However, when you are dealing with 5th graders, knowing how to keep kids this age engaged can be difficult.
But, there are different activities you can try which will be perfect for keeping this age group interested in the classroom.
The seasonal celebration we will be going through in this guide specifically is Halloween.
There are seemingly endless possibilities for activities you can do in the classroom which are easy to theme for Halloween.
But knowing which ones 5th graders will enjoy can be difficult.
However, this guide has sorted out all of the ones which we have loved trying with 5th graders, and we think you will have plenty of success with as well.
We have included a variety of both educational and just fun activities, so no matter how you are looking to engage your students, there should be something here which will work for you.
So, if you want some inspiration for fun classroom activities that are appropriate for 5th graders, then this guide will give you some great ideas to try out!
Halloween 5th Grade Classroom Games
Something that is important to consider when working through this guide is to keep in mind what you want out of these activities.
Some of these activities, while appropriate for the classroom, are not the most educational, while others are much more focused on teaching, and some are in the middle.
Work out how you can fit these into a lesson plan, or if you are doing these during recreational time.
Mummy Wrap Relay
If you are looking for a way to give your 5th graders a way to use up some excess energy, then we strongly recommend this mummy relay race.
Toilet roll is the classic tool to use for a Halloween mummy wrap, but you can get creative and let them use whatever is available, for example aluminum foil.
You can then split the students into teams and see who can wrap their mummy fastest.
This game does not take much preparation, but is plenty of fun, however, keep in mind the cleanup that comes after!
Why We Love This Halloween Classroom Game
This is a great active game that gets your class moving and encourages teamwork and communication.
There are plenty of ways to change it up, for example a tournament if you really want to take up sometime!
Candy Guessing Jar
This is a twist on what is usually a simple party game, but you can make it as simple or complex as you want to.
All you have to do is fill a jar with candy, make sure to keep count as you are adding it, and then get your students to guess how much candy is in the jar.
You can make this easier by keeping the size of the candy inside the jar consistent, or more complicated by using a variety.
You can also get a variety of different shaped containers with Halloween themed containers being common.
Why We Love This Halloween Classroom Game
As well as being a fun activity, it is also one which encourages critical thinking when it comes to guessing.
You can get the kids to try and come up with different strategies for guessing the contents of the jar, and whoever comes up with the best strategy, even if they are not correct, can also get a prize.
If you want a simple game that you can make as long or short as possible. This is our top pick!
Word Games
There are plenty of different word games you can try out during Halloween with 5th graders, so trying a variety of new ones, or putting a festive spin on some of your other favorite word games is a great idea!
This is also a great way to make the teaching more subtle and encourage your students to have fun while learning.
One of our favorites is to give your students a spooky word that fits with the season, and then see which team can come up with the most words using the letters in the word.
Why We Love This Halloween Classroom Game
There is endless variety when it comes to word games in the classroom, so do not feel limited.
You can also very easily just put a festive spin on word games you use throughout the rest of the year.
Having some go to word games is a great trick for teaching 5th graders since they are at the perfect age to take full advantage of activities like this while encouraging critical thinking!
Math Games
This is a little more basic, but if you want to make math a bit more focused on Halloween, it is not tricky to just switch up some basic math problems with Halloween theming.
If you want something really quick and easy, you can find some simple templates for Halloween themed work sheets which help 5th graders with their Math.
This is a great educational activity you can do with the students before rewarding them with something a bit more fun!
Why We Love This Halloween Classroom Game
If you want to mix in something more educational with Halloween activities, then trying out something like this is a great idea.
It is super easy to edit your own work sheets to make them more Halloween themed, so trying this is a great resource, and you can reuse the sheets for future classes as well!
Heavy Pumpkin
This game is pretty similar in spirit to the guessing jar, but it requires a different approach.
All you have to do is get a pumpkin and get the students to guess the weight, or any other information about it.
You can also get them to guess how many seeds it has, or even to compare it to a different pumpkin.
For example if you tell them the weight of a similar pumpkin, and say that the pumpkin they are guessing is a certain amount bigger than it, this can encourage some more mathematical thinking as well.
Why We Love This Halloween Classroom Game
Like a lot of the other games on this list, there are plenty of different ways you can make this interesting, so you do not need to feel limited and do it in a specific way.
You do not even have to do it with a pumpkin, just whatever Halloween themed item you have about, just make sure to provide resources to make guessing more achievable!
Reading Games
Reading games are another one of the more educational activities we love doing with students and they are super easy to prepare.
The most simple ones to do are to find or even write some spooky short stories and then quiz students on certain details.
This is a great way to reward students with candy prizes as well.
You can also get students to try and think of other words to describe something in the story which is a good way to help students learn synonyms.
Why We Love This Halloween Classroom Game
There are endless possibilities, and it is a great way to encourage students to interact carefully with what they are reading and to think of ways they can write themselves.
Writing Prompts
For another more educational classroom activity, you could give your students different spooky writing prompts and to come up with their own stories that are related to them.
Or if you want something a little more challenging, you could give them a spooky poem assignment.
You can warm up for this by getting students to guess words which rhyme with Halloween themed language.
Why We Love This Halloween Classroom Game
You can get this activity to last for as long or as short as you want with plenty of routes to go!
Pumpkin Decorating
This is a classic Halloween activity, however we recommend decorating with paints not with carving for obvious reasons.
You can split students into teams working on a bigger pumpkin, or instead give them personal smaller pumpkins. However you want to do it, this activity is sure to be fun and engaging.
Why We Love This Halloween Classroom Game
This is a great way to get students to be creative, and you can even get them to compete for certain candy prizes as well!
Summary
Hopefully these ideas will give you all the inspiration you need on how to keep your students entertained and engaged when it comes to lessons during the Halloween season.
If you want to throw a Halloween party for the students, you can get them to do a certain amount of educational activities to ‘earn’ the party, and during the party you can do some of the more fun challenges.
There is no limit to how you can twist these activities for 5th graders, so keep thinking outside the box!
Hi, my name is Helena Waters and I was a teacher for 40 years before retiring last year.
During my time as a teacher I dedicated the majority of it to making classrooms as fun as possible, with educational parties, fun activities, and low cost entertainment that made the children excited about learning.
I taught children of all ages, from preschoolers to high school students. Now, with the pandemic having uprooted everything that children once knew about school and learning, I think that the need for my ideas is bigger than ever.
That is why I created School Sparks, a place in which I can write down and share all of my ideas on how to get students excited about going to school again. I hope that you’ll find some useful within a school setting, even at home too!
