How to Celebrate Halloween at School

Preparing for Halloween

Check if your school is celebrating Halloween. Usually, on the days approaching Halloween, your school will send parents an email about the event. They will also update the school's website about the event and what will be happening there. Check with the principal or head of your school to see if your school is celebrating Halloween. If your school is celebrating, that's great! Start to prepare for your Halloween celebration. If your school isn't celebrating, you can request for the school to celebrate it in a persuasive essay.

Choose a costume. There are numerous Halloween costumes that exist, and if you don't see the one you want, you can also make one yourself. There are endless possibilities of what you want to be for Halloween! Try to choose a costume at least a month before Halloween (around mid-late September) so you have time to buy and purchase the needed clothing and accessories. You can wear themed costumes with your friends! You guys could be characters from a popular movie, fairytale, or book. You and your pals could also dress up as groups of items, like crayons, mummies, milk cartons, breakfast items, school supplies, etc.

Get some Halloween gear. In order to be festive enough for Halloween, help decorate the classroom with Halloween decorations and accessories. You can use some of these accessories to decorate your house too. Help your teacher (or teachers if you're in middle or high school) decorate the classroom with Halloween gear after school or even on the weekend before Halloween if you have time. If Halloween's on a Monday, plan to decorate the week before, on Friday, or on the weekend. Decorate the classroom with Halloween colors- orange, black, green, and purple. Hang Halloween garlands around the bulletin boards and/or whiteboard/s of the classroom, and add some Halloween decorations like mini pumpkins, skulls, or ghost figures to shelves and tables. You can also add Halloween-themed lights if your school allows it.

Plan a Halloween dance or costume contest. Dances are common in middle schools and high schools. If you're on the student council in your middle school or high school, propose a plan for a Halloween dance or contest. Come up with a budget for the decorations and party favors. You should also plan where the event would be held; a large, spacious area such as the auditorium would be best. Planning it outdoors isn't the best idea, as bad weather could strike. It may rain or be very windy outside during the months of autumn. Decide with the other members of the student council- the president, vice president, secretary, the treasurer, and the class representatives. Then, show your plan for the principal to approve. If you're planning a costume contest, come up with a few categories. "Best Dressed", "Most Creative", "Most Interesting", or "Most Relatable" would be suitable categories. Then, decide on the judges of the costumes. The student council could vote on the costumes, the students could vote, parents and relatives of students, or the school's faculty are good choices.

Invite your friends to go trick-or-treating with you after school. After school and clubs are over, you can invite your friends/classmates to have fun during Halloween by trick-or-treating! If you don't have any important tests (difficult tests, midterms, state testing, chapter/topic assessments, etc.) coming up after Halloween, you can invite a few buddies to go door-to-door to earn some candy! If you do have a long test coming up, you should go home early to study instead of going home late at night (at 7-9 PM). You can buy some candy from the store and share it with your friends. Or, you and your friends can buy candy for each other. This way, you won't miss out on the delicious candy!

Celebrating Halloween at School

Wear your Halloween costume to school. If the celebrations are in the morning or if you and other classmates don't have time in between classes to change, opt to wear your costume to school. Make sure to change into your costume and bring all the necessary accessories, like earrings, tiaras, wreaths, gloves, masks, lightsabers, fake knives, hats, etc. You probably won't wear these during class, as they may fall off or be a distraction during class. If you're wearing something on your head, it may block other students' view, so the teacher will tell you to take it off. If it will be chilly or rainy on Halloween, bring a jacket and put it on over your Halloween costume. If your costume has a jacket or cloak already, check to see if it's too thin. If it's too thin, take off the costume's jacket and wear a regular one instead. If it will be rainy, make sure you won't be doing PE/gym or running around the playground on the wet grass. These can mess up your costume and make your clothing, accessories, and shoes wet and muddy. Plus, wearing a huge costume during PE will be uncomfortable, and you will find it hard to move around. If you're doing any of these activities on wet grass (where there will be mud), you should wear your regular clothes/your uniform instead and change out of it later, like when the party will start.

Change out of your regular clothes/uniform into your Halloween costume. If there is no PE/gym on Halloween or if it's not rainy on Halloween, you can wear your costume to school if your school has no opinions on it. A few minutes before the party, the teacher may ask students to change if they haven't yet. You can also change during break/recess or lunch if you have time. Change into your costume from your regular clothes/uniform after PE if you have it, as you don't want your costume to prevent you from exercising efficiently. If it's rainy, you don't want it to get wet! Find a clean bathroom stall to change in or go to the locker room to change. If you're going into the bathroom to change, see if there is a larger bathroom stall. These are usually for people with disabilities to use. If no one uses that stall, you can change in that one. Cramped, small stalls are harder to change in, as there's nowhere to put your clothes, and you'll have to sit on the toilet to change (it's difficult to change standing up, and you could fall). If you're on your period on Halloween, be extra careful about leaks. Wear absorbent pads or larger tampons. You could also wear a menstrual cup, as they stay in all day (and you don't have to worry about changing them while you're wearing your costume- blood from your sanitary product could drip onto your costume while you're changing). Leaks could ruin your Halloween costume! Some costumes are very delicate, so they cannot be washed too often.

Wait for the teacher to pass out treats. This is common in elementary schools, which only have one teacher and one classroom. Students will know where to go since there is only one classroom they have. In middle school, there are multiple teachers with multiple classrooms, so it would be more difficult to hand out treats and do fun things every class. There would also be less time to clean up, as you need to walk a distance to your next class (which will take up time). You should get one serving of food only, as there may not be extras for everyone. Get a few cookies, crackers, and fruit. You should also get a drink, whether that's plain water, soda, milk, or juice.

Check out what your classmates are wearing for Halloween. Some kids, tweens, and teens may choose classic Halloween characters, like ghosts, goblins, witches, pumpkins, and vampires. Others may choose a superhero such as Wonder Woman, Flash, Captain America, Super Man, and Poison Ivy. If your classmates have a favorite video game (like Roblox, Animal Crossings, Call of Duty, Minecraft, Fortnite, or Valorant), they may choose characters from that game. Movie or book characters are also common Halloween costumes. If you are unsure of what your classmate/friend is dressed as, you can ask them during the party. You won't make them offended that you don't know what they're dressed as - they might be excited to tell you all about their character. Don't worry if no one is dressed as your character. You may feel as if no one cares or knows about who you're dressing as. If no one is wearing the same costume as you, know the fact that it makes you unique during the party! Parents or other people won't get another kid mixed up with you at school. If someone thinks your costume is silly or childish, ignore them. Your costume is unique in its own way, and there's no reason to listen to haters or bullies. You should also tell a teacher about the situation.

Play indoor Halloween games in the classroom. Your teacher may allow you to play games (physical or online) during Halloween. There are a variety of Halloween games to play with your friends and classmates to prevent you from getting bored. You can play any game you want, from online games to board games, and playing outside. Halloween-themed versions of regular games can be fun too! Play Halloween musical chairs. Set up chairs in a circle, and leave one less chair than there are players. The players have to walk around the circle when the music is playing. When the music stops, the players have to scramble to sit on a chair. The person who doesn't sit on a chair is eliminated, and another chair is taken out. This repeats until there is only one player left, who is the winner. Play Halloween-themed bingo. This is basically the same as bingo, except the Bingo chips passed out have Halloween characters such as mummies, pumpkins, ghosts, and witches on them. The Bingo card will also be Halloween-themed, with colors and symbols representing the spooky holiday. Pin the tail on the donkey. If your teacher bought a Halloween version of it, that's even better! Play an online Halloween trivia game. You can search for a premade game or you can make one yourself using sites like Gimkit, Blooket, or Quizizz.

Play outdoor Halloween games outside of the classroom. These are physical activities and will need equipment and space to play. The classroom will be too small to accommodate this equipment, so go outside to play outdoor Halloween games with your friends! There are a couple of traditional Halloween games that are popular with people from elementary school to high school. If you don't want to stay cooped up all day or just want to have fun and burn off steam, play outdoor Halloween games instead! Play "Dead Man". An optional piece of equipment is a trampoline. Usually, kids get on the trampoline and one kid lies down. The kids around the kid lying down chant, "Dead man, dead man, come alive! Come alive at the count of 5! 1, 2, 3, 4... 5!" After they count to 5, the kid lying down has to close their eyes and try to tag another kid to make the kid the new "Dead Man". If you don't have a trampoline, play this game on a field where you won't bump into dangerous objects while having your eyes closed. Help set up a Halloween candy hunt to find candy at school. Hide the candy on the school's field, get buckets for each participating student, and start to find the candy! If you're helping, it may not be as fun, as you know where most of the candy is already. Play hide-and-seek. It would be ideal to play this during sunset, when it's darker outside (since it fits the Halloween vibe). But if you're not going to extended care/study hall from 4 to 6, the sun's not going to go down fast enough. So, play this in the sun at first. You can use the shade to hide in interesting spots, like behind a tree, staying at the basketball court, lying down on the grass, or on top of a play structure.

Have a Halloween dance party! Dance parties are popular with any parties- birthday celebrations, Christmas festivals, New Year's parties, etc. There will be music of any genre and of any topic, so you can easily search for some trendy songs. You could also request to put on funny songs, like "The Duck Song", "Never Gonna Give You Up", etc. Putting on Halloween-themed songs is a great idea, as it fits with the party's theme! You can play freeze dance while you're dancing. If the music is paused, freeze in position! If someone moves, they are eliminated from the game. Do this until there is only 1 person left. Songs like This Is Halloween (from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas (1994)), Ghostbusters, Michael Jackson's Thriller, and Monster Mash are perfect for Halloween! Search up Halloween playlists on YouTube to have a full-on Halloween dance party. Dance to these songs. Dance with your friends, and don't worry about anything! There is no right or wrong way to dance, so stop worrying about whether or not you look out of place. If your friends have had dance classes before, ask them to teach you some radical dance moves! Sing these songs if you know them. If your classmates are talking too loudly, you may not be able to sing. If the room is quiet, you can sing. It's ok if you've never had singing classes before- just sing as best as you can. This isn't a singing competition- it's just for fun, so do not focus on being an expert at it.

Go to other classrooms to see your friends and siblings from other classes and grade levels. If your teacher allows you to roam around during the party, you can "sneak" out of the classroom and hang out in other classrooms to talk with your friends. After you're done talking, you can either lead them to your classroom or visit a sibling if you have one. Make sure not to publicly say anything embarrassing about your sibling while you're there. It may be funny to you, but it'll make them hate you. Be sure to alert the teacher (and/or your parents if they are there at the party) that you're temporarily leaving. They could start searching for you all over the school, and this causes unnecessary worry and wastes time.

Go outside to hang out. If you're tired of the loud noises and overall "chaos" or "chatter" inside the classroom, ask the teacher if they can let you outside for a while. You can walk outside to get some fresh air, and you can meet up with friends there too. You can also walk around the school to see the nice Halloween decorations. Walk around the playground and go on the play structure if you're in elementary school. If you still have Halloween food left over, you can bring it outside to eat. Make sure you have enough napkins and sit in a place with no wind- you don't want crumbs and your napkin to fly away while you're eating! If you're in elementary school, don't run with your costume on if you're going to play on the playground. The dirt, tanbark, and other things on the playground could dirty up your costume. You could also trip and fall on your costume if it's long. Walk on the playground instead. If you're in middle or high school, stop by the lockers and hang out. You could also run around the campus if you really want to act like a kid and your school allows it.

Go trick-or-treating with your friends after school. After school, clubs, extracurriculars, and extended care/study hall end, you can go trick-or-treating with your friends! If you and your friends live in the same district, this will be pretty easy. If you and your friends live in different districts/live far away from each other, plan to trick-or-treat in one mall instead. If you're trick-or-treating in a mall, obtain some Halloween baskets and buy some candy and small gifts for yourselves/each other. You could also go into candy stores in the mall and see if they have people there offering candy, as some do this every Halloween. If you're trick-or-treating in a neighborhood, plan to knock on houses with lights on. If they have their lights off or do not have candy outside, this could mean that they don't celebrate Halloween, do not have any treats to offer, or are uninterested in the festivity. If this is the case, skip to the next house. Knock on the door or press the doorbell and say, "Trick or treat! Trick or treat! Give me something good to eat!" If you have younger siblings, bring them along too. Make sure they don't wander around the store or the neighborhood, as they could get lost. Wandering around in a neighborhood is less safe than an enclosed space like a store, as they could potentially run into criminals. They could also get hit by a vehicle if they run into the street. So, monitor your siblings closely and tell everyone to bring flashlights if it gets dark outside.