“Eye of newt, and toe of frog, Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting, Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,— For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble.” -- William Shakespeare
Halloween is one of our favorite times of the year, and we love that it also presents an abundance of frighteningly fun educational opportunities. In fact, there are so many amazing ideas for Halloween-related homeschool activities, we didn’t have enough room in one post for all of them! This particular post focuses on real-life creatures that, for one reason or another, have a connection to the Halloween season.
For any of the creatures identified in this post, you can find their range on a world map, explore their habitat and what they call home (dens, nests, webs, etc.), and explore what they eat and what eats them. With cooler weather approaching, you can research how each creature survives the winter season, from hibernation to migration, and anything in between. Hands-on or live interactions with creatures can make a lasting impression on minds young and old, and I encourage you to do so if possible; from backyard bug hunts to visiting a local zoo or nature center, opportunities abound for meeting nature face-to-face. If you keep a nature journal, or choose to begin one, you can include your discoveries there. And of course, you can always do some research into why these creatures became connected to Halloween to begin with.
BATS
One of the animals that I find is most frequently associated with Halloween is the bat. There are many species of bat all over the world, from fruit bats to vampire bats, and it is quite likely that at least one species lives in a habitat near you. On a balmy evening, with lots of insects in the air, you can likely view some in your own backyard or neighborhood park. You can keep track of how many bats you view, make charts or graphs of your observations, or get involved in a citizen science project related to bat studies or conservation.
Many people freak out when they see bats swooping above their heads at night, worried that they might be carrying rabies or will attack people. However, both of these scenarios are highly unlikely. Bats that might be carrying rabies are more likely to act outside of their normal behavior patterns, and swooping around at night is very normal bat activity. (Bats hobbling down the street in broad daylight would be a much greater concern!) And the swooping dipping flying patterns of many bat species are a means to attack their prey, which is not of the human variety, but is instead made up of insects, particularly mosquitoes, that tend to hover over human heads. Bats use echolocation to find and identify their prey in mid-air, and learning about bats is a great reason to explore and experiment with echolocation.
Not all bats eat insects, though! Fruit bats eat fruit, and some bats drink nectar. Vampire bats are real, but not as they are depicted in scary stories and movies. In the regions where they are found, they make tiny incisions in the skin of animals (often so small the animals don’t even notice), and then lap up small sips of blood.
You can explore the wide range of bat sizes by comparing the measurements of the smallest and largest bats in the world, and even cut out paper bats in a range of sizes for a visual, hands-on activity that can double as a Halloween decoration. Hanging upside down on the jungle gym like a bat is some Phys Ed fun, and you can explore time and do some dancing with the book Bats Around the Clock by Kathi Appelt. For some writing experience, Super Teacher Worksheets has a story prompt available, “Bat Who Couldn’t Fly” and an article with reading comprehension questions about bats.
Bats are an important part of the ecosystem, and face an array of challenges, including light pollution, an illness affecting bats called white-nose syndrome, and the loss of habitat due to logging, deforestation, and the reduction of trees and roosting places in general. You can get involved in helping them by building a bat house, turning off outside lights at night, or joining a conservation group or citizen science project related to bats.
Some of our favorite bat-related books are:
The Magic Schoolbus Going Batty: A Book About Bats by Joanna Cole (there is also a cartoon episode of the same)
Stellaluna by Janell Cannon
Bats by Gail Gibbons
Nocturnal Symphony: A Bat Detector’s Journal by J. A. Watson
SPIDERS
For something so small, spiders are creatures that cause a lot of terror for many, but are actually fascinating and often helpful creatures. So how are spiders helpful, you ask? They eat a lot of other bugs that we consider to be pests, like flies, mosquitoes, moths, and wasps.
Spiders range in size from nearly microscopic to gigantic furry tarantulas, and have adapted to almost every habitat on Earth, including under water. It’s easy to go on a successful spider-finding hunt in your home, backyard, or neighborhood park. While I’m personally a bit squeamish about catching them by hand, their images can be captured readily enough with a camera or sketched into a nature journal, and identified using an identification guide book or app. You can even get involved with various spider-related citizen science projects, such as helping to find a tiny species of spider or collecting a different species in California.
Spiders also have a wide array of methods of catching their prey that can be explored, including different types of webs, trap doors, jump attacks, camouflage, and more. I recall a trip we took to the Wild Center in the Adirondacks of New York, where they have a hands-on display of spider webs of different types, with an explanation of how each type is used for different purposes. They also have a giant spider web you can climb into and pretend you are a spider waiting for its next wiggly insect meal, or that you are the spider’s dinner! Your family can make spider web drawings or string weaving, which can do double duty as Halloween decorations.
Little ones can have fun singing and making hand gestures for the Isty Bitsy Spider song. You can read and answer questions about tarantulas or spider webs, or try writing about what you imagine it’s like to be a spider. There is a huge selection of books and other resources available on spiders, but some of our favorite spider-related books are:
Spiders by Gail Gibbons
Wild Insects and Spiders by Martin Kratt
The Magic Schoolbus Spins a Web by Joanna Cole (there is also a cartoon episode of the same)
Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
FROGS, TOADS, NEWTS, AND SALAMANDERS
Even though their body parts are considered to be ingredients for witches’ brews, amphibians are actually pretty amazing creatures. Did you know that many amphibians can regrow lost body parts, from limbs to fins to tails? Did you know that scientists have recently discovered that many amphibians’ skin glows under special lights, a phenomenon known as biofluorescence?
Did you know there are poisonous frogs? Did you know that some frogs have evolved to freeze solid in the winter months, only to thaw out as fully alive and functioning in the springtime? Did you know there’s a frog called a glass frog that has skin so clear you can see its organs inside? Did you know that frogs and toads come in a range of sizes, from small enough to sit on a fingertip, to as big as a dinner plate?
Discover the difference between frogs and toads, and the difference between salamanders and newts. You can explore the life cycles of frogs and other amphibians, and for a longer-term project, you could even raise tadpoles in a fish tank to observe the process firsthand before releasing them back into the wild.
Searching for amphibians is a lot of fun, and something you can do in your backyard or on a nature walk through the woods. They often prefer moist environments under rotting logs or in leaf litter. If you find any, as with any live animals, be sure to always treat them with respect, and handle them gently and carefully or not at all. You could even get involved in a citizen science project searching out and recording information about reptiles and amphibians. Our family was lucky enough to be involved in an educational salamander program last year, including a hands-on hunt for salamanders in the woods, at the Adirondack Experience (formerly the Adirondack Museum) in Blue Mountain Lake, NY. We learned about their habitat, and found several salamanders, including one that was in the process of regrowing its tail, as well as several things that were definitely not salamanders, like tiny eggs, pill bugs, spiders, and centipedes.
Some of our favorite books about amphibians include:
Fabulous Frogs by Linda Glaser
Growing Frogs by Vivian French
Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel
The Wide-Mouthed Frog by Keith Faulkner (the visual version of this told by a great storyteller is sure to have everyone erupting in giggles)
Deformed Frogs: A Cause and Effect Investigation by Kathy Allen
Pond & River by Steve Parker
Inside Animals: Frogs and Other Amphibians by David West
OWLS
Owls have adapted to a variety of habitats, with different species living in such spaces as barns, cactuses, and even holes in the ground. While their hoot might give us the shivers at night, they are amazing silent flyers, swooping down and eating other creepy creatures such as snakes and mice. The hard parts of its prey that an owl can’t digest, such as the bones, teeth, fur, or feathers, are spit up in the form of a condensed wad called an owl pellet. A fun and suitably gory Halloween activity is dissecting an owl pellet to find the bones of whatever creature it recently ate, and then attempting to reassemble those bones into a skeleton. You can search for owl pellets in an area where owls are known to reside (be sure to sterilize them!), or they can be ordered online as kits through various sellers. Here’s a link to a fun approach and some interesting information from The Wildlife Center of Virginia. One of our nearby nature centers offers an annual Owl Prowl, an opportunity for a guided walk through the woods to listen for and watch for owls, and you might be able to find one near you.
NOCTURNAL ANIMALS
Many of the creatures already mentioned in this post are nocturnal, but really any creature that goes bump in the night is fodder for discovery during the Halloween season. Want to have some creepy fun? Explore your backyard at night with a flashlight around Halloween and see what creatures you can find. Will the reflective eyes of the neighbor’s cat or a wandering possum make you jump? How about the spider web that gets stuck in your hair, the hoot of an owl, or the startled mouse that goes skittering through the leaves?
Most nocturnal animals have adaptations of some kind that allow them to survive and thrive in a darkened world, from eyes that let them see in the dark, to the use of echolocation to find their food, or the development of special sensors or overdeveloped senses. Super Teacher Worksheets has yet another article with comprehension questions on nocturnal animals.
My youngest son insisted that this post would not be complete without a reference to one of his favorite nocturnal animals, the aye-aye. Aye-ayes are lemurs that reside in Madagascar, and while in the US we don’t generally recognize these animals as particularly creepy, in their hometown they are considered to be both spooky and unlucky, apparently due to their nocturnal habits and the spooky noises they make. If you’ve never learned about the aye-aye, I definitely recommend them as a topic of study.
Unfortunately, many nocturnal animals are facing disruption to their lives due to light pollution. You can help by turning off any unnecessary lights at night, or by getting involved in any citizen science project focusing on light pollution.
MORE CREATURES
There are so many more creepy creatures to explore that we haven’t touched upon yet, but as I’m running out of time, and Halloween is almost here, I will have to hold off on some of them as potential topics for future posts. Here are a few additional ideas for exploration:
Black Cats – Why are black cats black? Explore genetics and heredity involved in cat coloration, and the history of the domestication and breeding of cats.
Crows & Ravens – What is the difference between crows and ravens? Are crows and ravens really smart? Can crows count? Do scarecrows really work?
Wolves – How did wild wolves evolve into the dogs we feel safe enough to keep in our homes? Do wolves really howl at the moon? How are wolves important to the ecosystem?
Rats – Why are rats used so often in laboratory testing? How smart are rats? Did they really grow a human ear on a rat’s back? How are rats related to diseases like the plague?
Snakes – How many different kinds of snake are there? Are all snakes poisonous? Are they slimy?
Vultures & Buzzards – Do vultures and buzzards really live on eating dead stuff? Do vultures really poop on their own feet?
Creepy Crawlies – Worms, cockroaches, scorpions, mealworms, beetles… there are SO many tiny creatures to explore. How are worms good for the garden? What are dung beetles? What makes cockroaches such great survivors?
Carnivorous Plants – Explore plants that eat animals.
AND EVEN MORE TO EXPLORE!
The Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock, an amazing collection of information and observation and study questions relating to nature, includes sections on many of these creatures, including bats, a wide array of spiders, owls, wolves, cats, crows and ravens, worms and earthworms, a variety of snakes, newts and salamanders, frogs and toads, vultures, and a massive selection of insects, bugs and other creepy crawlies. Ranger Rick Magazine has an extensive collection of kid-friendly online articles and photos about a variety of animals and animal groups.
To attract various creatures to visit your backyard for observation, I recommend the activities in the book Attracting Wildlife to Your Backyard: Month by Month Projects for Family Fun by Marcus Schneck. To keep track of your research on various animals, you can create and keep a nature journal, write reports on your favorite animals, or design your own book, website, presentation, blog, or video on what you’ve learned. Did you know that a lot of these animals are food for each other? You can create a web of how these animals are connected by exploring what they eat, a food web! Art projects abound when you start talking about animals of any kind. From puppets to clay sculptures to paintings to Legos, you can even find instructions online to make origami versions of just about every creature listed in this post.
Halloween also presents a great time to learn about the gore and grossness that is animal anatomy. We disagree with using real animals for dissection in biology labs, however, so instead we offer a couple of death-free options. Several years ago, we used a program called Froguts to learn about frog anatomy. It’s an amazing program that lets you virtually dissect a frog, scalpel and pins and all, without having to kill anything. In addition to frogs, the program includes rats, owl pellets, and more. I was disappointed to discover that the program is no longer being updated or available for sale, but was heartened to learn that there is a free download available through The Science Bank, which is a whole webstore devoted to alternatives for animal use in education. There you can find additional resources, such as 3D models, charts, videos, posters and more that covers the anatomy of worms, cats, rats, cockroaches, and frog life cycles, too.
In addition to all the resources mentioned above, to learn more about these and other creatures, we recommend:
The Wild Kratts videos and book series
National Geographic magazine and website
The Magic Schoolbus videos and book series relating to animals
Wildlife Rockstars or similar animal presentation and conservation groups
Visiting your local library
Exploring a zoo, wildlife rehabilitation center, nature center, wilderness area, or similar organization near you!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!
I would like to express a hearty thank you to my two youngest children and my partner for their support and suggestions while writing this post.
Thriving on Homeschooling is not sponsored by or affiliated with any of the companies or organizations that are mentioned in this post. Any links or references made are because our family has, at one time or another, found these resources to be useful in our homeschooling endeavors.
What creepy creatures have you explored? What are your favorite resources for exploring them? I’d really like to hear more about your experiences! Please post any ideas you’re willing to share in the comments section below.