Fall & Halloween Themed Teacher SEL Resources

We're sure lots of people are excited for Halloween and all the activities Halloween has to offer, even during the pandemic. Halloween presents opportunities to teach students about a few social and emotional learning skills – such as self-awareness. With the following tips, tricks, and activities there are options to create a SPOOKY social and emotional learning environment. 

Pumpkin Feelings –  Teaching Self-Awareness

• Halloween offers opportunities to illustrate how students may explore, identify, and develop understanding of emotions. 
• With a laminated print-out of a pumpkin, the teacher or student will be able to draw facial expressions to demonstrate different emotions. 
• Students will be able to identify the emotions and come up with words to describe the facial expression or emotion of the pumpkin.
• Students should draw their own facial expression on the pumpkin; share with the class the emotion they chose and why. Additionally, students could develop Halloween-related stories about why the pumpkin is “feeling” that way. 
• Lastly, any students with a sad, angry, or scared pumpkin should be encouraged to participate by responding to make the pumpkin feel better. 

Halloween Character – Teaching Self-Awareness

• Students get the opportunity to draw, write about, or act out a Halloween character feeling various emotions. Examples could include Jack Skellington, Coraline, Casper, or ET.

Ghost Story – Teaching Relationship Skills

• Sit students in a circle, and read them an opening line or two from a Halloween themed story.
• Have each student, one by one, create the next line to the story and share out loud with the class. 

Trick or Treating Social Story – Teaching Social Awareness

• The link below is a free printable but it requires a subscription to a newsletter, although the subscription is free.
• It speaks on topics that include costumes, weather, social etiquette, safety, and all things scary.

Trick or Treating Social Story