As we approach the spookiest time of the year, bring some Halloween magic to your gym class! We’ve brewed up a list of Halloween-themed physical education games and exercises that will have your students howling with excitement. From witch broomstick relays to haunted header soccer challenges, these activities are sure to make your PE lessons a ghoulishly good time. So, dust off your cauldron and grab your broomstick – it’s time to get your students moving and grooving with some Halloween-inspired fun!
1. Witch’s Broomstick Scooter Relay
Set up a relay race where students ride scooters around the gym, while pretending to be witches riding on their broomsticks. To add an extra challenge, place witch hat cones (by placing smaller 6” cones on top of 12” cones) around the gym for students to collect before returning to the start.
2. Pumpkin Patch Pick-Up
Scatter orange beanbags (pumpkins) around the play area. Students must race to pick up as many pumpkins as they can and place them in a designated “patch” (hoops or marked area) within a time limit.
3. Spiderweb Throw
Set up hula hoops in a web-like pattern on the ground and have students try to toss bean bags or foam balls at the hoops. Put point values in different areas of the web for students to score points!
4. Mummy Bowling Mayhem
Wrap bowling pins with white streamers to resemble mummies. Use an orange foam bowling ball (to resemble a pumpkin) to knock down the mummy pins by rolling the ball on the ground.
5. Sweet Dribble Delight
Set up a station where students dribble a basketball around a field of cones (candy corn). Beneath each cone, position basketball challenge cards that students can discover, adding an exciting extra layer of challenges to the activity. For an extra treat, use Gopher’s Screamin’ Topple Tubes and tape a challenge on each side of the Topple Tube.
6. Eye-Spy Monster Balance Ball
Students embark on an adventure, using their balance skills to guide an eerie foam ball (Itty ball complete with a taped eye) atop a tennis racket through a challenging obstacle course.
7. Ghostly Hopscotch
Transform the classic hopscotch game by incorporating ghost-shaped cutouts instead of numbered squares. Students must hop from ghost to ghost while avoiding stepping on the spider cutouts.
8. Monster Mash-Up Fitness Exercises
Here are a few Halloween themed fitness exercises you can do with your students!
Witch’s Cauldron Squats: Perform squats while pretending to stir a witch’s cauldron, using an imaginary broomstick.
Mummy Walks: Walk with your arms outstretched like a mummy, taking slow and deliberate steps.
Spider Crawls: Get into a plank position and crawl forward, moving one arm and the opposite leg at the same time, mimicking a spider’s movement.
Pumpkin Lunges: While holding a pumpkin (or any weighted object that’s orange), perform lunges, alternating legs.
Haunted House Hops: Jump from side to side like you’re hopping over obstacles in a haunted house.
Ghostly Jumps: Do jumping jacks while pretending to float like a ghost.
Bat Wings Arm Circles: Extend your arms and make circular motions with them, mimicking the flight of a bat.
Frankenstein’s Monster Walks: With your arms extended straight in front of you, take deliberate steps while keeping your posture stiff and robotic.
Vampire Bite Crunches: Lie on your back and perform crunches, bringing your knees toward your chest while pretending to bite a vampire’s “neck.”
9. Haunted Balance Beam Crossing
Set up a balance beam and create a “spider web” using colored tape on the floor around the beam or on top of the beam. Place plastic spiders along the web. Have students walk across the balance beam while trying to step over the tape lines without disturbing the “spider web.”
10. Haunted Hockey Shootout:
Set up a floor hockey shootout challenge with a Halloween twist. Put a variety of spooky Halloween characters in a hockey goal and have students aim to knock them over! Get creative and hang bats or ghosts from the top of the Hockey net.
11. Witch’s Brew Cornhole Toss
Set up cornhole by using a “cauldron” Hula Hoop and a “witches hat” cone on its side. Students take turns tossing beanbags into the witch hats to “brew” their magical potions. Assign different point values to land in the cauldron or on areas of the hat (e.g., the brim, the tip), and encourage students to aim for specific sections. To make it even more engaging, have students share what type of potion their beanbag represents and how it fits into the Halloween theme.
12. Pumpkin Putt Putt
Set up mini-golf holes with Halloween-themed obstacles like pumpkins, spiders, candy corn, and other alloween decorations. Students take turns putting a golf ball through the course, aiming to reach each hole in as few strokes as possible.
13. Zombie Limbo
Have students practice the limbo, but add a fun Zombie twist to the game!
14. Haunted Header Soccer Challenge
Hang Halloween-themed decorations (e.g., bats, spiders) from above. Students practice heading the soccer ball by aiming to hit the decorations as they pass by. Be sure to use a header friendly soccer ball to practice this skill.
15. Haunted Agility Ladder
Use an agility ladder and have students hop, step, or shuffle through the ladder’s rungs in different Halloween-inspired patterns such as:
Spider Crawl: Students move through the ladder’s rungs using hands and feet, imitating the movement of a spider crawling.
Witch’s Hat Shuffle: Students shuffle sideways through the ladder, as if avoiding witch hats placed beside the ladder.
Jack-O’-Lantern Hop: Students hop on one foot into each ladder rung, as if hopping over imaginary pumpkins.
Ghostly Zigzag: Students move through the ladder in a zigzag pattern, like ghosts floating in a haunted house.
Bat Wings Crossover: Students cross one foot over the other while moving through the ladder, imitating the motion of flapping bat wings.
Candy Corn Quick Steps: Students quickly step through the ladder’s rungs, using small and fast steps reminiscent of candy corn kernels.
Mummy March: Students take slow and deliberate steps through the ladder, as if moving like mummies.
Skeleton Skip: Students skip through the ladder, adding a playful skip to their movements like dancing skeletons.
These Halloween-themed station activities can make your physical education class exciting and entertaining while utilizing the equipment you already have on hand.
