Halloween is right around the corner, and if your kids are like mine, they’ve been talking about it for a good six weeks. From the costumes to the trick-or-treating plans to the parties and the candy, it’s been nonstop! If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, right? And maybe throw in a little learning while they’re at it?
Here is a round-up of some of my favorite Education.com resources to support your child’s literacy as you celebrate Halloween. These resources are easy to use and the material lists are simple, and they cover a range of components of literacy development—phonemic awareness, comprehension, writing, spelling, and vocabulary.
For Preschoolers and Kindergarteners
- Building Block 1: Uppercase Letters: These fun worksheets help the alphabet come alive. Your child can review their letters, sounds, and words that start with each letter as they color these wacky letters.
- Finish the Halloween Sentences: Inspire your little learner to practice reading and writing with this festive worksheet! They’ll use visual clues like an image of a spider web to help them complete the sentences with simple, high-frequency words.
- “G” is for Ghost!: With a fun hands-on activity, your child can celebrate Halloween in a spooky and educational way. While creating a Halloween decoration, they will focus on the letter “G.” Letter recognition, the sound that “G” makes, and words that start with “G” will be the topic as your child gets going with this gooey, giggle-inducing, ghostly project.
- Halloween Poem: Exposing your child to poetry at a young age is a great way to build their rhyming skills. Rhyming helps set children up with stronger language skills as they get older. This short Halloween-themed poem provides fun practice with simple rhyming. Your child can use the illustration, the word bank, and their knowledge of rhyming to complete four lines of the poem. To see more benefits of rhyming and tips to help your child build their rhyming skills, check out this blog post.
For 1st and 2nd Graders
- Interesting Animals: Bats: With this reading comprehension worksheet, your child can read about one of the most notorious creatures associated with Halloween. First, they’ll learn some new facts about these interesting animals. Then, they’ll answer a few short questions to demonstrate their comprehension.
- Halloween Words: Frightfully Fun Spelling Worksheets Set: This set of eight worksheets focuses on Halloween-themed vocabulary, like bats, ghost, pumpkin, and candy. In this frightfully fun collection, your child will trace vocabulary words and then use the words in their own sentences. This activity supports your child’s literacy development by working on spelling, reading, and writing.
- Spiders and Their Webs: Another holiday favorite: the spider! This nonfiction worksheet shares factual information about spiders in a reading passage. After reading, your child will label a diagram about the spider.
- Halloween Story Starter: A key component of literacy development is writing, but sometimes, kids don’t know where to start! When writing feels difficult, sentence starters can help. Here, even reluctant writers will enjoy using the sentence starter (“The kids were all dressed up for Halloween and…”) to write their own spooky story. Then, they can create a colorful illustration to accompany it.
Get your child excited for October 31 with these Halloween-themed leveled books. Each one is a different level in terms of text complexity, so check out which version is best for your child.
- Happy Halloween!: Level A
- Happy Halloween!: Level D
- Happy Halloween!: Level G
- Happy Halloween!: Level J
Have a happy and safe Halloween!
By Jasmine Gibson, an educational consultant with expertise in early elementary education, supporting teachers, and designing curriculum.
