Multi-Subject Halloween Lapbook for Elementary Students

Learn about the history and celebrations of Halloween, symbols, spiders, pumpkins, bats, trick or treating safety, and more!

This free History of Halloween lapbook is a great NON-SPOOKY October learning activity for your elementary students!

This in-depth multi-subject Halloween Lapbook includes the history of Halloween, world geography where Halloween is celebrated, the science of bats, spiders, and pumpkins, social studies of Halloween customs and safety, Halloween vocabulary, math graphing of candy, and more!

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Resources for Learning about All Hallow’s Eve History & Customs to Complete Your Lapbook:

Library List

Halloween Is… by Gail Gibbons

OR Witches, Pumpkins, and Grinning Ghosts: The Story of the Halloween Symbols by Edna Barth

OR The Story of Halloween by Carol Greene

Bats by Gail Gibbons

Spiders by Gail Gibbons

The Pumpkin Book by Gail Gibbons

Video Resources for your Halloween Lapbook

NatGeoKids Read-aloud of Halloween!

Bedtime History presents History of Halloween

Mr. DeMaio gives us the History of Halloween

Find out the Hidden History of Halloween with Cody Bonds

Get Day of the Dead facts for kids from Storytime for Kids

Educational Resources from Homeschool Helper Online

These three posts contain extensive book lists, online resources, and videos about Bats, Spiders, and Pumpkins for your research.

Bats Notebooking Pages & Resources

Spider Notebooking Pages & Resources

Pumpkins & Gourds Notebooking Page

Halloween Lapbook Activities:

• Vocabulary – Look up the vocabulary words and copy down their definitions:

1. Celebration
2. Customs
3. Immigrants
4. Community
5. Vandalism
6. Costume
7. Mammal
8. Echolocation
9. Arachnid
10. Symbol

• Origins of Halloween – Make a graduated book for this activity

1. Who started Halloween?
2. Why?
3. When?
4. Where?
5. How did they celebrate?

• History of Celebrations – Describe how the following people celebrated Halloween in the past.

1. Romans
2. Celtics
3. American Colonists,
4. Scottish & Irish Immigrants in the 19th century

• Celebrations Today – Describe how these countries celebrate Halloween today.

1. Mexico
2. England
3. Canada
4. United States
5. Ireland
6. Scotland

• Halloween Symbols & Customs – What do these symbols and customs mean? Complete a separate mini books for each symbol or custom

1. costumes
2. trick-or-treat
3. Jack O’Lanterns
4. bobbing for apples
5. black cats
6. bats.

• Halloween Safety – Write down things that you can do to stay safe on Halloween.

• Spiders – Complete the questions for the mini-book

1. Label the spider parts
2. Put the spider life cycle in the correct order
3. Find out what spiders eat and draw pictures of them.
4. How do they catch food? Write about it and draw an illustration.
5. List some interesting spider facts.

• Pumpkins – Complete the questions for the mini-book, Cultivars of Pumpkins

1. How many kinds (cultivars) of pumpkins are there and what are their uses?
2. Name a cultivar (or type) of pumpkin you can eat. Add a picture of it and give a brief description of it.
3. Name a cultivar (or type) of pumpkin that was used for Cinderella’s carriage. Add a picture of it and give a brief description of it.
4. Name a cultivar (or type) of pumpkin used for carving. Add a picture of it and give a brief description of it.

Use the Pumpkin life cycle Spinner to create a life cycle of a pumpkin.

• Bats – Complete the mini-book:

1. Inside the first flap, glue in the bat printout
2. In the second flap draw the bat life cycle
3. In the third flap write about what bats eat and where they live
4. In the fourth flap, write about some of the unique traits of bats (such as how they hear & see)
5. In the fifth flap, answer the questions: Why are people afraid of bats? Do you think bats should be scary?
6. In the final flap, label the body of a bat

• Mapping – On a blank world map, locate and mark these countries:

1. Mexico
2. England
3. Canada
4. United States
5. Ireland
6. Scotland
7. Rome

• Candy Graph – After going trick or treating, let your child sort their Halloween candy and then graph their findings on the bar graph.

More Halloween Resources:

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