10 Halloween Art Activities | Bell Ringers, Fast Finishers & Sub Plans
Discover 10 Halloween art activities for the classroom or homeschool, including directed drawing, writing, grid drawing, Roll and Draw games, fast finishers, bell ringers, art centers, and easy October sub plans.
10 Halloween Art Activities for Your Classroom or Homeschool
October has a funny way of arriving peacefully and then suddenly becoming pumpkins, costumes, field trips, sugar, special events, and students asking me approximately seventeen times a day how many days are left until Halloween.
This is exactly why I love having a collection of Halloween art activities ready before I need them.
Not every October activity needs to become a giant art project with paint covering six tables and thirty pieces of artwork balanced precariously on the drying rack. Sometimes you need something students can begin independently. Sometimes you need a Halloween bell ringer for the first ten minutes of class, an art fast finisher for the student who finishes suspiciously early, an October art center, an easy homeschool Halloween activity, or something coherent enough that you can actually leave it behind as an art sub plan.
These are the activities I like to keep tucked into my teacher toolbox.
They still build real skills. Students can practice drawing, observation, line, value, colour, pattern, visual literacy, creative thinking, fine motor development, handwriting, paragraph writing, and the Elements of Art and Principles of Design, but the activities are flexible enough to fit into the little spaces in a busy October schedule.
Here are ten of my favourite Halloween art activities for elementary classrooms, homeschool, art centers, bell ringers, fast finishers, and sub plans.
1. Frankenstein Craft and Write Halloween Activity
If you want to sneak some literacy into Halloween without making the writing portion feel disconnected from the fun part, this Frankenstein Craft and Write resource is a fantastic option for grades 2 to 5. Students create their own Frankenstein-inspired character using mix-and-match craft templates and then use the character they created as inspiration for fiction, nonfiction, or opinion writing. The resource includes eight differentiated writing prompts, varied writing pages, teacher support, reflection, and assessment materials. Teachers Pay Teachers
I love art-and-writing activities because the artwork does some of the idea generation for students. Once they have built a wonderfully odd green character with their own expression and design choices, suddenly they have something to describe, explain, research, or turn into a story. The cutting, colouring, and assembling also give students fine motor practice and creative choice, making this useful as an October literacy center, Halloween art activity, homeschool project, or ready-to-use sub plan.
CLICK HERE TO GRAB THE FRANKENSTEIN CRAFT AND WRITE ACTIVITY
2. Jack-O’-Lantern Craft and Write Activity
There is something particularly satisfying about giving students a pile of pumpkin features and telling them to invent their own jack-o’-lantern. This Halloween Craft-O’-Lantern Art and Writing Activity is designed for grades 2 to 5 and lets students create an individual pumpkin character using different cut-and-paste design elements before connecting their artwork to writing. Teachers Pay Teachers
Students follow the craft tutorial but still make decisions about the face and design, which means the finished pumpkins can look completely different from one another. Afterward, students can move into writing using provided prompts or blank writing pages. There are also reflection and assessment options, making this much more than a quick pumpkin craft. It works beautifully for Halloween writing centers, classroom art integration, homeschool, fast finishers, or October sub plans when you want something structured without removing student creativity.
CLICK HERE TO GRAB THE JACK-O’-LANTERN CRAFT AND WRITE ACTIVITY
3. Halloween Directed Drawing and Writing Activities
Directed drawing is one of my favourite bridges between visual art and writing because it removes that horrible blank-page moment where a student insists they have absolutely no ideas in their entire brain.
For younger students, the Halloween Sentence Writing and Directed Drawing resource is designed for Kindergarten to Grade 3, with the strongest fit around K to 2 students building early writing skills. Students follow a Halloween directed drawing, practice themed vocabulary and handwriting, trace a simple sentence, and then write their own sentence. It supports drawing confidence, handwriting, vocabulary, fine motor skills, visual literacy, and written expression while still feeling playful and seasonal. Teachers Pay Teachers
For students in grades 2 to 5, the paragraph-writing version keeps the drawing component but extends the literacy expectations. Students draw subjects such as jack-o’-lanterns, ghosts, vampires, werewolves, mummies, bats, cats, witches, spiders, Frankenstein’s monster, and skeletons, then use the finished artwork to inspire a paragraph. These are so useful for morning work, writing centers, art centers, homeschool literacy, fast finishers, independent journals, and substitute plans because the visual steps give students enough support to work with increasing independence. Teachers Pay Teachers
CLICK HERE TO GRAB THE HALLOWEEN SENTENCE WRITING & DIRECTED DRAWING ACTIVITIES
CLICK HERE TO GRAB THE HALLOWEEN PARAGRAPH WRITING & DIRECTED DRAWING ACTIVITIES
4. Halloween Value Grid Drawing Worksheets
For older or more advanced students, these Halloween Value Grid Drawing Worksheets take seasonal art in an entirely different direction. Rather than cartoon drawing, students work from black-and-white Halloween photography and carefully reproduce images one grid square at a time while focusing on observation, value, shading, proportion, texture, light, shadow, and realistic rendering. They are best suited to approximately grades 5 to 10. Teachers Pay Teachers
The references include subjects such as skulls, crows, candles, pumpkins, bottles, and eerie objects, giving the resource a much more atmospheric fine-art feeling than a typical Halloween worksheet. Students have to stop, observe the actual shapes and values inside each square, and draw what they truly see instead of what their brain tells them an object “should” look like. These are excellent for middle school art, observational drawing units, shading practice, sketchbook work, independent studio activities, homeschool drawing lessons, fast finishers, or structured art sub plans.
CLICK HERE TO GRAB THE HALLOWEEN VALUE GRID DRAWING ACTIVITIES
5. Halloween Cartoon Grid Drawing Worksheets
For younger artists, these Halloween Cartoon Grid Drawing Worksheets introduce the same basic observational strategy in a much more approachable format. Designed for grades 1 to 4, students copy a cheerful Halloween cartoon one square at a time, helping them develop hand-eye coordination, observation, fine motor control, proportion, attention to detail, and drawing confidence. Teachers Pay Teachers
The resource includes 20 Halloween grid drawings featuring playful subjects such as pumpkins, ghosts, bats, cats, witches, and candy. Students can draw everything in pencil first and then add crayons, markers, coloured pencils, or another dry medium if you want to extend the activity. I especially like these for early finisher folders, classroom drawing centers, homeschool art binders, independent work, art-on-a-cart, or easy substitute plans because students can pick up a page and understand what they are supposed to do without an enormous teacher demonstration.
CLICK HERE TO GRAB THE HALLOWEEN CARTOON GRID DRAWING ACTIVITIES
6. Complete Halloween Art Unit and October Activities
If you want one resource that can basically become your October creative toolbox, this Halloween Art Unit is designed for grades 2 to 5 and includes three guided step-by-step art projects, seven choice-based art lessons, a final student-led project, and 30 Halloween drawing challenges that can be used as warm-ups and early finishers. The lessons reinforce concepts including line, pattern, contrast, mood, and the Elements of Art. Teachers Pay Teachers
This is the kind of resource I like because you do not have to use it in only one way. You can teach the larger projects during art class, use a choice-based lesson during centers, pull one of the drawing challenges out for a bell ringer, keep them available for fast finishers, or leave selected pages as an emergency Halloween sub plan. It can become a whole month of creative learning or simply a place you keep dipping into whenever October needs another art activity.
CLICK HERE TO GRAB THE COMPLETE HALLOWEEN ART UNIT
7. Halloween Drawing Challenge Cards for Bell Ringers and Fast Finishers
This is one of those resources I would print, organize, and keep somewhere within arm’s reach for the entire month of October.
These Halloween Art Challenge Cards include 40 bite-sized art prompts designed around the Elements of Art, creative thinking, experimentation, and art-making skills. The resource includes standards support for grades 3 to 7, and each prompt comes in a convenient half-page format so students have just enough space to sketch, experiment, and respond without turning it into an enormous project. Teachers Pay Teachers
You can use them as art bell ringers, sketchbook prompts, exit activities, mini-lessons, art centers, homework, sub plans, early finishers, or fast finisher activities. I especially love having open-ended drawing challenges available because “I finished” should not automatically mean “here is random busy work.” A good challenge card asks students to solve a visual problem, try something new, or stretch an art skill they already know.
CLICK HERE TO GRAB THE HALLOWEEN ART CHALLENGE CARDS
8. Halloween Roll and Draw Art Game
Sometimes students just need their art activity to feel like a game.
This Halloween Roll and Draw resource is designed for grades 1 to 4 and turns directed drawing into an interactive dice game. Students roll a die to determine individual features of their artwork, then combine those pieces to create a completely unique Halloween character. The resource includes Roll and Draw activities for pumpkins, ghosts, witches, vampires, Frankenstein, monsters, candy corn, Halloween cats, gravestones, and candy. Teachers Pay Teachers
Because each roll changes the design, students can repeat the activity without creating the same drawing twice. They can use pencils, crayons, markers, coloured pencils, or paint depending on the materials you have available. It is fantastic for drawing centers, homeschool Halloween activities, art stations, sketchbook work, fast finishers, classroom parties, or seasonal sub plans. The dice provides enough structure to get reluctant artists started while still leaving loads of room for imagination.
CLICK HERE TO GRAB THE HALLOWEEN ROLL AND DRAW ART GAME
9. Halloween ARTivity Book for Independent Art and Sub Plans
If you want Halloween activities students can work through more independently, the Halloween ARTivity Book is a particularly useful classroom tool. The TPT listing is tagged for grades 2 to 5, while the activities themselves can be adapted across a wider elementary range. It combines Halloween imagery with instruction in the Elements of Art and Principles of Design, and it is designed to work as individual activities, sketchbook inserts, or a complete bound Halloween booklet. Teachers Pay Teachers
Students explore ideas such as primary and secondary colour, complementary colour contrast, Zen doodle patterns, repetition, and pattern, along with warm-ups and directed drawing. Because the resource includes teacher guidance, a rubric, and multiple activity types, it is perfect for emergency lessons, fast-finisher stations, art-on-a-cart, limited-material classrooms, homeschool learning, or longer substitute assignments. I love resources like this because you can photocopy the whole booklet once or simply pull the exact page you need on the exact day you need it.
CLICK HERE TO GRAB THE HALLOWEEN ART ACTIVITIES & ART SUB PLANS
10. Digital and Printable Halloween Art Activities
Finally, this Digital and Printable Halloween Art Resource gives you eight complete seasonal projects while teaching actual art concepts — not just eight random spooky drawings. It is designed for grades 2 to 5 and works in both printable booklet form and through Google Slides, which makes it incredibly flexible for classroom, homeschool, independent learning, or substitute teaching. Teachers Pay Teachers
Students create a spider focused on line and web design, a jack-o’-lantern exploring texture and pattern, a witch’s hat using line variety, Frankenstein for emphasis and focal point, a cauldron exploring contrast and hatching, a scared cat using repetition and pattern, a skeleton with a cool colour scheme, and a bat exploring value and shading. Each project includes informational content, example artwork, visual steps, written instructions, and space for students to complete the final artwork. Teachers Pay Teachers
This is especially helpful when students need to work more independently or when you need an October art sub plan that actually contains the teaching directions. It also gives you eight different opportunities to reinforce the Elements of Art and Principles of Design without abandoning all the Halloween fun.
CLICK HERE TO GRAB THE DIGITAL & PRINTABLE HALLOWEEN ART ACTIVITIES
🎉 TPT IS TURNING 20 — GET YOUR CART READY!
Okay teachers, this is your official reminder to GET YOUR CART READY!
Teachers Pay Teachers is celebrating its 20th Anniversary on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, with a one-day-only sitewide sale where you can save up to 30% on classroom favourites.
So if you have been scrolling through these Halloween resources thinking, “Yep. I need that one. And that one. And apparently also that one…” now is the perfect time to start getting organized.
Head over to my TPT store, browse my Halloween art lessons, autumn activities, art sub plans, drawing resources, seasonal projects, Elements of Art lessons, and classroom-ready art activities, then add your favourites to your cart or wishlist so you are ready when the sale begins.
CLICK HERE TO SHOP THE MS ARTASTIC TPT STORE & GET YOUR CART READY
The TPT 20th Anniversary Sale is September 29 only, so get that cart ready now and come back during the sale to grab the resources you want for your classroom or homeschool.
Because nothing says responsible teacher planning quite like building an enormous TPT cart and calling it “preparation.”
Keep Halloween Creative — Even in the Little Moments
The bigger Halloween art projects are wonderful, but I think some of the most useful teaching happens in the small creative moments too.
A five-minute Halloween drawing prompt can encourage imagination. A grid drawing can strengthen observation. A directed drawing can help a reluctant writer finally find an idea. A Roll and Draw game can get a child who swears they “cannot draw” making something completely original. A value worksheet can help an older student really see light and shadow for the first time.
Those little activities add up.
That is why I love keeping Halloween fast finishers, bell ringers, art centers, drawing games, independent activities, homeschool resources, and emergency sub plans ready to go. They make classroom life easier for us, but they also mean students get more opportunities to actually create.
And in October, when the classroom energy is hovering somewhere between excited and full moon, having a folder of meaningful creative activities ready feels almost magical.
Happy Halloween creating!
Ms Artastic
