History.com: Halloween History

Details

Activity Description

If your adult students do not actually dress up in costumes and get in on the spirit of Halloween themselves, their children probably go trick-or-treating, so they will likely partake in the holiday in some manner, if only to hand out candy. You can bring the topic of this holiday into your classroom lessons with an academic objective by using the History.com's video and writing a summary of the holiday. There are more videos available at the site.

Preparation

1. After previewing the video(s) (see Web Site Example above), decide what type of activity you want to do with your class. Some ideas include:
   • listening and note-taking
   • listening cloze
   • listening/dictation
   • reading comprehension and vocabulary learning
   • summary writing
2. Print Example Document 1: Halloween Activities Worksheet (above)

How-To

1. Start an In class discussion about Halloween. Write down what people already know about the holiday.
2. Hand out worksheet.
3. Watch video(s) as class. Continue discussion.
4. Pair students, good readers with less skilled readers allowing all students to participate.
5. Make assignment having students fill out worksheet.

Teacher Tips

• The videos have a lot of vocabulary. Some of it is highlighted in the handout. You may want to go over more words with the class or include a vocabulary activity.
• If the Facebook ad shows up in front of the page when you first arrive at the Web site, just wait a minute or so and it disappears.
• The videos are in Adobe Flash, so they may not play on some mobile devices. Be sure you have a current version of the plug in for use with your browser.

More Ways

There are more videos available at the site.

Program Areas

• ABE: Adult Basic Education

Levels

• High

Documents

• HalloweenActivities.pdf - Halloween Activities Worksheet

Subjects

• Writing
  • Paragraph Skills

Tags

American culture,Halloween,history,holidays,vocabulary