What’s up Phys Ed Fam!
If you’re looking for some spooktacular Halloween PE games and activities to play with your students this October, you’ve come to the right place!
I always love mixing in some seasonal activities throughout the school year, and Halloween is one of those times when the kids are extra excited to come to PE.
If the schedule works out, I usually try to squeeze in a week (or at least a couple of days) between units to break out some of our favorite Halloween-themed station activities.
And of course, we usually kick things off with a little Zombie Tag!
Below I’ll share a few of my favorite Halloween PE activities, along with videos, teaching tips, and some printable station signs to help make planning a little easier.
Zombie Tag
Zombie Tag is one of my favorite warmup games to play around Halloween. It’s easy to set up, gets everyone moving, and the kids always have a blast trying to escape the zombies!
Check out the video below for a quick overview of how we play:
How to Play Zombie Tag
I usually start with 3 Zombies and play down to the last 3 students left, I then let the winners start the next round as the Zombies
The goal for everyone else is simple: Stay away from the Zombies and be one of the last students standing!
Zombie Tag Rules:
- Zombies must keep one foot in the hula hoop at all times while trying to tag other students
- You become a Zombie if you:
- Fall Down
- Go Out of Bounds
- Get tagged from the shoulders down
We usually play 2-3 rounds and then students go to Home Base and do our Daily Warmup. This gives me a chance to get our Halloween stations set up and ready to go.
Halloween Station Activities
One of my favorite ways to celebrate holidays in PE is with themed station activities.
Whether it’s Christmas PE Games, Halloween, or another special event, stations are a great way to mix things up when students are extra excited and might have a harder time focusing on a traditional lesson.
Plus, you can still work on important PE skills like throwing, balancing, coordination, spatial awareness, and teamwork while keeping everything fun and festive.
Here are a few of my favorite Halloween PE stations!
Monster Mayhem
Grab some balloons, draw a few silly monster faces on them, and give students a magic wand (aka a pool noodle).
The challenge is to keep your monster floating in the air for as many taps as possible without letting it hit the ground!
Students can count their consecutive taps and see if they can beat their personal best.
This one is super simple to set up and always a crowd favorite!
Watch Monster Mayhem in Action:
Monster Madness
This station is a fun scooter activity with a spooky twist!
Students ride around on scooters trying to avoid the person holding the magic wand (pool noodle).
If you get tagged by the magic wand, you turn into a monster and take over as the tagger!
The goal is to avoid getting tagged for as long as possible.
Teaching Tip: Make sure students stay seated on their scooters, keep their hands safe, and use gentle tags with the pool noodle.
Black Cat Balance Beam
Time to practice your best black cat moves!
Students place a beanbag on top of their heads and attempt to walk across a balance beam without letting it fall.
We use these low risk foam balance beams, before I had these I just had kids walk on a couple of 2×4 boards that I would lay on the gym floor
Don’t have a balance beam? No problem! A line on the gym floor works great too.
For an extra challenge, have students try walking backward, sideways, or freezing in a balance pose along the way.
This is a great station for working on balance and body control.
Trick or Treat Toss
Who doesn’t love collecting a little Halloween candy?
For this station, students practice their underhand throwing skills by tossing beanbags into buckets.
Every time they make a successful toss, they earn a piece of “candy.”
Don’t worry, we’re not handing out actual candy in the gym! We use popsicle sticks to represent the candy students collect.
Students can keep track of how many pieces they earn during their turn at the station.
Teaching Tip: Set up buckets at different distances to allow students to choose an appropriate challenge level.
Watch Trick or Treat Toss in Action:
Want to Save Some Planning Time?
Grab Our Halloween PE Station Signs!
If you want to try these activities with your students but don’t feel like creating all the station signs yourself, we’ve got you covered!
Our Printable Halloween PE Station Activity Signs include fun illustrations and easy-to-follow, kid-friendly directions to help your students understand what to do at each station.
Just print the signs, gather your equipment, and you’re ready for some Halloween fun!
You can grab the station signs inside The PE Specialist Membership Library or purchase them separately from our Teachers Pay Teachers Store.
Monster Ball
Another fun game we love playing around Halloween is Monster Ball!
We usually give it a little seasonal makeover and call it The Great Pumpkin Smash, but honestly, Monster Ball is already a pretty perfect name for Halloween.
It’s an exciting team game that gives students opportunities to practice throwing skills, accuracy, and teamwork while having a blast.
View this post on Instagram
If you’ve never played Monster Ball before, I’ve got a full breakdown of the game, including a video overview and a free activity guide, over on the blog.
Check Out Monster Ball and Grab the Free Activity Guide
Have Fun and Teach On!
Hopefully these Halloween PE games and activities give you a few fun ideas to try with your students this October!
Whether you’re playing a few rounds of Zombie Tag, setting up some spooky stations, or smashing pumpkins with Monster Ball, it’s a great opportunity to keep students active, engaged, and excited about coming to PE.
And remember, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel to make PE fun. Sometimes all it takes is giving an activity you already love a little Halloween twist!
