This is Halloween, This is Halloween!!

   

Although Halloween is not a traditional Greek celebrations, it is one of my favourites.
I consider it my responsibility to make students aware of what's happening in the world, so especially this time of the year, I get really enthusiastic and try to do stuff with my students.
This year, we worked on the song "This is Halloween" by Marilyn Manson with Lyrics Training - there are different variations of listening comprehension, choice mode, write mode and different levels - many words missing or less depending on the level of the students. They all loved the video, so the next step was to show them a trailer of the movie "Nightmare before Christmas" - stopping the video and talking to the students about the story and Halloween town vs Christmas town.
Another film in this style would be Coraline, one of my absolutely favourites. 

This year, I have also used some activities from the Teaching English site about superstition and the learn English - British council site 

 Another wonderful lesson idea that thrilled my teenage students was Jamie Keddie's idea - a horror story with a pumpkin on the leading role!
With the little ones we drew Halloween booklets from activity village

and we also made pumpkin masks like this:

More inforamtion you will find over here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween
Have fun!

Halloween.... my favourite holiday! (Links' collecton)

This year's pick's for my students:
Halloween tales  - Some are pretty scary, so don't use them with little ones!
Scary stories for kids
15 scary stories for kids
A brief history of witches  - adults or older teenagers (videos include scary stuff)
Lyrics - training Halloween song for the little ones

And of course why not a scary story challenge?
Some of my students' contributions:
Alex
Dimitris
Eleni
John

Enjoy!

Scary story Challenge: Lesson plan

I would say that this particular lesson plan can be used with intermediate (and above) students.
The idea is to have the students produce language, using Halloween as an excuse!
I always use holidays, books, movies to be excellent chances to make my students speak or write, without having them ask "why should we actually do this?" or "we don't like the subject of the essay"

So, what I did first, is talk about Halloween, if they know the particular holiday, where it is celebrated, how it is celebrated and I have also found some really interesting worksheets (crosswords, drawings) to make it more interesting. Older students love playing games, too, by the way. 

Next step: Ask students if they like horror movies (believe me they do, even the ones who say they don't!!!) and have them brainstorm names of their favorite characters (e.g. Witches of Salem, Freddy Kruger, Jason)
What happens in the movie or the book?
You can also have them play charades with titles of their favorite movie. this can be lots and lots of fun.

Back to serious work, you have to make sure that they know how to write a story.
Set up the scene, describe what happens, what's the main event in the story and finally how it ends or how did it make you feel?
Very important is that the students know that a story must have a beginning, a middle and an end...
Also we can work with examples of narrative tenses.

Time for homework! students have to write a scary story!
I have already published some of my students' stories, but you could also have them read the stories in class and the others can vote what's the best story.
It would be a wonderful idea for a Halloween party in class.
What ever you do make sure you have fun!!!

Scary story by Alex A.

Once upon a time there was a family that had a difficult time with money, but some time later the father found a job far away from their home, so they had to move to another house. The real estate agent told them that a couple of elderly people lived in that house. But the family didn't know about the real story...
The family started unpacking and in the second day of the move the father went to work and the mother stayed home with the children and worked from the computer.
A couple of days later, the youngest boy, Tom, discovered the entrance to the attic unlocked, although it was locked since they had moved and they didn't have the key, and he went upstairs.
Suddenly he saw his favorite toy-robot in the top of some boxes and tried ti climb up the ladder to get the toy. The wooden ladder was almost broken, so on his third step the ladder broke and he fell down.
His mum found him lying down and they went immediately to the hospital where he stayed in a coma. The doctors couldn't understand why he was in a coma, he was in perfect health.
But what had happened in the house before the family moved?
The elderly couple had a grandson about Tom's age. While he was playing he fell from the ladder and died.  Years had passed but the spirit of the child was haunting the house, waiting for someone to play with...

Scary story by Dimitris K.

The witch of Halloween

Once upon a time in the 17th century, there was a peaceful village in the southern part of the UK. The villagers lived happily; the men were working in the cornfields, the women were helping their husbands in any sort of job and the children were happily playing in the village's streets.
However, one year, a terrible disease made the whole village suffer. Children who suffered the greatest from this deadly disease, begun dying one after another.
the villagers had no idea who or what was to blame for teh whole situation. then, some nasty villagers cooked up a rumor which was spread quickly around the village.  They said that an evil witch who lives in a small cabin in the woods cast a powerful spell causing the disease. After the children's death, she was said to collect their corpses to use their blood for her portions.
This woman, was actually a friendly, kind-hearted 23-year-ond girl, had no idea bout this rumor.
One pitch dark night, the villagers gathered and decided to go and confront the "evil witch". Holding clubs and pipes, they started marching to the young unsuspected girl's house. when they got there, a man holding a flaming torch yelled: "let's burn down the house!!" Everybody agreed and set the little wooden cabin on fire. The young woman, who had been watching the whole time, suddenly realized that there was nothing to do to save herself. Frozen in terror, she stood motionless watching her house burning. The shelves in the walls, her books, her table, her bed, everything started turning into ashes, as the flames were coming towards her. Seconds before her death, though, fear turned into something else; rage. She took an oath that one day she would return and take revenge from the cruel villagers who killed her and would make them feel terror as she felt before dying.
Centuries later, the village, which managed to get through the deadly disease developed and became a very famous city.
However, despite the peace that a visitor would see, in the old town where once the small village stood, you can often hear a strange, almost unbelievable story; in the night of Halloween, a ghost is said to make its appearance in a single house. It is said to be the ghost of a girl who suffered great pain. People who are visited by the ghost, often end up in monasteries praying or in the mental hospital. In both situations these people are unable to speak at all!
Recently, citizens if this town have started asking for information about who that ghost might be .... Any guesses??

Scary story by Eleni G.

Laura was coming back home from the park. Alone as usual. Since her sister's death and her mother's new marriage, she was all alone, by herself. She used to return from the playground late at night, because she didn't want to meet her stepfather at home. He was an evil man, in his late 40's, with squared, wrinkled face, hooked nose and crooked teeth. His job: drug dealer... Her mother didn't know about that, she thought he was a salesman. But Laura had known about that, since he saw him selling drugs to an addict. That night, Drake saw her spying on him. Since then he has made her life a living hell. Laura and her mother Christine were so afraid of Drake, because he was very violent. He even beat Laura's sister to death so that she wouldn't tell her mother about his "new" job.

But this night was different. It was Halloween. All the kids were dressed up like witches and devils, but Laura was not. The others thought of her as the creepy person who spends a lot of time in the graveyard talking about her problems to her beloved sister. She had always hoped that one day, Angela would return to take Laura with her.
Before she returns home though she stays in the swings, her favourite place and tries to reach the sky and become an angel like Angela.

The weather was so harsh and freezing that night, that she was made to go home earlier. She looked into the sky. Full moon. She loved full moons, because they reminded her of Angela. She taught her to calculate when the next full moon would be. But this time she had a bad feeling....

Suddenly she saw a butterfly, her sister's favorite insect. Laura followed it until she reached her house. The butterfly did not stop.  It went towards her house and got inside the window. She followed it. She turned the key in the lock.
Her stepfather was still at home. She didn't say a word. Neither did he. He only turned his head and showed her the stairs. She climbed them quickly. She started looking for her mum.
Mysteriously Laura's door opened. She went into her room, saw her mom lying dead on her bed.
Suddenly she saw Drake behind her holding a knife. Laura yelled and ran fast. In a split second she was out in the street. Her mother's killer was following her. Her feet led her to the graveyard. She hid behind a grave. She was shaking with fear that's how he found her. At the moment he was pointing
 his knife at her, Angela appeared!
"COME WITH ME!!!!"
Laura felt relieved....
She came out of her body and flew into the sky with her sister and her mum.
Drake's body was found the next day near the grave....

Scary story by John M.

A bit influenced by Stephen King but... great job!!! (B1 level)

 25. 3.1974
Katie is playing alone in the garden with her ball. There are only a few children in the village, so Katie spends a lot of time with her ball.
 Suddenly the ball rolls out of the garden and Katie is chasing it until the stream. She is looking for the ball everywhere but she cannot find it. While she was looking for it, a hand is touchinh her on the shoulder.
Katie turns around ans she sees a smiling clown. He has a scary smile and a common red clown nose. He doesn't have a lot of hair and he is wearing colorful clothes.
"Is this your ball?"
Katie takes the ball and runs home.

26.3.1974
Katie gets sick. Her dad goes to the drugstore to get some medicine. Out of the store he sees the short clown holding colorful balloons.
"Hello Bill! This balloon is for Katie!"
Her dad runs scared into the house but he says nothing to his daughter. Katie is constantly thinking about the clown.

27.3.1974
Katie is playing with her ball.
The alarm clock is ringing at 10pm.
Katie is not home yet.
Bill goes out to the stream to look for his daughter. He just finds her ball. With a message on it.
"Hi Bill"

10 years later.
A girl is playing with her ball near the stream. A clown is coming out of the trees...

Trick or treat??

Like every year .... Halloween is one of my most favourite American holidays and I really enjoy activities with my students this time of the year. After all we don't only teach the language, but also the culture of the countries this language is spoken!!
So what do you do to celebrate and also teach your students about Halloween?
Do they already know something about it?
You can easily find info on various sites about this holiday , maybe you can describe what it is about, in lower levels even in your own language.

• With younger students, you an even teach shapes, colours and "festive" vocabulary. I am sure they will love colouring pages, you can them cut everything out, hang them on the windows or curtains, you can even tell your students to go from one classroom to the other and "trick or treat"!!!

• You can even dedicate some time to have a Halloween party, have them dress up in scary or funny costumes. They don't have to actually buy a costume, just put a witch hat or a mask, or wrap them with toilet paper (like mummies!!!!)

• Older students can do something more creative than costumes of course!!! You can ask them to describe their favourite scary story, write about it and then change the characters! So for example if you have a vampire story and a zombie story, put the vampire into the zombie story and vice versa and then write a new story!!
• Ask them to make their own ghost! Draw it and then write its story! When they are done, they can interview eachother, like a TV show! You can even record them like a real TV show!
• Scary (or not too scary movies) is a great idea also, if you have the time. Prepare a questionnaire for the students, which they can fill out during the movie!!
• You can als find lots of online activities. I use the British Council site, they always offer fantastic ideas!!

And ... Don't forget!! HAVE FUN!!