Ah yes, spooky season. The sugar. The chaos. In this episode, I’m giving you a front seat to exactly how to lean into the festive vibes of Halloween (and any holiday season) without your classroom descending into a full-blown free-for-all.
This episode is packed with practical ways to keep your routines, keep your calm, all while adding just the right sprinkle of spooky magic to make it fun and functional.
From Halloween-themed SEL check-ins to brain breaks that actually regulate, I’m sharing the exact routines I don’t ditch (and how I just theme them instead). You’ll walk away with fresh ideas and feel-good strategies that will keep your students engaged without sacrificing your classroom management game.
So if you’ve ever asked yourself, “How do I do something fun for Halloween without losing control of my room?” - this one’s for you.
Let’s roll the tape. 👻
What you’ll learn in this episode:
- Why festive behaviour spirals are so common (and how to avoid them)
- The biggest mistake teachers make when planning fun holiday lessons
- How to add novelty without losing structure
- Exactly what to swap and what to keep during spooky season
- Halloween-themed routines and brain breaks that work
- How your non-verbals are sending louder messages than your instructions
Resources Mentioned:
🎃 Grab the Halloween Mega Bundle!
Have a question, comment, or just want to say hello? Drop us a text!
RESOURCES AND MORE SUPPORT:
- Shop all resources
- Join The Behaviour Club
- My book! It’s Never Just About the Behaviour: A holistic approach to classroom behaviour management
- The Low-Level Behaviour Bootcamp
- Free guide: 'Chats that Create Change'
Connect with me:
- Follow on Instagram @the.unteachables
- Check out my website
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
Oh, hi there, teachers.
Welcome to the UnteachablesPodcast.
I'm your host, Claire English,and I am just a fellow teacher,
a toddler mama, and a big oldbehaviour nerd on a mission to
demystify and simplify thatlittle thing called classroom
management.
The way we've all been taught tomanage behaviour and classroom
manage has left us playing crowdcontrol, which is not something
(00:23):
I subscribe to because we're notbouncers, we're teachers.
So listen in as I walk youthrough the game-changing
strategies, and I mean thethings that we can actually do
in action in our classrooms thatwill allow you to lean into your
beautiful values as acompassionate educator and feel
empowered to run your room witha little more calm, and dare I
(00:43):
say it, a lot less chaos.
I will see you in the episode.
(01:35):
We can't do this because of thisreason.
So what I want to do is leaninto, I lean into whatever
festivities are happening,right?
But I do it in a way that issuper strategic and will
continue the same classroommanagement magic that I do no
matter what time of year it is.
(01:56):
Gosh, that was a really strangeintroduction.
Hello, welcome to theUnteachables Podcast.
If you're new here, my name isClaire and I do talk all things
classroom management on thispodcast, which is why I wanted
to bring a little bit of thespooky season vibe into the
podcast today, because it can bea really tough time of year.
(02:16):
Because not only is Halloween bynature quite exciting for some
students, they want to gotrick-or-treating.
The sugar intake might be alittle bit of an issue for
behaviors.
They just have a lot going onand we're getting tired.
We are well past that first partof the year where there's that
(02:37):
grace period.
If you're in the northernhemisphere anyway, if you're in
the southern hemisphere with me,you are nearing the end of the
school year, so you're probablyhaving five coffees a day, all
cold and all just, you know,hoping for the release of
summer.
Anyway, so we've got October,we've got Halloween, we've got
the dysregulation that that cancause.
The advice that I give you ontoday's podcast episode, which
(03:01):
is leaning into it withoutturning things into a
free-for-all, this is the sameadvice that I am going to give
you for every single festiveseason, whether it is the lead
up to summer, so things get alittle bit looser and more
exciting, or whether it's, youknow, leading up to Christmas or
Thanksgiving or Easter, any timeof the year where you might want
(03:23):
to do things a little bitdifferently.
This is the advice that I havefor you, no matter what.
So I'll be sending you this wayif you've got any of those
questions.
Firstly, I want to say that anyadvice that I give you on
today's episode is just saidwith so much love and absolutely
no shame, no blame, because Ihave made so many errors when it
(03:45):
comes to trying to lean intothese holiday seasons.
When I was first teaching, I andfor many, many years after that
as well, I'd be like, oh, I justreally want to make something
like fun and cool and specialfor Halloween or whatever the
you know festive time was.
So I would just download likefree resources, I'd, you know,
(04:07):
get like finder words, wordsearches, I'd do like
activities, and it was always anightmare.
It was always a bit of fun.
Students were engaged in it andall the rest of it, but things
like the behavior would slip soso much.
So that is just a word ofwarning.
If you want to do things likeword searches and like the
(04:31):
things that don't have therelevance to your lesson, like
any craft activities, whateverit might be, just a word to the
wise, if that's the saying.
I don't know.
I I you know what?
I feel like I've used all of thewrong sayings my whole life, and
it's only when my friend Carlyhas been like, What did you just
say?
Um, I need her to tell me ifthat was the right or wrong
(04:53):
saying, word to the wise, wordto the wise, don't do that
unless you're being reallystrategic around the routines
and the structure and all therest of it around those
activities.
Because when it comes to thesefestive periods, behaviors do
ramp up, and the reason theyramp up is because we're letting
(05:17):
go of the day-to-day things thatusually would increase the felt
safety in our classroom.
So we start to let routine slip,the expectations are different,
the buy-in shifts because whenyou're giving students a
Halloween word search, they knowthat it's not related to the
learning.
They know that it's not relatedto the, I mean, for some of you
(05:39):
it could, I don't know howyou're weaving it in, right?
But for an English teacher insecondary school, like it didn't
relate to anything that I wasdoing.
I just wanted to be a, you know,have a bit of fun with them and
be not the dud teacher that'snot leaning into doing a bit of
like Halloween fun.
But kids know when it's notrelated to the learning, they
(06:00):
know when it's not strategic,they know when it's something
that you're just chucking atthem for a bit of a laugh, a bit
of fun, or just to kind of passsome time.
And behaviors do ramp up when wedo things like that.
Some students haven't got thebuy-in, they don't see the point
of it.
They think, oh, well, you know,they're just doing that anyway.
They're just giving us a wordsearch anyway.
So stuff that I'll sit on myphone or stuff that I'll run out
(06:21):
of the classroom and go to thebathroom.
The expectations, the non-verbalexpect, you could be saying to
them, you need to sit down, youneed to be quiet, you need to be
doing your work.
You can be saying to them, Iexpect the same thing that I
expect of you every single day.
But the non-verbals that you aresending, those non-verbal
expectations that you're sendingto students, are going to be
(06:43):
different than that.
They're going to be, this iswork that is not your usual
work.
It's not something that'srelated to the learning that
we're usually doing.
So the expectations I have ofyou are going to be different.
It's just the way that it is,right?
I'm not saying you can't do it.
I'm just saying be aware thatthe buy-in is going to be
(07:03):
different and the structure'sdifferent and everything's
different around that.
I've had students run out of myclass and tell the principal,
I'm not going to Miss English'sclass because she's not doing
work in there anyway.
No matter how much I've tried toframe that, like, hey, we're
doing some vocab, some spookyvocab, or some, you know,
gratitude vocab.
No matter what I've tried to doto frame it in that particular
(07:26):
way, the students have caught,like certain students have put
BS on it and they have dubbed onme to the principal.
Um, not saying I did anythingwrong, by the way.
I'm just saying that studentshave used that as an excuse to
leave the classroom and have nobuy-in.
Anyway, I'm not saying that youcan't do things for Halloween,
not at all.
This episode isn't don't it leaninto the spooky season.
It's how do you lean into thespooky season without the class
(07:50):
turning into a free-for-all?
That's what the episode is, soI'm going to show you how I do
it.
The first thing I do is keep theexact routines and structures
that I usually have, but I justtheme them.
I make them more fun.
I inject some novelty, I injectsome fun into them.
For example, my entry routine.
(08:11):
Every single lesson I give thema starter activity that is felt
safety in action.
They know that when they turn upto Miss English's class, there's
going to be a starter activitythere that they are going to be
able to achieve, that isaccessible, that is going to
take about three minutes, pen topaper.
The expectation is they sitthere, they do that, and then
after that I transition into thelesson.
(08:32):
I'm not chucking that outbecause it's Halloween, but I
will use a Halloween-themed pento paper activity that they can
complete, and then I'll have areally fun discussion after
that.
That means that I'm stillstarting the lesson in a way
that is structured, there'sroutine, and they're still
having a bit of fun, they'rehaving a bit of a laugh, and I'm
injecting that into the lessonjust through what I usually
(08:56):
would do.
Um, you can use, you know,attendance questions that are
Halloween-based, you can use,like, you know, you can just
inject it into that entryroutine.
Some of the I'll I'll give yousome of the ones that I use.
Not me just pressing pause andgoing to Canva to look at the
presentations that I've got.
So the kind of questions thatyou can give students for like
(09:16):
an attendance question or astarter question, things like
what's the worst thing you couldget when trick-or-treating?
Uh, finish the sentence, itwouldn't be Halloween without.
Do you like watching scaryfilms?
Why or why not?
What was your first everHalloween costume?
Um, finish this sentence.
If it's pumpkin flavored, I'm uhthe next one.
(09:38):
If I had to make a costume infive minutes using only the
things in this room, what wouldit be?
Uh who uh somebody says trick,what are you doing?
So these kind of questions youcan use as really quick
attendance questions.
So as you go, if you useattendance questions usually,
inject a bit of Halloween fun byusing those kind of questions,
(09:59):
or you can use them as a starteractivity and they can write
their answer and then you canshare them as a class and have a
bit of a laugh.
Um, but they're my chit-chatquestions.
Another thing that I do is everysingle lesson.
I if you've listened to me forany amount of time, you will
know that I use agenda slides.
You will know that I always havea map to their learning on the
board as they walk in, and thatis like I dork out on that 24-7.
(10:21):
Um, but I have a Halloweenversion of that agenda slide
that I use, and it's exactly thesame.
It's the same as they're usedto.
I have just literally themed itas like a spooky Halloween one
with pumpkins and like spiderwebs and stuff.
So when they walk into thelesson in that latter half of
October leading up to Halloween,there's just a bit more of like
(10:44):
a novelty, a bit more of a funvibe, but I'm not actually doing
anything that is outside of thestructure and the routine.
So I'm not losing that feltsafety.
We're still, you know, we'vestill got the consistency, the
predictability is still there.
So I love doing that as well.
Just having like little thingsthat are Halloween themed, but
not necessarily changing upeverything.
(11:05):
Um, every lesson I do brainbreaks, and my brain breaks are
Halloween themed.
Again, I'm going to pause it andread out some of the ones that I
have.
So one of my favorite brainbreak games is Beat the Clock
because it's like three minutes,pen to paper, really quick.
I love to use it for transitionsbecause it gets them back to
their seat and gets them, youknow, back into like a writing
by themselves kind of mode.
(11:26):
Um, you can tell that where mybrains are today, writing kind
of mode.
But beat the clock is one that Iusually would do, but I then
theme that as Halloween.
So they used to beat the clock,and I just have like a Halloween
edition.
So the kinds of by the way, beatthe clock is just three minutes.
I give them like a task to do inthat in that three minutes.
So for example, name 10 thingsyou would find in a haunted
(11:49):
house, and they have to beatthat three-minute timer and
write those ten things.
And then I just say, if you'vegot the ten things down and
three minutes isn't up, then youkeep going and you have to be
the one that has the most thingson your paper.
Um, so beat the clock is areally fun one.
My kids love it.
So name 10 things you would findin a haunted house, list 10
famous Halloween characters,list 10 popular Halloween
(12:13):
costumes, uh, list 10 itemsyou'd grab first in a zombie
apocalypse, list 10 animals thatare considered to be spooky, uh,
list 10 different types ofHalloween treats, 10 things you
might find in a witch's brew.
So just a lot of fun.
I also do um Halloween versionsof like this or that, which is
(12:34):
another brain break I love.
So this or that, would yourather eat brains or eat an
eyeball, grow a witch's ward onthe end of your nose or become
as hairy as a werewolf?
Be the only one wearing acostume at a party or be the
only one without a costume on.
Uh there's ones like be lockedin a morgue overnight or be
buried alive for five minutes,but survive obviously.
(12:56):
Some of these might not beappropriate if you're teaching
younger ones, but they like, youknow, just injecting a little
bit of that novelty into yourbrain breaks, but then you're
still keeping the same.
You can do these like for twoweeks.
You can do these all leading upto Halloween and still keep that
same consistency and structure.
Actually, another um brain breakthat my students love is Word
(13:19):
Hunter.
So they I give them like astring of letters, and then they
just have to find as many wordsfrom those letters as they
possibly can.
So I do a Halloween version ofWord Hunter, but instead of just
having 10 random letters acrossthe bottom of the screen, I've
got just like spooky words thatthey then have to make as many
words out as possible.
It's so simple and it's nothinglike groundbreaking, but it
(13:43):
looks good and like it looksreally fun, and it just is a bit
of fun.
It's just something a little bitmore on theme.
So I have words like frightenedand nightmares and superstition
and witchcraft, and they have tomake as many words out of those
as possible within two minutes,three minutes, however much time
you have up on the board.
(14:03):
Again, I love this particularbrain break for transitions.
I also like using this at theend of the lesson just to fill
in a little bit of dead air timeif we've got a few minutes left
of the lesson.
Um, for really tough classes,I've used this in English just
to kind of start the lesson,kick it off, and I've used that
as like a consistent routinebefore.
And even the toughest of teencrowds will be like, oh, I want
(14:27):
to play Word Hunter.
Um, so like you know, I really,I really ramp it up though.
Like, you know, I get my doorcon.
So Word Hunter is another greatbrain break that you can bring a
little bit of Halloween spookythemeness to.
Another thing that I love totheme as Halloween.
So I do SEL check-ins with mystudents, and I'm sure that a
(14:49):
lot of you do something similarwhere you've got, like, you
know, how you're feeling, you'vegot some maybe smiley faces, or
you've got something visual forthem just to kind of check in
how they're feeling.
I have Halloween-themed SELcheck-ins.
I've actually got themed onesfor like Thanksgiving,
Halloween, like leading up tosummer, all of those ones, um,
the winter break.
(15:09):
But the Halloween-themed onesare so fun.
They're so I I mean, I thinkthey're funny.
I think they're funny, which isthe main thing, but um I've got
like on this on the skeletonscale, how are you, or on the
bat scale, or on the um, whatother ones do I have?
Let me look at my trusty canvasagain.
(15:30):
On the pumpkin scale, so I'vegot eight different pumpkins,
all like varying levels of likepolished, and then the last
one's like just an old um kindof broken in pumpkin that's you
know three weeks past Halloweenon the step.
Um, I love the worries on theghost scale, on the witch scale.
(15:53):
So just things that are a littlebit of fun where they can still
reflect on how they're feeling,they can still justify it, they
can still explain why they'rethe number eight ghost with his
head down.
Like it's just someone with asheet over their head and
they've got glasses over them,it's got their their little head
down.
There's one with like a doglooking a little bit forlorn,
(16:15):
like they're just a bit funny.
Um, but it's still reallymeaningful because students will
look at that, they will reflecton how they're feeling, and then
they'll justify why they chosethat picture.
I love these visual SELcheck-ins.
So that's another way I leaninto the spooky season, but I'm
still keeping the samestructures.
(16:35):
Like everything that I'mspeaking about in today's
episode, the starter routine,like the starter um activity,
the agenda slide, the brainbreaks, the SEL check-ins, you
know, what I use for thoselittle dead air times, those
things are actually like that.
Is the classroom managementmagic?
(16:55):
That is the stuff that helps toreduce low-level behaviors.
That's the stuff that helpsstudents to feel safe, things
are predictable, it helps withtheir regulation, um, you know,
it helps with their felt safety.
I don't know if I said thatalready, but this is classroom
management magic.
And instead of leaning intothings for the like Halloween
period where it's going to bedysregulating and things that
(17:18):
are going to be outside of thenorm, you're actually doing a
lot of fun things with a lot ofnovelty and probably injecting
more Halloween fun into yourday, but doing so in a way
that's going to be beneficialfor classroom management, not
dysregulating for students.
So I would consider that awin-win-win-win-win.
(17:40):
Um, so you're not having to justgo, okay, what am I doing for
Halloween?
I'm just gonna print outsomething and chuck it on the
board or like whatever it mightbe.
You are doing something that isreally strategic, really
aligned, and yeah, justbrilliant for classroom
management.
And your students are gonnaappreciate it and have a lot of
fun.
Um, all of the things that I'vespoken about, by the way, I've
(18:00):
I'm clearly reading it off theCanvas slides that I have
created.
If you're in the Behavior Club,uh, all of those are inside of
this month's bundle.
So all of the Halloween goodiesare there.
Um, if you are not in thebehavior club and you want to
check out all of thoseresources, you can just head to
(18:21):
the link.
I'll pop that in the show notes.
I don't know what the link isoff the top of my head, or you
can just go to my shop and it'son like the homepage of my shop,
which is the unteachables.shop,and it'll be there for you.
It's also on TPT if you're aTPTer.
But I'll pop all of those linksin the show notes if you want to
grab those.
But otherwise, like I've toldyou some attendance questions,
(18:44):
I've given you some ideas, youcan just run with them if you
want to as well.
You don't have to do anythingparticular.
Um, but it is just a really niceway to lean into the I was gonna
say silly season, not the spookyseason.
Okay, you know when I startrambling, that is the mark that
I need to end the episode.
So I hope you have a brilliantweek.
(19:05):
I hope that it's given you somereally great ideas for Halloween
and God speed into the sugaryexpanse of the silly season.
All right, take care, bye bye.
Oh, hi there, teachers.
Welcome to the UnteachablesPodcast.
I'm your host, Claire English,and I am just a fellow teacher,
a toddler mama, and a big oldbehaviour nerd on a mission to
demystify and simplify thatlittle thing called classroom
management.
The way we've all been taught tomanage behaviour and classroom
manage has left us playing crowdcontrol, which is not something
(00:23):
I subscribe to because we're notbouncers, we're teachers.
So listen in as I walk youthrough the game-changing
strategies, and I mean thethings that we can actually do
in action in our classrooms thatwill allow you to lean into your
beautiful values as acompassionate educator and feel
empowered to run your room witha little more calm, and dare I
(00:43):
say it, a lot less chaos.
I will see you in the episode.
(01:35):
We can't do this because of thisreason.
So what I want to do is leaninto, I lean into whatever
festivities are happening,right?
But I do it in a way that issuper strategic and will
continue the same classroommanagement magic that I do no
matter what time of year it is.
(01:56):
Gosh, that was a really strangeintroduction.
Hello, welcome to theUnteachables Podcast.
If you're new here, my name isClaire and I do talk all things
classroom management on thispodcast, which is why I wanted
to bring a little bit of thespooky season vibe into the
podcast today, because it can bea really tough time of year.
(02:16):
Because not only is Halloween bynature quite exciting for some
students, they want to gotrick-or-treating.
The sugar intake might be alittle bit of an issue for
behaviors.
They just have a lot going onand we're getting tired.
We are well past that first partof the year where there's that
(02:37):
grace period.
If you're in the northernhemisphere anyway, if you're in
the southern hemisphere with me,you are nearing the end of the
school year, so you're probablyhaving five coffees a day, all
cold and all just, you know,hoping for the release of
summer.
Anyway, so we've got October,we've got Halloween, we've got
the dysregulation that that cancause.
The advice that I give you ontoday's podcast episode, which
(03:01):
is leaning into it withoutturning things into a
free-for-all, this is the sameadvice that I am going to give
you for every single festiveseason, whether it is the lead
up to summer, so things get alittle bit looser and more
exciting, or whether it's, youknow, leading up to Christmas or
Thanksgiving or Easter, any timeof the year where you might want
(03:23):
to do things a little bitdifferently.
This is the advice that I havefor you, no matter what.
So I'll be sending you this wayif you've got any of those
questions.
Firstly, I want to say that anyadvice that I give you on
today's episode is just saidwith so much love and absolutely
no shame, no blame, because Ihave made so many errors when it
(03:45):
comes to trying to lean intothese holiday seasons.
When I was first teaching, I andfor many, many years after that
as well, I'd be like, oh, I justreally want to make something
like fun and cool and specialfor Halloween or whatever the
you know festive time was.
So I would just download likefree resources, I'd, you know,
(04:07):
get like finder words, wordsearches, I'd do like
activities, and it was always anightmare.
It was always a bit of fun.
Students were engaged in it andall the rest of it, but things
like the behavior would slip soso much.
So that is just a word ofwarning.
If you want to do things likeword searches and like the
(04:31):
things that don't have therelevance to your lesson, like
any craft activities, whateverit might be, just a word to the
wise, if that's the saying.
I don't know.
I I you know what?
I feel like I've used all of thewrong sayings my whole life, and
it's only when my friend Carlyhas been like, What did you just
say?
Um, I need her to tell me ifthat was the right or wrong
(04:53):
saying, word to the wise, wordto the wise, don't do that
unless you're being reallystrategic around the routines
and the structure and all therest of it around those
activities.
Because when it comes to thesefestive periods, behaviors do
ramp up, and the reason theyramp up is because we're letting
(05:17):
go of the day-to-day things thatusually would increase the felt
safety in our classroom.
So we start to let routine slip,the expectations are different,
the buy-in shifts because whenyou're giving students a
Halloween word search, they knowthat it's not related to the
learning.
They know that it's not relatedto the, I mean, for some of you
(05:39):
it could, I don't know howyou're weaving it in, right?
But for an English teacher insecondary school, like it didn't
relate to anything that I wasdoing.
I just wanted to be a, you know,have a bit of fun with them and
be not the dud teacher that'snot leaning into doing a bit of
like Halloween fun.
But kids know when it's notrelated to the learning, they
(06:00):
know when it's not strategic,they know when it's something
that you're just chucking atthem for a bit of a laugh, a bit
of fun, or just to kind of passsome time.
And behaviors do ramp up when wedo things like that.
Some students haven't got thebuy-in, they don't see the point
of it.
They think, oh, well, you know,they're just doing that anyway.
They're just giving us a wordsearch anyway.
So stuff that I'll sit on myphone or stuff that I'll run out
(06:21):
of the classroom and go to thebathroom.
The expectations, the non-verbalexpect, you could be saying to
them, you need to sit down, youneed to be quiet, you need to be
doing your work.
You can be saying to them, Iexpect the same thing that I
expect of you every single day.
But the non-verbals that you aresending, those non-verbal
expectations that you're sendingto students, are going to be
(06:43):
different than that.
They're going to be, this iswork that is not your usual
work.
It's not something that'srelated to the learning that
we're usually doing.
So the expectations I have ofyou are going to be different.
It's just the way that it is,right?
I'm not saying you can't do it.
I'm just saying be aware thatthe buy-in is going to be
(07:03):
different and the structure'sdifferent and everything's
different around that.
I've had students run out of myclass and tell the principal,
I'm not going to Miss English'sclass because she's not doing
work in there anyway.
No matter how much I've tried toframe that, like, hey, we're
doing some vocab, some spookyvocab, or some, you know,
gratitude vocab.
No matter what I've tried to doto frame it in that particular
(07:26):
way, the students have caught,like certain students have put
BS on it and they have dubbed onme to the principal.
Um, not saying I did anythingwrong, by the way.
I'm just saying that studentshave used that as an excuse to
leave the classroom and have nobuy-in.
Anyway, I'm not saying that youcan't do things for Halloween,
not at all.
This episode isn't don't it leaninto the spooky season.
It's how do you lean into thespooky season without the class
(07:50):
turning into a free-for-all?
That's what the episode is, soI'm going to show you how I do
it.
The first thing I do is keep theexact routines and structures
that I usually have, but I justtheme them.
I make them more fun.
I inject some novelty, I injectsome fun into them.
For example, my entry routine.
(08:11):
Every single lesson I give thema starter activity that is felt
safety in action.
They know that when they turn upto Miss English's class, there's
going to be a starter activitythere that they are going to be
able to achieve, that isaccessible, that is going to
take about three minutes, pen topaper.
The expectation is they sitthere, they do that, and then
after that I transition into thelesson.
(08:32):
I'm not chucking that outbecause it's Halloween, but I
will use a Halloween-themed pento paper activity that they can
complete, and then I'll have areally fun discussion after
that.
That means that I'm stillstarting the lesson in a way
that is structured, there'sroutine, and they're still
having a bit of fun, they'rehaving a bit of a laugh, and I'm
injecting that into the lessonjust through what I usually
(08:56):
would do.
Um, you can use, you know,attendance questions that are
Halloween-based, you can use,like, you know, you can just
inject it into that entryroutine.
Some of the I'll I'll give yousome of the ones that I use.
Not me just pressing pause andgoing to Canva to look at the
presentations that I've got.
So the kind of questions thatyou can give students for like
(09:16):
an attendance question or astarter question, things like
what's the worst thing you couldget when trick-or-treating?
Uh, finish the sentence, itwouldn't be Halloween without.
Do you like watching scaryfilms?
Why or why not?
What was your first everHalloween costume?
Um, finish this sentence.
If it's pumpkin flavored, I'm uhthe next one.
(09:38):
If I had to make a costume infive minutes using only the
things in this room, what wouldit be?
Uh who uh somebody says trick,what are you doing?
So these kind of questions youcan use as really quick
attendance questions.
So as you go, if you useattendance questions usually,
inject a bit of Halloween fun byusing those kind of questions,
(09:59):
or you can use them as a starteractivity and they can write
their answer and then you canshare them as a class and have a
bit of a laugh.
Um, but they're my chit-chatquestions.
Another thing that I do is everysingle lesson.
I if you've listened to me forany amount of time, you will
know that I use agenda slides.
You will know that I always havea map to their learning on the
board as they walk in, and thatis like I dork out on that 24-7.
(10:21):
Um, but I have a Halloweenversion of that agenda slide
that I use, and it's exactly thesame.
It's the same as they're usedto.
I have just literally themed itas like a spooky Halloween one
with pumpkins and like spiderwebs and stuff.
So when they walk into thelesson in that latter half of
October leading up to Halloween,there's just a bit more of like
(10:44):
a novelty, a bit more of a funvibe, but I'm not actually doing
anything that is outside of thestructure and the routine.
So I'm not losing that feltsafety.
We're still, you know, we'vestill got the consistency, the
predictability is still there.
So I love doing that as well.
Just having like little thingsthat are Halloween themed, but
not necessarily changing upeverything.
(11:05):
Um, every lesson I do brainbreaks, and my brain breaks are
Halloween themed.
Again, I'm going to pause it andread out some of the ones that I
have.
So one of my favorite brainbreak games is Beat the Clock
because it's like three minutes,pen to paper, really quick.
I love to use it for transitionsbecause it gets them back to
their seat and gets them, youknow, back into like a writing
by themselves kind of mode.
(11:26):
Um, you can tell that where mybrains are today, writing kind
of mode.
But beat the clock is one that Iusually would do, but I then
theme that as Halloween.
So they used to beat the clock,and I just have like a Halloween
edition.
So the kinds of by the way, beatthe clock is just three minutes.
I give them like a task to do inthat in that three minutes.
So for example, name 10 thingsyou would find in a haunted
(11:49):
house, and they have to beatthat three-minute timer and
write those ten things.
And then I just say, if you'vegot the ten things down and
three minutes isn't up, then youkeep going and you have to be
the one that has the most thingson your paper.
Um, so beat the clock is areally fun one.
My kids love it.
So name 10 things you would findin a haunted house, list 10
famous Halloween characters,list 10 popular Halloween
(12:13):
costumes, uh, list 10 itemsyou'd grab first in a zombie
apocalypse, list 10 animals thatare considered to be spooky, uh,
list 10 different types ofHalloween treats, 10 things you
might find in a witch's brew.
So just a lot of fun.
I also do um Halloween versionsof like this or that, which is
(12:34):
another brain break I love.
So this or that, would yourather eat brains or eat an
eyeball, grow a witch's ward onthe end of your nose or become
as hairy as a werewolf?
Be the only one wearing acostume at a party or be the
only one without a costume on.
Uh there's ones like be lockedin a morgue overnight or be
buried alive for five minutes,but survive obviously.
(12:56):
Some of these might not beappropriate if you're teaching
younger ones, but they like, youknow, just injecting a little
bit of that novelty into yourbrain breaks, but then you're
still keeping the same.
You can do these like for twoweeks.
You can do these all leading upto Halloween and still keep that
same consistency and structure.
Actually, another um brain breakthat my students love is Word
(13:19):
Hunter.
So they I give them like astring of letters, and then they
just have to find as many wordsfrom those letters as they
possibly can.
So I do a Halloween version ofWord Hunter, but instead of just
having 10 random letters acrossthe bottom of the screen, I've
got just like spooky words thatthey then have to make as many
words out as possible.
It's so simple and it's nothinglike groundbreaking, but it
(13:43):
looks good and like it looksreally fun, and it just is a bit
of fun.
It's just something a little bitmore on theme.
So I have words like frightenedand nightmares and superstition
and witchcraft, and they have tomake as many words out of those
as possible within two minutes,three minutes, however much time
you have up on the board.
(14:03):
Again, I love this particularbrain break for transitions.
I also like using this at theend of the lesson just to fill
in a little bit of dead air timeif we've got a few minutes left
of the lesson.
Um, for really tough classes,I've used this in English just
to kind of start the lesson,kick it off, and I've used that
as like a consistent routinebefore.
And even the toughest of teencrowds will be like, oh, I want
(14:27):
to play Word Hunter.
Um, so like you know, I really,I really ramp it up though.
Like, you know, I get my doorcon.
So Word Hunter is another greatbrain break that you can bring a
little bit of Halloween spookythemeness to.
Another thing that I love totheme as Halloween.
So I do SEL check-ins with mystudents, and I'm sure that a
(14:49):
lot of you do something similarwhere you've got, like, you
know, how you're feeling, you'vegot some maybe smiley faces, or
you've got something visual forthem just to kind of check in
how they're feeling.
I have Halloween-themed SELcheck-ins.
I've actually got themed onesfor like Thanksgiving,
Halloween, like leading up tosummer, all of those ones, um,
the winter break.
(15:09):
But the Halloween-themed onesare so fun.
They're so I I mean, I thinkthey're funny.
I think they're funny, which isthe main thing, but um I've got
like on this on the skeletonscale, how are you, or on the
bat scale, or on the um, whatother ones do I have?
Let me look at my trusty canvasagain.
(15:30):
On the pumpkin scale, so I'vegot eight different pumpkins,
all like varying levels of likepolished, and then the last
one's like just an old um kindof broken in pumpkin that's you
know three weeks past Halloweenon the step.
Um, I love the worries on theghost scale, on the witch scale.
(15:53):
So just things that are a littlebit of fun where they can still
reflect on how they're feeling,they can still justify it, they
can still explain why they'rethe number eight ghost with his
head down.
Like it's just someone with asheet over their head and
they've got glasses over them,it's got their their little head
down.
There's one with like a doglooking a little bit forlorn,
(16:15):
like they're just a bit funny.
Um, but it's still reallymeaningful because students will
look at that, they will reflecton how they're feeling, and then
they'll justify why they chosethat picture.
I love these visual SELcheck-ins.
So that's another way I leaninto the spooky season, but I'm
still keeping the samestructures.
(16:35):
Like everything that I'mspeaking about in today's
episode, the starter routine,like the starter um activity,
the agenda slide, the brainbreaks, the SEL check-ins, you
know, what I use for thoselittle dead air times, those
things are actually like that.
Is the classroom managementmagic?
(16:55):
That is the stuff that helps toreduce low-level behaviors.
That's the stuff that helpsstudents to feel safe, things
are predictable, it helps withtheir regulation, um, you know,
it helps with their felt safety.
I don't know if I said thatalready, but this is classroom
management magic.
And instead of leaning intothings for the like Halloween
period where it's going to bedysregulating and things that
(17:18):
are going to be outside of thenorm, you're actually doing a
lot of fun things with a lot ofnovelty and probably injecting
more Halloween fun into yourday, but doing so in a way
that's going to be beneficialfor classroom management, not
dysregulating for students.
So I would consider that awin-win-win-win-win.
(17:40):
Um, so you're not having to justgo, okay, what am I doing for
Halloween?
I'm just gonna print outsomething and chuck it on the
board or like whatever it mightbe.
You are doing something that isreally strategic, really
aligned, and yeah, justbrilliant for classroom
management.
And your students are gonnaappreciate it and have a lot of
fun.
Um, all of the things that I'vespoken about, by the way, I've
(18:00):
I'm clearly reading it off theCanvas slides that I have
created.
If you're in the Behavior Club,uh, all of those are inside of
this month's bundle.
So all of the Halloween goodiesare there.
Um, if you are not in thebehavior club and you want to
check out all of thoseresources, you can just head to
(18:21):
the link.
I'll pop that in the show notes.
I don't know what the link isoff the top of my head, or you
can just go to my shop and it'son like the homepage of my shop,
which is the unteachables.shop,and it'll be there for you.
It's also on TPT if you're aTPTer.
But I'll pop all of those linksin the show notes if you want to
grab those.
But otherwise, like I've toldyou some attendance questions,
(18:44):
I've given you some ideas, youcan just run with them if you
want to as well.
You don't have to do anythingparticular.
Um, but it is just a really niceway to lean into the I was gonna
say silly season, not the spookyseason.
Okay, you know when I startrambling, that is the mark that
I need to end the episode.
So I hope you have a brilliantweek.
(19:05):
I hope that it's given you somereally great ideas for Halloween
and God speed into the sugaryexpanse of the silly season.
All right, take care, bye bye.
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