10 Halloween Art Lesson Ideas for Your Classroom | Halloween Art Projects for Kids
Discover 10 creative Halloween art lesson ideas for elementary and middle school students, including ghosts, jack-o’-lanterns, skeletons, charcoal, paper weaving, mixed media, and Halloween art and writing projects.
Halloween in the art room has a very specific kind of energy.
You know the one.
Students are already thinking about costumes, pumpkins, ghosts, candy, and everything spooky, so instead of fighting that energy, I like to use it. Halloween themes give us such a fantastic opportunity to teach real visual art concepts through subjects students are genuinely excited to create.
A ghost can become a lesson in value and shading. A skeleton can introduce paper weaving and mixed media. A jack-o’-lantern can explore line, texture, contrast, and expressive character design. A spooky jar can become an exercise in imagination, composition, colour blending, and visual storytelling.
That is what I love about seasonal art. The theme pulls students in, but the art learning is still there underneath.
These 10 Halloween art lesson ideas include projects for primary, elementary, and upper elementary students, with everything from cute friendly ghosts to spooky mixed-media artworks. Some are especially helpful if you want to integrate reading and writing with art, while others focus more heavily on art processes such as charcoal, oil pastel, painting, resist techniques, layering, and paper weaving.
So dim the imaginary lights, cue the spooky art-room music, and prepare yourself for an unreasonable number of students asking whether their artwork can have fangs.
1. Monster Jack-O’-Lantern Art and Writing Lesson
If you want to bring Halloween into both your art and literacy blocks, this Monster Jack-O’-Lantern Art Lesson is such a fun place to begin. Designed for grades 1 to 4, students use oil pastels with watercolor or tempera paint to create an imaginative monster pumpkin filled with colour, expression, and personality. The lesson also explores the tradition and history of jack-o’-lanterns, making the artwork a natural starting point for reading, discussion, and writing.
Students draw and design their own monster pumpkin rather than copying one exact face, which gives them room to experiment with eyes, mouths, shapes, lines, and expressive details. Once the main design is established, oil pastel and paint bring the character to life. I especially like this one for classroom teachers because the full resource extends beyond the artwork with reading comprehension, opinion writing, creative writing, comparison activities, and reflection. It gives you Halloween fun without sacrificing actual learning — always a win when October energy is operating at approximately 900%.
CLICK HERE TO GRAB THE MONSTER JACK-O’-LANTERN ART AND WRITING LESSON
2. Cute Ghost Holding a Pumpkin Art Lesson
Not every Halloween artwork needs to be terrifying. Sometimes you need a tiny ghost holding a pumpkin who appears to have absolutely no interest in haunting anyone.
This Ghost and Pumpkin Halloween Art Lesson is especially lovely for younger elementary artists and is designed around a friendly ghost character holding a pumpkin. Students work with oil pastels and coloured construction paper while practicing drawing, design, shape, line, and expressive character creation. The lesson also includes literacy and reflection connections, making it useful for teachers who want their Halloween project to extend beyond the art table.
Students develop the ghost and pumpkin through a guided drawing process, then use colour and layered paper to create the finished artwork. What I love about this project is how approachable it feels. Ghosts are wonderfully forgiving drawing subjects because they do not require perfect proportions or realism. A little wobble simply makes the ghost more ghosty. That gives younger artists space to build confidence while still practicing intentional drawing and creative choice.
CLICK HERE TO GRAB THE CUTE GHOST AND PUMPKIN ART LESSON
3. Día de los Muertos Sugar Skull Art and Writing Lesson
This project works beautifully for late October and early November planning, but I always think it is important to be clear with students that Día de los Muertos is not Halloween. It is a distinct Mexican cultural tradition centred on remembering and honouring loved ones who have died. Teaching that distinction gives students an opportunity to create while also learning to approach cultural traditions thoughtfully and respectfully.
This Sugar Skull Art Lesson and Writing Activity works across elementary and into middle school, with adaptable supports for approximately grades 2 to 6. Students create their own sugar skull design through guided drawing, or they can use the included skull template and optional cut-and-glue decorative elements if they need additional scaffolding. The artwork is paired with writing and reflection about Día de los Muertos and the cultural significance of sugar skulls, giving teachers a meaningful connection between visual art, literacy, and cultural learning.
The decorating stage gives students plenty of opportunities to explore symmetry, pattern, line, shape, repetition, colour, and personal design choices. Rather than treating the skull as simply spooky imagery, students can learn about its role within a larger tradition and use the project as a starting point for thoughtful discussion. That makes this lesson especially valuable if you want seasonal art that also encourages cultural understanding.
CLICK HERE TO GRAB THE DÍA DE LOS MUERTOS SUGAR SKULL ART LESSON
4. Halloween Ghost Art and Writing Lesson
For teachers who love integrating visual art and creative writing, this Halloween Ghost Art and Write Lesson is incredibly flexible. It is designed for elementary students and includes adaptable materials for roughly grades 1 to 5, allowing students to create a ghost artwork and then use that artwork as inspiration for fiction, nonfiction, or opinion writing.
Students follow the ghost art tutorial while exploring shape, texture, shading, drawing, and creative expression, then move into writing based on the character or artwork they created. I love this kind of art-and-write experience because students already have something visual sitting in front of them when it is time to write. Suddenly the blank writing page is not quite so intimidating. The ghost can have a story, a personality, a problem, a mysterious past, or perhaps a very strong opinion about Halloween candy.
CLICK HERE TO GRAB THE HALLOWEEN GHOST ART AND WRITING LESSON
5. Monster Jack-O’-Lantern Mixed Media Art Lesson
If you love the Monster Jack-O’-Lantern idea but want a project that focuses more specifically on the art-making experience, this version is a great option for grades 1 to 4. Students create a Monster Jack-O’-Lantern using oil pastel marks and tempera paint, while exploring mark-making, line variety, colour, texture, and expressive creativity.
The project begins with students developing an imaginative pumpkin character and then building personality through facial features, line, colour, and painted details. I love monster projects because there really is no wrong monster. Three eyes? Fine. Eleven teeth? Excellent. One eyebrow and inexplicably enormous ears? Clearly an artistic decision. Giving students permission to invent their own creature is a fantastic way to encourage creative risk-taking while still practicing art skills.
CLICK HERE TO GRAB THE MONSTER JACK-O’-LANTERN ART LESSON
6. Spooky Jar Halloween Art Lesson
This might be one of my favourite concepts for upper elementary Halloween art because it is essentially an invitation to ask students, “What weird things would you put inside a spooky jar?”
And then stand back.
The Spooky Jar Art Lesson is designed primarily for grades 3 to 5, although it can stretch a little beyond that range. Students use watercolour paint and coloured pencils to design jars filled with creepy, strange, funny, or imaginative surprises. Along the way, they practice drawing, colour blending, composition, visual storytelling, and imaginative thinking.
Students develop the jar first and then decide what lives inside it. That is where the project becomes wonderfully personal. One student might create eyeballs and bugs, another might create a tiny trapped ghost, another might invent something nobody else could possibly explain. The transparent-jar idea also gives students an interesting compositional challenge because they have to think about how the objects fit together inside a defined space. It is spooky art, but it is also a strong exercise in planning and design.
CLICK HERE TO GRAB THE SPOOKY JAR HALLOWEEN ART LESSON
7. Mixed Media Jack-O’-Lantern Art Lesson
For older elementary and middle-grade students who are ready for something a little moodier, this Jack-O’-Lantern Mixed Media Art Lesson is designed for grades 4 to 7 and uses oil pastels with black paint or India ink to create a dramatic Halloween pumpkin artwork. Students explore layering, texture, contrast, expressive colour, and mixed-media techniques, making this a strong choice when you want Halloween art to feel a little more sophisticated.
The oil pastel provides rich colour and strong marks, while the black paint or India ink adds the dramatic dark contrast that makes the jack-o’-lantern feel wonderfully spooky. This is also a beautiful way to talk about resist techniques and contrast, because students can physically see how their material choices interact. It has that wonderfully messy, experimental quality that older students often enjoy, while still producing a finished artwork that looks fantastic displayed together.
CLICK HERE TO GRAB THE JACK-O’-LANTERN MIXED MEDIA ART LESSON
8. Skeleton Paper Weaving Art Lesson
Halloween is a perfect excuse to sneak in a completely different art process, and paper weaving is such a good one.
This Skeleton Paper Weaving Art Lesson is designed for grades 3 to 6 and combines paper weaving, drawing, painting, cutting, gluing, texture, colour, layering, and mixed media in one spooky skeleton project. Students work with materials such as construction paper, cardstock or watercolour paper, black felt pen, watercolour or tempera paint, scissors, and glue.
Students first create the woven paper component, then develop and layer the skeleton imagery to build the final composition. Paper weaving requires concentration, fine motor control, and attention to pattern, which makes the project especially valuable because students are learning an actual art-making process while still getting all the fun of a Halloween theme. The skeleton gives them the motivation; the weaving gives you the art curriculum.
CLICK HERE TO GRAB THE SKELETON PAPER WEAVING ART LESSON
9. Charcoal Ghost Art Lesson
If your students have never used charcoal before, Halloween is an absolutely perfect time to introduce it.
Charcoal naturally creates smoky blacks, soft greys, smudged edges, dramatic shadows, and wonderfully ghostly effects. This Charcoal Ghost Costume Art Lesson is designed for grades 2 to 5 and introduces students to charcoal, value, shading, blending, texture, and expressive mark-making. The main supplies are wonderfully simple: charcoal and thick white paper.
Students develop the ghost form and use charcoal pressure, blending, and shading to create different values rather than relying on colour. This makes the project especially useful for teaching students that an artwork does not need a giant paint palette to feel interesting. Black, white, and grey can create depth, atmosphere, light, shadow, and plenty of drama. Also, everyone will leave the lesson with at least one mysterious charcoal fingerprint somewhere on their face. It is basically part of the medium.
CLICK HERE TO GRAB THE CHARCOAL GHOST ART LESSON
10. Halloween Black Cat in a Pumpkin Art Lesson
Few things say Halloween quite like black cats and pumpkins, so naturally I had to bring them together.
This Halloween Cat and Pumpkin Art Lesson works especially well for grades 2 to 5 and uses oil pastels, watercolour or watered-down tempera paint, cardstock, construction paper, cutting, and layering to create a mixed-media Halloween composition. Students explore resist painting, layering, shape, texture, colour, and composition while creating the cat and pumpkin elements.
Students create the different parts of the artwork separately and then layer them into the finished piece, which makes this project especially helpful for teaching foreground, overlapping, and composition. The oil pastel and paint combination adds texture and resist effects, while the orange pumpkin and dark Halloween cat create that classic seasonal colour contrast. The finished pieces make a fantastic October display — and I feel like any cat sitting inside a pumpkin probably has a whole story happening, whether the artist planned one or not.
CLICK HERE TO GRAB THE HALLOWEEN BLACK CAT AND PUMPKIN ART LESSON
🎉 Save During the TPT 20th Anniversary Sale!
If a few of these Halloween art lessons just found their way onto your October planning list, there is very good timing ahead.
Teachers Pay Teachers is turning 20! Starting Friday, September 25, I can officially start sharing the news about the celebration so you have time to browse, wishlist, and plan before the sale begins.
On Tuesday, September 29, 2026, TPT is hosting a one-day-only 20th Anniversary Sale, and you can save up to 30% on classroom favourites.
So if your October planning currently consists of a calendar, three sticky notes, and the vague thought, “I need something for Halloween,” this is a very good time to start saving the resources you want.
Browse the Halloween lessons now, add your favourites to your wishlist or cart, and then come back on September 29 for the TPT Anniversary Sale. GET YOUR CART READY NOW.
Twenty years of TPT calls for a celebration — preferably one that also makes October lesson planning easier.
Make Halloween Creative, Not Just Crafty
Halloween is one of those times when students arrive at school already full of imagination. They are thinking about characters, costumes, monsters, ghosts, strange creatures, pumpkins, and stories before we even hand them a pencil.
That makes it an incredible opportunity for art education.
A jack-o’-lantern art project can teach line, texture, resist, and contrast. A charcoal ghost can introduce value and shading. A paper weaving skeleton can teach process, pattern, and construction. A spooky jar can develop composition and visual storytelling. A friendly ghost can become the beginning of a piece of creative writing.
The Halloween theme is simply the door we invite students through. What happens on the other side can be meaningful art learning.
That is always my goal with seasonal projects. I want students to have fun — obviously. I want the classroom to feel exciting. I want them proudly carrying their giant monster pumpkin down the hallway like it belongs in the Louvre.
But I also want them experimenting with materials, making decisions, solving visual problems, building confidence, and learning how artists think.
I hope these 10 Halloween art lesson ideas help make your October art planning a little easier and your classroom a whole lot more creative.
Happy Halloween creating!
Ms Artastic
