Jack o’lanterns can be cutesy or terrifying — it depends on just what you want your whiteboard to say!
We like a scary jack o’lantern, for a touch of fear on a Monday morning, but you can experiment with all kinds of faces.
For a classroom project, draw a series of pumpkin outlines on the whiteboard. The kids can then add their own jack o’lantern faces with a black marker.
You can even make it into a competition — most creative, cutest, scariest, etc. Get the kids to think outside the box!
“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers” is a quote from Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery. Anne says it to her friend Marilla as they marvel at the magical colors produced by the maple trees.
This is an excellent quote for an October whiteboard. It encourages you to think about all the things there are to love about the season.
Anne loved the way the leaves changed color, so take a moment to reflect on the natural changes October brings.
The mood tree is quite a simple concept. Start by drawing the rough outline of a bare tree. You want it to have lots of branches, all heading in different directions.
Decorate those branches with the outlines of leaves. Each leaf needs to be distinct, and try to keep the sizes as similar as possible.
Get several different colored markers, and assign a feeling to each color. For example, red might be “happy”, orange “okay”, and yellow “sad”.
Ask each member of the class to pick a color that matches their mood, and to fill in a leaf with how they’re feeling. This is a great way to start conversations about emotions with younger children.
What says “October” more than a pumpkin patch? You can keep it simple with a small pile of pumpkins, or you can stretch your artistic skills with a scarecrow and some fall wildlife.
It’s your whiteboard, so conjure up an image that you love.
To get your students involved, leave room in the patch for every child to draw their own pumpkin or squash.
Draw an outline of a scarecrow, and ask the class to fill in the details. Does he have a straw hat? Buttons for eyes? Are there patches on his clothes? Build a complex October scene as a class.
“Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall” is a quote from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It’s said by Jordan Baker, as she looks forward to cooler weather that represents renewal.
As we move towards the winter months, it can start to feel like a time for settling into old habits.
This quote is fantastic for an October whiteboard as it reminds us of the changes that come with fall, and how life keeps evolving.
Mood tracking and spiders might not seem like the perfect mix, but we love this mood web whiteboard idea.
It transforms a spider web into a class activity that encourages everyone to think about their feelings.
Begin by drawing a spiderweb on the whiteboard with a black marker. Don’t try to get fancy with it! The best spiderweb is a simple spiderweb.
Assign colored markers to represent a mood. At the start or end of every day, ask the class how they’re feeling.
Color in a segment of the spider web with the marker that matches their answer. At the end of the month, you can reflect on the emotions everyone felt.
Let’s be honest, the highlight of October for most of us is the candy! A Halloween candy tally is a fun whiteboard idea that younger children will love.
Ask the class to shout out what candy they like to get when they go trick or treating, and make a note of the suggestions on the whiteboard.
When you have a decent list, go around the class asking everyone to pick their top choice. A more artistic option is to draw a big bag and ask the students to fill it with illustrations of their favorite treats.
With Halloween just a few weeks away, it’s time to get excited!
Start October with a whiteboard illustration depicting everyone’s favorite Halloween characters, with a big banner declaring how many days are left until Halloween!
Change the number every day, to reflect how long is left on the countdown. You can even change the illustrations.
Try making the picture more spooky and scary the closer we get to the big day. For an extra fiendish idea, make small adjustments to the picture each day, as if the characters are coming to life.
“The trees are in their autumn beauty, The woodland paths are dry, Under the October twilight the water, Mirrors a still sky”. This quote is from the poem The Wild Swans at Coole by Irish poet William Butler Yeats.
In the poem, Yeats ruminates on the passing of time as he watches the swans. The opening lines beautifully capture the magic of October and the cyclical changes of fall.
Decorate your whiteboard with this quote to inspire thoughts on how we’ve changed and grown through the year.
You probably can’t start an actual campfire in your classroom (for very good reason) but this is the next best thing.
Decorate your whiteboard with a picture of a crackling campfire, perhaps with a starry sky above and s’mores being held over the flames.
Sit the class in a semi-circle surrounding the whiteboard and share your favorite ghost stories. They can write and tell their own, or you can choose some frightful short stories from classic literature.
“Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog” — what kind of weird ingredients do you need to make a witch’s brew?
The witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth fill their cauldron with all kinds of horrible creatures to make a charm, so why not make your own classroom potion?
Draw an outline of a bubbling cauldron on the whiteboard. Make sure there’s plenty of room inside the cauldron for your ingredients.
Go around the class asking what to add to your spell, and draw the answers in the cauldron.
“October is the treasurer of the year, And all the months pay bounty to her store.” These are the opening lines to the poem October by Paul Laurence Dunbar, an African American writer.
The poem describes the splendor of October giving way to the cold frosts of winter.
This beautiful quote makes a wonderful October whiteboard decoration. You can illustrate the quote with images of October beauty, and lead a discussion on the works of Paul Laurence Dunbar.
What is everyone wearing for Halloween? This is an excellent prompt for an October whiteboard.
Get creative with your illustrations of costumes, and go around the class asking what they plan on wearing to get the best candy when they trick or treat!
A hands-on activity for the class is to get them to illustrate their own Halloween costumes. Draw a simple outline of a person on the board, and ask each student to draw their outfit.
The class can try guessing what it’s going to be as the image comes to life.
October is definitely a time of change, as we leave summer firmly in the past and start to look forward to winter.
These changes mean there are plenty of unique October activities to enjoy throughout the month.
Why not try a “fall” into Friday whiteboard theme, where we prepare for the weekend by discussing what fall activities we’re looking forward to?
From watching spooky movies to carving jack o’lanterns to curling up with a pumpkin spice latte, this October whiteboard idea is a low-key task for a Friday morning or afternoon.
Final Thoughts
October is an inspiring month — take a look at some of our favorite October quotes if you don’t believe us!
You can draw whiteboard inspiration from the spooky images of Halloween, with cauldrons and pumpkin patches offering a chance for hands-on engagement.
Or you can look to the natural splendors of fall, for beautiful images that are sure to inspire.
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!
