How to Keep the Halloween Chaos in Check and Still Have Fun [Episode 229]

Heidi 0:00
This is episode 229 of Teacher Approved.

Heidi 0:06
You’re listening to Teacher Approved, the podcast helping educators elevate what matters and simplify the rest. I’m Heidi.

Emily 0:13
And I’m Emily. We’re the creators behind Second Story Window, where we give research based and teacher approved strategies that make teaching less stressful and more effective. You can check out the show notes and resources from each episode at secondstorywindow.net.

Heidi 0:28
We’re so glad you’re tuning in today. Let’s get to the show.

Emily 0:36
Hey there. Thanks for joining us today. In today’s episode, we are talking about how to keep the Halloween fun without losing your sanity, and we’re sharing a teacher approved tip for resetting your room after all the Halloween excitement.

Heidi 0:51
Let’s start with try it tomorrow, where we share a quick win that you can try in your classroom right away. Emily, what is our suggestion for this week?

Emily 0:58
This week, try adding a calm down countdown to your transitions. So before moving from one activity to another, have students take three deep breaths and count down from five together. Sounds simple, but it’s amazing how those few seconds help everyone reset their energy level.

Heidi 1:16
I love this one. It absolutely works any time of year, but it is especially helpful when your kids are running high on excitement, like, you know, the week before Halloween, when they’re basically caffeinated squirrels.

Emily 1:30
If you like this idea or anything else we share here on the podcast, would you please take a minute and give us a five star rating and review on Apple podcasts, or you can leave a rating and a comment on Spotify.

Heidi 1:42
Well, everyone, we have got some great news about Halloween. This year it falls on a Friday. Woo hoo.

Emily 1:49
Oh my gosh, that is such a gift. It’s too bad it can’t work out that way every year.

Heidi 1:54
It should just be every year Halloween is on a Friday or Saturday.

Emily 1:58
Yes, and we’re just so glad that you all get to escape the day after Halloween hangover this year. But of course, Halloween on Friday also means managing a whole week of soaring excitement levels.

Heidi 2:11
It’s gonna be a long week. So let’s talk about how you can get through with your sanity intact. Today we’re sharing our Halloween Survival Guide, and basically, it all comes down to the candy rule.

Emily 2:24
Yes, everyone loves candy. It’s such a big part of Halloween. However, it is so easy to overdo it. A small handful is sweet and magical, but a bucket full leads to a sugar crash and complete chaos.

Heidi 2:36
And that sums up our whole management philosophy. A little Halloween spirit sprinkled into your day can boost engagement and create the kinds of memories that your kids will talk about for years. But if you halloweenify every single worksheet and throw out all of your routines, you are setting yourself up for a week of trying to teach those caffeinated squirrels.

Emily 2:59
Yeah, nobody wants that. So we’re going to walk you through how to add just enough Halloween magic without derailing your whole month. We’ve got three main areas to focus on, the lead up to the big day, Halloween day itself, and the reset afterward.

Heidi 3:13
So let’s start with the lead up, because this is the make it or break it point. You’re either going to set yourself up for success, or, you know, the opposite.

Emily 3:23
The absolute most essential thing you can do to have a successful Halloween week is to keep your core routines intact. You can’t skip this part unless you want to send your kids straight into chaos.

Heidi 3:35
But that doesn’t mean that you can’t add a light sprinkling of fun.

Heidi 3:39
No, of course we want the fun. We want those seasonal sprinkles, but remember the candy rule, a small handful is great, a big bucket is a disaster.

Heidi 3:48
Yeah, your kids need their routines. They thrive on predictability, especially when excitement levels are through the roof. So don’t abandon your regular morning work or skip your math block. Lean hard on what’s normal if you have a class of kids that tip into overwhelm easily.

Heidi 4:06
And most will at Halloween time, even if your class mostly can handle things, like something big like Halloween, is going to impact pretty much all classes. So just keep that in mind.

Heidi 4:16
Oh yes, definitely.

Emily 4:17
If your class is able to handle a little spark, try adding seasonal flair to what you’re already doing. So, for example, keep your morning meeting routine, but you can add a festive greeting, like Jack O’ Lantern grins, where you sit in a circle and you ask one student to start. Let’s say you pick Liam. So Liam greets the student on his left and says the student’s name with O’ Lantern. So that would be like, Good morning, Sophia O’Lantern.

Heidi 4:43
It’s a mouthful.

Emily 4:44
She returns a greeting, good morning, Liam O’Lantern, and then they each make their best Jack O’ Lantern face at each other.

Heidi 4:50
I can hear the giggles now. I’d love having a festive morning meeting greeting. It’s very low key, but it’s just the right amount of fun to keep things exciting. And we also love a seasonal morning message. So for example, a question like, there are three more bats than spiders. How many bats and spiders could there be? Leans into the fun, but it doesn’t take away from the thinking.

Emily 5:13
And if you want cute, thoughtful done for you morning messages, we happen to have sets for first through fourth grade. They each include a couple 100 non-seasonal thinking questions to get everyone’s brain turning, but we also have a set of 60 seasonal questions for each grade level. So that gives you plenty of fun options to choose from. We will link to those in the show notes.

Heidi 5:33
Keeping your overall routine normal while dropping in that little bit of novelty means that your students’ engagement stays high and you’re giving extra energy a safe outlet, but you’re doing all of this without having to compromise instructional time. Festive but meaningful is probably our favorite type of activity. You can bet we go to a lot of parties. One way we keep things festive but meaningful is with our vocabulary lessons. If you use our jargon journal vocabulary program, which we love so much, it’s so fun, we have got festive but meaningful units for The Fierce Yellow Pumpkin, Halloween Night, Scary Scary Halloween, and my personal favorite, The Vanishing Pumpkin.

Emily 6:14
Such good books. And while we’re pitching our products, why don’t we just let you know that we also have our Halloween fluency in a flash lessons. If you don’t do Halloween at your school, we also have a fun fall theme. But if you can do Halloween, they are so fun. You might see the Sanderson Sisters in there. You might see Wednesday and Pugsley in there. It’s so much fun. This is like, I think I say this every time, but the Halloween set might be like, my favorite set.

Heidi 6:42
It’s my favorite I think.

Emily 6:44
Oh, it’s so fun. And of course, we do have lots of non-seasonal fluency in a flash lessons, but we’re just really proud of the seasonal stuff. It feels so special. It’s hard to describe these on a podcast, though. So you’ll just have to go try them, I think, to see how interactive and engaging they are.

Heidi 7:01
I really am still blown away every time I watch one of these. Each day has a meaningful activity that targets an essential fluency skill. But I promise that your kids will be having so much fun, they will never realize it’s educational. And we will link to our seasonal fluency in a flash mini lessons in the show notes as well.

Emily 7:18
The show notes are hopping this week. You got to check them out.

Heidi 7:20
Yes they are.

Emily 7:21
As you plan the rest of your Halloween lead up week, your math story problems can feature pumpkins and science can explore bats, but remember that there’s no pressure to halloweenify every single part of your day. In fact, you should definitely avoid doing that. If every worksheet has a Jack O’ Lantern on it, it stops being special, and then it stops being a tool that you can use to shape your classroom management.

Heidi 7:44
Remember, we’re going for the fun of a handful of candy, and not the heaviness of a whole bucket, so adding in these little bits of excitement helps draw off the excess energy that is building up before Halloween. Because these sparks of fun are increasing your students engagement, it makes all of your classroom management so much easier. And if you would like to sprinkle in some seasonal fun without having to adapt any of your content, may we introduce you to one of our favorite tools, festive breaks.

Emily 8:14
Festive breaks are short, low prep activities that you can pull out whenever you want a little seasonal excitement. They’re print and go activities like Halloween tic tac toe or roll a monster, and having these copied and ready to grab at a moment’s notice will be a huge relief when you need them.

Heidi 8:31
Now, the key to a festive break is the activity card. The front of the card is a cute seasonal picture, and the back of the card names a fun activity. Now, as the teacher, you get to decide how many breaks you want to do, and you get to decide when it’s time to choose a card. For example, you might want to schedule it into your day, and you would do an activity after reading or one after lunch.

Emily 8:52
Or you might want to have students earn an activity with on task behavior. This is one of our best holiday management tips. You could say something like, if everyone works on their math page for 15 minutes without talking, we can choose an activity, but if people start talking, I’ll have to restart the timer. Let the structure of trying to earn a reward tamp down some of the excess energy in your room.

Heidi 9:14
And we will put a link to our Halloween festive breaks in the show notes. Unfortunately, we don’t have a non-Halloween fall set available. I was really hoping to get to it this year, but the calendar won out on this one.

Heidi 9:25
Yeah, we’ve been a little bit busy writing that book we’re writing.

Heidi 9:29
Oh yeah, I don’t know if we’ve mentioned that. Hi everyone. We’re writing a book.

Heidi 9:32
That’s a, that’s an Easter egg in this episode, is that we are writing a book, but we’ll talk about that on another episode.

Heidi 9:37
Turns out writing a book takes up a lot of time. Who knew?

Heidi 9:42
But no matter how strategic we are about handling seasonal spark, the closer we get to the 31st, the more the energy level is going to climb. That’s totally normal, but because we can predict it, we can plan for how to address it.

Emily 9:57
Recognizing when your regular management plan will need a boost is how you know you’ve achieved peak teacher status, because this is some ninja level stuff.

Emily 10:08
So decide now how you can increase your structure to manage the excess novelty. A good place to start is with a discussion. A few days before Halloween, preview the plan with your students. Let them know when the fun stuff will happen and when it’s business as usual.

Heidi 10:21
try using a visual schedule if you can. Post it where everyone can see it, so that you don’t get constant wins the party questions, because you will. Even though you are sticking to your normal routines and core subject blocks as much as possible, letting kids know when the out of the ordinary is happening will go a long way toward keeping everyone calm.

Heidi 10:42
Also, you definitely want to build in more brain breaks this week as well. When kids are buzzing with excitement, they need more opportunities to get the wiggles out.

Heidi 10:50
And guess what we have?

Emily 10:52
What could it be?

Heidi 10:53
Well, surprise, we have got 60 Halloween brain breaks that are perfect for this. We’ve divided them into three categories, activities to increase focus, activities to calm excitement, and activities to boost energy. That way you can find exactly what you need the moment you need it.

Heidi 11:11
Halloween week, you’ll probably get a lot of use out of our refocus brain breaks. Those are the ones you’ll turn to to settle everyone down.

Heidi 11:19
These are so calming. One of my favorite refocused brain breaks is a mindful movement activity called Fun with Jack. So you would have your students stand, everyone calm, centered, breathing slowly and calmly, and then you’d walk them through this activity. Pretend you’re holding a Jack O’ Lantern between your hands. Slowly move it side to side, from left to right, lower it down to your feet and lift it up again. Slowly raise it to your mouth and blow out the candle with three slow breaths.

Emily 11:48
Oh, I feel calmer already. But, and this is important, for every brain break, make sure you set clear expectations beforehand. How long will it last? Where can students move? How loud can they be? What is the consequence if someone chooses not to follow the rules, and what should happen as soon as the brain break is over?

Heidi 12:07
That last part is so crucial. If you don’t have a clear ending signal, you’re going to spend five minutes trying to get everyone back on track before you can move on with the day, and then everyone is just going to be as tired and unfocused as they were before you started.

Emily 12:22
Okay, you’ve maintained your core classroom structure while strategically sprinkling in seasonal fun. By the time Halloween morning hits, your class will be excited but still anchored. They know what to expect, and you’ve given them plenty of appropriate outlets for all that energy.

Heidi 12:38
Which means you are ready to tackle the actual day without everything falling apart. So let’s talk about your Halloween day game plan.

Emily 12:48
Feels like we could have a whole series about how to handle this day. And you know, if Halloween isn’t a big deal at your school, like you don’t do costumes or parties, then you probably could mostly plan a normal day with just a few seasonal activities sprinkled in. You can have lots of fun with scarecrows and pumpkins if witches and Jack O’ Lanterns aren’t the right vibe for your school.

Heidi 13:08
But if there is a costume parade or a class party or both, you’re going to need what we call a Plan B schedule. And honestly, that’s probably the smarter move regardless, because even if your school doesn’t officially celebrate, your kids are going to be thinking about trick or treating and costumes all day long.

Emily 13:27
The goal with a plan B schedule is to keep the routine predictable, even if the activities aren’t your usual ones. So if your students are used to doing science from 2 to 2:,30 show a science video during that time instead of trying to teach a regular lesson.

Heidi 13:40
And you can do the same thing with math. Instead of your regular lesson, pull out math games from earlier in the year and have your kids rotate through stations, or you set time for a review work packet.

Emily 13:52
I think this could be maybe our unpopular teaching opinion, which is that work packets are a lifesaver, especially on disruptive days like this, and it doesn’t mean that it’s just fluff and a waste of time. A collection of Halloween themed worksheets that mix review practice with a few just for fun pages can keep kids productively busy when you need them to be.

Heidi 14:14
And we have got a Halloween work packet that includes pages at three different difficulty levels so that you can differentiate for your whole class. It’s got that seasonal theme that makes everything feel special, but it is still solid review practice.

Emily 14:29
You can always count on us for review. To help you figure out your plan B schedule, here are a couple of examples. If you’ve got a morning Halloween party, which is what my kids school does, and it’s blows my mind every time, but that’s what they do. So it might look like 8:30 to 9, costume parade with parents, 9 to 10:45, class party, 10:45 to 11:30, clean up and watch a 30 minute movie, like maybe the 80s classic Garfield’s Halloween or something educational about bats.

Heidi 14:59
But definitely do Garfield, if you’ve got the choice.

Emily 15:01
I know, it’s so nostalgic.

Heidi 15:04
Then you might have lunch from 11:30 to 12. In the afternoon, do a morning meeting after lunch as a way to check in and reset. Hand out those work packets, give kids some time to work. And then you can break up the work time with brain breaks, festive breaks, specialty classes and reading time.

Emily 15:21
Yeah, bust out those Halloween books and do some fun read alouds. You can do one of those between every activity. If your party is in the afternoon, you might do a normal morning routine then, and then maybe you want to do a themed writing activity during your normal writing time. Hand out a work packet and give kids time to work. Have recess, read a Halloween story, maybe play a Halloween math game, finish work packets, then party time and clean up.

Heidi 15:46
The key is having a plan, instead of just winging it. When you know what’s coming next, you can stay calm, and that keeps your kids calm too.

Emily 15:55
Now let’s talk about managing the actual party. If you’re doing stations, a craft station, a game station, a snack station, time those rotations and have a clear signal for switching.

Heidi 16:06
Recruit parent helpers to run the stations if you can, so that you can supervise the whole room instead of getting stuck trying to manage one activity while the rest of the room falls apart. If you want all of our best tips for planning a party that leaves you smiling instead of sweating, check out episodes 33, 34 and 96.

Emily 16:25
As soon as we started talking about the Halloween party, I just got like itchy, because I have helped at so many Halloween parties for my kids at the elementary schools, and most of them have been very disorganized. As the helper it has made me crazy. So please go check out those episodes, because we really go deep into the nitty gritty, because we know how exhausting it is trying to orchestrate fun without losing control of those 25 sugared up kids. So check out those episodes, and then let’s address the biggest hassles, treats and costumes.

Heidi 17:01
For treats, decide in advance how and when candy gets eaten. Perhaps it’s just one treat during the party and the rest goes home, or perhaps it’s a free for all, because you are sending them home in an hour anyway. Decide what works best for your class, and then let any parent volunteers know your expectation.

Emily 17:18
Also communicate this clearly to students ahead of time to avoid disappointment. It might be a good idea to have non food options available to like stickers, pencils, small toys that can keep everyone included and help you avoid the sugar overload situation, and that like dyed black frosting all over their face. I hate it so much.

Heidi 17:41
Yeah, watch out for that if you’re doing sugar cookies as part of your party.

Emily 17:44
You can’t trust those kits you can get at the store because the frosting in them is insane.

Heidi 17:50
For costumes, if they are allowed at your school, create what we call a costume contract. Share rules about appropriateness, safety and when costumes can be worn or removed. If costumes aren’t worn all day, figure out when the students will change. Let parents know that you aren’t going to be helping anyone get dressed, so they should practice putting things on and taking them off at home. Also make it very clear that students have to be able to manage the bathroom independently in their costume.

Emily 18:17
Oh, yeah, no one wants an accident, especially on Halloween. If costumes are being worn at school, you might consider bringing a backup costume or two, just in case not all of your students have one for whatever reason.

Heidi 18:29
Yeah, that definitely caught me off guard when I was a new teacher. I remember frantically texting a roommate with an office job because she could get away from work in the middle of the day and asking her, begging her to run to the store and grab a couple of costumes, like whatever was left at that point. After that year, I made sure to come prepared on Halloween. I’m not letting something as silly as a costume parade contribute to anyone’s childhood trauma. Not on my watch.

Emily 18:54
No, no way. It’s also a good idea to have a repair kit handy, tape, safety pins, maybe some plastic grocery bags for costume pieces that won’t fit in backpacks. Trust me, these situations come up more than you would expect.

Heidi 19:09
As crazy as the Halloween festivities are, make sure that you don’t shortcut your end of day routine. If the party is scheduled later in your day, let everyone know that the party time ends 30 minutes before the bell. That way, if it runs long, because it’ll run long, you still have a good buffer of time to clean up the mess and make sure everything is ready for tomorrow. Trust us, you don’t want to start your day after Halloween already running behind.

Emily 19:36
And that brings us to our final piece for surviving Halloween, the reset. This year, Halloween falls on a Friday, so you’ve got the weekend to recover, but when it swings back around to a Sunday, you’re going to need strategies for that Monday morning.

Heidi 19:48
Yeah, that’s a rough one. Plan a gentle next morning routine. Play soft music as the kids arrive, make sure to greet them at the door and hear about their fun adventures, and signal that it’s time to focus on learning now. Kids need to transition back to school mode, and you can help them do that gradually.

Heidi 20:07
Review your expectations and procedures again, not in a harsh way, but as a gentle reminder. Remember when we line up, we turn our voices off and keep our hands to ourselves.

Heidi 20:16
And give yourself some grace too. Halloween is genuinely exhausting for teachers, but as tiring as it is, hopefully you find a little fun in it too. When you give yourself permission to lean into the season, even just a little, you remind yourself of the things you love about teaching.

Emily 20:32
And even if it feels like a big waste of time, those tiny touches are what knit your class together. Shared moments like a festive fluency practice or a class wide vote on a Halloween read aloud, build a sense of us. That us is what keeps behavior manageable all year long, because students feel part of something bigger than themselves.

Heidi 20:51
That sprinkle of seasonal fun is good for everyone. Remember these tips so you make it to November in one piece. Use the candy rule as a guideline, a handful of fun creates magic, a bucket full creates chaos. During the lead up, keep core routines intact while adding light seasonal sprinkles. On Halloween day, have a plan B schedule and structured celebrations with clear boundaries. And afterward, plan a gentle reset.

Emily 21:17
Halloween doesn’t have to be something you just survive. With the right balance, it can be something you and your students actually enjoy together. We’d love to hear your best Halloween tips. Come join the conversation in our Teacher Approved Facebook group.

Emily 21:29
Now for our Teacher Approved Tip of the Week, where we share an actionable tip to help you elevate what matters and simplify the rest. This week’s teacher approved tip is to create a reset ritual for after big, exciting events. Tell us about this one, Heidi.

Heidi 21:43
A reset ritual is just a simple, consistent routine that you use to help everyone get back to baseline. It might be starting the day with some deep breathing exercises, doing a familiar morning meeting activity, or spending a few extra minutes reviewing your classroom agreements. The key is that it is predictable and calming. After all of the excitement and novelty, everyone’s brains need some structure to grab onto, and probably so do you.

Emily 22:10
For Halloween specifically, since this year it falls on Friday, you could use Monday morning to have kids share one favorite memory from their Halloween, then do a quick shake out the sillies activity to physically release any leftover excitement.

Heidi 22:22
You might also want to spend a few minutes acknowledging the transition. Halloween was so fun, and now we’re back to our regular learning routine. Our brains might need a few minutes to switch gears, and that’s okay.

Emily 22:33
The ritual doesn’t have to be long or complicated. Even just dimming the lights and playing soft music for five minutes can help signal to everyone’s nervous systems that it’s time to settle in.

Heidi 22:43
And bonus, if you establish this pattern now, you can use it all year long, after the winter party, after Valentine’s Day, after that field trip to the zoo where everyone got way too excited about the monkeys.

Emily 22:54
Who can blame them? The monkeys are so fun. So pick one simple activity, breathing, soft music, a favorite morning meeting game, a favorite story, whatever feels right to you, and use it consistently after exciting events. Your future self will thank you, and so will your students.

Heidi 23:10
To wrap up the show, we are sharing what we’re giving extra credit to this week. Emily, what gets your extra credit?

Emily 23:16
This is one of my weirder extra credits, I think.

Heidi 23:18
Okay.

Emily 23:19
So I’ve always seen that at Chick fil A, you can get waffle chips instead of waffle fries. And I was like, who on earth is getting chips over fries?

Heidi 23:26
Yes, that’s a ridiculous choice.

Emily 23:28
But then I saw that they have a Chick fil A sauce flavored chip. And I was curious. I was just too curious. I was like, you know what, I mean, I’m just gonna try them. And it turns out there are delicious. So I guess I’m giving extra credit to chips. I kind of wish you could get them at the store so that you didn’t have to, well, you know what, I was just gonna say, so that you didn’t have to give up fries for chips. Well, who says you have to give them up? Get both, dang it. Get the fries and get the chips. They’re delicious.

Heidi 23:57
You deserve it. You’re a teacher in October.

Emily 24:00
That’s right. What are you giving extra credit to, Heidi?

Heidi 24:03
Okay, well, I think I’m late to the game on this, but I’m giving extra credit to ambience videos on YouTube.

Emily 24:09
Ooh.

Heidi 24:10
Now if you have also missed out on these, it’s just a charming image, probably AI generated, if we’re being honest, with like, some gentle animation like a crackling fire or blowing leaves and calming sound effects, and it just like runs on the loop for hours.

Emily 24:26
Oh my gosh.

Heidi 24:27
So, you know, a cozy cabin with a fireplace and soft rainfall. I have been putting one on in the evenings when I read, and it turns it into a whole event.

Emily 24:37
Oh my gosh. I love it.

Heidi 24:39
I’ve been using it over my actual fireplace. So if you want some surprise and delight in your own class, this could be really fun to add. Try projecting one of these occasionally during work time or reading time. Just I would say a couple of things I run into, check if it has music, because that could distract some students. And then double check if it has mid roll commercials. I have been peacefully reading next to a babbling brook, and then suddenly a Tide commercial is shouting at me.

Emily 25:06
You can block the ads too when you’re on YouTube by putting in a dash between the T and the U, and then it refreshes the video without any ads. The only problem is if the creator baked an ad into the video. But I found that to be very uncommon. It almost never happens, but there are some, and who knows, I haven’t tried these videos, so there could be some baked in ads in there.

Heidi 25:29
Well, that’s good to know. That’s a real handy tip.

Heidi 25:32
Yeah, for the most part, especially if you’re playing something at school, you want to put that dash between the T and the U in YouTube, refresh the page, and then ad free. You don’t have to worry what might pop up.

Emily 25:42
That’s it for today’s episode. Use our Halloween Survival Guide to keep the fun without losing your sanity. Remember the candy rule, plan your lead up strategies, have that plan B schedule ready, and don’t forget to build in time for a reset.

Heidi 25:58
And make sure to try our teacher approved tip for creating a reset ritual that you can use all year long after exciting events.

Heidi 26:06
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Teacher Approved. I’m Heidi.

Emily 26:10
And I’m Emily. Thank you for listening. Be sure to follow or subscribe in your podcast app so that you never miss an episode.

Heidi 26:17
You can connect with us and other teachers in the Teacher Approved Facebook group. We’ll see you here next week. Bye for now.

Emily 26:24
Bye.