Arts Integrated Halloween Activity Ideas

Special Post: Integrating the arts into Halloween parties and fun

I love integrating arts activities with children’s books, but I know there are ways to teach with the arts other than using a children’s book. Every once in a while I will be posting a “special post.”  It will not be centered on a children’s book; it will be focused on something else- like a holiday or age group- and still have arts integrating activities!  This is the first special post of the blog!

It is now October, and I know many teachers and parents have begun thinking about school or family Halloween parties.  If the teachers or parents haven’t, the kids sure have!!  It’s hard to ignore that fact that once the leaves start changing colors- Halloween is on the minds of little (and big) kids everywhere!  Here are some ideas/activities that incorporate the arts into your classroom or family home parties.  Some of these ideas are more academic than others, and can actually be integrated into lessons during the month of October.

Subjects: Writing, Music, Drama, Dance, Art

Music: When I was student teaching, I had the kids do a lip sink to a song of their group’s choice.  The kids had a chance to pick the song, practice, and then perform.  They had a ball.  You could do this for Halloween fun!  Here is a list of kid friendly Halloween songs that would be fun to karaoke or lip sink to:

1.      The Monster Mash

2.      Spiderman

3.      Ghostbusters

4.      Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

5.      I Want Candy

6.      The Witch Doctor

7.      Thriller

8.      Dem Bones

Another Music Activity:  Music can be used for so many things during a Halloween party because it is fun.  Some activities that involve music for Halloween parties are: (you may have heard of some of these before)

1.      Cake Walk: Put numbers on the floor and have the students walk around in a circle while the music is playing.  When the music stops, draw a number and whoever is standing on the number you drew wins a cake or cupcake!!

2.      Musical Chairs: Put the same amount of chairs in a circle in the room as students- minus one chair.  While the music is playing, have the students go around the chairs.  When the music stops, have the students sit in a chair.  Whoever is not in a chair is out.  Continue playing, but be sure to take a chair out after each round so you always have one less chair than number of students.

3.      Dance Moves: Start the game by having the kids write down random words on slips of papers. Put the papers into a bowl and gather everyone into a standing circle. Pass the bowl around and have everyone pull out a slip of paper. After they've read their paper, turn on some music and pick one child to start the game. She'll come up with a dance move using the word on her paper. For example, if she has the word "kangaroo," she can use hopping as her dance move. Once she performs the move for about 10 seconds, the person to her left comes up with a dance move. This continues around the circle as everyone creates their own moves. Once everyone has contributed, have the kids vote on the best dance move.  This game came from ehow.com:  http://www.ehow.com/list_6597778_music-party-games-kids.html#ixzz2gVYbegn9

4.      Dancing Body Parts:  This game would go well with the song, “Dem Bones.” Gather the kids into a circle and stand somewhere they can see you. After you put on some music, tell them they can only move the body parts you instruct them to move as they dance to the music. For example, start by only moving your pinkie finger, keeping the rest of your body motionless. Invite the kids to mimic your movements; anyone who doesn't is eliminated from the game. Make the movements more difficult as you go on, for example, only move your stomach muscles, or combine two movements, such as shrugging your shoulders while you tap your feet. The game ends when only one player--the winner--remains in the game.  This game idea came from ehow.com: http://www.ehow.com/list_6597778_music-party-games-kids.html#ixzz2gVZB4bTo

Art:  There are countless Halloween Art projects out there, so I will only give you one idea that dives more into creativity than just making a cute cat hanging for the wall.  One reason kids (and adults) love Halloween is because they get to where costumes.  Some schools don’t allow costumes. This activity can be done with or without costumes.  Before the party, take a picture of each child’s face.  Make the picture actual size of the face and print it as a dark watermark.  Then have the students choose their favorite animal. The activity is to have the student’s create the face of that animal on their own face picture using paint.  This would be a good chance to incorporate an art lesson on combining colors, texture of paint, etc. 

Dance: One year when I was in college I was in a show choir and we put on a Halloween performance for a big Halloween party.  We actually sang and danced to the songs we were singing, and it was a live performance, but an idea like this can be incorporated on a much smaller scale for a classroom party.  Throughout the month of October you could teach the students a Halloween dance, such as “Thiller,” by Michael Jackson.  If you don’t know how to do the dance, here is an instructional video that gives you step by step moves on how to do it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFEu2vd0nPk 

 

 During your classroom Halloween party, have the students perform the song for their parents, other students, or the school.   Obviously, “Thriller” is for older students, but this idea/activity can be done in younger grades with other songs.  You could even make up a dance to “5 Little Pumpkins,” if you wanted to!!

Writing/Technology-Media Art/Drama: For a writing integrated activity, you could have the students as groups write a Halloween radio show using sound effects.  The students would write a “story” to share on the classroom radio as if it was the 50s and they have to make all of their sound effects themselves.  After writing the story with sound effects and different voices for the characters, you could have them record their radio stories on a device (tape, mp3, or whatever technology you have) and play each story to the class as if they were listening to the radio.  If you don’t want to have the students record their radio stories, you could put up a sheet in front of the classroom so the audience cannot see the performing group.  The group who is sharing their story goes behind the sheet with all of their sound effects and reads the story making the sound effects as if they were live on the radio in the 50s.  There are “spooky sounds” and Halloween side effect cds and audio files on the internet if you want to allow your students to use pre-recorded sounds. (This idea is not my original idea.  It was something we did when I was taking the Arts Academy through BYU while teaching).

If you have more ideas on how to integrate the arts into classroom or at home Halloween parties, please feel free to comment with those ideas!!  Thanks for sharing!