Ever used pumpkin carving designs to teach reflective symmetry? Use art to trick your students into an educational treat.
Halloween has become a major event in many school calendars, with fun days and fancy dress parades galore.
This week the Guardian Teacher Network is getting into the spirit of All Hallows’ eve with a goody bag of themed arts and crafts lesson ideas – perfect for tricking students into an educational treat.
Classroom decorations are the first port of call. Students can make their own skeletons by cutting out the pieces of this template by Teaching Ideas and attaching them together with brass paper fasteners. They might also enjoy making a 3D witch puppet. This idea from Sing Up involves decorating a wooden spoon with materials including wool, felt and foam. As a follow-up activity, students could work in groups to perform – and even write the script for – a short Halloween play.
Dressing up is at the heart of Halloween, but rather than relying on extravagant shop-bought ensembles, why not encourage pupils to make their own? A good starting place might be these masks for a maned wolf, dyeing poison frog or green anaconda. Before students get sticky with the masks, teach them about the animals of Brazil which the templates represent, using this lesson plan and presentation created by the conservation charity ARKive.
Carving a pumpkin is too tricky (and potentially dangerous) to attempt in class, even with this step-by-step beginner’s guide. An easier (and much safer) alternative is to carve a bell pepper. Orange and yellow ones are best as they look just like mini pumpkins. Ask pupils to bring in a pepper or two from home. Craft knives should be sharp enough for carving. If that sounds too risky still, students could stick on cut-out shapes instead. There are plenty of ideas here.
You can use students’ carving designs to explore the concept of reflective symmetry or get them drawing a collection of creepy creatures with these Spooky Symmetry sheets. They cover vampire bats, demonic poison frogs, black widow spiders and death’s-head hawk-moths – and include fascinating facts about the featured species. As an extension activity, ask students to invent the name of a scary-sounding creature then draw a picture of what it looks like. Use the drawings as a stimulus for a piece of imaginative writing, then use these Halloween page borders by Seeme Resources or these by Twinkl to display pupils’ work.
Stapling a selection of Halloween-themed worksheets together will give you a quick activity booklet that pupils can work on when they have finished other tasks. You could include this acrostic poem template, haunted house and witch’s cat colouring sheets, word search, spot the difference, handwriting exercise, missing letters puzzle, and matching activity from PrimaryLeap.
Another great source of art ideas – bonfire night – is just around the corner too. Wax crayon washed over with black paint or chalk on black paper are classic ways of making eye-catching fireworks scenes. We also have a bonfire night colouring sheet, shape poem template and page border from Twinkl, and a Guy Fawkes colouring sheet and poster from Activity Village. Secondary teachers might also find this TrueTube assembly about bonfire night useful.
You’ll find more autumn-themed arts and crafts ideas here.
This week the Guardian Teacher Network is getting into the spirit of All Hallows’ eve with a goody bag of themed arts and crafts lesson ideas – perfect for tricking students into an educational treat.
Classroom decorations are the first port of call. Students can make their own skeletons by cutting out the pieces of this template by Teaching Ideas and attaching them together with brass paper fasteners. They might also enjoy making a 3D witch puppet. This idea from Sing Up involves decorating a wooden spoon with materials including wool, felt and foam. As a follow-up activity, students could work in groups to perform – and even write the script for – a short Halloween play.
Dressing up is at the heart of Halloween, but rather than relying on extravagant shop-bought ensembles, why not encourage pupils to make their own? A good starting place might be these masks for a maned wolf, dyeing poison frog or green anaconda. Before students get sticky with the masks, teach them about the animals of Brazil which the templates represent, using this lesson plan and presentation created by the conservation charity ARKive.
Carving a pumpkin is too tricky (and potentially dangerous) to attempt in class, even with this step-by-step beginner’s guide. An easier (and much safer) alternative is to carve a bell pepper. Orange and yellow ones are best as they look just like mini pumpkins. Ask pupils to bring in a pepper or two from home. Craft knives should be sharp enough for carving. If that sounds too risky still, students could stick on cut-out shapes instead. There are plenty of ideas here.
You can use students’ carving designs to explore the concept of reflective symmetry or get them drawing a collection of creepy creatures with these Spooky Symmetry sheets. They cover vampire bats, demonic poison frogs, black widow spiders and death’s-head hawk-moths – and include fascinating facts about the featured species. As an extension activity, ask students to invent the name of a scary-sounding creature then draw a picture of what it looks like. Use the drawings as a stimulus for a piece of imaginative writing, then use these Halloween page borders by Seeme Resources or these by Twinkl to display pupils’ work.
Stapling a selection of Halloween-themed worksheets together will give you a quick activity booklet that pupils can work on when they have finished other tasks. You could include this acrostic poem template, haunted house and witch’s cat colouring sheets, word search, spot the difference, handwriting exercise, missing letters puzzle, and matching activity from PrimaryLeap.
Another great source of art ideas – bonfire night – is just around the corner too. Wax crayon washed over with black paint or chalk on black paper are classic ways of making eye-catching fireworks scenes. We also have a bonfire night colouring sheet, shape poem template and page border from Twinkl, and a Guy Fawkes colouring sheet and poster from Activity Village. Secondary teachers might also find this TrueTube assembly about bonfire night useful.
You’ll find more autumn-themed arts and crafts ideas here.
