At the end of October, pupils often bring up Halloween themselves. They know the pumpkins and the costumes, and they have already picked up a few English words from series or games. That makes it a good moment for a short lesson built around ten words. If you are looking for English worksheets for upper primary pupils, roughly ages 9 to 12, here is a 30 to 45 minute lesson for the week before Halloween.
What to prepare
You need the worksheet from the Halloween set in English, one per pupil or one per pair, and the answer sheet. The worksheet is a six-page PDF with six exercises on the same words. For this lesson you only use the first exercise and a short writing task of your own. Keep the rest for later.
- Words out loud: 5 to 10 minutes.
- First exercise in pairs: 10 minutes.
- Writing a sentence: 10 minutes.
- Checking together: 5 to 10 minutes.
If you only have half an hour, keep each part short. If you have 45 minutes, let more pupils read their sentences aloud at the end.
Step 1: the words out loud
Start without paper. Put the words from the set on the board or the screen, such as pumpkin, ghost, witch, bat and spider. Say them one at a time. The class repeats. Twice together is enough. The third time, ask a few pupils to say them on their own.
Listen for sounds that work differently from the pupils' own language. In witch, the English w starts with rounded lips, almost like a short oo. Many learners say a v or a softer w instead, especially if they speak Dutch or German at home. Exaggerate it a little when you model it, and they will hear the difference. In skeleton and vampire, the stress falls on the first syllable. You can exaggerate that too.
Then ask, in whatever language the class shares: which word did you already know, and where did you hear it? That takes two minutes. You will know straight away what the class already has.
Step 2: the first exercise in pairs
Put the pupils in pairs. One reads the word aloud, the other gives the answer. They swap roles for each new item. That way everyone speaks, including the pupils who usually stay quiet in class.
Walk around and mainly listen. If you hear a pair mispronounce a word again and again, say it for them once and move on. Do not correct everything. Ten minutes is short, and the aim is for them to hear and say the words many times.
A pair that finishes early turns the sheet over and takes turns naming as many words as they can without looking.
Step 3: writing a short sentence
Write an example sentence on the board: The witch has a black spider. Point to the parts: who, has, what. Show that the adjective, here black, comes before the noun. In French or Spanish it often comes after, so some pupils will want to write a spider black. Point out one more thing: in English the adjective never changes. You say a black spider and two black spiders, never something like blacks spiders.
Each pupil now writes one or two sentences of their own, using at least one word from the set. Anyone who wants to can add a colour. A row of colours on the board helps, or you can bring in the Colours set in English. These are the mistakes you will see most often:
- has and have: with one person or thing, it is has. So The vampire has, not The vampire have.
- a and an: before a vowel sound it becomes an, as in an orange pumpkin.
- plurals: the s goes on the noun, not on the colour. So two white ghosts.
If you want to practise the position of the adjective again later, the rule is explained under adjectives in English, with example sentences at three levels.
Step 4: checking together with the answer sheet
Give each pair the answer sheet, or put it on the screen. They first check each other's first exercise. They circle a mistake but do not correct it straight away. The pupil who made the mistake says what it should have been.
The sentences are not on the answer sheet. You check those together. Ask three or four pupils to read their sentence aloud. Write a few on the board, including one with a mistake in it, without a name. The class looks for what is wrong. That way the whole group learns from one sentence.
The worksheet then goes into the folder. The other exercises work well for a review two or three days later. Repetition works better with time in between than when you do everything on one day.
A variation for stronger pupils
Some pupils finish the first exercise in five minutes and write three sentences while others write one. Give them something extra so they are not left waiting.
- Longer sentences: have them join two sentences with and or but, as in The witch has a black spider, but she has no crystal ball.
- The online exercises: on a laptop or tablet they work through the six exercise types for the set. They get feedback on each question right away and, at the end, an overview of what went wrong, followed by a short extra round with only those words.
This lets a small group work on their own while you stay with the rest of the class. If your school has a subscription, the class dashboard shows you who has practised and what often goes wrong. That is useful when you prepare the review later in the week.
Print the worksheet and the answer sheet today, and write The witch has a black spider in a corner of the board. Then the lesson is ready for the week before Halloween.