How to Use Halloween/ Fall ESL Activities to Build WIDA Language Skills All Month Long

October is one of those months when multilingual learners have so many things to talk about. Pumpkins, costumes, spooky houses, animals, characters, feelings, Halloween traditions, and all the things they see around them can become natural reasons to communicate in English.

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Disclaimer: In this blog, the terms ESL students (English as a Second Language), ELLs (English Language Learners), and ML (Multilingual Learners) are used interchangeably. While “Multilingual Learners” is becoming the more widely accepted term, “ESL students” and “English Language Learners” are still commonly used in various contexts. My aim is to be inclusive and clear to all readers, regardless of the terminology they are familiar with.

For ESL and multilingual learners, however, I don't want Halloween to become just a collection of seasonal worksheets. I want students to use English. I want them to look at a picture and have something to say, learn new vocabulary and actually use it, talk with a partner, build sentences, and eventually turn their ideas into writing.

That is the thinking behind my ESL Halloween Think, Label, Trace & Write Stories resource. Although the activities are Halloween-themed, the real purpose is language development. The Halloween theme simply gives students an engaging context in which to practice vocabulary, oral language, sentence construction, and narrative writing.

Using Halloween Activities for WIDA Language Development

When I plan language activities for multilingual learners, I try to look beyond the worksheet itself and ask a more important question:

What are students doing with language?

Are they naming? Describing? Asking questions? Explaining their thinking? Talking with a partner? Sequencing events? Telling a story? Writing about something they see?

These are the kinds of purposeful language experiences that make a seasonal activity much more valuable than simply learning a list of Halloween words.

The WIDA English Language Development Standards Framework provides a foundation for curriculum, instruction, and assessment for multilingual learners in kindergarten through grade 12. One part of the framework is the four Key Language Uses: Narrate, Inform, Explain, and Argue (check out this blog about writing to argue/ persuade - also Halloween themed) WIDA describes these as prominent ways students use language across disciplines.

For a Halloween story, Narrate is a particularly natural language purpose. Students are using language to communicate events and experiences through a story. But the activities leading up to the writing also give students opportunities to describe, inform, explain their thinking, and interact with others.

For example, instead of simply teaching the word leaves, we can help students move from recognizing the word to actually using it:

leaves → red leaves → I see brown and red leaves → The kids are running → The are wearing costumes.

The vocabulary stays familiar, but the language becomes increasingly complex. Read more about Picture Word Conductive (PWIM) model here.

Start With Oral Language Before Asking Students to Write

One of the biggest challenges I see with beginning English learners is that we sometimes ask them to write before they have had enough opportunity to talk.

Imagine giving a newcomer a Halloween picture and saying, "Write a story."

For a student who is still developing English, that can be a very big task. What should they write about? Which words should they use? How should they begin? How do they describe what is happening?

Instead, I like to build toward writing through a predictable sequence:

See → Think → Talk → Label → Build → Write

A picture becomes the starting point. Students first look carefully and identify what they see.

Then they talk about what they notice and what they think might be happening. They learn and label important vocabulary. They use those words in simple sentences. Finally, they use the language they have practiced to write.

The writing task has not disappeared. We have simply built a bridge to it.

Use Halloween Pictures to Build ESL Vocabulary and Speaking Skills

Pictures are especially powerful for multilingual learners because they give students something concrete to talk about even when their English is still developing.

With a Halloween picture, students might identify a pumpkin, costume, child, house, spider, candy, witch, or cat. But I don't want the activity to stop at naming nouns.

Once students have the basic vocabulary, we can begin asking questions that encourage more language:

What is the child wearing? Where is she going? What is the spider doing? How does the character feel? What do you think will happen next?

Students can respond with whatever language they currently have available. A beginning student might say, "Girl. Costume." Another student might say, "The girl is wearing a costume." A more advanced student might explain, "The girl is wearing a witch costume because she is going to a Halloween party."

The picture stays the same.

The language demand changes.

That makes picture-based activities particularly useful in classrooms where students have different levels of English proficiency.

From Halloween Vocabulary to Complete Sentences

After students have heard and practiced the vocabulary orally, we can begin moving from individual words to sentences.

This is where activities such as sorting, matching, labeling, tracing, and word banks become much more meaningful. Students might sort Halloween vocabulary into categories such as people, animals, places, actions, and feelings. They can identify verbs such as go trick or treating, tell ghost stories, carve a pumpkin, and visit a haunted house and then use those verbs to describe what characters are doing.

Visuals provide the support a newcomer needs to participate without taking away the thinking. This gradual movement from vocabulary to sentences is something I use again and again with multilingual learners.

Use WIDA Can Do Descriptors to Think About Differentiation

One Halloween picture can work for students at very different stages of English development. The key is changing the support and language expectations, rather than creating an entirely different lesson for every student.

WIDA's Can Do Descriptors are designed to help educators understand what multilingual learners can do at different stages of language development and can support differentiation and scaffolding. WIDA notes that the descriptors can help teachers better understand language development and the scaffolds students need to participate in content-area learning.

That fits naturally with a differentiated Halloween writing activity.

One student might trace and label a picture using a word bank. Another might use a sentence starter such as I see... A developing writer might use a paragraph frame with First, Next, and Finally.

A more independent writer might receive the same picture and write a story without the additional scaffolds.

The topic stays the same.

The level of language support changes.

Build WIDA Narrative Language With Beginning, Middle, and End

One of the strongest connections between a Halloween writing activity and language development is narrative writing.

Telling a story requires students to think about characters, setting, actions, sequence, and events. But asking a beginning English learner to independently write an entire story can be overwhelming.

Breaking the story into Beginning, Middle, and End gives students a structure they can understand.

In the beginning, students can identify who the characters are and where the story takes place. In the middle, they can describe what happens. At the end, they can explain how the story finishes.

Before writing, students can talk through the story with a partner. They can choose vocabulary from a word bank, sequence pictures, complete sentence starters, or use a paragraph frame.

By the time they reach independent writing, they have already rehearsed the language several times.

That is an important shift:

Writing becomes the final step in the language process rather than the starting point.

WIDA's framework specifically describes Narrate as one of its four Key Language Uses, and WIDA provides additional resources to help teachers identify the purposes for which students use language.

A New Way to Think About Halloween Writing Prompts

A writing prompt doesn't have to begin with:

"Write a story about Halloween."

For a multilingual learner, that instruction leaves too many unanswered questions.

Instead, I can begin with a picture.

Who do you see?
Where are they?
What are they doing?
How do they feel?
What happens next?

Now students have something to talk about before they ever pick up a pencil.

This is where picture writing prompts become especially useful. The visual gives students access to meaning, while the vocabulary, sentence starters, and paragraph frames give them access to the language they need to express their ideas.

Use the Same Picture Again and Again

One of my favorite strategies with multilingual learners is not constantly changing the topic. Instead, keep the context familiar and gradually increase the language demand.

The first time students see a picture, they might simply identify objects: pumpkin, girl, costume and house.

Later, they might answer: What is the girl wearing? She is wearing a costume. Later still: What is happening? The girl is walking to the house. And eventually: What happened first? What happened next? First, the girl put on her costume. Next, she went outside. Finally, students can use those ideas to write a Halloween story.

The picture hasn't changed. The language students use with the picture has.

Turn One Halloween Resource Into a Month of ESL Language Practice

You don't have to use an entire Halloween resource in one week.

In fact, I would much rather stretch these activities across the month of October and allow students to revisit the same vocabulary and language structures again and again.

During the first week, focus primarily on looking, listening, and talking. Introduce Halloween pictures, use a See-Think-Wonder routine, introduce key vocabulary, and give students opportunities to talk with partners.

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During the second week, move into labeling and sentence building. Students can sort vocabulary, trace and label pictures, practice verbs, and use word banks and sentence frames to create simple sentences.

During the third week, begin focusing on describing and sequencing. Students can talk about characters, settings, actions, and feelings and begin organizing events into a beginning, middle, and end.

By the fourth week, students are ready to put those skills together through picture writing prompts, sentence starters, paragraph frames, and independent writing.

The result is not four weeks of unrelated Halloween worksheets.

It becomes a predictable language-development cycle in which students repeatedly encounter, practice, and reuse vocabulary.

Practice Speaking, Listening, Reading, and Writing With One Halloween Theme

Although the final product might be a piece of writing, the process gives students opportunities to use multiple language modes.

Students listen when the teacher models vocabulary and sentences. They speak when they participate in See-Think-Wonder and partner conversations. They read when they work with word banks, labels, sentence starters, and story frames. They write when they create their own sentences and stories.

This is one reason I prefer a Think → Talk → Write approach over simply handing students a writing page.

The writing is still important. But students have had opportunities to develop and rehearse the language they need before they are expected to produce it independently.

Make Vocabulary Practice Meaningful for English Learners

I also want vocabulary practice to go beyond memorizing definitions.

If students learn the word spider, I want them to see a spider, say spider, identify it in a picture, use it in a sentence, and eventually include it in their own writing.

The same word can appear in several different activities throughout the month.

This gives students repeated opportunities to encounter and use vocabulary in context instead of learning a word once and immediately moving on to something new.

For additional background on vocabulary instruction for English learners, Colorín Colorado's resources on teaching vocabulary to English language learners provide practical guidance and classroom strategies for supporting vocabulary and literacy development.

Why Seasonal ESL Resources Can Be More Than Just Fun

I love a cute Halloween activity as much as anyone, but I also want the resources I use in my ESL classroom to have a clear instructional purpose. A seasonal theme can provide the engagement. A strong instructional sequence provides the language development.

Halloween gives students something interesting to look at and talk about. Visuals provide access to meaning. Word banks provide vocabulary support. Sentence frames help students produce language. Partner talk gives them opportunities to rehearse their ideas. Story structures give them organization. Writing activities give them a chance to put everything together.

That is when a Halloween activity becomes much more than a seasonal worksheet.

It becomes a reason to communicate.

From “I Don't Know What to Write” to “I Have a Story”

That is really the goal behind my ESL Halloween Think, Label, Trace & Write Stories resource.

I don't expect a newcomer to look at a blank page and magically know how to write a Halloween story.

Instead, I want to give students a path:

See it. Think about it. Talk about it. Learn the words. Build the sentences. Tell the story. Write it.

And after several weeks of practicing that process, something exciting happens. The student who initially said, “I don't know what to write,” begins to have something to say. And once a multilingual learner has an idea, our job is to help that student find the English to express it.

WIDA Connection: A Note for Teachers

This Halloween resource can be used as part of a WIDA-informed language-development classroom, particularly when teachers intentionally connect activities to their students' current language goals.

The activities provide opportunities for students to develop vocabulary, participate in oral interaction, describe and sequence events, and create narrative texts. The specific language expectations and level of support should always be adjusted to students' grade level, English proficiency, and current instructional goals.

WIDA's ELD Standards Framework can help teachers connect language development with academic content and identify appropriate language expectations for instruction.