Greetings to everyone
Ghosts and goblins are about. Witches walk among us. Princes, princesses, fairies, and knights fill schools and classrooms. Is there any doubt that Halloween is here? If you are not quite ready to celebrate in "spooktacular" fashion, you're sure to find a fun idea in our today’s newsletter.
Halloween: ideas and resources (YL and teenagers)
Ghosts, witches, black cats, haunted houses… Despite the creepy flavour of these words, Halloween is a great holiday to celebrate in EFL classroom to learn more about the culture of English-speaking world and immerse with it. It is about not only costume parties, trick-or-treating, pranks and games. For us, teachers, it can be a teaching tool as well because it has lots of weird and wonderful vocabulary and can be used to teach social issues. It’s a great event to get your students away from textbooks and give them some spooky fun.
YOUNG LEARNERS
Young children love playing games, singing songs and doing crafts. If you want to pre-teach the vocabulary, you can adapt some of the popular games or use some action songs.
Halloween Bingo Cards are a great game for teaching listening skills. There are several different designs of Halloween bingo cards, so you'll be sure to find one you like.
Halloween Charades can become an active competition that can be played in teams. The goal is to get the most correct guesses from their classmates’ pantomimes. Your list might include e.g. Dracula drinking blood, putting on a costume, bobbing for apples etc. You will find the full list here.
Halloween tongue twisters are loved by students of all ages. They can improve pronunciation, listening skills and reading ability. You can give your students ready-made ones or you can ask them to create their own. Keep in mind that a lot of tongue twisters are just for fun and most don’t make a lot of sense. You can use the following examples:
- Glowing ghosts gobble goodies.
- Warty witches wish for watches.
- Big bats match hats.
- Musty mummies make monster masks.
You can learn how to introduce and implement tongue twisters in you classroom here.
Halloween action songs can be used for warm-up, cool-down, following directions, dancing, fitness, and games. Being actively involved in the song will help your students to understand the meaning of the words and sentences they are singing.
Some more cool songs with actions:
TEENAGERS
Your students might complain when you say "Halloween" because they instantly assume it is going to be the old, boring Halloween stuff: costumes, candy, etc. We are sure you would like to come up with some ideas of an original lesson, including some games that aren't for kids (most Halloween games are targeted towards little kids) but that are suitable for teenagers.
Halloween taboo is based on the popular board game. It is perfect for reviewing and reactivating vocabulary, as well as forcing students into speaking freely without over-analyzing their output. You will need a list of vocabulary items you want to review, five to ten words per student depending on how long you want to play. Put students into groups of four or five and get them to think up team names, write them on the board. The first group elects a team member who comes to the front of the class where the box of words is. The player takes a word from the container and describes it to their teammates without actually saying the word or using their L1. If the word is successfully guessed, students put it to one side. If not, the word goes back in the hat and the player takes another. After 90 seconds sound a buzzer, count how many words were successfully guessed and mark them up on the board under the team name. Continue until every team member has taken a turn (or two) in the describing role.
Scary sounds of Halloween quiz will definitely send shivers down your students’ spines! Play the mystery sound effects in turn and have students try to guess what they are. Play each sound at least twice and give students time at the end to look up any words they need in their dictionaries. With more advanced students, you can focus more deeply on some of the collocations, e.g. creaking, howling, screeching, etc. You can find the sounds and the answers to the quiz here.
Ghost stories are always a great idea with teens. This ESL conversation activity helps students practise English speaking skills by retelling a story. Memorization is a small part of this task, but more importantly, students need to be able to retell the key parts and fill in the details with their own words. It’s a pair work activity. Each student gets one copy of one story. Each student reads a scary story. That takes about 10 minutes. The student then retells his or her story, making sure to keep the scary parts. The purpose is not to memorize the story but instead to remember the key details – plot character, setting – and mix with his or her own words. And, scare the other person.
You can find other ways to use ghost stories in your classroom here.
OTHER RESOURCES
Here are 10 Ideas for Teaching Halloween English that you can adapt and make your own depending on the level, age, and needs of your English monsters.
Halloween Worksheets and Activities There are word searches, crosswords, word scrambles, reading comprehension activities, and various games on the theme of Halloween.
This collection of 10 Fun Halloween Games for English Practice will get your class in the trick and treat mood. Try them with your students as we approach the 31st.
Candy Tasting, UNICEF and More: 9 Unique ESL Activities for Halloween you can do with your class that will both build their language skills and give them a little spooky excitement too.
All the 25 games and activities for kindergarten, preschool and ESL students have been tried and tested in classrooms by The Magic Crayons, who are experienced teaching professionals.
Halloween: great teaching ideas for teens require little preparation time. At this point, your teenage students should already know some vocabulary, traditions and history related to this festivity. Here are a couple of ideas to check your students’ background knowledge and the activities to use the vocabulary.
From Grade Education
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