How to Hold a Halloween Essay Contest
Halloween is the favorite holiday of many children. Whether it's the costumes, candy or parties, everybody tends to get more excited around the end of October. Bringing this into the classroom can help pull the excitement into the learning experience. One of the most successful ways to do that is having an essay contest. Decorating your classroom is fun and nice, but it doesn't help with teaching. An essay contest brings the experience into a learning environment. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Make the announcement to your classroom with a sense of excitement. The children will get excited about it if they feel it is a special treat. Start the day by saying that you have an announcement to make. Wait until a class period or two to make the announcement. Doing so before recess is a good idea. It will give the children lots to talk about, and the excitement will grow.
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Choose a subject matter for the Halloween essay. You can be as specific or open-ended as you want. For children, it is a great idea to be more specific. Children will write best with clear guidelines and goals. All the essays should have the same title. You could choose "The Best Halloween Ever," "History of Halloween" or "Halloween Adventures." You could also pick topics about customs and trick or treating. You could have a classroom vote if you want to go with the most popular choice for your group.
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Set rules for the essay contest. Choose a paper length for each essay. One to two pages is a great idea for children. Any longer than that could be problematic. Choose the color of inks allowed and the type of stationary or paper that they should use.
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Talk about essay rules in general. This is a great way to teach about writing essays. You have excitement and full attention in this moment. Take advantage of it. Explain the rules while bringing up the holiday within the explanation.
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Set up the criteria for winning the essay contest. Establish prizes. You can make little orange ribbons to hand out as prizes. Foods should probably be avoided as prizes in this day and age. Let the children know there will be a first place winner, a second place winner and a third place winner. Honorable mention is a great award, too. You can have special criteria for most original or most correct in grammar, punctuation and spelling.
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Set a deadline. Allow the children at least one week to compose their essays. If you are making the essays about the current Halloween, you should have the essays due about 5 days after Halloween. In order to get into the spirit of the season in a more timely manner, the essays should probably be about previous Halloween experiences or Halloween knowledge. Have these essays due about 4 days before Halloween. This gives you time to read and judge. Having it due before Halloween also takes the pressure off so children can enjoy the holiday.
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Give out prizes on Halloween, or the day or two before if it falls on a weekend. Keep in mind that you do not want to crush spirits on Halloween, so make sure you have some small token of prize for each child who completed an essay. Give these out to all students after presenting the major awards. Let each child know in writing on the essay that he accomplished something by competing in the contest.
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Tips & Warnings
Use your imagination when creating the essay contest.
Don't forget to give positive feedback and constructive criticism for each essay. This can be a very important part of the learning experience that the contest can represent.
