6 Halloween Homeschool Activities

Hands-on Halloween homeschool activities are a great kickoff to the spooky season. Whether you choose to take October 31 off from school or want to [incorporate some Halloween] [(https://mom.com/kids/9-halloween-crafts-and-activities)] into your lesson plans, getting kids up and moving with tactile experiences can be a welcome change from textbooks and worksheets.

1. Set up a creepy hands-on sensory experience for your kids.
I first read about this idea as a kid in the jump-scare kids horror story series, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. A simple story about finding ingredients in a witch’s brew or parts of a zombie’s body is told in conjunction with setting up a touchy-feely station of household items disguised as zombie body parts. With a few simple kitchen groceries, empty boxes, paint, and some creativity, you'll be grossing your kids out in no time at all!

2. Incorporate a Montessori Halloween homeschool lesson.
Halloween is the perfect time to learn about the human skeletal system in your homeschool, and what better way than with a Montessori-inspired skeleton lesson plan from Living Montessori Now. Kids will learn the names of bones, create a skeleton from pasta noodles, and make their own life-size body map.

Kelly George and her family are roadschooling homeschoolers with a passion for homeschooling and a love of the arts. On her blog, ihomeschoolnetwork, she offers tips, resources, and courses for other homeschooling families.

"The benefits of arts and crafts are enormous," George wrote. "They educate and develop essential skills imperceptibly. While having fun, experimenting, and creating, kids are developing physical strength, coordination, and many mental skills. And arts and crafts can form a solid base of ability for handwriting, literacy, maths, science, and every other academic subject you can think of."

3. Draw some Halloween scenes with online art classes.
How to draw a Halloween night silhouette by Art4Kids Hub on Youtube will take you and your child on a step-by-step journey to create a colorful, spooky haunted house picture.

4. Have your kids make art projects that will serve double-duty as Halloween decorations.
If you've got older kids and tweens, chalk pastels are the perfect combination of mess and fun. This pumpkin chalk pastel art project from Projects With Kids teaches kids a variety of chalk pastel techniques. Because it comes together quickly, it's the perfect project to add to your Halloween homeschool activities list.

Cultural appropriation, as defined by Susan Scafidi in her book, Who Owns Culture? Appropriation and Authenticity in American Law, is "taking intellectual property, traditional knowledge, cultural expressions, or artifacts from someone else’s culture without permission. It’s most likely to be harmful when the source community is a minority group that has been oppressed or exploited in other ways or when the object of appropriation is particularly sensitive, e.g., sacred objects.”

In 2017, the Walt Disney Company pulled their Maui Halloween costume from store shelves. The costume featured a long-sleeved brown shirt with imprinted tattoos similar to those worn by Polynesian chiefs. Unfortunately, this is common at Halloween, so it's important to teach kids early on how to recognize cultural appropriation.

5. Teach kids how to recognize and address cultural appropriation.
Taking Away From Our Culture is one of those Halloween homeschool activities that families can incorporate into their regular homeschool day. It only takes about an hour to work through. While designed for New York public school students in grades 3 through 8, the lesson plan can easily be completed at home.

Students will watch a short video and talk about Halloween costumes. This will help them develop an understanding of the consequences of their choices. They'll also learn the difference between a culture and a costume, and brainstorm appropriate and exciting costumes for Halloween.

6. It's never too early to begin teaching the important social justice lessons.
If you've got younger kids who have expressed an interest in dressing up in costumes that could be deemed problematic, the Understanding Cultural Appropriation K – 3rd Grade lesson plan is a great introduction to help children recognize appropriation.

Halloween can be more than just costumes, candy, and trick-or-treating. The beauty of home education is that you can incorporate learning into anything, including Halloween. These Halloween homeschool activities make for the perfect relaxed homeschool and are a great way to kick off the evening festivities.