For many, Halloween is a favorite holiday and a beloved time of year. For teachers, though, it can be a very stressful time filled with problem behaviors fueled by excitement and candy. If you want to capture some of the excitement of Halloween without bringing any of the chaos into your classroom, check out these Halloween Activities for Middle School ELA.
Introduce your students to spooky stories from all around the world!
Kids of all ages love being read to, so carve out some time in your class for read-alouds from this fun book! It features 50 spooky stories from all over the world. You can choose to read one a day, or you can pick a couple of your favorites to really focus on in class. The sketch-to-stretch activity is a fun way to help your students work on their visualization skills. There are many variations to this activity, but I suggest reading one of the stories to your students without showing them the illustrations and then having them create an illustration that shows an important part of the story. Once your students are done, you can reread the book and reveal the illustrations. You can grab the book using my Amazon Affiliate link below!
Text message analysis is a great Halloween activity for middle school ELA!
It isn’t always easy to find engaging ways for your students to practice making inferences, but my Halloween Text Message Analysis activity does just that! This resource includes eight Halloween-themed text message conversations that students will read and analyze in order to make inferences. They must also cite evidence to support their answers. This resource is available in both print and digital formats.
I also created a Halloween text message analysis activity that focuses on context clues.
Enlighten your students with this informational text about the history of Halloween.
Help your students build background knowledge at just the right reading difficulty level for them with my Differentiated Halloween Reading Passage & Activities resource. This resource includes an informational text about the history of Halloween at two different reading levels. It also includes a differentiated context clues activity since they can never have too much practice with context clues. There are also reading comprehension questions and a writing assignment. This resource is available in both print and digital formats.
Let them color with this context clues activity!
My Halloween context clues color by number resource is a fun activity that combines students’ love of coloring with important practice using context clues. Students will read Halloween-themed sentences and then use context clues to determine the meaning of the underlined words. The answers they chose will guide them in coloring in boxes to reveal a mystery image. This is a very popular activity for middle school students, and you can decorate your classroom with the finished work!
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With these fun Halloween activities for middle school ELA, you won’t have to dread when one of your students inevitably asks if you’re doing anything fun for Halloween!
