Halloween Literacy Activities

If you know us well, you know we love all things fall. And of course, that means weaving a little Halloween fun into literacy practice!

But more than the pumpkins and costumes, this time of year is also a great reminder of something we see with so many of our students: spelling starts with strong phonological awareness.

Building Strong Spellers Step by Step

Here’s how we think about supporting students who struggle with spelling:

1. Start with syllables
   First, help students break words into syllables. For example, pumpkin becomes pump–kin.

2. Move to phonemes
   Next, break each syllable into its smallest sounds: /p/ /u/ /m/ /p/ and /k/ /i/ /n/. This is phonemic awareness in action—no letters yet, just sounds.

3. Connect sounds to letters
   Once students are confident with sounds, you can begin matching letters (or letter groups) to each one. This is where phonemic awareness becomes spelling.

4. Apply in writing
   Finally, don’t forget that writing is more than spelling. Even simple sentence frameworks (who/what + did what + when/why/how) help students connect their phonological skills to syntax and meaning.

By moving step-by-step—syllables → sounds → letters → sentences—you scaffold students from the basics all the way up to written expression.

A Seasonal Bonus 🎃✍️

Since it’s Halloween season, we pulled together a free set of activities that follow this exact progression. You can use them to:

• Practice syllable and sound segmentation,

• Pair letters with sounds using sound boxes, and

• Scaffold sentence writing with a seasonal twist.

👉 Grab your free Halloween activities here!