In anticipation of holiday events with your students, it’s always a good idea to plan out some movement ideas to go along with the food and more stationary activities during parties and celebrations. Most schools celebrate Halloween. The day is typically associated with candy and sweets, so it can be a great opportunity to educate the students on the notion of “everything in moderation” with their consumption of the candy and that calories in should be counterbalanced by expended calories through physical activity! Here are a few activities that you can incorporate on the day your school celebrates.

Hot Pumpkin (Like Hot Potato)

Split the class into two equal groups with each group forming a standing circle (two different circles) in the classroom space. Each circle has two or three “pumpkins”, which may be a small ball or object. Play music, and the students pass the pumpkins in whichever direction you indicate. When the music stops, the students with the pumpkins in their hands keep the pumpkin and move to the other circle. The game continues. The goal is not to move circles. You can add that students do some sort of stationary activity while the music is playing (e.g., high knees, march in place, balance on one leg). Sens-A-Ball Tactile Balls make great objects for students to use as they multi-task with being active and passing the ball.

Halloween Freeze Dance

Play Halloween music and encourage the kids to dance. When the music stops, students freeze in a mummy position.

Thriller Dance

Locate a simple Thriller Dance online and teach the students the stationary version of the moves. Here’s a sample I found with dance steps.

Halloween Rock-Paper-Scissor

For this active rock-paper-scissor activity, Halloween style, we change it to Pumpkin-Spider-Web. Pumpkin (squat) smashes Spider. Spider (show hands outstretched) makes/destroys the Web. Web (land with feet far apart and arms in air) captures the Pumpkin. Actions are “jump, jump, show”. Play until someone wins and then find another partner!

 

References:

King, T. (n.d.). Mrs. King’s Music Class blog. Retrieved August 20, 2023 from https://mrskingrocks.blogspot.com/