October Lesson Plan Ideas

Looking for October lesson plan ideas — or have the have the crazies of October already hit? ?

Either way, here are 12 ideas to help you keep students working and engaged for the month (numbers 5 & 6 are my favorites!).

Writing

1. Adjust journal prompts.  One of my students’ favorites is to write about their best/worst Halloween costumes.  
2. Persuade me.  Have students take a stand on whether they are too old to go trick-or-treating.  Have them write a persuasive piece to a parent as to why they should be able to trick-or-treat or why they shouldn’t have to pass out candy or take a younger sibling out.  
3. Descriptive writing #1.  Have your students design a haunted house.  Can they write an ad to sell it?  Share real estate ads with students & challenge them to sell their haunted house!  Who would their ideal buyer be? 
4. Descriptive writing #2.  What would be a wonderful new candy to pass out for trick-or-treaters?  
5. Descriptive writing #3.  Have students draw a monster.  Then write directions for re-creating that drawing.  Share the directions with another student (who hasn’t seen the original drawing – this works great with different sections of classes).  Have the second student try to recreate the drawing based only on the written directions.  Compare the drawings — this assignment is a blast and makes a great hallway display!
6. Descriptive writing #4.  Design a Halloween costume.  Then write a description as if it were in a clothing catalog. (Here’s a catalog description from Land’s End you can share with students).  Students can create an ad for their costume with the description.  Another fun bulletin board or hallway display!  
7. Creative writing.  Once students have read some scary stories, allow them to write their own.  You can use this digital writing lesson or this print writing lesson to take them through the process.

Reading

8. Read some scary stories.  I have three ready-to-use lessons here.  You can use scary stories for literature circles — have each group read and analyze a different story.  Then create a class list of the elements that make a story scare us.

Speaking Skills

9. Add a debate.  When should kids stop trick-or-treating?  Even if you don’t host a formal debate, this is a great argumentative writing prompt.
10. Write a play.  Challenge your students to write a one act play about Halloween.
11. Readers Theater.  Choose a handful of Halloween or autumn picture books and have students convert them into readers theater scripts to perform for lower grades.

Research Skills

12.  Mini research.  Have your students research the history of Halloween, Dia de los Muertos, candy corn, Jack O’Lanterns, or Halloween costumes.

Quick links:

• “The Monkey’s Paw” Lesson Plan
• “The Tell-Tale Heart” Lesson Plan
• “The Lottery” Lesson Plan
• Three Scary Stories Lesson Bundle
• Write a Scary Story: Creative Writing (Print)
• Write a Scary Story:  Creative Writing (Digital Resource)

I hope one (or many!) of these October lesson plan ideas will help you keep your students focused, engaged, and having fun throughout the month!  ?

Ready to start planning for next month? Here are ideas and lesson planning tips for November.

Questions?  Comments?  Pop them in the comments below & let’s start talking!

With gratitude,