Celebrate goblins, ghosts, witches, sweet treats, scary things, October, and all things Halloween-related using these fun Halloween reading activities.
Halloween is a great time to dive into different types of reading activities with students.
Reading passages don’t have to be the main resource in your literacy toolkit.
Here I have compiled a list of the best Halloween reading activities for students.
These engaging literacy activities not only motivate reluctant readers to participate, but they also integrate reading with writing, and most importantly boost reading comprehension skills.
So if you want to celebrate Halloween in your classroom while still focusing on learning, try a few of these engaging Halloween reading activities.
Halloween Reading Activities
1. Perform a Halloween Reader’s Theater.
In addition to being lots of fun, reader’s theaters improve reading fluency, vocal expression, accuracy, and comprehension.
Grab a Halloween reader’s theater script, assign each student a part, give them time to practice, and then have them perform for another class.
You could also invite parents to see the performance.
What’s nice about reader’s theaters is that you don’t need any fancy costumes or props; it’s simply students reading a script with proper expression.
2. Fill Out a Reading Graphic Organizer.
Choose a favorite Halloween-themed picture book or read aloud. Briefly review it to determine what reading skill or strategy can be taught from it.
Then have students read the text and complete a graphic organizer that pertains to that particular reading skill.
3. Complete a Halloween Word Search.
What student doesn’t love a word search? Word searches help students explore new vocabulary and pay attention to detail.
Download Halloween word search.
4. Practice With Halloween-Themed Task Cards.
Task cards are a mainstay in many classrooms today because they are so versatile, and Halloween-themed task cards are no exception.
To use task cards as one of your Halloween reading activities, have students read each card and answer the respective question in their reader’s notebook.
Use this Halloween reading activity as a literacy center, or do it as a whole group activity.
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5. Make a Halloween Main Idea Mobile.
Integrate literacy with arts and crafts by making a Halloween main idea mobile.
All you need for this activity is a hanger, string, and pumpkin/candy cut-outs.
Students read a Halloween-themed book. They then write the main idea of the book on the pumpkin cut-out and the details on the candy cut-outs.
They may want to decorate the cut-outs before hanging them. Afterward, they assemble the mobile.
Display mobiles around the classroom.
Download Halloween main idea mobile templates.
6. Create a Foldables™ Project.
Turn a Halloween book into a project.
After reading a book, students create a fun Foldable™ project independently or with a partner.
These multi-dimensional graphic organizers are kinesthetic tools that help students organize and analyze information.
7. Host a Poetry Slam.
For one of your Halloween reading activities, why not dive into poetry?
Halloween is a great time to explore word play and rhyme as many of the popular Halloween read-aloud books for students are filled with colorful words and phrases.
To get started, take a week or so to introduce students to a few new forms of poetry.
Then ask them to write a few of their own poems on topics related to Halloween.
Once that’s done, schedule a day for students to recite one or two of their poems to the class.
8. Respond to Reader Response Questions.
One of the simplest Halloween reading activities is to have students respond in their reading journals to a few reader response questions using one of their independent reading Halloween books.
9. Play Guess the Covered Word.
Guess the Covered Word is a whole-group vocabulary activity that assesses how well students use context clues.
To do this activity, take a paragraph or page from a Halloween book, cover a few of the words within the paragraph with pieces of a sticky note, and then have students try to guess the covered words while reading.
Each covered word receives three guesses, with the teacher revealing a letter (from left to right) each time a student guesses wrong.
After a third wrong guess, reveal the word. Students absolutely love this Halloween reading activity.
Download Halloween Guess the Covered Word.
Final Thoughts
Now you have a variety of Halloween reading activities to use in your classroom for reading workshop.
Using these activities, students will not only be engaged, but they will boost their reading and writing skills.
So include a few of these activities in your literacy lesson plans this week.
Related: Halloween art activity