Check out my New York Times post on using The Day of the Dead to help students learn about literal and interpretative questions.
Halloween’s approaching, and I thought people might be interested in seeing a “The Best…” list sites to help English Language Learners find out more about the holiday.
Punkin Chunkin is the name of a new “sport” of catapulting pumpkins to smash them. I’m not making this up. The New York Times has just published an article about it.
With Halloween fast approaching, what would be more timely than a new online video game where the player has to rid a house of evil spirits… or else? House, in addition to providing a few scary moments, offers tons of English-language learning opportunities. You can read this article to find-out how I use online video games with English Language Learners. Here’s the Walkthrough for the game.
Gatuno In Halloween is an online video game from the developer of the great Esklavos series of games. As in the Esklavos games, you have an option of playing it in English or Spanish. Playing them in English provides numerous opportunities for language-development since many items are given text labels.
Here’s the “Walkthrough” (the instructions to win). As I’ve described previously, English Language Learners playing these types of games with walkthroughs maximizes their use for language-learning. However, even without it, this game would be good for ELL’s.
DIA DE LOS MUERTOS
Here are several good sites that are specifically related to how Halloween is celebrated in Mexico and Latin America — as the Dia de Los Muertos.
These links, of course, are accessible to English Language Learners:
Mr. Donn’s Day of the Dead page is not only accessible to ELL’s, it also has links to a number of good lesson plans.
The BBC has an online slideshow about how The Day Of The Dead is celebrated throughout the world.
The New York Times has a short slideshow on how the Day of the Dead is celebrated in Mexico.
Days Of The Dead is a series of images from The Boston Globe’s Big Picture.
Ghostscape 2: The Cabin is an online video game that is probably too scary for very young children, but adolescents should love it. The walkthrough isn’t posted yet, but should be soon at this site. It has a lot of language development opportunities.
Jason Renshaw has created a “Halloween Challenge” to ESL/EFL teachers to create/modify Halloween materials. Check it out here.
Halloween is the time to indulge those seemingly pathological cravings to get scared out of your skull. Who in their right mind would subject themselves to blood-splattery horror movies or haunted houses blaring high-pitched screams while serving bowls of grapes dressed as slimy, edible eyeballs? Lots of us, and experts say good can actually come from these predilections.
Fear protects us
“People think being afraid is a bad thing, but the reason we evolved to be afraid is that the world is pretty dangerous and we’ve evolved very powerful systems that automatically force us to do our natural defensive and protective behaviors,” says Michael Fanselow, a UCLA behavioral neuroscientist.
Some fears are learned; others are encoded in our DNA: Rotting flesh (we’re looking at you, zombies), snakes, blood, heights — even our tiny-brained ancestors understood these were unsafe. And the fear prompted immediate responses, Fanselow says.
After learning about the origin of “El día de los muertos”(The Day of the Death) and “Halloween” Ss compare similarities & differences between the two holiday traditions. We ended the lesson building altars and sharing the meaning of each offering for their loved ones. pic.twitter.com/QEuCGHVZ2W
In the spirit of Halloween, have students write two-sentence horror stories. I like #10. Thanks to my colleague, Taylor Thorne, for these: https://t.co/I7XZ6XaYIj
In order to try to avoid any problematic/racist Halloween costumes during our school celebration, I will be sending this letter home to families and caretakers. I will also be going over it with my students so that we can learn together how to do better:https://t.co/nbFSNW3cJ8
In order to try to avoid any problematic/racist Halloween costumes during our school celebration, I will be sending this letter home to families and caretakers. I will also be going over it with my students so that we can learn together how to do better:https://t.co/nbFSNW3cJ8
Wow! What else can be said. Great list. This will figure heavy (as well as your site) in a lecture about Web resources that I’m giving on the 31st. I thought Halloween would be an apt topic 🙂
Great list of resources, Larry – Thanks for sharing!
We have some free Halloween printables on our website (US & UK English versions) for ELL’s & kids, and worksheets on the Mexican Day of the Dead that teachers might find useful. They can be downloaded via the links below:
Don’t miss this excellent mouse scrolling game by Virginia Varela: http://www.virginiavarela.com/Halloween/index.htm
Make sure the students mouse/scroll around each room and keep their eyes peeled, and be prepared for a surprise in the chapel!
Thanks a lot for sharing all these excellent resources.
Exceptional list, thanks for sharing! Virtual Jack-O-Lantern destined for greatness…
ESL Holiday Lessons.com has 14 pages of printable exercises on Halloween, plus a listening and an online activity. All can be found here: http://www.eslholidaylessons.com/10/halloween.html
Is there a way to display the gatuno in halloween site without the ads?
Lisa,
Maybe, but I don’t know how….
Sorry.
Larry
Thanks for these links, Larry. There are some Halloween Science Ideas that teachers might enjoy at: http://www.sciencebob.com/blog/?p=360
Wow! What else can be said. Great list. This will figure heavy (as well as your site) in a lecture about Web resources that I’m giving on the 31st. I thought Halloween would be an apt topic 🙂
Dan
What a brilliant and comprehensive list – thank you 🙂
Great list of resources, Larry – Thanks for sharing!
We have some free Halloween printables on our website (US & UK English versions) for ELL’s & kids, and worksheets on the Mexican Day of the Dead that teachers might find useful. They can be downloaded via the links below:
http://www.esolcourses.com/topics/halloween.html
http://www.esolcourses.com/topics/day-of-the-dead.html
Don’t miss this excellent mouse scrolling game by Virginia Varela:
http://www.virginiavarela.com/Halloween/index.htm
Make sure the students mouse/scroll around each room and keep their eyes peeled, and be prepared for a surprise in the chapel!