Students love watching animated shorts. You can find dozens of Halloween animated shorts with just a few searches; however, many are not classroom-friendly. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched a really good film to reach the last few seconds and hear an inappropriate word. So, I’ve done the viewing for you. These films vary from funny to scary with no blood or bad words. I hope your students enjoy these this Halloween season.
Get the printable activities plus links to the Google Slides version by clicking on this button.
**~~ Halloween Animated Shorts ~~**
The Passenger
This film is quite scary but ends on a lighter note. Students analyze how tone is achieved. Discuss all the features the writers includes to make the film frightening and to build suspense.
Some examples include:
foreboding – The film begins with a beautiful blue sky. Butterflies flutter by while light twinkling music plays. The camera pans to a black cloud. Lighting flashes and thunder booms.
tense – The wind picks up. A newspaper hits the man walking to the bus stop in the face. The music changes. At one point the man peeks through the slats in the fence.
angry – Suddenly, a dog sticks its head out and begins angrily barking at the man. Sharp pointed teeth make the dog look vicious.
mysterious – The man gets onto the bus. He sees a plastic bag with one lone goldfish on the seat beside him. At one point he makes a face at the goldfish.
desolate – The bus is empty except for the one man and the driver of the bus.
distressed – The man puts on headphones and plays music. The eyes of the fish bulge. The bag shakes. The fish transforms into a monster. The man struggles with the monster, hitting him with his umbrella.
scary – The man crawls to the front of the bus with the monster following. After a while, the man realizes the fish transforms into the monster when the music is played. When the music stops, the monster returns to a goldfish.
**~~ Halloween Animated Shorts ~~**
Gas Station & The Delivery
Students answer the exact same questions for each film in a side-by-side comparison.
What happens in the opening scene?
A coffee bean man drives his car through a winter tree-covered landscape one stormy night. Lightning crackles. The car runs out of gas. The man gets out of the car with his flashlight and walks down the road.
A girl on a motorized scooter has trouble in the middle of a wooded area. She uses her flashlight to examine her scooter and sees she has a flat tire.
How do the characters know which way to go?
The man sees a sign pointing the way to the gas station.
The girl sees a sign that points to Grim Way. This is the address on the package she retrieves from the back of the scooter
Where does the character wind up?
The path leads to a graveyard.
The girl walks up a path to a graveyard.
Who does the character encounter at this location?
The frightened man trembles as zombies emerge all around him.
The girl runs into a life-sized dog creature made from Cheetos Bag of Bones Halloween snacks.
What reaction does the character first have upon meeting these creatures?
The man is frightened.
The girl gasps as creatures emerge from the ground.
What is the punchline of the film?
One smiling zombie offers the man a can of gas. The man exclaims “What? Cheap gas. Yeah! I only use high-octane gas. This is rubbish.”
The girl finds a house with the address she is hunting for. Many creatures come toward her. A dinosaur creature opens the package the girl delivered. It contains a foot. He sticks it on. Note: There is a second punchline at the end of the credits saying that no Cheetos were harmed during the making of this film…
What is the final result of the punchline?
The man is heard moaning as his glasses fly into the air and land on the ground in a crumpled tangle.
The dinosaur opens the door, and the girl heads back to her scooter.
Gas Station
The Delivery
**~~ Halloween Animated Shorts ~~**
Angry Birds – Ham o’ Ween
Students complete a summary of this short. Students complete in every other event.
The blue birds (Jay, Jake, and Jim) are trick-or-treating. First, they hear a noise and each imagines that a different creature is looming up ahead.
Next, a small bird drops into their candy bucket and begins munching on their treats.
Soon pigs with masks come by, and the blue birds hide behind a tree. The blue birds sigh in relief as the pigs move on down the path without seeing them. Then the birds realize that the small bird is in one of the pig’s baskets.
The birds find a pig mask on the ground and go to save the little bird. They walk to the castle with their bucket of treats looking as much like the other pigs as they can. They make it past the guards.
All the treats including the small bird are dumped onto a large trestle table. The top of the table becomes a conveyor belt and all the candy moves toward the open mouth of King Pig Smooth Cheeks at the end of the table.
When the blue birds see that the little bird is about to be eaten, they stop the conveyor belt causing King Pig to gasp. In a struggle, the conveyor belt is moved forward and then reversed several times.
Eventually, the small bird and King Pig both go for the same piece of candy. King Pig chuckles when he grabs the candy between his front teeth.
The small bird grows angry and grows into a monster-sized bird. King Pig spits out the candy and the small, now monster-sized bird grabs and eats it. The small bird burps and deflates. All the birds leave the castle.
**~~ Halloween Animated Shorts ~~**
Foxed!
Students practice cause and effect with this animated short. The causes are provided. Students add the effects.
Cause – The foxes want children to work in their mines.
Effect – Emily is kidnapped by the foxes and forced to work.
Cause – It is obvious that Emily has been in the mines for a long while because her clothes are dirty and ragged. Emily is determined to leave the mines and return home to her mother.
Effect – One day, Emily runs away. She takes off running toward a door. Voices can be heard saying, “We can’t let her escape.” With chattering teeth, Emily crouches behind a crate but is soon able to get above the ground.
Cause – Emily looks through a two-way mirror into her home. She hears her mom calling to her and her own voice answering back.
Effect – Emily learns that a shape-shifting fox has taken her place. The fox looks and sounds exactly like Emily.
Cause – The fox that is pretending to be Emily gets ready for school on time.
Effect – Emily’s mother notices that this “new Emily” is different. She comments that she likes the change.
Cause – Emily stands outside her home and stares at the scene taking place inside for a good while.
Effect – A group of foxes catches up with Emily. The camera moves to the inside of the house. The window Emily was looking through is a mirror. The light is switched off and the door closes.
**~~ Halloween Animated Shorts ~~**
Boneless
In this final film, students complete the missing parts in a problem and solution chain.
PROBLEM – The skeleton rises from the grave and discovers that a dog has taken his leg and foot.
Solution/Effect – The skeleton begins chasing the dog, hopping on one leg.
PROBLEM – The skeleton slips in the mud and winds up on the ground. The dog continues to run away with the skeleton’s leg.
Solution/Effect – The skeleton removes his arm and hand and attaches them to his knee. He can now run.
PROBLEM – The skeleton is hit in the face with mud, trips over a tombstone, and goes flying through the air.
Effect – The skeleton goes rolling down the hill and winds up in a heap of bones.
Final Result – The dog runs away with all the skeleton’s bones except for the skull. The skeleton cries.
Get all activities in printable format along with the link to the Google Slides version by clicking on this button.
8 comments
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Thank you so much for sharing this precious activity. I can just imagine your classroom decorated with these vocabulary apple trees. And, it was so nice visiting with you at the TPT conference. Sandy
I absolutely LOVE these trees, and I love your vocabulary activities! Thanks so much for sharing! I am going to try them next week with my second graders!
~Jennifer
Author
My students really enjoyed making them. They know the vocabulary words as well. I hope it is a huge success with your students.
These trees are awesome! What a great way to display important knowledge! 🙂 Thank you for hosting this hop!
Excellent activities, Gay! Thanks so much for all of your hard work with the coding. We all appreciate it.
Carla
I love the trees, they are adorable and have a purpose. Thanks for organizing this hop!
I can’t wait to try the trees this week with my class! Great ideas! thank you!!!
I couldn’t resist commenting. Exceptionally well written!