6 Engaging Fall Activities to Use in Your Classroom
As the crisp air starts to settle in and the leaves begin their colorful transformation, it’s the perfect time to embrace fall in our classroom. I love this season, and weaving it into our classroom activities is a great opportunity to keep our students motivated and engaged in their learning. Today, I’m sharing a round-up of my favorite fall activities that will help you bring a bit of autumn into your room while keeping learning as the main focus. Let’s dive into these fall-inspired resources that will spark excitement and curiosity in your students!
Fall Activities for Halloween
Let’s dive into one of my absolute favorite parts of fall, which is Halloween! There’s something about the spooky season that sparks a ton of enthusiasm in the classroom. As teachers we have two options: we can fight against the things that get our students buzzing with excitement, or we can tap into them and use them to our advantage. I chose the second option and have found it to be a great way to keep students engaged and learning before those exciting holidays.
These Halloween-themed fall activities are always a hit with students. Whether through eerie stories or math activities with a Halloween twist, they are a great option to keep the learning going. Let me share some of the go-to resources that I’ve found to be both engaging and educational during this festive time of year!
1. Halloween’s Origins History Minute
I love weaving some Halloween magic into our classroom fall activities and this resource is perfect for that. Tap into their excitement for the holiday and use it to ignite students’ curiosity and creativity, making learning fun and spooky! I love incorporating the Halloween-themed activities from my Halloween’s Origins resource. This History Minute resource has fun and educational content that seamlessly blends Halloween with core subjects.
Inside this unit you will find:
- Reading passage about the origins of Halloween
- A Close Reading activity to help your students dive deeper into the reading passage
- A geography connection so students can learn more about locations mentioned in the reading passage
- A surface area math activity related to the passage
- A chance for students to design their own Halloween carving
- And. . . some vocabulary based puzzles and activities
Whether we’re diving into a spooky story for a literacy lesson or solving Halloween-themed math problems, these activities keep my students motivated and eager to participate. The best part? They’re designed to be interactive, so students are not just passively learning but actively engaging with the content.
I also love to use the digital version of the Halloween’s Origins resource. It has the same great activities as the printable version just in digital format. It is perfect for easy technology integration or 1:1 classrooms. I also love using the digital version when I introduce the activity or when we review it together as a class.
2. Mean, Median, Mode, and Range Math Fall Activities
When it comes to math, I love finding creative fall activities to keep my students engaged. Halloween is the perfect theme to bring some spooky fun into our math lessons. The resources I use are packed with activities that make learning math concepts exciting and memorable.
In my Halloween Mean, Median, Mode, and Range resource, we dive into essential math concepts with a Halloween twist. This resource includes a variety of activities that help my students practice calculating mean, median, mode, and range using Halloween-themed data. For example, one of the activities asks students to analyze the number of candies collected by different characters on Halloween night. They then have to determine the mean number of candies, the median amount, and so forth. It’s a great way to take a standard math concept and make it more engaging by adding a fun, seasonal context. Plus, the hands-on nature of these activities helps solidify my students’ understanding of these concepts.
For those days when we need to tie in more technology, the digital version of my Mean, Median, Mode, and Range resource is my go-to. This digital version offers the same engaging activities but with the convenience of being completely online. My students get to interact with the material in a way that’s educational and incredibly fun. They might drag and drop data points to calculate the range or use digital tools to create graphs based on spooky scenarios. The interactive format is perfect for keeping our students motivated and ensuring they participate actively in their learning.
Both of these resources are essential in my fall activities teacher toolbox. They make math practice feel less like a chore and more like a Halloween adventure. They ensure my students are learning while also enjoying the seasonal spirit. Whether on paper or digitally, these activities are a great way to keep math fun and relevant during the fall season!
3. Halloween Color By Number
One of the best ways to keep my students engaged during the fall season, especially around Halloween, is through fun and interactive fall activities like my Halloween Color-by-Number Math Practice. This resource is perfect for bringing math practice into a creative and festive format that my students love.
In this activity, my students solve math problems and use their answers to color in a Halloween-themed picture. There are color by code activities for everything from simple addition to more complex multiplication and division. Just grab the activity that lines up with the skill you want students to practice or review. As they go, they bring their Halloween image to life. It’s such a fun way for students to stay motivated while sharpening their math skills!
What I love most about this resource is how it adapts to different levels. Whether I’m working with younger students on basic math facts or older ones on more challenging operations, this activity caters to all of them. It’s also fantastic for independent work, as students can work at their own pace while focusing on accuracy to ensure they color the picture correctly. The result? Engaged learners who are not only practicing their math but also expressing their creativity through art.
Fall Activities for Thanksgiving
As we wrap up our Halloween fun, it’s time to shift gears and embrace the spirit of gratitude that comes with Thanksgiving. This time of year offers many opportunities to blend learning with the holiday traditions. I can’t wait to share some of my favorite fall activities with a Thanksgiving twist that my students have loved year after year. Let’s dive into some Thanksgiving-themed activities that meaningfully bring the holiday’s values into the classroom!
1. The First Thanksgiving Dinner
First up is my First Thanksgiving Dinner Activity. This resource is a fantastic way to blend social studies with some creative thinking. In this activity, I ask my students to plan their very own Thanksgiving dinner. This ties in perfectly with lessons about budgeting, historical Thanksgiving menus, and cultural traditions. Students get to explore what a traditional Thanksgiving dinner might have looked like in the past compared to modern times. They even create a menu that includes dishes from various cultures. It’s an engaging way to discuss diversity and tradition while letting our students express their creativity.
What I love most about these fall activities is how they encourage my students to think critically and make connections between the historical significance of Thanksgiving and how we celebrate it today. Plus, the discussions that come out of this activity are always rich with insights! I have my students share their own family traditions and compare them with what they’ve learned.
Like the Halloween activities above, the Thanksgiving Dinner activity comes in a digital format too. I love weaving together both the printable and digital activities into our lessons. The digital format is especially great when I want to mix things up and provide a more interactive experience. My students enjoy the hands-on nature of these activities. It’s always a delight to see how much more motivated they are to complete their work when it’s tied to something as fun and relevant as Thanksgiving.
2. Thanksgiving Decimals Task Cards
Teaching decimals can sometimes be tricky. A little Thanksgiving flair makes it a fun and engaging experience for my students. I love these Thanksgiving Decimals Activity task card activities that bring the seasonal spirit into our math lessons. They make decimals manageable and enjoyable.
This activity is a great way to reinforce my students’ understanding of decimals in a hands-on, interactive way. In this activity, my students work through a series of decimal problems that are all tied to a Thanksgiving theme. For example, they might calculate the cost of ingredients for a Thanksgiving feast or figure out how to split a pie evenly among guests. They do these tasks all while practicing their decimal operations. The Thanksgiving context makes the math feel more relevant and engaging, which helps my students stay focused and motivated.
I love using this activity because it allows my students to work at their own pace. It’s perfect for both individual practice and small group work. The problems are designed to challenge them while still being fun. I always enjoy seeing how proud they are when solving problems and “completing” their Thanksgiving dinner.
Whether you use the printable version of the task cards or the digital version, your students get the same quality decimal practice. The best part about these fall activities is that they take what can sometimes be a dry topic—decimals—and turn it into something my students look forward to. Whether working on paper or digitally, the Thanksgiving twist keeps the lessons fresh and exciting. This ensures my students are mastering decimals and having a great time doing it.
3. Thanksgiving Color By Number Math Practice
I love to incorporate a little art into our math lessons, especially during Thanksgiving. My Thanksgiving Color-by-Number is a fantastic way to do just that. It combines math with creativity in a way that makes math more memorable for my students.
This resource is perfect for students across different grade levels. The idea is simple yet incredibly effective. Students complete math problems and their answers determine how they color different parts of a Thanksgiving-themed picture. It’s a wonderful way to keep them engaged while reinforcing their math skills. Whether they’re working on addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, or even more advanced concepts like fractions and decimals, this activity keeps their attention and makes learning fun. Just choose the activity that best lines up with the skill you want your students to work on.
What I love most about this activity is how it allows for differentiation. With options for a variety of skills, I can easily choose the version that best matches the abilities of each student or group. And. . . since they are all working on the same picture no one really knows who is working on what skill. It’s a great way to make sure that everyone is challenged at just the right level without bringing the skill level of any students to the forefront.
This color-by-number activity has become a staple in my classroom’s fall activities, especially during the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. It’s a great way to review math concepts while allowing students to unwind. By the end of the lesson, they have practiced important math skills in a fun and approachable manner. And. . . they have done more practice problems than they would from the textbook or another type of activity.
Additional Resources to Increase Student Engagement
Weaving the current season into the classroom is a great way to make the activities feel relevant to our students. If you are looking for more ways to bring the fall season in, then check out the blog posts below.
Engage Your Learners With These Fall Activities
As we wrap up this journey through all the fun ways to bring the fall season into our classrooms, I hope you’re as excited as I am to dive into these fall activities with your students. Fall is the perfect opportunity to engage learners with these fall activities that make learning fun and connect to the season. Whether you’re embracing the spooky spirit of Halloween, the warmth of Thanksgiving, or simply enjoying the changing leaves, these activities will keep your students motivated and eager to learn. Here’s to a season filled with meaningful moments and lots of learning!
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