37 Spooky Halloween Activities for Middle School Students

Halloween activities for middle school can be tricky, too kiddish and they’ll roll their eyes, too academic and it sucks the fun out of the season.

When my son hit that middle school age, I realized I needed activities that kept the spooky vibe alive and felt age-appropriate.

Over the years, we’ve tried everything from zombie math to eerie writing prompts and exploding ghost rockets.

This list pulls together our favorite Halloween printables and lesson ideas for middle schoolers, things that actually held their attention and worked well for both home and classroom use.

Free printable Halloween mad libs worksheet and creative writing activity for middle school students with colored pens.

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Table of Contents

Halloween Language Arts

Middle schoolers are way more into language arts when it doesn’t feel like language arts.

Over the years, we’ve leaned on Halloween-themed writing prompts, puzzles, and reading to make October lessons more fun (and honestly, more effective).

Here are some of our favorite Halloween ELA activities for middle school:

Halloween writing prompts – Encourage students to write spooky short stories or personal Halloween memories. Great for daily warm-ups or creative writing blocks.
Scary story Mad Libs – These printable Mad Libs add a silly twist to storytelling. Students fill in the blanks with spooky words, then read their hilarious haunted tales aloud.

Halloween acrostic poem template – A simple format that invites creativity, students write a Halloween-themed poem using each letter of the word “HALLOWEEN” as the line starter.

Halloween word scramble – Unscramble spooky-themed words like vampire, skeleton, and haunted to stretch vocabulary and spelling skills.

Halloween word search – A classic favorite. Students hunt for themed words hidden in all directions, great for quiet time or fast finishers.

Words within “Halloween” worksheet – How many smaller words can students find hidden inside the word “Halloween”? It’s harder than it looks and makes for a great vocabulary challenge.

Halloween printable bookmarks – Let students color and cut out themed bookmarks, then pair them with a spooky book for fun, low-stakes reading motivation.
Halloween creative writing game – Use this with randomized prompts to help spark imaginative storytelling. Works well in pairs or small groups.
Halloween kindness paper chain – A simple SEL activity, students write positive or encouraging messages on paper strips and link them into a class-wide kindness chain with a Halloween theme.
Halloween books for middle schoolers – From The Halloween Tree to Poe’s eerie tales, give students a seasonal reading list that’s creepy without being too much.

Halloween Science and STEM for Middle Schoolers

October is one of the best times to sneak some hands-on science into your middle school lessons.

These Halloween-themed STEM projects and experiments have just the right mix of spooky and educational to keep kids engaged, whether you’re in a classroom or homeschooling at the kitchen table.

Here are our favorite Halloween science and STEM activities for middle school:

Halloween Periodic Table Worksheet – Practice element identification with a spooky twist using themed icons and Halloween-inspired chemical symbols.

Bat Life Cycle Worksheet – Learn about nocturnal creatures by exploring the life cycle of bats. Great for pairing with nonfiction reading or a short video.

Pumpkin Life Cycle Worksheets – Explore plant science by following a pumpkin from seed to harvest. These worksheets fit perfectly into fall and Halloween lessons.

Spider life cycle worksheet – Connect Halloween themes to real biology by teaching the stages of a spider’s life. Bonus points if you spot a real one outside!

Clay pot candy corn craft – Combine engineering and creativity by turning mini clay pots into candy corn decor. Teaches planning, design, and coordination.
Melted crayon pumpkin – Use heat and wax to observe physical changes while decorating pumpkins in vibrant, swirling colors. Kids love the messy part.
Salt painted spider webs – Mix science and art with this simple experiment using salt, glue, and watercolors. Teaches absorption and texture properties.
Pipe Cleaner Spider Sculptures – Learn basic anatomy and design by constructing model spiders with pipe cleaners. A fun way to mix crafting with biology.
Oozing Blood Slime – Middle schoolers love this gross but safe slime recipe. A great intro to polymers and chemical reactions.
DIY glowing eyes craft – Teach phosphorescence and light absorption while creating eerie glowing eyes for Halloween night.
Dissolving candy experiment – Test how fast different candies dissolve in various liquids. A low-prep experiment with easy observation and recording.
Explosive ghost rockets – Launch mini “ghosts” using baking soda and vinegar. It’s a safe and exciting way to demonstrate chemical reactions and pressure buildup.

Fun Halloween Math Activities

Math gets way more interesting when you add a little Halloween magic.

These spooky-themed activities have been a hit in our homeschool, especially when we needed something that felt more like a game than a worksheet.

Here are some engaging Halloween math ideas for middle school students:

Halloween Word Problems – These themed math problems from Math-Drills.com cover a variety of operations with spooky scenarios, perfect for bell ringers or review.
9 pumpkins puzzle – Challenge students to think critically with this Halloween brain teaser. They’ll love solving which pumpkin weighs what with only a few clues.
Zombie Exponential Growth Activity – Use zombies to make exponential growth fun (and slightly creepy). A great way to connect math to real-world modeling in a seasonal context.
Pumpkin Launch Project – Predict how far a pumpkin will fly when launched using different variables. A fun mix of math, physics, and Halloween energy.
Zombie Web Graph Theory – Teach students the basics of networks by building a “zombie outbreak” map. This activity combines logic, problem solving, and a spooky backstory.
Halloween Mystery Tangrams – Students form haunted house shapes, bats, or pumpkins with tangram pieces. A visual-spatial activity that feels more like a puzzle than math class.

Halloween Social Studies

Halloween isn’t just costumes and candy, it’s packed with cultural history, literary connections, and global traditions that make it a great fit for middle school social studies.

These activities helped us explore the holiday from a fresh perspective, beyond just the spooky fun.

Here are a few Halloween-themed social studies ideas to try:

The History of Halloween Book Study – Learn how Halloween evolved from ancient Celtic traditions to the modern holiday we know today. This book covers Samhain, All Saints’ Day, and how Halloween spread and changed over time.
Who Was Edgar Allan Poe? – This biography introduces students to Poe’s life and eerie literary legacy. A great addition to cross-curricular lessons connecting literature and history.
Halloween Around the World – Explore how different cultures celebrate Halloween or similar holidays. Compare Día de los Muertos, Samhain, Obon, and more for a rich global study.

Fun Halloween Activities for Middle School

Sometimes the best way to wrap up an October school day is with something purely fun.

These low-prep Halloween activities have worked great for parties, homeroom time, or just giving older kids a break that still feels age-appropriate.

Here are a few crowd-pleasing favorites:

Halloween scattergories printable – A spooky spin on the classic game. Students race to come up with Halloween-themed words for each category, great for building vocabulary and quick thinking.

Teen Halloween scavenger hunt – Send small groups out with phones to capture photos of teal pumpkins, creepy clowns, and more. It’s active, collaborative, and always a hit with middle schoolers.

Halloween would you rather – Lighthearted and surprisingly thoughtful, these themed prompts get kids laughing and debating. Perfect as an icebreaker or party game.

Must-Read Halloween Books for Older Kids

Once my son hit that tween stage, we started leaning into Halloween stories that were a little more mysterious, a little darker, and a whole lot more thought-provoking.

These books became our go-tos, not just for spooky vibes, but for the kinds of discussions they sparked afterward.

Here are a few Halloween reads we’ve really enjoyed:

Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving – This one surprised us. The eerie atmosphere, the suspense, the ambiguity at the end, it was one of those rare classics that actually held my son’s attention. The story of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman opened up conversations about superstition, fear, and unreliable narrators.
The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe – We read this one together during the pandemic, and honestly, the parallels were chilling. It’s short but packed with symbolism and mood. Poe’s writing gave us a chance to talk about allegory and mortality in a way that felt appropriately dark for Halloween but not too much.
The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury – This book has so much heart. It’s spooky in parts, but what really stuck with us was how it connected different cultural traditions and histories of Halloween. My son loved the time-travel adventure, and I appreciated how it tied in bigger themes like friendship and mortality without being heavy-handed.

Last Updated on 16 July 2025 by Clare Brown