In upper elementary, we cover a variety of ELA skills, AND we like to celebrate holidays. Today, let’s talk about tips for incorporating Halloween into your ELA lessons!
Halloween is one of the first holidays we celebrate once we head back to school for the year, and it is also one of the most fun to plan for.
We have written many posts about celebrating Halloween with upper elementary students, but we’ve never discussed specifically using Halloween resources to teach ELA skills.
Today, as we discuss Halloween in this new way, we will provide a variety of tips for incorporating Halloween into your ELA lessons in a fun and organic way.
Tips for Incorporating Halloween into your ELA Lessons this Year.
Let’s go through these tips skill by skill; that way, you can bookmark this post and come back to it when it’s time to start planning.
We will reference our Halloween Close Reads with Mystery Pictures for many of these skills because of the variety of different kinds of passages and the different ways they can be used to practice ELA skills. To take a closer look at these Close Reads, be sure to click on the image below!
The 3 passages included in the Halloween Close Reads are
- “Samhain” – a fictional passage about a Celtic boy who is celebrating with his family.
- “Halloween Around the World” – an informational passage about how Halloween and other similar holidays are celebrated around the world.
- “History of Halloween” – an informational passage about where the holiday of Halloween came from and what has made it what it is today.
Skill #1 | Predicting
When working on the skill of predicting, use the Halloween passages found in the Close Reads with Mystery Pictures. Encourage students to make predictions about the text before reading based on the title, headings, and visuals.
You may also have them make predictions about the mystery picture before looking at the image.
Skill #2 | Questioning
Teach students to ask questions while reading to deepen their understanding. These can be questions about the main idea, characters’ motivations, or connections to personal experiences.
One of the benefits of using the Halloween Close Reads is that you can use one of the passages to model questioning with students and then give them the other passages for practice!
Skill #3 | Visualizing
Help students create mental images of the text they are reading. This technique aids comprehension and engagement.
Give students paper to draw what they see as they read the passages.
Here are some questions you can use to guide students as they work through the passages.
- What details do they notice?
- What do the characters look like?
- What kinds of specifics are given about the decorations or the costumes?
- How do their visualizations differ from those of their peers?
Figurative language examples are also great for practicing visualization. Click here to read our post, which includes 40 figurative language examples specifically for Halloween!
Skill #4 |Summarizing
Teach students to summarize what they have read in their own words. This promotes understanding of key ideas and helps in recalling information.
The number one tip for incorporating Halloween into your ELA lessons is to adjust resources as needed to add a little Halloween fun to the skills being taught. However, you don’t have to do the activities exactly as written.
For example, you could have students read just a paragraph from the passage to practice summarizing, or you could have them read the whole thing.
You could also read the whole passage first and then go back through and summarize each paragraph to figure out the purpose behind each set of details.
Skill #5 | Making Connections
Encourage students to relate the text to their own lives, other texts they have read, or the world around them. This fosters deeper comprehension and engagement.
Skill #6 | Monitoring Comprehension
Teach students to monitor their understanding while reading. If they encounter difficulties, they can use strategies like rereading or breaking down complex sentences.
Close reading is a strategy of its own, and the details of the close reading strategy are available in each Close Reading set.
Skill #7 | Context Clues
Teach strategies for figuring out the meaning of unfamiliar words using context clues from the surrounding text.
Skill #8 | Story Mapping
Have students create story maps or graphic organizers to visually represent the elements of a story (characters, setting, plot, etc.).
Skill #9 | Vocabulary Development
Encourage students to expand their vocabulary by learning new words and using them in context.
As students read through the passages in the Halloween Close Read, have them list the words that are new to them. Then, as a class, see what you can learn from the context clues.
Do this activity as a class with the first passage, and then have students do them individually for the second and third passages.
Skill #10 | Close Reading
Guide students in closely analyzing short passages to understand nuances in language, structure, and meaning.
The close read strategy is available with each Close Reads with Mystery Pictures set of passages. You can also use the tools and bookmarks available in the resources to guide students as they use the strategy.
Skill #11 | Fluency Practice
These passages are also great for providing opportunities for students to practice reading aloud to improve fluency, expression, and pacing.
Skill #12 | Discussion
Foster class discussions about texts to promote critical thinking and analysis. Encourage students to support their ideas with evidence from the text.
You can also combine discussion with other skills, such as visualizing and/or making connections, to help guide the discussion.
Skill #13 | Diverse Texts
The three different texts (one fictional and two nonfiction) expose students to varying styles of writing and perspectives.
When you’re looking for great resources to use with students, look for ones like the Halloween Close Reads with Mystery Pictures that can be used in a variety of ways to work on many of the ELA skills students are expected to master in upper elementary.
Hopefully, these tips for incorporating Halloween into your ELA lessons have given you some ideas for how to incorporate these Close Reads and other resources into your ELA curriculum this fall!
As always, all of the resources mentioned in this post can be found in our online shop, but if you prefer, you can also get these resources on TPT. Click here to access our Close Reads with Mystery Pictures on TPT.
