Teaching ELA Using SPOOKY Activities: Halloween-Themed Ideas

It’s that time of year for teaching ELA using spooky activities, and we have some great ideas for you to implement this Halloween season!

Need some ideas for teaching ELA using spooky activities? We have a bunch of ideas!!

Who says Halloween can’t be both spooky and standards-aligned?

In middle school ELA, Halloween is the perfect time to blend creativity with skill practice, and your students will be so wrapped up in ghosts, goblins, and gory villains that they won’t even realize they’re mastering narrative writing, figurative language, and more.

We’ve gathered some of our favorite spook-tacular ideas to bring the Halloween spirit into your ELA classroom all while reinforcing key standards like narrative writing, descriptive language, and even text analysis.

6 Ideas for Teaching ELA Using Spooky Activities

Ready to make October unforgettable? Let’s dig in…

1 | Write Short Scary Stories (Narrative Writing Focus)

What’s more Halloween-appropriate than a spine-chilling short story?

Give students a prompt like:

• You wake up in a town where no one remembers your name…
• The carnival came back to town… but no one remembered inviting it.
• You hear your own voice calling from the basement…

Encourage them to include:

• A clear narrative arc (plot structure practice!)
• Descriptive language and tone
• Dialogue with correct punctuation
• A twist ending! 😱

Want to extend it? Use task 4 from our Halloween Escape Room as a warm-up to review key elements of narrative writing before students begin their own stories.

2 | Design the Perfect Villain (Descriptive Language)

Villains are where your students’ creativity really shines, and they’re ideal for practicing adjectives, analogies, and sensory descriptions.

Ask students to design their own villain and write a “villain profile,” including:

• Name and eerie backstory
• Descriptive physical features (use figurative language!)
• Signature villain quote
• Evil goals or motivations

You can even host a “Villain Voting” day where students anonymously vote for the most creative or creepiest antagonist.

This ties in perfectly with Language Standards L.5 and L.6, which focus on figurative language, word choice, and tone. 

3 | Halloween Reading Comprehension Escape Room

Need something more independent or sub-friendly during the spooky season?

Our Halloween-Themed Reading Comprehension Digital Escape Room gives students a fun, challenging review of reading skills through mysterious Halloween scenarios.

They’ll practice:

• Plot sequencing
• Inference
• Context clues
• Close reading

It’s a great “CEO Day” activity if you need a day to catch up or regroup while your students are still working hard (and having a blast).

Check out our blog post: New Teacher Check-In: One Month Down… How Are You Doing? for more on CEO Days and classroom management tips.

Sign Up for a FREE plot structure digital escape room!

4 | Haunted Figurative Language Practice

Take your typical figurative language practice… and add a spooky twist!

Ideas:

• Write Halloween similes/metaphors (e.g., “as silent as a skeleton’s footsteps”)
• Create a spooky “figurative language museum” with student-made posters or slides
• Play a haunted “Figurative Language Guess Who” game using Halloween-themed sentences

Need a no-prep option? Try our Halloween Figurative Language Escape Room.

5 | Analyze the Elements of Horror

Want something a little more analytical?

Pick a classic short horror story and have students:

• Identify mood and tone
• Analyze pacing and suspense
• Break down the story’s structure

6 | Halloween-Themed “Stand and Defend” Debates

Pose a spooky ethical question, and let students “stand and defend” their answers.

Ideas:

• Should ghosts have legal rights?
• Would you live in a haunted house for $10 million?
• Are villains always bad—or just misunderstood?

This fun oral speaking activity connects directly to SL.1–3 and helps students practice respectful discussion and evidence-based arguments. Bonus: It’s also hilarious.

Not sure how to teach these standards? We’ve got you:
Read our blog posts about SL. 1-3 by clicking HERE. We also have two complementary blog posts about Socratic Seminars. Click on the images to learn more! 

Final Thoughts: Spooky + Standards = ELA Magic 🎃

Halloween offers more than candy and costumes—it’s a golden opportunity to inject some fun into your instruction without sacrificing rigor.

Whether your students are designing villains, crafting creepy stories, or cracking codes in an escape room, they’ll be practicing key ELA skills in memorable, meaningful ways.

So go ahead, embrace the spooky season, and watch your students come alive (figuratively, of course).