How can I make Halloween fun and exciting for my 2nd grade class?
Friday, September 3rd, 2010 at
7:22 am
Im a 2nd year teacher and I love Halloween. What are some fun exciting things to do with my class. REMEMBER I am a teacher and funds are low. 
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i remember when i was in 2nd grade
my teacher took a pumpkin and all the kids got to carve a lil section on it
it was fun!
have a lil costume contest, and give like a bag of goodies to the winners
idk random ideas i guess :]
Have a halloween party but most of all make sure you have lost and lost of CANDY.
Cheap candy! Kids don’t care if it’s cheap, they want candy. Or better yet, invite parents to bring sweets to class (peanut free, of course). And maybe take them around to businesses in your town or whatever to trick-or-treat.
To have a fun hallowen in the classroom that won’t cost a fortune, I suggest you have the kids make some decorations. I remember I used to love doing that when I was little. Also, have a spooky story party where kids bring in a haloween story and on Halloween, the kids can pair up with kids in other classes and then have cupcakes after. Good Luck!
I would think any Halloween party type games may work for their age,
using colored construction paper you can make versions of
"pin the tail on the donkey.
like Pin the tail on the werewolf or Pin the Nose on the witch"
Decorate pumpkins (the cheap little ones) and invite parents to "buy" them auction style. Use the money for Charity. (It is Breast Cancer Awareness Month!!!) Take pictures for the newspaper…they love that sort of stuff and it will look great for you, being a new teacher and all.
If you go to a pumpkin patch they may give you a discount for being a teacher.
If you cant have parents come in to buy them…have the parents send in donations in exchange for the pumpkins…fun for the kids, nice for charity! Win win!
EDIT: Do a "Who is this Ghost" writing…have the students describe themselves at the bottom of a oaper, draw a picture of themselve at the top (if you have a picture of their face you can paste it over the face) Then take a tissue and staple it over their picture like a ghost sheet. Hang it in the hall and I promise you will catch people reading the descriptions and lifting the tissue to see who it is!!
Get construction paper, safety scissors and glue. You can have the kids make ghosts, pumpkins and witches/monsters.
You can also read some halloween stories and hand out candy (always a crowd pleaser).
You can even have the students come in dressed in costume (don’t forget to dress up yourself).
Good luck and have fun!
Incorporate a week of class to it maybe, use halloween themes in your lesson plan and give them a dress up opportunity along with a mask decorating type deal. Also maybe do a bit of research, what interested you in halloween, maybe you can share that with them.
Maybe every day you could as a countdown put a small halloween fact up.
like:
"pumpkins are fruits"
"In Scotland, turnips are carved into Lanterns, not Pumpkins"
something as simple as that could create a chuckle and get them thinking.
maybe you could hide a special halloween item in the room and attach an award with finding it, or give them a riddle, every day give them another piece to the puzzle, make it a group effort, the reward could be a small party or something including the whole class, this will concentrate them on working together, (think blues clues, have the clues simple and use images, so the last day before halloween they can visually put them together, and they’ll feel like they solved the greatest mystery)
have little creative treats, you should be able to find activity book were you can copy things out of there (coloring, math, etc)
let them vote on who they think has the best costume in the class, counting games with candy if you choose to get them any.
or try these for some more ideas
http://www.education.com/activity/article/Halloween_math_high/
jope they work and are helpful
http://funschool.kaboose.com/?section=g1
http://www.apples4theteacher.com/holidays/halloween/
Orange construction paper. Cut out jack o lanterns.
Everyone show up to class in a costume. For those that don’t, or can’t bring tp, and dress them up as a mummy
or just play games as to which group can make a person a mummy the fastest (with tp)
Everyone invent a superpower that they pretend to have for a little while
Have the students come up with ideas, or throw a small potluck!
I believe when I was in elementary school they let us dress up in costumes and we’d watch a Halloween movie or just a kid’s movie. In 3rd grade my teacher had this fun idea where you make a creature using a balloon and we hung them up on the ceiling. Basically the teacher passed out pieces of paper that had hands, feet, and a head. We would take our crayons and color in the body parts (I think for Halloween we did a scarecrow that had a pumpkin head) and then cut them out. Then the teacher would have balloons already blown up for us and we’d grab a balloon. Using our Elmers glue, we’d glue the body parts onto the balloon and let it dry.
I think we used the folded up paper stuff so the balloon could have arms and legs rather than just having hands and feet attached to the balloon. I also believe with the head, there was a front and back part so you could glue the top part together and then glue both pieces onto the balloon (if that made sense). I thought it was cool though.
I can’t remember what else we did I just remember that.