Halloween English Lesson

By Paul Batt

Lesson Topic: A reading and vocabulary lesson on Trick or Treating and a video on Jack o
Lantern carving along with a crossword puzzle and an article with questions. Individual and
pair-work will be utilized. Decorating a Jack o Lantern for homework.

Materials needed: Handout sheets and orange construction paper. You tube video on carving
a jack o Lantern. Candy for trick or treat from teacher.

Student objectives: By the end of the lesson, the students will have learned some new
vocabulary as well as have worked on their reading and speaking skills. And learned an
American culture.

Assumptions: I feel this lesson will be a good break from the regular classroom activities and
offer a glimpse into a popular holiday in the USA. I am confident my students will have the
skills needed to complete the lesson.

Potential problems: The one potential problem may be some of the vocabulary and its
meaning and pronunciation. I will give a brief description of the words they may have trouble
with.

Halloween Lesson Research

Despite origins in Christian and pagan traditions, Halloween started out as Hallowtide, the
eve of All Saints Day. Poor people went to homes of the wealthy to pray for recently
departed in the household. “ It was believed that more meant a soul was more likely to be
saved explains (Historian Nicholas Rogers, author of Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party
Night) As a token of their appreciation, the rich would give the poor food and beer.

Many of the Halloween customs come from this ritual (writes Olivia Waxman) many of the
visitors made lanterns out of hollowed out turnips with candles inside, which often
represented souls caught in purgatory. Some Catholics kept up the practice of “souling” by
going door to door on the eve of All Saints day.

By the 1840’s it was mostly celebrated by Scottish and Irish Immigrants to the US by drinking
and revelry in the streets and dressing up in old clothes and masks. By the 1900’s high school
clubs started having Halloween parties and had guidebooks on the subject of how to throw
the proper party. By the 1930’s a new term came up for the tradition “trick or treating” and
by the 1950’s it has grown into the kid friendly practice it is today, with children dressing up
in costumes and going door to door saying trick or treat and getting candies and fruits.

Jack o lanterns dates its history back to old Celtic and Irish culture 100’s of years ago. Many of
the stories center around Stingy Jack write. Stingy Jack was a miserable, old drunk who took
pleasure in playing tricks on just about everyone: family, friends, his mother and the Devil
himself. One day, he tricked the Devil into climbing up an apple tree. After the Devil climbed
up the tree, Stingy Jack nailed crosses around the tree trunk. Unable to touch a cross, the
Devil was stuck in the tree. Stingy Jack made the Devil promise him not to take his soul when
he died. Once the devil promised not to take his soul, Stingy Jack removed the crosses, and
the Devil climbed down out of the apple tree. Years later, Jack died, he went to the pearly
gates of Heaven and was told by Saint Peter that he was mean and cruel, and had led a
miserable, worthless life on earth. Stingy Jack was not allowed to enter heaven. He then went
down to Hell and the Devil. The Devil kept his promise to not let him enter Hell. Now Jack is
scared . He had nowhere to go, but to wander around forever in the dark between heaven
and hell. He asked the Devil how he could leave as he did not have a light. The Devil tossed
him an ember from the flames of Hell, to help Stingy Jack see his way. Jack had a Turnip with
him. It was his favorite food, and he always carried one with him. He carved out the Turnip,
and placed the ember the Devil had given him, inside the turnip. From that day onward,
Stingy Jack roamed the earth, lighting his way with his "Jack O'Lantern".

I feel this research will give me all the ideas to complete my lesson plan about some of the
history of Halloween and the traditions associated with the holiday and the vocabulary I
need
 Halloween Lesson Plan

Stage 1. Intro 5 minutes:

Good Afternoon class. Today we will talk about an American celebration called Halloween.
Show of hands how many of you have heard of Halloween before? About 25% raise their
hands. It has become a huge business in USA with many people and nightclubs having large
parties and celebrations and giving away large cash prices for the most original costumes.
Plus the kids going door to door and saying trick or treat and hoping for candy given to them.
The ritual of Halloween dates back 100’s of years to Celtic and Irish people in England.
Halloween is the eve of All Saints Day when people remember the ones who have passed. On
Halloween it was believed the ghosts came back. They lit fires and made lots of noise to keep
the ghost away. Now people do not believe in ghosts as much as they used to. But many
people carve out pumpkins to be made into Jack o Lanterns with scary faces and candles
inside. I have a couple of hand-outs we will be working on and then orange construction
paper cut out in the shape of a pumpkin for you to decorate as homework and bring back to
class tomorrow. I myself have dressed up many times over the years for Halloween parties, it
is a lot of fun.

Stage 2. The reading and writing activity. 20 minutes.

I will hand out a reading lesson with question and answers. Pair up with your neighbor again
and read the lesson together and work on the answers.

Then I have two questions for you to write and discuss with each other. 1. Have any of you
ever dressed up in costumes before for a party like Halloween? 2. If you are invited to a
Halloween party what costume would you dress up as and why?

When everyone is done we will go over the answers and I want each of you to tell the class
what costume you would dress up as and why.
Stage 3. The video on pumpkin carving. 10 minutes

The video will demonstrate how to carve a pumpkin, roast the seeds to eat later and give you
an idea of what many people do in the US for Halloween. Also I will hand out an orange
pumpkin out of paper for you to take home and decorate for class tomorrow. The pumpkins
will be judged by the other teachers as to who done the best job of decorating. I will draw
some ideas on the board for everyone to see.

Stage 4 Conclusion 10 minutes.

Does anyone have any questions about today’s lessons? I will hand out a copy of the answer
sheets for everyone to have. Is anyone in the class going to a Halloween party tonight? We
will discuss any problem areas the student may have had and then I will end the class with
going around and getting the students to say trick or treat and give them some candy. In
conclusion this lesson went well and the students gained an insight to a popular celebration
in the US.