It’s time for October classroom activities to make their debut as you start to gear up for the holidays! It’s such a fun month full of seasonal activities and sugar-filled days! Students love Halloween-themed topics, and there are so many ways to keep students intrigued and focused while continuing to build on skills and knowledge. This time of year is also when students get that ‘holiday brain.’ You know – that brain fog that sets in with visions of costumes, candy, turkey, and presents. It starts in October and runs until winter break. So, instead of fighting against the ‘holiday brain,’ you can use it to your advantage. I always engaged my students with holiday and seasonal activities that were fun but kept them learning, too! Here are 7 great October activities for upper elementary.

October Morning Greeting Slides

There’s no better way to start the day than with a fun morning greeting! It always lays the foundation for the daily routine and happenings. These October morning messages will greet your students with seasonal fun while putting everyone on the same page to start the day. You can learn more about how to use morning messages in this post.

These BITMOJI Morning Greetings are easy to edit and personalize with your BITMOJI avatars. Video directions are included! Quickly add your own schedule or morning routine and post for students. Your students will LOVE seeing your BITMOJI each morning.

Close Reading October Classroom Activities

Don’t lose any time working on key reading skills when ‘holiday brain’ sets in. Instead, use these October-themed close reading activities. Students will love the high-interest reading passages, and you will love all the reading comprehension skills they are working on.

In this October bundle, your students will be intrigued while learning about the Salem Witch Trials, the making of monsters by special effects creators, the art of candy corn, floating pumpkins, and more! For each reading passage, students will follow the close reading steps to dig deeper into the passage. Students will continue to practice a variety of reading strategies and skills.

You can easily use each passage for multiple days as you focus on different skills. They are also perfect to leave as sub plans! The five reading passages in the October set can last you all month! Click here to learn how to use close reading strategies with your students in the classroom.

Fun Fall Math Mazes Perfect for October

Inspire and engage your students with this collection of exciting fall math worksheets! These math mazes strengthen math skills while adding fun to an otherwise boring worksheet. Students will be motivated to solve each problem as they navigate through the maze to the next one. Prepare to be overwhelmed by requests for more worksheets like these! These math resources also offer easy differentiation with a variety of skill levels!

Place Value Number Forms Number Math Mazes

Multi Digit Addition & Subtraction with Regrouping Math Mazes

Multi Step Two Step Word Problems Math Mazes

No Prep Halloween Skills Review

These no-prep Halloween math and literacy activities are easy to add to your lesson plans or leave for a sub when you need a day off. Filled with various math and language arts skills, these activities are versatile! These no-prep October classroom activities are solid skills review and practice for your students. After a lesson, you can use these review worksheets for morning work, homework, independent center activities, small group reteaching, and even independent practice.

Here are just a few of the skills included in this packet:

• Story Writing
• Editing
• Using Quotation Marks for Dialogue
• Main Idea
• Idioms
• Parts of Speech
• Multiplication
• Multi-Step Word Problems
• Logic
• Area & Perimeter
• Lines of Symmetry

And that’s not all! These holiday and seasonal no-prep packets are a great way to engage your students while working on key skills all year!

Try these FREE Halloween writing and math activities!

These fun printables are included in this Halloween No-Prep Packet. Add them to your October classroom activities by using them in a writing or math center, incorporate them as time fillers, or assign them to your students as independent practice.

Halloween Book Review (FREEBIE!)

A class favorite each year is this fun Halloween-themed book review!

Students love sharing what they are reading. But what if they were challenged with sharing in a way that made their peers want to read the book, too? That’s the goal of this fun, Halloween-themed book review!

Book reviews are not only a great way to get students interested in reading, but they are also a great way to quickly check student comprehension. Add to that learning how to write with a persuasive voice, and you have a really great activity.

Use your finished book reviews to create a fun and interactive bulletin board. Challenge your students to see if they can find a new book that they would like to read. This activity can be done once, or it can be an ongoing activity that students complete all month long as they finish reading their books.

You can grab these FREE October Book Review Templates in my store! Easily add these fun October classroom activities to your lesson plans this month!

Fall Reading Comprehension with Mystery Pictures

Your students will BEG to complete these fun and engaging reading comprehension activities. These fall-themed passages and questions focus on important reading skills while making learning interesting! As students answer the questions, they use the corresponding code with their answer choice to color in the squares on the mystery picture.

Students love trying to figure out what the image is, and each activity is self-checking. These fun October classroom activities are great alternatives to the traditional reading passage while still allowing students to practice those styles of questions. They are available for grades 3-4 or 4-5. The Fall Reading Passages and Questions for Grades 3-4 are aligned to 3rd grade skills, and the Fall Reading Passages and Questions for Grades 4-5 are aligned to 4th grade skills. Perfect for differentiation!

These reading comprehension passages are perfect for independent practice, reading centers, homework, or small group instruction. They make a great change of pace during your final test prep lessons, too!

October Classroom Activities for Multiplication

Working on math facts and basic operations is one of those skills that our students need to do with repetition. These Halloween-themed multiplication practice pages add some seasonal fun to the process.

Through meaningful Halloween math activities, students can practice basic multiplication facts, factors and multiples, multiplication strategies, patterns for multiplying, word problems, and multiplying with larger numbers.

This multiplication pack includes practice activities for 2 digit, 3 digit, and 4 digit multiplication. Students can work through the activities to build up their skill level, or use them as a review and differentiate for the needs of each student. In addition to the skills practice, your students will also enjoy the color-by-code pages.

Filled with lots of real-world Halloween fun, your students won’t even realize they are working on math skills with these themed multiplication practice pages!

Digital Stickers for Grading Digital Work

These fall-themed digital stickers and Halloween-themed digital stickers are a great way to add some seasonal fun to the digital grading process. Students love the extra encouragement while collecting their stickers. Easily grade all of your digital October classroom activities with these fun digital stickers that your students will love!

Digital stickers are so easy to use. You can get step-by-step instructions in this post.

Don’t Wait . . .

Don’t wait for ‘holiday brain’ to kick in! Be proactive and fill those lesson plans with fun seasonal and holiday activities to keep students engaged throughout October!

Just pin this to your favorite classroom Pinterest board so you can return when you need fun October classroom activities for your students.