give each group a different Halloween character flashcard (e.g. witch, zombie, etc.) and have them make a mask for that character.

3. Play “Halloween walk”
Everyone is going to play a game wearing their masks. First get the “ghosts” to stand up and show you how ghosts move around (saying “Whooooooo!”). Next get the monsters to stumble around going “Rhaaaaa!”, and so on.

Finally, get everyone to stand up and shout out instructions (e.g. “Move like a zombie!”) to get everyone to move around making the sound. Here are the sounds for each character:

ghost (Whooooooooo!)
monster (Rhhaaaaaa!)
witch (Cackle cackle!)
black cat (Meoooowwww!)
wizard (Ho ho hoooo!)
mummy (Grrrrrrrrrr!)
bat (Eeekk! Eeekk!)
zombie (Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!)

4. Read and write time
This segment can be part of all your lessons. Spend 10 to 15 minutes building up your students’ writing and reading skills. You’ll need to assess your students’ reading/writing level and then choose to start at one of the following stages:

Reading and writing activities by level:

1. Beginners: students cannot read or write the alphabet.
Each lesson introduce 3 lower-case letters of the alphabet (first lesson will be a, b, c). Use flashcards to do this. Play alphabet games and do printing worksheets.
» See our ‘Alphabet a-z (lowercase)’ mini-lesson plans for full details.

2. Early starters: students have experience with the alphabet but need phonics practice.
Each lesson introduce 5 lower-case letters of the alphabet (first lesson will be a, b, c, d, e). Use flashcards to do this. Start by working on the sounds of the letters and then move onto letter clusters (e.g. sh, ee, etc).
» See our ‘Alphabet’ and ‘Letter clusters’ mini-lesson plans for full details.

3. Early readers.
Work on reading and writing simple sentences with lots of practice activities.
» See our ‘Early reading’ mini-lesson plans for full details. (click on “Early reading” tab)

4. Elementary readers: students can read and write simple sentences well.
Work on reading and writing short texts and stories.
» See our ‘Reading short texts’ mini-lessons for full details. (click on “Reading short texts” tab)

5. Sing the “10 Little witches” song
This is a nice and simple song about witches for our students enjoy. It’s also a great review if you have covered counting up to 10 in previous lessons – if not, no need to worry, your students will enjoy dancing to the song!

Get everybody to stand up and tell them they are going to sing a Halloween song. First play the song and show everyone the finger actions – have them all try and follow along with you as you do the actions.

Then play again and get everyone to join in. It’s a very short song, so feel free to play multiple times if your students are enjoying it.

Lyrics for “10 little witches”

Verse 1:
1 little, 2 little, 3 little witches
4 little, 5 little, 6 little witches
7 little, 8 little, 9 little witches
10 little witches in a row.

Verse 2:
10 little, 9 little, 8 little witches
7 little, 6 little, 5 little witches
4 little, 3 little, 2 little witches
1 little witch on her own.

Gestures for “10 little witches”

This is very simple – have everyone stand up and hold their hands out with their fists clenched.
As the song counts up to 10 (verse 1) everyone holds up a finger for each witch – by the end of the verse all 10 fingers will be raised.
As the song counts down (verse 2) everyone closes their fingers until just one finger is left up.

[hide_on_uk]Short sample (members get full-length song):
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[hide_on_us]Short sample (members get full-length song):
 [/hide_on_us]

6. Read classroom reader “Happy Halloween!”
Before class, download and print off the reader “Happy Halloween!”. As you go through each page, point to the key vocabulary in each picture and elicit the Halloween characters and the sounds that each one makes. Encourage your students to get up and act out each of the characters that come up in the story, for example:

Teacher: (pointing at the ghost on page 2) What’s this?
Students: Ghost!
Teacher: Yes, that’s right … (reading) … “Suddenly, a ghost appeared!”. And what sound does a ghost make?
Students: Whooooooo!
Teacher: Oh yes, very scary! Emi, can you show us your ghost? … (Emi gets up and starts doing her ghost impression)… Brilliant! Now, everyone show me your ghost! … (everyone get up and does their ghost impressions)
etc.

Continue through the story, asking what all the characters are. Get the students really involved in the story by asking lots of questions (e.g. about the [hide_on_uk]colors[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colours[/hide_on_us], clothes and other objects in the pictures) and even ask yes/no questions about what each character is, for example:

Teacher: (pointing at the monster on page 3) Is this a mummy?
Students: No! It’s a monster!
Teacher: Oh Yes, that’s right! And does it go “Meoowwww!”?
Students: No! “Rhaaaa!”
etc.

After reading the story, give out a reader worksheet to each student and have everyone identify the Halloween characters that were in the story. Then go through the answers as a class.

Alternatively, watch our video version of the reader (Internet connection required).

7. End with some fun Halloween activities
End the class with some fun Halloween games and actives – choose from the list below:

Melt the witch game: Materials: A moveable chalkboard, [hide_on_uk]colored[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]coloured[/hide_on_us] chalk, sponges, bucket of water. Directions: Draw a witch’s head, or whole body on the chalkboard. Fill the bucket with water and sponges. Have children stand close enough to the board to be able to hit it accurately with a wet sponge. Place water bucket and sponges near this spot. Tell the children to take turns throwing wet sponges at the witch to try and “melt” her away. As the witch becomes wet and water drips down the board, it will appear as if she is melting. Be sure the children are squeezing out to the sponges before throwing.

Pass the pumpkin: Students sit in a circle. Provide a plastic pumpkin for children to pass while the teacher plays some music. Children pass the pumpkin to the tempo of the music. Alternate between fast and slow. When the music stops the child who has the pumpkin stands and takes a bow. Continue.
Pass the vampire bat: Supplies: one straw for each child / bat shapes cut out of tissue paper. How to play: Divide the class into 2 teams and line up each team. Students pass the tissue bats down the line, teammate to teammate, by inhaling and exhaling on the straw to hang onto or release the ornament. No hands! The first team to successfully pass the bats up and down the line wins!

Pin the tail on the black cat: This is a take on ‘pin the tail on the donkey’. Put a picture of a tailless-less black cat on the wall, blindfold the students, spin them around and see if they can pin the tail in the right place. The nearest wins a prize/points.

Wrap up:

1. Assign homework: “Halloween find” worksheet
Hold up the homework worksheet – this is a fun elimination activity. Model by pointing to the zombie and asking if it is a Halloween object – then [hide_on_uk]color[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colour[/hide_on_us] it in. Next, point to the book and again ask if it’s a Halloween object – get everyone to say “No!”, and don’t [hide_on_uk]color[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colour[/hide_on_us] it in. Do a couple more.

Give out the worksheets and say, “Put your homework in your bags” and help them to do so – this is important as they will probably want to start working on them right away.

2. Say goodbye to the glove puppet
Take out the bag again and get everyone to wake up the glove puppet by shouting its name into the bag (e.g. “Cookie Monster!”). Bring out the puppet and go through the same routine – go to each student and say hello, ask their name and the say goodbye / see you. Then put the puppet back in the bag (back to sleep).

3. Sing the “Goodbye song”
Sit together in a circle and sing and clap along.

Lyrics for the “Goodbye song”

Goodbye, goodbye,
See you again.
Goodbye, goodbye,
See you again.

It’s time to go,
It’s time to go,
It’s time to go,
See you next time.

Goodbye, goodbye,
See you again.
It’s time to go,
See you next time.

Gestures for the “Goodbye song”

These are quite straight forward. First time you play the song do the gestures and encourage everyone to do them with you.

Wave as you sing the “Goodbye, goodbye” parts.
Hold your hand above your eyes (as you would when you are looking into the distance and keeping the sun out of your eyes) and look at another student as you sing, “See you again”.
Tap watch (or imaginary watch) and then point to the door as you sing, “It’s time to go”.
Point towards another student as you sing, “See you next time”.

[hide_on_uk]Short sample (members get full-length song):
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[hide_on_us]Short sample (members get full-length song):
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4. Do “Quick check” and say goodbye
Time to leave the class. Make sure everything is put away and the students have gathered their belongings. Have them line up at the door and place yourself between the door and the students.

For each student hold up a Halloween flashcard and ask, “What’s this?” and “What noise does it make?”.

When they jump correctly say goodbye and let them leave. If they make a mistake, have them go back to the end of the line – they will have to try again once they reach the front!