Prompt your students to write spooky stories, poems, journals, or informational pieces based on these 20 Halloween-themed writing exercises. Students choose their own writing fates by picking a number which links to a graphically appealing Halloween writing prompt.

I’ve developed this slide show of twenty Halloween prompts for a Spooky Writing Workshop I’m conducting later this month. I’ll be teaching the same “lesson” to fourteen different classes. Allowing student choice will also make the repetition much more bearable for me because each session will be a little different!

Depending on how much time you wish to dedicate to this activity, you could complete it in one class period or spread it out over multiple days by selecting one, two, or three prompts per day. You can finish with a sharing of the revisions on Halloween as I'll be doing in my school!

This PowerPoint file includes 24 slides--two introductory slides (the title page and the selection slide), twenty creative writing prompts, and two pages of teacher materials.

Be sure to print slides 23 & 24 to assist you as you work through the prompts with your students. (Some prompts are self-explanatory, but others might require some hints or suggestions to get your students going--I've provided you with these suggestions!) I've also included some tips based on years of "quickwriting" experience in my classes to help you encourage the best writing possible from your students.

Enjoy! Let me know if you have any questions or comments--and please leave feedback to earn credits toward future TpT puchases!

Julie Conlon


Check out these other Halloween-Inspired Lessons & Activities:

• Halloween Story Starters for Middle and High School Students

• Halloween Essay: Bare Bones Graphic Organizer

• Free Graphic Organizers for Halloween Writing Assignments