What Should My Teacher Be for Halloween?
Inside: Make Halloween writing fun with this free Teacher Costume Design activity! Students design a Halloween costume for their teacher and explain their creative choice.
Halloween is almost here, and you know what that means: pumpkins, costumes, candy, spooky stories…and students coming up with very creative ideas about what their teacher should wear for Halloween. 😂
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What Should My Teacher Be for Halloween?
Why not turn those ideas into a fun Halloween writing activity?
Instead of simply asking students what they want to dress up as, let them turn the tables and decide what YOU should be for Halloween!
A teacher costume made entirely out of candy?
A giant pumpkin?
A superhero?
A dinosaur?
A magical unicorn who assigns no homework?
Honestly, I’m a little afraid to find out what they might choose.
This simple teacher costume design activity gives students the opportunity to combine drawing, creativity, and writing while imagining the perfect Halloween costume for their teacher.
And I’ve made a FREE printable to make it super easy to try in your classroom!
Let Your Students Design Your Halloween Costume
The idea is simple: Your students get to decide what you should be for Halloween.
Give each student a costume design page and let their imaginations take over.
They’ll begin with the prompt:
I think my teacher should be a ______ for Halloween.
Then they can design the costume and explain their thinking by writing about it.
This makes the activity more than just a Halloween coloring page. Students are practicing how to develop an idea, explain their choice, and communicate their thoughts through writing—all while having a ridiculous amount of fun.
And let’s be honest…
They are probably going to have some opinions about your Halloween costume.
A Halloween Writing Activity Kids Will Actually Want to Do
Getting students excited about writing can sometimes be a challenge.
Add Halloween to the mix, and suddenly everyone has an idea.
The Teacher Costume Design activity gives students a fun topic they already have plenty to say about: their teacher!
Students can write about:
- What costume they think their teacher should wear
- Why they chose that costume
- What the costume would look like
- Special accessories their teacher should have
- What their teacher would do while wearing the costume
- Why the costume would be perfect for Halloween
You can keep the writing simple for younger writers or encourage older students to add more details and reasons.
For students who are still developing their writing skills, the drawing portion also gives them a way to communicate their ideas visually before putting them into words.
How to Use the Teacher Costume Printable
This is designed to be an easy, low-prep Halloween classroom activity.
Just print the pages, hand them out, and let the creativity begin!
Choose a costume idea
Have students think about what their teacher should be for Halloween.
Encourage them to get creative!
A witch is fun.
A vampire is fun.
But what about a wizard teacher who turns homework into pumpkins?
Or a superhero teacher who can grade 100 papers in five seconds?
Or perhaps a giant walking piece of pizza?
There are no wrong answers—as long as the costume is classroom appropriate.
Draw the costume
Students can use the teacher figure as their starting point and design the costume however they like.
They can add:
- Hats
- Masks
- Capes
- Costumes
- Shoes
- Accessories
- Props
- Spooky details
- Funny details
- Anything else they can imagine!
This is where things can get very creative.
Explain the costume
After designing their costume, students can explain their choice on the writing lines.
The prompt “About this costume:” gives them an opportunity to add details about their design.
You can encourage students to answer questions such as:
- Why should your teacher wear this costume?
- What does the costume look like?
- What special powers or abilities does it have?
- What will your teacher do while wearing it?
- Why would it be a great Halloween costume?
For younger writers, a few sentences may be plenty.
For more advanced writers, challenge them to write a detailed explanation—or even try to persuade you to actually wear the costume!
Perfect for a Halloween Writing Center
This printable would make a fun addition to a Halloween-themed writing center.
Set out the costume pages along with pencils, crayons, colored pencils, or markers and let students work independently.
It can also work well as:
- A Halloween morning work activity
- An early-finisher activity
- A creative writing assignment
- An October writing center
- A Halloween classroom activity
- A Friday afternoon activity
- A fun substitute-teacher activity
- A classroom community activity
- A Halloween bulletin board project
It’s one of those activities that can be as simple—or as involved—as you want it to be.
Turn It Into a Classroom Display
And here’s my favorite part:
Display the finished costumes!
Create a bulletin board titled:
“What Should Our Teacher Be for Halloween?”
Hang each student’s costume design around the room and let everyone see the creative—and possibly slightly questionable—costume choices.
You could even have students vote on categories such as:
- Most Creative Costume
- Funniest Costume
- Spookiest Costume
- Best Halloween Costume
- Most Imaginative Costume
Or skip the voting completely and simply enjoy seeing what your students came up with.
Either way, you’ve turned a simple Halloween writing activity into a classroom display that students will be excited to see.
FREE Teacher Costume Design Printable
Want to give this Halloween activity a try?
I’ve created a FREE 8-page Teacher Costume Design printable!
The set includes 8 different teacher costume design pages, so you can choose the versions that work best for your students.
You’ll get:
- 4 pages with primary writing lines
- 4 pages with single writing lines
- 2 different male teacher designs
- 2 different female teacher designs
- Space for students to design the teacher’s Halloween costume
- A writing prompt to help students explain their ideas
So whether you have beginning writers who need primary lines or students who are ready for single-line writing, there’s an option to fit your classroom.
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Once you have it, just print the pages, give your students some crayons or colored pencils, and prepare yourself for some very interesting costume suggestions.
More Halloween Classroom Fun
If your students enjoy this activity, you can keep the Halloween creativity going with other Halloween writing activities and seasonal learning ideas.
Try having students:
- Create their own Halloween character
- Write a spooky story
- Invent a new witch or wizard
- Write from the perspective of a spider
- Design their dream Halloween candy
- Describe a mysterious haunted house
- Create a friendly monster
- Design another character’s Halloween costume
Halloween is such a fun time to give students permission to be imaginative, silly, and creative with their writing.
And sometimes the best writing activities are the ones where students don’t realize they’re practicing writing.
They’re just having too much fun deciding that their teacher absolutely needs to spend Halloween dressed as a giant taco.
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