Halloween Fun

Halloween. Ah...how I've always liked that holiday. To this day I still recall learning a song that spells out Halloween (H-A-Double L- O-W-Double E-N spells Halloween) in elementary school. Halloween seemed more innocent back then. I'm still not sure if it's simply my age that has helped me see the shadow of gloom and violence that has taken a hold of this holiday or if some people have simply become more sinister. Yet, I still believe there's a place for the fun and educational activities that Halloween can bring us. I was always irritated with teachers who ignored Halloween. However, now I can see the conflict. Some parents won't allow their children to participate in any Halloween activity. Yet, to deprive the rest of the class of Halloween fun is also not fair. This article is for those of you who are still able to use Halloween as a learning tool in the classroom. For the rest of you, it's a shame that even innocent fun has to be censored. But, that's the way it goes. (Some of these ideas can be used without necessarily relating them to Halloween).

One way of tying Halloween in with school is to look at it from a literary perspective. Who could forget the Legend of Sleepy Hollow? That is one of my favorite movies to show and stories to read to students prior to Halloween. The story is a classic and amazingly enough there are plenty of students who don't know the story. Edgar Allan Poe is the epitome of Halloween writing with his dark, macabre stories. The Tell-Tale Heart and the Pit and the Pendulum are two stories I share with high school students. We also learn about Poe's life, thus learning about an author students are apt to remember quite vividly.

Another way of incorporating Halloween in with school is to look at it from a historical perspective. The Salem Witch trials are always a hit with older students. And just where do jack 'o laterns, haunted houses, and pumpkins tie in with this holiday? Or better yet, what is the significance of Halloween anyway? How have we come to celebrate Halloween? How has it changed? An interesting study might include coming up with the most popular costumes over the past ten, twenty, thirty years. Election years, for example, are bound to urge some of us to dress like Al Gore or George W. Bush. And just how many Monica Lewinsky's do you think you'll see?

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