Halloween is just around the corner and it’s one of the most exciting times of the year for students! Filled with fun activities, creative costumes, and spooky stories, it’s a perfect opportunity to introduce new vocabulary and cultural traditions. You can even encourage your students to wear costumes to class and use what they’re wearing as a fun way to teach new words.

Whether you’re teaching young learners or adults, the following activities will spark engagement and laughter while helping students expand their English vocabulary.

Halloween Vocabulary by Level

To introduce these words, you can use images, gestures, or short video clips to help students understand their meanings before playing the games below.

5 Fun Games to Reinforce Halloween Vocabulary

1) Halloween Bingo

Create a set of bingo sheets with images or words from your vocabulary list. You can use an online bingo sheet generator (search for one on Google) and share the cards using Canva, Google Slides, or Microsoft Word. As you call out the words (or show pictures), students mark their cards. The first to complete a column, row, or diagonal shouts “Boo!” instead of “Bingo!”

For higher levels, call out definitions or clues instead of the actual words. For example, “It’s something witches fly on.” → broomstick.

2) Halloween Charades

Act out Halloween words or phrases without speaking while students guess. Use gestures for phrases like “carve a pumpkin”, or “fly on a broomstick”.

Students can take turns acting out different words. They can choose their own or, for more advanced learners, you can privately send the word in the chat.

To make it more competitive, divide the class into two or three teams. Each team sense one member to act out a word within 30 seconds. If their team guesses correctly, they earn a point!

3) Word and Image (or Definition) Match

Create a list of Halloween vocabulary on one side of the page and a list of images (or definitions) on the other side. Students draw lines to match the words to the correct image ot meanings. Have your students take turns or split them into groups using breakout rooms and the can work on this exercise as a team.

If you prefer not to have students annotate on the page, you can number the words and add letters to the images (or definitions) and have the students tell you which number matches with which letter. Once students correctly match a word to its image or definition, have them come up with an example sentence to reinforce the vocabulary.

4) Word Association Web

Start with one Halloween word, such as “pumpkin”, and have students quickly name something related, like “orange”, “carve”, “lantern”. Type the words into a mind map as you go. This game helps students connect new vocabulary to familiar concepts.

You can create this visually using Canva or draw it with the annotation tools on your teaching platform. This can also be an individual exercise where students make their own mindmaps and you can give a different starting word to each student. They can share their mindmaps with the class.

5) Spooky Story Chain

Use the vocabulary list to co-create a story with your class. Each student adds one sentence using at least one Halloween word. The next student continues the story from there. To make it extra challenging, each student has to use a different word and you can cross off the words from the list as they’ve used.

Type the story as students contribute so everyone can follow along. Once finished, read it aloud together and see how spooky (or silly) the final sotry turned out!

Which of these games would you like to try with your class this Halloween? Share your favorite in the comments below!