Add a touch of Halloween fun to your classroom with lessons that fit right into units you may already be teaching, like nocturnal animals or forest life. This collection lets your students learn about bats, owls, spiders, and other creatures through stories, games, and hands-on activities. Each resource helps kids see that animals we sometimes think of as scary are actually fascinating and important for our environment.
This lesson invites students to use their “owl eyes” by choosing a special spot, sitting quietly, and noticing what changes around them. It’s a creative way to build observation skills and patience while connecting to the habits of owls. You can use this as a starting point for learning about owls and other nocturnal animals.
This lesson uses the book Amara and the Bats to help students learn why bats matter and the challenges they face. Through hands-on activities like “read and write the room” and building bat boxes, kids get to investigate and share their learning in creative ways. It’s a great way to connect literacy, science, and creativity while encouraging students to see bats as helpers instead of something to fear.
Introduce your students to a brand-new tarantula species with a shocking blue color that looks almost magical. It’s a great way to talk about animal adaptations, unique habitats, and how human activity affects wildlife. You can also have students compare this spider’s special traits to other “spooky” animals they’re studying.
This worksheet helps students learn how to identify animals by their tracks, using clues like size, shape, and pattern. It’s an engaging way to practice observation skills and connect science to the mystery of hidden wildlife. You can pair it with lessons on bats, owls, or spiders by asking students to imagine what kinds of tracks these “spooky” animals might leave behind.
This bat resource is perfect for spooky season, letting students read, play an echolocation game, and explore bat anatomy all in one place. Along the way, they’ll see why bats are such important (and often misunderstood) creatures in our ecosystems. You can even use it to spark a conversation about other animals with special skills.
In this activity, students will explore a local forest to observe plants and animals. They’ll draw what they see, make a list of organisms, and compare leaves while practicing patience and careful observation. You can connect this to nocturnal forest animals—like owls, bats, and spiders—by asking students to imagine what creatures might come out after dark.
This interactive story map follows Echo the Bat as he grows, learns from his mother, and migrates across Arizona. Students can trace his journey on the map through places like the Grand Canyon and Roosevelt Lake, making the science feel like an adventure. Encourage students to imagine where they would fly if they were a bat!
This article explains how scientists use spiderwebs to collect tiny bits of DNA from animals to learn which species live in an area. It’s an easy way for students to see how something we might be afraid of can also be useful in science and helpful in our environment. After reading, invite students to find and record observations about spiderwebs in their environment.
Ready to keep the learning going? Explore even more free, high-quality resources on climate change, animals, and the environment at SubjectToClimate.org. Find lessons, activities, and ideas to bring climate topics into any classroom.
