Best of NTC: Halloween

Watch out for ghosts and ghouls – it’s Halloween!

Pumpkins, trick-or-treating or ghostly images hanging in the front window – Halloween on 31^st October is here again.

It’s been a favourite celebration in the United States for many years and it is becoming increasingly popular in Germany. Maybe you have seen children trick-or-treating? Dressed up as witches and ghosts (or other scary characters), groups of children go from door-to-door in their neighbourhood asking for sweets.

Or perhaps you’ve seen carved jack-o’-lantern pumpkins sitting on windowsills or doorsteps? Or houses decorated with spooky bats and cobwebs? There’s a lot going on around Halloween, so if you would like to find out more about the history, customs and the festivities surrounding Halloween, then click on the button below on the left.

And if you would like a new activity to use from A1 and above in your class, then click on the button below on the right.

Trick-or-treat (Level A1 and upwards, 10 mins)

• On the board write Halloween. Ask which words people know about the celebration, for example pumpkin, witches, trick-or-treat. Make sure you elicit trick-or-treat.
• Ask what trick-or-treat means. (Children dress up as scary characters and knock on doors to ask for a treat or threaten a - usually harmless - trick. They are usually given sweets.)
• Explain that the class is going to play a counting game using trick or treat.
• The first person says ‘one’, the second person says ‘two’, but people must say ‘trick’ on numbers divisible by three. The fourth player says ‘four’, but people must say ‘treat’ on numbers divisible by five.
• So we have: one, two, trick, four, treat, trick, seven, eight, trick, treat, eleven, trick, thirteen, fourteen, trick or treat (it’s divisible by three and five) and so on.
• Students (and you!) need to concentrate hard on this game, but it can be a lot of fun.
• If you want to use other Halloween words, you could also play with ghost and witch.