6 educational activities for celebrating Halloween as a family

Everybody knows that black cats are bad luck! But they’re also a witch’s best friend and the perfect star for a Halloween tale. To help set the mood next October 31, ask your youngsters to make up a story about a black cat. It can be scary, funny, or full of twists and turns! You can get the ball rolling by encouraging your child to do the following:

• Decide on their cat’s appearance and personality
• Think about the main building blocks of a narrative text
• Write a strong opening sentence
• Give the story a moral
• Add flair to their writing (e.g., use rhymes, humour, made-up words)
• Create the right ambience for telling their story (e.g., dim the lights, put up decorations, play music)
• Etc.

This year, host a party where everyone plays a historical figure. Bring your favourite history book heroes back to life and tell their story. Make sure to create a ghostly atmosphere (e.g., dimmed lights, spooky background music, Halloween decorations). Have your kids follow the steps below:

• Browse our Alloprof history articles 
• Choose a historical figure (e.g., Christopher Columbus, La Corriveau, Pierre Elliott Trudeau)
• Read about their life, their work, etc.
• Memorize this information so they can tell their story to the other guests
• Make a costume (e.g., clothes, hat, accessories, makeup)
• Attend the party
• Stay in character throughout the evening (e.g., speak in the person’s accent)
• Etc.

Playing Halloween bingo is a great way to spend a fun evening with the whole family. Place a prize bowl at the centre of the table. Hand out a bingo card to each player and set out the following rules:

• The winner gets to dip into the prize bowl (e.g., filled with candy, silly sentences, special rewards)
• The loser has to do an imitation (e.g., an owl, a ghost)
• Etc.

Are your children little candy goblins? Take advantage of their sweet tooth and play a Halloween math game! The rules are simple:

• Put a dish of candy at the centre of a table
• Ask math questions that involve addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division 
• When a player gets a question right, they pick the number of candies corresponding to the correct answer from the bowl
• When a player gets a question wrong, they put the number of candies corresponding to the correct answer back into the bowl
• Etc.

Weird-looking (but delicious!) mocktails, or non-alcoholic cocktails, are a great way to spice up your family’s Halloween. Your kids can lend a hand by doing the following:

• Figure out what food colourings to combine for an orange mocktail (red and yellow)
• Measure the ingredients
• Double the recipes
• Come up with funny names for each mocktail (e.g., Hocus Pocus Punch, Monster Mocktail)
• Etc.

Here are a few more activity ideas for your family’s next Halloween: 

• Carve pumpkins using geometric shapes to stencil the eyes, mouth, and nose.
• Bake ghoulish mummy cookies (use a gingerbread man recipe and cookie cutter). Simply use white icing to cover the mummies in bandages. 
• Do magic.
• Build a prism-shaped piñata .
• Make up some Halloween jokes.
• Read horror novels.
• Create a quiz that focuses on a spooky subject (e.g., Dracula, jack-o’-lanterns).
• Read scary books.
• Etc.

With Potager en péril, reviewing French lexical categories is as easy as pumpkin pie! Throughout October, the game will be Halloween-themed, complete with a haunted tunnel and creepy costumes. Choose a spooktacular disguise for Mr. Carrot and protect his vegetable garden!