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Fun Halloween Classroom Activities and Games for Kids
No-Prep | DIY | Differentiated for All Learners
Planning a Halloween party in your classroom?
Between curriculum, costume guidelines, and sugar-fueled energy, it can be hard to pull off a party that’s actually fun and manageable.
That’s why I’m sharing no-prep Halloween classroom games and activities you can use with zero materials—and every single one is differentiated for your low, medium, and high-level learners.
Whether you’re teaching elementary students or supporting special education groups, these DIY classroom party ideas will help your students laugh, learn, and make memories!
Note: Some links below may be Amazon affiliate or TPT partner links to help support this blog at no extra cost to you.
1. Haunted Charades
Objective: Act out Halloween-themed prompts using only gestures and facial expressions.
How to play:
Write a list of spooky (but school-safe) actions like “flying on a broomstick,” “eating candy corn,” or “carving a pumpkin.” Call students up one at a time to act it out while the rest of the class guesses.
Differentiation:
- Low learners: Choose from a picture prompt.
- Medium learners: Read a written prompt.
- High learners: Create their own prompt for a friend to act out.
2. Halloween Would You Rather?
Objective: Encourage critical thinking and classroom conversation with themed "Would You Rather?" questions.
How to play:
Ask questions like “Would you rather be a friendly ghost or a sneaky vampire?” Then, students move to the left or right side of the room based on their answer and explain their reasoning.
Differentiation:
- Low learners: Point or hold up fingers to show their choice.
- Medium learners: Share why they chose it using a sentence stem.
- High learners: Write a quick opinion paragraph with reasons.
3. Witch Hat Toss (No Materials Version)
Objective: Practice gross motor skills and coordination while having fun.
How to play:
Use your classroom trash can or a chair as a “target.” Students pretend to toss an invisible ring (or crumpled paper) onto a pretend witch’s hat or pumpkin. Add music to make it festive!
Differentiation:
- Low learners: Stand closer to the target.
- Medium learners: Stand a bit farther and aim.
- High learners: Create scoring rules or keep class-wide tallies.
4. Monster Moves Freeze Dance
Objective: Get the wiggles out with Halloween-themed movement and self-control.
How to play:
Play music while students move like monsters, zombies, ghosts, or skeletons. When the music stops, everyone must freeze!
Differentiation:
- Low learners: Copy teacher-led movements.
- Medium learners: Choose their own spooky moves.
- High learners: Lead the class or choreograph a short "monster mash."
5. Spooky Sentence Starters
Objective: Spark creativity with silly, scary, or surprising Halloween-themed sentences.
How to play:
Share sentence starters like:
“Last night, a black cat knocked on my window and…”
“The pumpkin in our classroom started to…”
Let students write, draw, or share their endings.
Differentiation:
- Low learners: Draw a picture or finish the sentence with teacher help.
- Medium learners: Write 1–2 complete sentences.
- High learners: Turn their idea into a full spooky story.
Check out these free Halloween writing papers, click HERE.
6. Candy Corn Math Challenge (No Candy Needed!)
Objective: Practice math facts with a festive twist.
How to play:
Call out math problems and let students use their fingers to “stack” invisible candy corn layers with each correct answer. First to build a "10-corn tower" wins!
Differentiation:
- Low learners: Use simple addition within 10.
- Medium learners: Work on subtraction or 2-digit addition.
- High learners: Try multiplication or story problems.
7. Zombie Walk Story Retelling
Objective: Practice sequencing and listening skills.
How to play:
Read a short Halloween story aloud (or use a class favorite), then assign parts of the story to students who act them out during a second reading in slow-motion “zombie walk” mode.
Differentiation:
- Low learners: Retell 1 key detail using props or movement.
- Medium learners: Sequence 3 parts of the story in order.
- High learners: Summarize and add a new ending.
8. Spider Web Compliments
Objective: Build classroom community with a fun, feel-good activity.
How to play:
Stand in a circle. The first student gives a compliment to another and tosses them a ball of yarn. That student holds a piece and tosses the rest, and so on, until a web is formed.
Differentiation:
- Low learners: Use sentence frames like, “I like when you…”
- Medium learners: Come up with original compliments.
- High learners: Reflect on how words impact others in writing.
Final Thoughts
You don’t need sugar-high chaos or last-minute crafts to throw a spooktacular classroom celebration.
These DIY Halloween classroom activities are:
- No prep
- No materials required
- Differentiated for every student
Whether you're sneaking in skills practice or just trying to keep the day calm and fun, your students will love these simple games and activities—and you’ll love how easy they are to run!
Related Halloween Resources:
Want more ideas that are fun and academically aligned? Check out these classroom-tested Halloween printable activities your students will love:
Click HERE to view my entire TPT Halloween Collection of over 80 resources.
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Shelly Anton is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. ** This means there are Amazon affiliate links in these blog posts. This does not mean you pay a dime more when you purchase a product through the link. It just means I am trying to save you valuable teacher time by making it easier for you to find great resources for your students, and I earn a few cents for my research and time. Thank you for all you do for kids!
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