Enhancing Enrichment

Do you celebrate Halloween with your gifted and talented enrichment groups? When I first started teaching, I tried to stick with our regular lesson plans, but my students were far too distracted leading up to Halloween. To channel that excitement and keep the focus on problem-solving and critical thinking, I created a set of activities that capture both the fun of the season and the rigor of enrichment. I’ve also included some fall-themed options for those who prefer (or are required) to skip Halloween altogether.

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Reading Activities

• Halloween Reading
• Halloween Writing
• Halloween Word Ladders

Halloween Reading

One of my favorite books to read aloud during the Halloween season is The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything. This story is perfect for younger elementary students and offers wonderful opportunities for participation and movement. Each pair, or small group, of students is assigned a part of the story, such as the hat, gloves, shirt, pants, or pumpkin head. When their part appears, students say the words and perform an action to match. Because the book is repetitive, there are many opportunities for interaction and engagement.

Before the story’s final reveal, students work together to assemble all of their pieces to discover what they’ve created, reinforcing sequencing and comprehension in a fun, memorable way.

For gifted and talented students, extend the activity by having them design their own interactive reading activity for a different book. They can choose a story, assign parts or props to classmates, and plan corresponding actions or dialogue cues. There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat and We’re Going on a Pumpkin Hunt are other Halloween books with lots of repetition. This extension encourages higher-level thinking, creativity, and leadership skills while deepening their understanding of story structure and audience engagement.

Halloween Writing

Halloween is the perfect time to spark creativity in your gifted and talented readers through imaginative writing. These students thrive on open-ended challenges that allow them to explore complex ideas and vocabulary. Try offering spooky writing prompts such as “You discover a mysterious book in the library that writes its own ending each time you open it,” or “A ghost joins your reading group but refuses to read the same book twice.”

Additional Halloween Writing Prompts

1. You wake up on Halloween morning to find that all the pumpkins in town have come to life. Describe what happens next.
2. A ghost appears in your classroom but can only communicate through riddles. Write a story about your encounter.
3. You find an old, dusty spell book in the library. When you read aloud one of the spells, something unexpected happens. What is it?
4. Imagine you are a detective trying to solve the mystery of a disappearing candy stash. Who are the suspects and what clues do you follow?
5. You are invited to a costume party where everyone’s costume magically becomes real. What happens when your costume comes to life?
6. Write a story from the perspective of an object in your house that comes alive on Halloween night. What does it see, hear, or experience?
7. You discover a hidden door in your school that leads to a world where monsters and humans live together. Describe your adventure.
8. A zombie appears in your backyard, but it is friendly and has a problem that only you can solve. What do you do?
9. Imagine you are a pumpkin in a patch. Write a diary entry describing your feelings as Halloween approaches.
10. You are challenged to create a magical potion using only ingredients found in your kitchen. What does the potion do, and who tries it first?

Encourage students to use a spooky vocabulary list with words like phantom, eerie, enchanted, flicker, whisper, and shadow to add mood and depth to their stories. You could even challenge them to weave all the words naturally into their narratives. These prompts not only build creative writing skills but also strengthen word choice, descriptive language, and higher-level thinking, making them ideal for Halloween reading enrichment or early finisher activities. Grab these printable ready-to-use prompts in the Free Resource Library.

Halloween Word Ladders

Word Ladders require you to get from one word to another by only changing one letter at a time. The starting word and ending word must have the same number of letters. The words that are created on each rung must be real words found in the dictionary and cannot be proper nouns. Word Ladders can be solved with or without clues, but are more challenging without them. Create your own word ladders with this word ladder solver or use these ready-to-use Halloween Word Ladders with or without clues. If you are new to word ladders you can read more about how to use them in this “Using Word Ladders” post.

Math Activities

• Math Logic Puzzles
• 3D Haunted House
• Trip to the Pumpkin Patch
• Plan a Halloween Party

Math Logic Puzzles

Math logic puzzles are a must-have for challenging your high-achieving students. In these puzzles, symbols replace numbers, and students use their knowledge of equations and operations to figure out the value of each symbol. This type of problem encourages critical thinking, strengthens algebraic reasoning, and provides a fun, hands-on way to deepen understanding of mathematical concepts. Learn more in this “Using Math Logic Puzzles” post.

These Halloween Multiplication and Division Logic Puzzles are designed to engage and challenge advanced math students. After students solve twelve puzzles where pictures take the place of numbers, they are then ready to extend their learning by designing their own logic puzzles to challenge their classmates. Students can create, solve, and self-assess their puzzles using the provided rubric. There are also Fall Logic Puzzles available if you are not able to celebrate Halloween at school.

Another variety of logic puzzles is mobile puzzles. These brain-teasing balance puzzles help students explore number relationships, equality, and logical reasoning in a fun and seasonal way. Each puzzle works like a hanging mobile where every side must be perfectly balanced. Students use the given numbers and shapes to determine missing values, ensuring that all sides or sections of the mobile are equal. When a total number appears at the top, it represents the combined value of the entire puzzle, and students must break it into equal parts to find the value of each section. You can read more about “Using Mobile Balance Puzzles” in this post. Try some free emoji mobile balance puzzles or grab the Halloween version here.

Create a 3D Haunted House

If you are looking for a more advanced project, you might want to try creating a 3D Haunted House! In this project-based learning activity, students use square, rectangle, and triangle pieces to construct a three-dimensional haunted house. They will then maximize their budgets to create the best decorated houses. After completion, students will calculate the angles of the roof, the volume of the house, and the total surface area. They will have so much fun they won’t even notice that they are applying advanced math concepts! Read more about using math project-based learning in this post.

Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Students can plan a fun trip to a local pumpkin patch while working within a set budget. They must research and calculate the costs of admission, food, and rides, making thoughtful decisions to stay within their spending limit. This activity strengthens math skills, budgeting, and real-world problem solving as students compare prices, prioritize expenses, and explore trade-offs. It also encourages creativity and planning, as they design a memorable outing while practicing important financial literacy skills.

Print the prices for admission, rides, and food from your local pumpkin patch. Give students a budget and tell them that they are responsible for planning a trip for their family. They should create a schedule and a budget for the outing. If you don’t have access to a local price list, this printable pumpkin patch project includes the prices of admission and events and all the work done for you. This activity works well for students that want to get in on the fall fun but don’t celebrate Halloween.

Plan a Halloween Party

Students can take on the role of event planners by organizing their own Halloween party while working within a set budget. They must choose items from different categories such as decorations, snacks, drinks, and party favors, making careful decisions to stay within their spending limit. Have students use the online website of a local retail store (Walmart or Target work well). Then tell them that they are responsible for planning a party for the class. They will need food, supplies, and activities. Students should complete both a written schedule and expense sheet.

This activity encourages critical thinking, math skills, and real-world problem solving as students calculate costs, compare options, and prioritize their choices. It also sparks creativity, as they can plan a fun and festive party while practicing important budgeting and decision-making skills. It’s even more fun if they are able to actually have the party at the end to celebrate their hard work.

STEM Activities

• Pumpkin Towers
• Pumpkin Catapult
• Zombie Science Experiment

Pumpkin Towers

Students can explore engineering and problem-solving with a fun STEM activity by building the tallest towers possible using mini candy pumpkins. Working individually or in small groups, they use toothpicks to connect the pumpkins and create stable structures, experimenting with different stacking techniques and considering balance and weight distribution.

This hands-on challenge encourages creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration while introducing basic engineering principles. Students can measure and record the heights of their towers, make adjustments, and try multiple designs, turning a simple activity into a meaningful lesson in planning, experimentation, and problem-solving. You can read more about using STEM with gifted and talented students in this post.

Pumpkin Catapults

Students can explore physics, engineering, and problem-solving by building a pumpkin catapult using simple materials. Each group will need a small pumpkin, a plastic spoon as the launching arm, rubber bands for tension, and a sturdy base made from cardboard, popsicle sticks, or a small box. Students assemble the catapult by attaching the launching arm to the base with rubber bands, then place the pumpkin on the arm and experiment with different angles and amounts of tension to see how far it can fly.

This challenge encourages creativity, teamwork, and problem-solving as students test, measure, and refine their designs. They also gain a practical understanding of force, trajectory, and leverage, turning a fun seasonal activity into a meaningful STEM lesson.

Zombie Science Experiment

In this fun and spooky science experiment, students use their knowledge of liquids and solids to bring a “zombie” to life! Following the scientific method, they will observe, ask questions, create a hypothesis, conduct experiments, analyze results, draw conclusions, and share their findings. The challenge is designed to create a liquid-and-solid combination that allows the solid ingredients (raisins) to rise and fall on their own, creating the illusion of a moving zombie. The carbonation in the soda attaches to the dense raisins, lifting them to the surface. When the bubbles pop, the raisins sink again, creating a repeating motion.

This experiment not only reinforces concepts like density, buoyancy, and chemical reactions, but also encourages careful observation, critical thinking, and hands-on engagement. Students love seeing science in action, and it’s a perfect way to combine Halloween with the fun dancing raisins science experiment.

Halloween offers the perfect opportunity to combine seasonal fun with meaningful enrichment for gifted and talented students. Whether through reading, writing, math, or STEM activities, these hands-on, creative challenges encourage critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, and real-world application of skills. From interactive read-alouds and spooky writing prompts to logic puzzles, budgeting projects, and STEM experiments, there are countless ways to keep students engaged while reinforcing higher-level thinking. I hope you found an activity that can turn the excitement of the season into a memorable learning experience your students will love.