Did you know that Halloween is a great time to use Halloween digital activities in your classroom? Read on to learn why and how you can incorporate digital activities into your students’ Halloween learning.
If you are looking for pen and paper or hybrid Halloween lessons, check out this blog post, Middle School Halloween Activities: Fun and Spooky Ideas for a Memorable Celebration.
Why You Should Embrace Technology in the Classroom
The spooky season is a great time for students to work on their social-emotional learning, cooperative and team-building skills, as well as time management and critical thinking skills. During this month, students are typically doing the classic middle school Halloween activities, such as pumpkin carving, Halloween digital escape rooms, and more – on top of their regular learning.
While getting students away from technology and interacting with their peers is always a good idea, technology is something that isn’t going away any time soon, so it’s important that students are given the opportunity to do activities that use various forms of technology.
Not only will incorporating technology in everyday lessons help students explore real-world scenarios and prepare for a future in a digital world, but certain activities will have them learning through creativity, problem-solving, collaboration, and developing digital literacy skills.
Spooky Halloween Digital Activities You Can Use
Below are three different Halloween digital activities you can use in your classroom during the Halloween season that are sure to excite and delight your students.
Halloween Digital Escape Room
If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you’ll know I love using digital escape rooms with students. Not only are they a great tool for building community and engaging students in social-emotional learning, but they are also perfect for getting students to work on their problem-solving and critical-thinking skills.
This Halloween Digital Escape Room will have students working with their peers (or individually) to solve 10 Halloween-themed challenges to “escape” from the haunted house they have accidentally locked themselves into.
Students will love that this Halloween digital escape room focuses on the spooky holiday, and teachers will love that it is virtually no prep, so it’s easy to use when you need to fill 30 minutes to an hour. Digital escape rooms are a great activity to use as a reward for student work or as a fun challenge to test their Halloween knowledge.
What teachers have said about this Halloween digital escape room:
“My students love these digital escape rooms. I have them for all holidays. Great before a long weekend or event. Creative way to bring some fun into the classroom before or on a holiday.” – Rebecca M.
“This Halloween mystery activity has been great for my students! They love the challenge of these activities, which also provides more enrichment during independent practice. Students feel rewarded by completing each task to further solve the mystery, and stay engaged throughout the entire practice. Great resource!” – Ashton T.
If you haven’t used digital escape rooms in the classroom yet, you can check out any of the posts below for reasons why you should be using them in your classroom, as well as tips, tricks, and technological help if needed:
- Why Use Digital Escape Rooms in Middle School?
- How to Use Digital Escape Rooms Without a School Google Account
- 5 Tips to a Successful Digital Escape Room
Halloween Stores Podcast Lesson
How exactly do Halloween-specific stores make money? Teachers are provided with an engaging listening comprehension lesson based on a podcast segment about how Halloween-specific stores are profitable even though they are only open for a few months of the year. Learn more about this podcast lesson here.
Virtual Pumpkin Carving & Costume Contest
Another great activity to do during the Halloween season is a contest. Organize a virtual costume contest where students can create and showcase their Halloween costumes through video submissions. Encourage creativity and provide fun categories like “Best DIY Costume” or “Most Creative Use of Technology in a Costume.”
You can also hold a virtual pumpkin carving contest where students can carve or decorate a virtual pumpkin using online tools. They can choose from a variety of virtual tools and designs to create unique and personalized digital pumpkins. They can then share their creations through images or video submissions.
You can have classroom votes for both contests and have fun prizes like stickers, candy, or fun Halloween pencils and erasers for the winners.
Create Spooky Storytelling Podcasts
Creating a podcast in the classroom has never been easier. If you have never used a podcast in your class before, you can read this blog post: 9 Ways To Use Podcasts In The Classroom.
Brainstorm scary stories for students to podcast, and they can create their own “Halloween Show” for the class to listen to. Encourage students to create their own spooky stories or adapt existing ones and record them as podcasts.
Remember that spooky stories might not be fun for everyone, though, so make sure you take into account the different sensitivities that might be in your classroom. Try to get students to put fun and laughter into their stories so everyone will enjoy them.
Check out our Podcast Creation Assignment if you’re ready to get your students onto the podcast bandwagon. This assignment is a great place to start, as it will help students learn what podcasts are before they create their own.
Celebrating Halloween in the classroom doesn’t have to mean getting your hands dirty with pumpkin innards and craft supplies. Show your students that there are many ways they can celebrate the holiday using technology – and you can even balance that technology with more traditional Halloween activities as the holiday draws near.
Make sure you check out the Halloween digital escape room with your class this Halloween season and test out your students’ Halloween knowledge. If you have other great Halloween digital activities you like to use in your classroom, let us know on social media (@2peasandadog). I hope you can use some of these great digital Halloween activities with your students.
If you’re looking for more Halloween fun, check out these blog posts:
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