• 40 brain breaks

Halloween Brain Breaks for the Last Week of October

A short Halloween activity a class can do beside their desks, with no costume, candy or prop to find.

Halloween Brain Breaks for the Last Week of October

Show all 40
  1. Owl turns1 minute. An owl's eyes are fixed in place, so it turns its head instead, as far as 270 degrees. Yours will not, so go only as far as is comfortable. Keeping your shoulders still, look slowly over your right shoulder, then your left, 5 times each.

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All 40 brain breaks

Spooky moves 16

  • Bat wings 1 minute. Arms out as wings: 10 small flaps, 10 big flaps, then glide by leaning left and right. Finish by roosting: fold forward and let your arms hang down. Bats rest hanging upside down by their feet, so you are halfway there.
  • Broomstick ride 1 minute. Bend your knees and grip a broomstick that is not there. Call the flight: bank left, bank right, heads down for a branch, hop over a chimney, turbo speed with fast feet. Come in to land in slow motion.
  • Candy corn levels 1 minute. Candy corn is striped yellow, orange and white, with yellow at the wide end. Yellow means crouch low, orange means stand with bent knees, white means stretch up on tiptoes. Call the colors faster and faster, and sometimes call the same one twice.
  • Creaky stairs 1 minute. Climb 13 stairs on the spot with slow, high knees, counting in a whisper. Whenever the teacher says creak, freeze on one leg until you hear all clear. At the top, run back down with fast feet.
  • Eight-leg stretch 1 minute. A spider has 8 legs and you have 4 limbs, so every limb goes twice. Reach your right arm high and wide, then your left, then stretch your right leg out to the side, then your left. Hold each reach for 5 seconds. Go around again, reaching farther.
  • Falling leaves 1 minute. Reach up on tiptoes, a leaf on a high branch. When the teacher blows like the wind, drift down to the floor as slowly as you can, taking 15 seconds. Do it 3 times: straight down, in a zigzag, in one slow twirl.
  • Grow a pumpkin 1 minute. Crouch down small as a seed. Sprout slowly to standing, stretch your arms out as vines and sway, then round them into the biggest pumpkin you can hold. On the word picked, jump once and sit down.
  • Howl at the moon wave 1 minute. Send a wave around the room. As it reaches you, stand, howl once at the ceiling and sit back down. Count the seconds the howl takes to get back to where it started, then send it the other way and try to be faster.
  • Mix-a-monster moves 2 minutes. The caller names two creatures, such as a bat and a frog. Everyone has 10 seconds to move on the spot the way that mixed-up monster would. Freeze, look around, and a pupil names the next pair.
  • Monster freeze dance 1 minute. Name a monster and drum a beat on your desk while the class dances on the spot as that monster: a stiff mummy, a wobbly slime, a stomping giant. When the drumming stops, freeze in that monster's pose. Call a new monster each round.
  • Mummy wrap 1 minute. Turn slowly on the spot while your hands wind a bandage around you, from your ankles to the top of your head. Take 10 stiff mummy steps on the spot. Then turn the other way to unwind.
  • Rattle your bones 1 minute. Shake one part at a time as it is called: skull, shoulder blades, ribs, elbows, hips, kneecaps, ankles. Then rattle the whole skeleton at once for 10 seconds. An adult has about 206 bones, and a baby is born with about 270 that fuse as it grows.
  • Scarecrows and crows 1 minute. Stand as a scarecrow: arms out, floppy head, one foot off the ground. When the teacher calls crows, flap and hop on the spot. When you hear farmer, snap back to a scarecrow and hold still on the other foot.
  • Spooky walks 2 minutes. Walk on the spot behind your chair in the style the caller names: a zombie with stiff arms, a ghost on floating tiptoes, a spider with 8 wiggling fingers for legs, a black cat with an arched back. Change every 15 seconds, and let a pupil call the last few.
  • Stir the cauldron 1 minute. Hold a giant spoon in both hands. Stir 5 big circles one way and 5 the other, bending your knees as the spoon goes around. Reach down low to scoop, then up high to sprinkle something in. Let pupils name what goes in the pot.
  • Trick-or-treat steps 2 minutes. Walk 8 steps on the spot to the first house. Knock 3 times in the air, say trick or treat, hold out your bag, then squat to drop the candy in. Visit 5 houses, walking a little faster to each one.

Class games 9

  • Bat ears 3 minutes. Many bats find their way in the dark by listening for echoes. One pupil is the bat and stands at the front with eyes closed. Point to a classmate, who says moth in a disguised voice. The bat gets 2 guesses at who spoke, then picks the next bat.
  • Guess my costume 3 minutes. One pupil thinks of a costume anyone could make at home, such as a pirate, an astronaut or a scarecrow. The class asks up to 10 yes or no questions to work it out. Film, game and TV characters are off the list, so everyone knows every answer.
  • Pumpkin pass 3 minutes. Scrunch a sheet of scrap paper into a pumpkin for each row. Pass it from one end of the row to the other using elbows only, no hands. A dropped pumpkin goes back to the start. Time the rows, then try to beat the best time.
  • Silent spooky charades 3 minutes. A volunteer acts out a Halloween job without a sound: carving a pumpkin, a cat arching its back, a bat going to sleep, knocking for candy, bobbing for apples. Whoever guesses it goes next. Keep those 5 ready for a volunteer whose mind goes blank.
  • Spooky would you rather 2 minutes. Ask a this-or-that question and point to a side of the room for each answer: be a bat or a black cat, carve the pumpkin or eat the pie, sleep in a haunted house or a spooky forest. Everyone moves to the side they chose, and you ask one pupil on each to defend it.
  • Trick means opposite 2 minutes. Give commands that start with treat or trick. After treat, do what was said. After trick, do the opposite: trick, hands up means hands go down. Use up and down, left and right, fast and slow, big and small. Nobody is out.
  • Who did the ghost take? 3 minutes. Everyone puts their head down with eyes closed. Tap one pupil, who tiptoes behind your desk and crouches out of sight. Heads up: the class has 3 guesses to say who is missing. The missing pupil helps you choose the next one.
  • Witch's brew A to Z 3 minutes. Go around the room and fill the pot in alphabet order: apple cores, bat whiskers, cobwebs, dragon scales. Each pupil adds the next letter, and everyone gives the pot one big stir after each. Skip a hard letter by saying pass the spoon.
  • Zombie name game 3 minutes. One pupil is the zombie and walks slowly, arms out, toward a seated classmate. That classmate is safe only by calling another pupil's name before the zombie touches their desk. The zombie then turns and heads for the person named. A touched desk means a new zombie.

At your desk 8

  • Bat, cat, hat 2 minutes. Go around the room saying words that rhyme with bat: cat, hat, mat, flat, splat. Everyone claps twice between words to keep the beat. When the room runs dry, switch to boo, then to ghost.
  • Count the legs 2 minutes. A spider has 8 legs, a cat has 4 and a bat has 2. Call a mix and everyone shows the total on their fingers, opening both hands once for each ten: 2 spiders and a cat make 20, 3 bats and a spider make 14. Pupils set the next one.
  • One-sentence spooky story 3 minutes. Start with half a sentence: The door creaked open, and. Go around the room, each pupil adding one sentence. Two rules: nothing gory, and the last speaker has to give it a friendly ending.
  • Owl turns 1 minute. An owl's eyes are fixed in place, so it turns its head instead, as far as 270 degrees. Yours will not, so go only as far as is comfortable. Keeping your shoulders still, look slowly over your right shoulder, then your left, 5 times each.
  • Spider push-ups 30 seconds. Press the fingertips of both hands together, like a spider standing on a mirror. Push your palms toward each other and apart again 10 times without letting the fingertips slip. Then shake your hands out.
  • Spooky sound orchestra 2 minutes. Split the room into 4 sections: wind that whooshes, owls that hoot, doors that creak, footsteps patted on knees. Conduct with your hands: point to bring a section in, raise a hand for louder, lower it for softer, close your fist for silence.
  • What was that noise? 2 minutes. Everyone closes their eyes. Make a small noise with something in the room: scrunch paper, zip a bag, turn the pencil sharpener, slide a drawer. Hands up to guess what made it. Whoever gets it right makes the next noise.
  • Words inside HALLOWEEN 3 minutes. Write HALLOWEEN on the board. On scrap paper, list every smaller word you can build from its letters, using each letter only as often as it appears: owl, hen, whale, whole, hello, allow, alone. The longest word wins.

Draw and doodle 7

  • Class-built monster 3 minutes. Everyone draws the same monster, one call at a time. Ask pupils in turn: how many eyes, what shape of body, how many legs, fur or scales, what is it holding? Hold the drawings up together at the end. No two will match.
  • Dress the scarecrow 3 minutes. Draw a scarecrow on a pole. Add one thing each time the teacher calls: a hat, a patch on the knee, straw at the cuffs, a crow on one arm, a pumpkin at its feet. The last call is yours to choose.
  • Fold-and-match bat 3 minutes. Fold a sheet in half and open it again. On the left of the fold, draw half a bat: half a head, one ear, one wing. Pass it to a neighbor, who draws the other half to match across the fold.
  • Haunted house windows 5 minutes. Draw a tall house with a crooked roof and 6 windows. Put something different in every window: a candle, a cat, a pair of eyes, a bat, a waving hand, a ghost reading a book.
  • Invent a candy 3 minutes. Invent a candy that does not exist. Draw its wrapper, give it a name and list its 3 flavors. Pairs who want to can swap and say whether they would trade for it.
  • Pumpkin faces 3 minutes. Draw 4 quick pumpkins. Give each one a different feeling using only eyes, a nose and a mouth: happy, surprised, sleepy, grumpy. A neighbor guesses which is which. Before pumpkins, people in Ireland and Britain carved their lanterns from turnips and other root vegetables.
  • Spider web doodle 3 minutes. Draw 4 straight lines that all cross at one point, like cutting a pizza into 8. Starting near the middle, join the spokes with short curved lines that sag toward the center, ring after ring. Hang one spider from a thread.

How it works

These Halloween brain breaks are classroom activities of 30 seconds to 5 minutes for the last week of October. Press Pick another brain break and 1 of 40 comes up. Scrap paper and a pencil are the only props.

Read the full guide

Spooky, or fall only

The menu that reads All brain breaks sorts the list. Works in kindergarten marks 18 that take one spoken instruction and no reading. Fall only, nothing spooky marks 14 about pumpkins, bats, owls, spiders, scarecrows and leaves, for a class where not every family keeps Halloween.

Time one break, or plan the class party

The timer button over a single result is already set to its length; press it.

  • Follow a loud one with a quiet one: a drawing, or 2 minutes from the calming brain breaks before dismissal.
  • Zombie name game, Bat ears and Who did the ghost take? each need one volunteer. Choose before explaining the rules.
  • The spider, owl and skeleton facts were checked, and the sources are printed with the full list.

Questions and answers

Which are Halloween brain breaks for kindergarten?

Choose Works in kindergarten in the menu. Those 18 take one spoken instruction and no reading: Grow a pumpkin, Stir the cauldron, Falling leaves, Spider push-ups. If a zombie or a ghost is too much for your class, choose Fall only, nothing spooky instead.

What if some families do not celebrate Halloween?

Choose Fall only, nothing spooky. None of those 14 mentions Halloween, ghosts, witches, monsters, costumes or trick-or-treating, so nobody has to sit out. Bat wings, Owl turns, Pumpkin pass and Dress the scarecrow are all in that group.

Is anything here too scary for a classroom?

The set is mild. Nothing is gory, the one-sentence story has to end on a friendly note, and no character from a film, a game or a show is named. Read the line before it goes on the board. You know your class.

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