I’m a huge fan of celebrating holidays in the classroom, but still incorporating academics! These are my EIGHT favorite Halloween activities that I used with my fifth grade students, but you could totally use these with any upper elementary class.

1. Haunted Homophones

My kids STRUGGLED with homophones every year, so this is a standard that I throw into our activities whenever I can! These spooky task cards have students correctly complete the Halloween-themed sentences in order to solve a riddle! These are great practice, and my kiddos love the fun sentences. This is my absolute favorite of the Halloween activities for upper elementary students!

2. Dreadful Decimals Coloring Activity

Coloring activities are my GO TO activity for everything, and Halloween is no exception! Grab this FREE decimal operations coloring activity to use as morning work, sub plans, or at a Halloween station! There’s a printable version, as well as a digital version to fit any mode of teaching. Did I mention it’s free? Click here to snag your copy!

3. Halloween STEM Boom Cards

STEM and technology?? Count me IN. My kids love Boom Cards and honestly, so I do I because they are absolutely zero prep, self-checking, and SO engaging. For this set of Boom Cards, students use the digital building blocks to build something in each spooky picture. Each card has a different background and prompt. Students just drag and drop the blocks to build their creation! Click the picture below to play through some for yourself.

4. Pumpkin Parts of Speech Coloring Activity

Did I mention I love coloring activities?? They are absolutely no-prep, but they allow kids to have tons of engaging practice with all sorts of skills. No matter what unit you’re on in ELA, have your students review parts of speech with this FREE Halloween coloring activity! They’ll identify what part of speech the underlined word is, then use their answer to color the Halloween picture. Put on some Monster Mash in the background and call it a DAY. Click here to grab this freebie for yourself!

5. Math Practice Boom Cards

Anytime I can mix celebrating the holidays and some common core standards, I’m so down. I throw several sets of themed Boom Cards into my Halloween classroom activities to have my kids practice those oh-so-important math standards at the beginning of the year! I use a deck for Multiplying Multi-Digit Whole Numbers and Multiplying and Dividing Decimals by Powers of Ten.

6. Spooky Verb Tense Board Game

Verb tense is another one of those standards that seems to sneak up again and again in fifth grade. So of course, my Halloween activities for upper elementary students wouldn’t be complete without some spooky verb tense practice. This one is super simple and FREE – just print the game cards and board game, throw in some Halloween-themed mini erasers (because let’s be honest, I know you still have some from last year), and call it a station!

7. Halloween STEM Challenge Task Cards

I have these STEM building challenge task cards to go with every holiday and my kids still never get sick of them! I usually do these in a station with a big bin of Legos (here’s a link to my favorite deal!), but you could also give each student an individual container of Legos or building materials and do it individually! I am always so impressed with my kids’ creativity. Click the picture to snag a set!

8. Halloween Read Alouds

Picture books are great for any holiday in the classroom, even for upper elementary students. Use a fun Halloween picture book for that weird extra ten minutes at the end of the day. You can even use lots of these as mentor texts for an October writing activity! Have your students create an alternate ending, write their own story in the same format as the author, or give the story a spooky plot twist. Click here to see a list of my favorite Halloween picture books.

Looking to plan some more fall-themed review days? Click here to check out my easy football room transformation!

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