I have seen a lot of worksheets floating around the Internet about Halloween, which is fine, but I personally try to limit my use of them and use videos and activities instead.
In terms of videos, the History Channel has some really great ones. I love "Bet You Didn't Know: Halloween" and " Haunted History of Halloween". They both are a little over two minutes, have Greta visuals and a lot of interesting information. I did a KWL activity with my students asking them before what they knew, what they learned in the video and what they wanted to know. We also had a small discussion.
http://www.history.com/topics/halloween/videos#bet-you-didnt-know-halloween
This is Halloween
The Nightmare Before Christmas is a fun film to watch and not just for children. I used the song, "This is Halloween" in my class and asked my students, according to the video, what is Halloween?
Here's the link:
We had just finished clothing at the time so I has students design costumes from the clothing they had at home. This was a fun exercise to see who could come up with the most creative costume without actually buying one. Beforehand I gave them some example of DIY costumes including a How To video.
The Velvet Ribbon
This is a classic scary story and perfect for Halloween. It is also quite short and simple, making it accessible for all levels and ages (with scaffolding as needed). There also are many different versions, for more or less advanced classes. I used An McGovern's version with my beginner English class this semester and it worked really well! Here is the text, which I found from http://home.earthlink.net/~halloween_magenta/v-ribbon.html
THE
VELVET RIBBON
by Ann McGovern
Once there was a man who fell in love
with a beautiful girl. And before
the next full moon rose in the sky,
they were wed.
To please her husband, the young wife
wore a different gown each night.
Sometimes she was dressed in yellow;
other nights she wore red or blue
or white. And she always wore a black
velvet ribbon around her slender
neck.
Day and night she wore that ribbon,
and it was not long before her
husband's curiosity got the better of
him.
"Why do you always wear that
ribbon?" he asked.
She smiled a strange smile and said
not a word.
At last her husband got angry. And
one night he shouted at his bride.
"Take that ribbon off! I'm tired
of looking at it."
You will be sorry if I do," she
replied, "so I won't." Every morning at
breakfast, the husband ordered his
wife to remove the black velvet
ribbon from around her neck. Every
night at dinner he told her the same
thing.
But every morning at breakfast and
every night at dinner, all his wife
would say was, "You'll be sorry
if I do. So I won't."
A week had passed. The husband no
longer looked into his wife's eyes. He
could only stare at that black velvet
ribbon around her neck.
One night as his wife lay sleeping,
he tiptoed to her sewing basket. He
took out a pair of scissors.
Quickly and quietly, careful not to
awaken her, he bent over his wife's
bed
and
SNIP! went the scissors, and the
velvet ribbon fell to the floor
and
SNAP! off came her head. It rolled
over the floor in the moonlight,
wailing tearfully:
"I...told...you...you'd...be...s-o-r-r-y!"
There also is audio, which I also had my students listen to as they read along. Since it's short, we were able to go through the words they were unfamiliar with and read it a few times over with out it becoming too tedious
Here is the link to the video which is only audio:
The Raven
Edgar Allen Poe's famous short story, The Raven, is also a personal favorite but is much more difficult and unlike the other short story, requires a higher level. Despite this, there are some great resources out there.
Below is a link to the full text, broken in two vignettes with vocabulary word definitions and explanations. Very good, I believe, if you're going to read it with your students.
http://esl.about.com/library/
Here is a fun "interpretation" done by the Simpsons.
Here is Part 1 of a very well made short film which depicts The Raven.
Also, if you'd like to make an extended study of the short story, Edgar Allen Poe and his other short stories, definitely visit this website that has a ton of resources:
http://www.michellehenry.fr/poe.htm
Pumpkin Carving
I think this one is self explanatory. We did this at our school Halloween party. On another occasion I had younger students and we instead painted the pumpkins, which was also really fun for them and got everyone in the Halloween spirit!
Superstitions Around the World
An interesting cultural aspect that can be tied to Halloween is Superstition. I had a big talk with my students about American superstitions and asked them to think of a list of superstitions from their countries. Then, we looked into one and found the origin of it. Very interesting!
