Teacher's tips

Level of education: Elementary School I - Early Childhood Education

Age: 04 to 07 years old

Halloween is one of children's favorite holidays. It's perfect for letting your imagination run wild. There are so many different themes like spiders, bats, ghosts, pumpkins, mummies, witches and Frankenstein. In this game, children will be able to let go of their imagination by creating and sharing their fantastic Halloween drawings. [FIM-DICA]

Learner outcomes

Participate in Halloween games, dances, and activities.

Know the history of Halloween;

Know the letters of the alphabet;

Differentiate the letters of the alphabet;

Knowing the alphabetical order of writing the alphabet;

Improve visual discrimination ability;

Establish relationships between objects with a flat geometric figure, observing their characteristics;

Reinforce classroom content;

Develop creativity;

Develop the capacity for expression through drawing;

Develop reading and writing skills;

Memorize the conventional writing of the worked words and associate them with the writing of other words;

Develop motor skills;

Develop logical reasoning;

Teachers' goals

Work on the Halloween theme;

Introduce students to the history of Halloween;

Promote moments of relaxation;

Enable the student to identify and differentiate the letters of the alphabet;

Compose a facilitating and pleasant environment to work on the contents addressed in the game: letters of the alphabet, numerical sequence from 1 to 9 and colors;

Stimulate and encourage creativity;

Apply activities that develop children's logical reasoning;

Work hand-eye coordination with mouse skills;

Appreciate the visual arts.

Enable integration with people and environments.

Fix content worked in the classroom;

Suggestions of approaches for the teacher

(Suggestion 1) Create Halloween monsters using recyclable materials (example: create a ghost using toilet paper roll and bandage.

(Suggestion 2) Set up a picnic with “macabre” recipes (purple cookies, fluorescent green juice, cake and pumpkin jam).

(Suggestion 3) Fishing with eyes (replace the fish in the traditional fishing game with toy eyes).

(Suggestion 4) Setting up a panel with the main Halloween characters.

(Suggestion 5) Assemble a Halloween sensory box. (Put items like beans, chewing gum, modeling clay, etc.). Blindfolded, students must guess what is inside the box.

(Suggestion 6) Make artistic Halloween paintings.

(Suggestion 7) Build an articulated skeleton using straws.

(Suggestion 8) Draw monsters mask.

(Suggestion 9) Create a scary costume.

(Suggestion 10) Make the fake blood recipe and use it on Halloween.

(Suggestion #11) Build Ghosts from Marshmallows and Treats.

(Suggestion 12) Study about the origin of Halloween.

(Suggestion #13) Make a volcano pumpkin (it's an adaptation of the erupting volcano experiment using baking soda).

(Suggestion 14) Promote moments of horror storytelling.

More about the content

The Origin of Halloween

Long before the Church arrived in Ireland and the UK, it was the Celts who lived there 2,000 years ago. Their new year was November 1st, and they celebrated Samhain ("summer's end") the night before, October 31st. Samhain was a pagan festival, people danced around bonfires and wore costumes, crops were burned and animals sacrificed. The Celtic people believed that on that night the dead were closer than ever to the world of the living, and ghosts, both evil and good, would join them for one night.

Costumes were worn to ward off evil spirits. If the ghosts mistook a person for one of their own, they'd leave them alone. Another way to appease the dead was to offer some sweets.

Roman festivals commemorating the passing of the dead, and later Christian influences, changed the festival of Samhain. The All Saints' Day celebration had similar traditions and was held on 1 November. Samhain and “All-hallows-eve” (can you see the origin of the word Halloween yet?), an old name for All Hallows Eve, gradually became the same thing.