This year, mid-term falls on an unusual week, with Halloween night arriving just two days after the mid-term break! Here are some ideas for this upcoming week in school!

Art Ideas

1. I get a lot of inspiration from Instagram. I’ve been following Art With Mrs. E for a long time and love using her lesson plans. I highly recommend following her page on Instagram. We tried these sugar skull skeletons last year. (Total credit to Kaitlyn for this lesson) Below are some lesson notes from me:

• I used A3 card from Lidl for the base and the paper packs for the skeletons.
• Make sure you have an example or two to show the children before you start.
• We watched a scene from the Disney movie COCO as a discussion stimulus.
• To make the skull – fold a piece of A4 paper vertically and draw a half outline of the skull to make it easier! (Cut out when it’s still folded)
• I used Art With Mrs. E’s Sugar Skull Clip Art resource on TPT as a visual reference for the kids while they worked.
• Check out Art with Mrs. E’s website for tonnes more art ideas here.

• When it comes to using black paint in the classroom – less is more! My trick is to give the students thin paint brushes and limit the amount of time they have to paint on their skeleton.
• You can also spend some time teaching your students the history of sugar skulls and their importance in Mexican history. You can find lots of information on The Day of the Dead online.

Literacy

2. Vooks is a fantastic website that hosts a huge number of storybooks read by fabulous authors. You can sign up for a free trial to access lots of book videos for free. Click the icons below to see their spooky story collection.

3. Try some Halloween narratives or write some spooky newspaper reports using my latest Halloween Literacy Pack. I have really tried to make this as easy to use as possible! Check out the preview by clicking below.

Gaeilge

4. Studying the Ocaidí Speisilta are such a fun way of getting students involved with the Irish language. I encourage my class to use the vocabulary and phrases they learn in school over the mid-term break. Last year, I created a huge Oíche Shahmna resource with worksheets, display materials, comhrá cards and games! I’ve since uploaded them to TPT!

Extra Ideas

5. The last week before a break is always a bit of a last push to the finish line! Halloween Booklets are a great way to keep students engaged and busy for the last few afternoons. Generally, I keep any worksheets in a folder and photocopy a booklet with a mix of tasks for the last week! The worksheets below are included in my Halloween Literacy Activities pack but you could make your own using worksheets you already have or from Twinkl.

6. This year, I’ll be using these Halloween focus tasks for early arrival and brain breaks. I threw them together in a pack that you can find on TPT by clicking the image below!

7. Click the image below to grab this Halloween Banner freebie. You could start it tomorrow afternoon and maybe listen to one of the Halloween stories above while your students read. A quick and easy Halloween decoration that is perfect for this week!

Happy teaching!

Claire