Halloween in Spanish: Vocabulary and Activities for Kids

Black cats, pumpkins, and witch hats are back! Another Halloween is upon us, and this year you can add even more excitement to your spooky celebration with some Spanish PDFs and printables.

Let’s jump into the material for having a happy Halloween in Spanish!

Halloween in Spanish: Vocabulary

First of all, Halloween goes by a few popular names in Spanish: Halloween (pronounced as if it were spelled like jalouïn), la víspera de todos los santos (meaning the Eve of All Saint’s Day), and my personal favorite, el día de las brujas (the Day of the Witches).

Get your free Halloween in Spanish Vocabulary Activity Packet below!

While Halloween is a really fun and fascinating holiday, the vocabulary can be scary for little kids, so I recommend sharing the following vocabulary list with caution and removing any words that you think are too intense for your Spanish learner!

Halloween-related Nouns in Spanish

You might like: 13 Ways Halloween is Different From Day of the Dead

Halloween-related Adjectives in Spanish

Remember that adjectives always agree with the noun that they are describing. For example, if using the adjective siniestro, it can end in -o or -a:

• el duende siniestro
• la pesadilla siniestra
  

You might like: How Spanish-Speaking Countries Celebrate Halloween

Fun Activities and Children’s Books for Halloween in Spanish

If you’re a Spanish teacher or homeschooling parent, you’ll appreciate this long list of activities you can do on Halloween to help your student use Spanish in fun and natural ways.

You’ll love: 13 Halloween Language Activities for Learning Spooky Spanish Words

7 Hands-On Halloween Activities in Spanish

1. Play “Mystery Box”

Set up a few mystery boxes with spooky things inside them. Have your child stick their hand in and try to figure out what they’re touching! Ask them, ¿Qué sientes?, ¿Qué es?, or ¿Qué estás tocando? Some ideas to include in your boxes might be:

• Plastic bats or spiders (murciélagos, arañas)
• Sticky brain (cerebro)
• Slime (baba)
• Cooked, cold noodles as worms (gusanos)
• Peeled grapes as eyeballs (globos oculares)

2. Make Halloween Paper Plate Masks

Let your child choose which Halloween figure they’d like to make with their plate craft. Then set up a safe space with pens, markers, glitter, felt, stickers, colored paper, tape, glue, and whatever else you’d like to add to your creepy creations!

3. Play Halloween Charades

Write down each of these names on white pieces of paper to play this game. Gather them up and put them into a hat:

• fantasma
• monstruo
• bruja
• gato negro
• mago
• momia
• murciélago
• zombi

Take turns picking out a piece of paper, reading it secretly to yourselves, then acting it out!

4. Sing Halloween Songs in Spanish

Try out some of these popular Halloween Spanish songs for kids:

1. Los Monstruos: Halloween Song in Spanish
2. Feliz Halloween – Kids Halloween Song
3. La canción de las brujas – Cri Cri (from the 1950s but a real classic!)
4. Halloween llegó – Chuchu TV
5. Las mejores canciones de Halloween – compilation by Chumbala
6. Las mejores canciones de Halloween – compilation by Pinkfog 

5. Pass the Pumpkin

If you’re with a group of children or you want to include your whole family in play, try out this variation of musical chairs. Take a plastic pumpkin (or a real one that is small and easy to carry) and pass it to one another in a circle while music plays. When the music stops, whoever is holding the pumpkin is out! Continue until one winner stands.

6. Pin the Tail on the Black Cat

Print out a large picture of a black cat (or draw one) and include a separate piece of paper or felt for the tail. Have your child put on a blindfold, spin them around, and then watch them try to pin the tail on the black cat.

7. Use Play-Doh or Clay

You can craft almost any possible character you can imagine! Using play-doh, you can include Spanish color lessons into your activity by asking your child to make una calabaza verde or un gato negro. For older kids, buy some molding clay that your child can manipulate, bake in your home oven, and then paint with tempera.

5 Fantastic Spanish Halloween Read-Alouds

Reading is not only fun and entertaining, but it provides essential benefits to your Spanish learner. Reading aloud is critical for more than five reasons, but we’ll start with the fact that it:

1. Boosts your child’s imagination
2. Hones their concentration skills
3. Improves their memory
4. Enhances their communication skills
5. Strengthens the relationship you have with them

Wow! So many reasons to read. Let’s see some of our favorite books that celebrate Halloween in Spanish:

1. ¡Nada me asusta! By Mandy Archer (2 years)

Coco is the bravest cat in the world and nothing seems to scare him. Well, almost nothing! This fun, interactive flap-book has lots of ghostly surprises hidden in its pages and its more than 40 flaps!

2. La casa encantada by Kazuna Kohara (2-3 years)

Everyone’s afraid of this spooky, haunted house, right? Not this girl! Give your reader a taste of hilarity as you follow the main character into a haunted house and find out how silly and harmless it really is! 

3. El Vampiro Edelmiro by Scott Emmons (3 years)

This is an entertaining rhyming story that encourages children to try new foods while it educates them on eating healthy! Edelmiro the vampire went a little nuts and started binge eating. Soon after, he felt sick and it took a long time to digest. Then Edelmiro decided that he would start eating other things, especially these “strange things” (grapes) he found growing in a nearby orchard. He discovers that fresh fruits are delicious! 

4. El regreso de los monstruos patas arriba by Agnese Baruzzi

This book allows you to introduce the idea of monsters to your child in a silly and easy-going way. Share the fun and hilarity with your young children to help them see that monsters aren’t so scary after all!

5. Nada puede asustar a un oso by Elizabeth Dale

This beautifully illustrated story teaches kids to face their fears at night with a sense of humor. Follow Baby Bear as he wakes from a peaceful sleep to discover a strange sound. What is it? It sounds like a monster is roaring! Find out how Baby Bear faces his fear to uncover the sound he hears.

Have a Happy Halloween in Spanish!

We hope you have an amazing Halloween with your Spanish learners and that you find value in our flashcards, book recommendations, and activity suggestions! If you would like more great ideas for teaching Spanish to your kids and some awesome free resources, join us on Facebook! If your child is ready to start speaking Spanish to a native speaker, we’d be delighted to share a free trial class with you! Sign up today!

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Lindsay del Valle

Former Director of Content at Homeschool Spanish Academy

Lover of words and a foreign language fanatic. Experienced content leader, strategist, and editor with a track record of success. As a writer, I blissfully share Spanish-learning tips, best-idea-ever travel advice, and at-a-glance cultural guides. When you can't find me working spiritedly from my home office in Antigua, Guatemala, I'm probably outside playing games and exploring nature with my 3 bilingual kids.

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