Anyone who has taught middle school knows that incorporating any sort of Halloween activities into your middle school classroom can feel risky. Middle schoolers are hyper and easily excitable even before you add candy into the mix. Despite this, I’ve found that it is definitely worth it to incorporate some Halloween reading comprehension activities and worksheets in my classroom. Halloween provides excellent opportunities to focus on a variety of important standards and skills in an engaging and enjoyable way.
Halloween is a great time to work on reading comprehension by reading spooky stories.
Spooky stories and Halloween just go together. Middle schoolers are at a wonderful age to read a lot of classic stories because they’re young enough to still be excited by them, but they’re also old enough to understand the deeper meanings behind those stories. My students have loved several works by Edgar Allan Poe, including “The Pit and the Pendulum” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”.
Reading about the history of Halloween allows you to focus on comprehension skills for informational text.
Unlike some other holidays, many students are unfamiliar with the history of Halloween. I created a differentiated reading passage that explains the history of Halloween. The passage is written at two levels which will allow you to easily differentiate for your students. This Halloween activity also includes worksheets that focus on context clues questions, reading comprehension questions, and a writing assignment.
Your students can color while focusing on important reading comprehension skills.
I can’t count the number of times students asked me why we weren’t having a Halloween party. Testing and pacing calendars limit the number of days I can build anything just for fun into my lesson plans. That’s why I created these context clues coloring activities. Students use context clues to determine the meaning of unknown words and then color in boxes to reveal a mystery image. It is a great way to stick to the standards while spicing things up.
Planning for Halloween activities and worksheets in a middle school classroom can feel overwhelming, but they can also provide fun and engaging ways for students to sharpen their reading comprehension skills. The two resources I mentioned above are available in a money-saving bundle that also includes a fun text message inferencing activity.
