October Activities for Elementary Students
October is one of the best months to be in an elementary classroom. Students are settled into routines, the weather is changing, and there is no shortage of seasonal content to work with — animals, space, measurement, writing, crafts, and science all have natural October connections.
This list covers the October activities I come back to every year, organized by category so you can find what fits your class.
Elementary students have a massive range of interests during October. This incredible list of October activities ensures there is something exciting for everyone!
Craftivities for the Season
Students love to use their creativity! Students can only sit at a desk for so long. They need time to express themselves in other ways.
The Real Me Halloween Craftivity allows students to focus on who they are. While dressing up is fun, students must stay true to themselves. This craft allows them to do exactly that!
There can be so much laughter during the fall season with everything there is to do. However, it can also be lonely.
The Halloween Kindness Treat Bag allows students to focus on treating others. Instead of candy, they will do this through kindness activities. To help students see the impact of kindness, they will reflect on their lives. This includes thinking back to times someone showed them kindness and times they showed someone kindness. Students will have all the treats they need when they have supportive people!
Teach about Animals during October
Students love animals! Whenever teachers can incorporate them, student interest soars. Now, the Halloween Animal Articles do not focus on just any animals. They focus on spooky bats, creepy, crawling spiders, howling owls, and many more! Articles include vocabulary, graphic organizers, comprehension activities, and writing pages.
One of my favorite writing activities is All About Bats! Students research this spooky animal and write a paragraph all about bat facts! Students read about bats using informational articles and videos. I have students share the facts they learned, then we use a graphic organizer before moving into writing.
October Writing Prompts
October gives students a lot to write about. Spooky settings, favorite fall traditions, what they would do with a magic pumpkin, persuasive pieces about whether Halloween candy should be rationed — the seasonal context makes writing feel less abstract.
I have 60 Halloween writing prompts organized by genre—narrative, opinion, informational, and creative. Sorting prompts by genre makes it easy to connect October writing to whatever unit is already underway, rather than stopping everything for a seasonal detour.
A few of my students’ favorites: writing from the perspective of a jack-o’-lantern the night after Halloween, arguing whether trick-or-treating should have an age limit, and describing their ideal haunted house using sensory details.
October Stories Students Love
Similar to animals, stories love to listen to stories. Whether they are about pumpkins, black cats, or monsters, there is something so special about listening to a book or poem. The QR Code Halloween Stories and Favorite October Books have so many incredible ideas! With the QR Code options, students can even listen to a story of their own choice. After all, there is only one of me for over 20 students!
Here is a list of my favorite books to read during October.
Hands-on Learning October Activities
Students cannot just sit at their desks all day. They need to explore content and manipulate objects. Fall is the perfect time to bring in festive activities! For instance, the Pumpkin Measurement Activity allows students to learn all about measurement! You can even add a carving station where students count the seeds inside! Students can even complete Halloween Science Activities to learn about the scientific method. Many fun activities include vanishing ghosts and apple volcanoes!
October Science Experiments
October is one of the best months for science. Students are curious, the season gives you natural phenomena to investigate (falling leaves, changing temperatures, moon visibility), and there is no shortage of materials to work with.
I have a full list of Halloween science experiments that cover physical science, chemistry, and earth science using seasonal materials. Vanishing ghosts, apple volcanoes, pumpkin eruptions, density towers with candy corn — each activity connects to a real science concept so the October theme doesn’t come at the expense of content.
These work well as stations, as a Friday experiment, or spread across October—one or two at a time rather than all at once.
30 different ideas you can use to teach your students about science phenomena.
Moon Study Science Exploration during October
October is a good time to start a moon study. The moon rises earlier in the evening in fall, so students can observe it from home without staying up late. I have students record the phase they saw the night before and bring their observations to class each morning.
The Moon Phase Study walks students through moon rotation and revolution with built-in support and recording pages. If your class is ready to go deeper, the Movement of the Earth unit connects how Earth’s movement creates both the day/night cycle and the changing seasons.
Halloween themed escape rooms!
Anything Halloween that I can use to tie into what I’m teaching. We’ve made witches legs and feet or pumpkins and wrote adjectives to describe them. We’ve made Jack-o-lanterns and cut out teeth and made fact families using the number of teeth.
Painting pumpkins
We do a lesson on bats. We also like to do a STEM project with the 5 little pumpkins. We do arts and crafts in class.
All things pumpkins! Painting pumpkins, volcano pumpkins, life cycle of pumpkins, etc.
Hispanic Heritage month activities and Halloween activities
Honestly, I do not have themed activities!!! Oh the horror, but I like to do the party stuff and fun dances.
reading halloween themed books and arts and crafts so little can be hands on involved in getting ready for halloween
Halloween themed and Mission Day themed- we do community service projects to raise money for the less fortunate.
We use lots of fall activities for centers. We use candy corns for our math centers, and we create cool crafts for hands on learning in math for students who love to tap into their creative side.
Halloween read alouds, crafts, Halloween party, skeleton stem activity with Qtips
I always have students write scary stories for Halloween. I share my scary stories and then provide sentence starters to get them to write their scary story. The students love them especially when they get to read their stories to their peers.
We have a Halloween costume parade for our entire school
Halloween projects! Jack o lantern, puffy paint ghost, black witch & Frankenstein
Read about the history of Halloween, design a costume for the teacher, Halloween themed math papers
We do a moon study during the month of October! We have a huge calendar where we draw and shade in how the moon looks each night. The kids make predictions about how it will look the following nights. This fits really well with our 1st grade NGSS standards about space systems.
We watch a pumpkin rot! Also fall leaf pictures, scarecrows, etc.
Matching pumpkins, mats, paint pumpkins
Painting pumpkins and environmental art installations
Bats, owls, monsters, and spiders
I have K-8 grade kiddos as I’m resource! Fall themed activities and a party at the end of the month is fun for all!
Letter identification practice using pumpkin cards.
Halloween themed prizes like pencils, erasers, stickers, tatoos, etc. are in my prize box.
Pumpkin Math –
Read “How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin”
Students predict the number of seeds in their pumpkin.
The next day I have the pumpkin tops cut out, so they can dig all the seeds out
They take another estimate.
Starting making piles of 10 seeds.
They count the total number of seeds.
They graph their number.
Share with the class and fill theirs in on the graph, too.
It’s a fun hands-on exploration activity. Make sure you have 2-3 days to complete.
We make haunted houses with equal amounts of ghosts in each house, we do a unit on bats and create “spooky” stories.
I plan to do a lot of different fall themed activities with a party to end the month for Halloween.
Paint pumpkins
Halloween themed lap books- bats, spiders, pumpkins. I also like to do activities with the book Room on a Broom.
Read Pumpkin Jack and do a rotting pumpkin observation the rest of the year.
We make scarecrow crafts, carve pumpkins, and make applesauce.
Native Americans, spiders, Charlotte’s Web
Read Creepy Carrots and write a creepy vegetable story
Thanksgiving, Fall, Halloween
School wide Halloween parade. We learn about bats and do bat reports.
candy,ghosts, pumpkins
We do multiplication haunted houses.
We write about Halloween topics, take part in STEM activities, read Halloween books, play Halloween games, and more!
Learn all about spiders.
Hispanic Heritage month activities and Identity art and writing activities.
Turkey Trouble- Then decorate and hide turkeys on trail and go look for them with a checklist
5 Little Turkeys
Fine Motor Spiderwebs
We learn about spider and do a fall/Halloween themed bulletin board. I would love ideas!
Comparing Dia de los muertos to Halloween, all of the Halloween red-alouds, and spooky craftivities.
Unlock the Haunted House
Pumpkin Math
Learn and write about owls, bats, spiders, and pumpkins
I love October!!! I teach spiders, bats, Fire Safety, and seasons.
Red ribbon week
Fall read alouds
We use Scholar dollars schoolwide. The students are able to use these dollars once a month to purchase items at our Scholar Dollar store.
Halloween and Fall activities such as: learning about pumpkins, bats, Halloween, and fall interests.
Alphabet Fashion Show, fall, apples, pumpkins, pumpkin book character project, fire prevention, Say No To Drugs, conferences
Fall and Harvest activities, STEM Bone Q-tip skeletons, scarecrows with photo faces, bat STEM activities, Pumpkin crafts, and a Fall Harvest party with orange buffet food items.
Pumpkin crafts and Fall activities
Fall themed activities; Spookley the Square Pumpkin movie & craftivitiy; instead of Halloween, we have a Superhero dress-up day for the entire school & a book fair in which students dress up as their favorite book character. We also have a Book Fair Parade. I read Halloween-themed books & have Halloween printables in my class.
We learn about the five senses during this fall month as there are so many things to use our senses on- especially during community walks- or during apple/pumpkin tasting!
We also have a pumpkin decorating contest!