Halloween Writing
By Caroline Wyman
Objective: The students will use a writing prompt in order to develop a scary Halloween story. Grades 2-5
Initiation: Read a Halloween story to the class.
Here is a list of short stories from HighlightsKids.com:
The Mystery of the Haunted House
Here is a great site that you can choose a Halloween book from:
http://www.apples4theteacher.com/holidays/halloween/kids-books/index.html
Development: After reading a scary/spooky Halloween story explain to the students that they are now going to come up with their own Halloween story. Begin by using a graphic organizer to brainstorm special adjectives that pertain to Halloween. I like to use a graphic web since it looks like a spider. In the middle write the word Halloween. Have students brainstorm words associated with Halloween. Some examples might include, creepy, slimy, scary...after you come up with great Halloween words have the printed prompt written out on a large piece of poster board. I like to decorate the poster with pumpkins, ghosts, spiders...in order to make the kids more excited and motivated. You can make up your own Halloween prompt, but here is one that I used:
"It is Halloween night and I've been trick or treating all night long. I finally get to the last house on my street, but when I look around no one is there. I slowly walk up the path to the big, old, creepy house. It looks haunted to me. My finger is shaking once I ring the doorbell. My heart is pounding as someone or something slowly opens the squeaky door."
Tell the class to take some time and think about what might happen next. Tell them to be creative and think about your reader who you want to scare! After they finish with their story, share stories and illustrate with spooky pictures. You can take this writing lesson as far as you would like with writing different drafts in writing centers or making it into a quick short story. This depends on different writing skills that you may have in your classroom.
Closure: Share stories with the whole class and hand out Halloween treats or turn off the lights when you read the stories.
Materials: Book and or online short story, chart paper, writing tools, writing prompt.
Time: 30 min.-60 min.
Caroline Wyman has a degree in Sociology and a Masters in Elementary Education and is the administrator for TeacherNet.com.