Miss Lucy's Teaching Fun: Halloween songs

24.10.26

5 Halloween Songs and Classroom Activities for Young Learners 🎃

Hi there!

🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃 Halloween is getting close and… you know how much I love teaching English in ways that engage all children’s learning pathways! And what better way to do this than with songs combined with games and hands-on activities?

Halloween songs are a great way to practice specific vocabulary, learn useful expressions and get children moving. But why not take the fun a step further and recreate the games and actions from the songs in your classroom?

So, here are five Halloween songs with simple activities you can try with your young learners. Let's sing, move, play and learn together! 👻

1. Knock Knock, Trick or Treat? 🍬

Let's recreate a Halloween trick-or-treat game!

Ask children to stand in a line and take turns going trick-or-treating. Prepare picture prompts, Halloween character cards, real sweets or Halloween stickers to give them when they reach the end of the line.

Encourage children to use expressions such as “Knock, knock!”, “Trick or treat!” and “Thank you!”

▶️ Watch the song on YouTube

2. Who Took the Cookie from the Cookie Jar? 🍪

Let's play the game together!

Arrange the children in a circle and recreate the familiar cookie jar game, using the song to guide the activity. You could even move to the school gym to give everyone more space!

This is a fun way to practise rhythm, listening, turn-taking and simple questions and answers in English.

▶️ Watch the song on YouTube

3. This Is the Way We Carve a Pumpkin 🎃

Let's make a paper pumpkin!

Prepare a worksheet featuring a large pumpkin. As you sing the song, children cut out one piece at a time, following the actions in the lyrics until their pumpkin is ready.

This simple activity combines listening, fine motor skills and Halloween vocabulary. Remember to prepare the outlines in advance and supervise children when using scissors.

▶️ Watch the song on YouTube

4. Skeleton Dance 💀

Let's learn about the human body!

Turn the song into a Science activity! Prepare a printable skeleton model for children to cut out and assemble using paper fasteners (split pins) at the joints.

Once the model is ready, children can move its arms and legs while revising the names of the bones and body parts. Finish with a labelling activity to consolidate their learning.

It's a lovely way to connect English, Science and hands-on learning!

▶️ Watch the song on YouTube

5. If I Were a Ghost 👻

Let's sing and dance like ghosts!

Play the song and invite children to sing along, dance and act like little ghosts. Encourage them to copy the movements and use gestures to show what the ghost is doing.

Movement, repetition and a little imagination make it easier for young learners to remember new words and expressions.

▶️ Watch the song on YouTube

Bonus Speaking Game: Halloween Guess Who? 🧙‍♀️

After singing and dancing, keep the Halloween fun going with a Guess Who? game using cards featuring Halloween characters.

One child secretly chooses a card while the others ask questions to identify the character.

For example:

Is it a witch?
Has it got a hat?
Is it scary?
Can it fly?

Children practise asking questions, describing characters and using Halloween vocabulary while playing together.

Happy Halloween and happy teaching! 🎃👻

Lee esta entrada en español ❤️

🌟 ¡Learning English doesn’t simply mean filling in the blanks!✨

Many English as a Second Language (ESL) activities rely solely on “fill-in-the-blank” exercises ✏️… but the real goal should be to help children speak, understand, and use English naturally. 🗣️💬

🎨 Learning by doing makes it much easier, more fun, and more motivating!

And you’ll be surprised at how quickly children can start achieving real results. 🌈🚀

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👉 ESL Children's Worksheets

✨ Learn, play, speak, and grow! ❤️

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28.10.13

Lesson Plan: Halloween songs, games and fun activities for children

I've been surfing the internet looking for Halloween games, songs and worksheets, over the past few days and this is what I came across.

For preschoolers:

Here's a list of catchy songs to learn or to use as a soundtrack during other activities:

Pumpkin Halloween Dance

The skeleton dance 1

The Skeleton Dance 2

--> Note that the Skeleton Dance will be perfect for learning body parts too.

Then I found these two games:

1) Circle game: Pass the Pumpkin

Form a circle and have the children sit on the floor. Play Halloween music and pass a small pumpkin around the circle. When the music stops, whoever is left holding the pumpkin receives a small prize or treat. (This game is from the book 52 Programs for Preschoolers).

I can imagine that smart children will fight for keeping the pumpkin, once they've discovered the trick. So I'm thinking that maybe it will be better to organize a half circle race without a prize.

Something like this, for example:

Have your students sit in a circle.

Choose two children at one point of the circle and give them, respectively, a picture of a pumpkin and a picture of a ghost, for example. The pumpkin will be passed by the first child to the next child on his right, while the ghost will be passed by the other child to the next child on his left, and so on.

They must say the name of the card they are passing along. You should hear them saying "Pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin" and "Ghost, ghost, ghost"

The cards must travel as fast as possible till they arrive to the opposite side of the circle (opposite the first two children who started the race).

The children belonging to the half of the circle that's completed first, will be the winners.

We're going to do the same with the pictures of a cat and a bat.

2) Halloween Hunt

Prepare sets of cards with the same pictures on each, representing typical Halloween characters. Use some blue-tack to stick them on the walls or on low surfaces in your classroom. Call out one of the pictures and the children have to find and touch the right one.

If you prefer something quieter, divide your students into small groups.

Give each group the 4/5 different cards and then call out the one they have to show. This way they can do the activity sitting on their chairs instead of running around.

Next I'll give them a coloring page representing one or more characters we saw during the games.

Finally, they'll learn about going trick or treating, 'cause I bought an enormous bag of Halloween candies!!!

ihihihhihhiih!!!

For older students I found these ideas:

1) Introducing Halloween Vocabulary

2) Black Cat Hunt to practice prepositions of place

3) A Word Search

4) The Daily Routine of Monsters, Zombies, Ghosts and Aliens

For Higher Levels:

The Murder Mystery

Happy spooky Halloween!!!

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