PartyGrids

Halloween Crossword

Sixteen Halloween answers, from bat to trick or treat, linked in one numbered grid with Across and Down clues and an answer key. Written for third to fifth grade: spooky enough for October, with nothing gory in it.

Your crossword

One per line: the answer, a colon, then the clue. Spaces in an answer are fine; the grid leaves them out.16 answers
Clues
Adds “(5,3)” to the clue for an answer like Milky Way
Lists every answer under the clues, for an easier puzzle
Printing
Paper
A separate page with the grid filled in

Preview · 14 x 17 · 16 answers placed

Halloween Crossword

Across

  1. 4The dark shape made when something blocks the light
  2. 5Awake at night and asleep by day, as most owls are
  3. 7Halloween falls on the last day of this month
  4. 11Clothes you wear to dress up as someone or something else
  5. 12The only mammal that can truly fly
  6. 13Strange in a way that makes you feel a little scared
  7. 14What children say at each door on Halloween night (5,2,5)
  8. 15A large pot for cooking over a fire, like the one a witch stirs in stories

Down

  1. 1Twelve o’clock, when one day ends and the next begins
  2. 2A hollow pumpkin with a face cut into it and a light inside (4-1-7)
  3. 3Said to be visited by ghosts
  4. 4A figure stuffed with straw and set in a field to frighten birds away
  5. 6Something you wear so that nobody knows who you are
  6. 8An eight-legged creature that spins silk
  7. 9The frame of bones inside your body
  8. 10To cut wood or a pumpkin into a shape

Who it is for

Third to fifth grade. The clues are short definitions in everyday words, the kind a class meets in a vocabulary lesson, and the answers mix easy Halloween words (bat, spider, costume) with a few that stretch a nine-year-old: nocturnal, disguise and eerie. Answers run from three letters to twelve, and the two longest are phrases with their word lengths shown, so nobody is left counting squares for a word that doesn't exist.

Every answer crosses at least one other, so the easy ones hand out letters for the hard ones. A child who writes in bat and costume already has a start on the words that cross them, which keeps a puzzle with a few new words in it fair.

In class and at the party

  • Party-day morning work. On desks before the bell, it holds a room of excited children until the costume parade, and it needs no explaining to a class that has done a crossword before.
  • Vocabulary review. Nocturnal, disguise and eerie are worth knowing after October too. Put them on the board before the puzzle, and ask for a sentence with each once it is done.
  • A science link. Bat and nocturnal open a short talk about animals that are busy at night, such as owls, raccoons and most moths, and what helps them find their way in the dark.
  • Costume party. Solve it in pairs and race. The first pair with a full grid that matches the answer key picks the next game.

Easier or harder

For second grade, or a class new to crosswords, tick "Add a word bank" so the answers print under the clues, and cut the list to ten by deleting the lines for cauldron, nocturnal, haunted, disguise, midnight and eerie. The ten that are left still make one linked grid. Read the clues aloud together before anyone starts.

For fifth grade and up, untick "Show word lengths for phrases" so jack-o'-lantern and trick or treat give nothing away, and turn a few definitions into riddles: "I have eight legs and make my own rope" for spider, or "I stand in a field all day and never eat the corn" for scarecrow. Press Shuffle for a second layout if neighbours might copy; the clues stay the same.

Printing

The PDF puts the grid and both clue lists on one page, with or without the word bank, and the answer key on a page of its own, so you can print a class set of the puzzle and a single key. Only the answer squares are outlined, which saves ink, and light orange paper looks the part while keeping the clue numbers readable. Hand out pencils rather than pens: crosswords are solved with an eraser close by.

The 16 answers and their clues

The grid is 14 x 17, with 8 answers across and 8 down. Edit an answer or a clue above and the puzzle is rebuilt as you type; Shuffle gives another layout of the same answers.

Show the answers and clues
Jack-o'-lantern
A hollow pumpkin with a face cut into it and a light inside
Cauldron
A large pot for cooking over a fire, like the one a witch stirs in stories
Skeleton
The frame of bones inside your body
Costume
Clothes you wear to dress up as someone or something else
Scarecrow
A figure stuffed with straw and set in a field to frighten birds away
Bat
The only mammal that can truly fly
Spider
An eight-legged creature that spins silk
Trick or treat
What children say at each door on Halloween night
October
Halloween falls on the last day of this month
Nocturnal
Awake at night and asleep by day, as most owls are
Haunted
Said to be visited by ghosts
Disguise
Something you wear so that nobody knows who you are
Midnight
Twelve o’clock, when one day ends and the next begins
Shadow
The dark shape made when something blocks the light
Carve
To cut wood or a pumpkin into a shape
Eerie
Strange in a way that makes you feel a little scared
Printable Halloween Crossword and answer key: a 14 x 17 numbered grid with clues for 16 answers, among them Bat, Carve and Cauldron.
This puzzle with two answers filled in. The answer key comes on a page of its own.

Frequently asked questions

Is it too scary for a third-grade class?

No. The answers are the Halloween children dress up for and read about: a scarecrow, a costume, a spider, a carved pumpkin. The spookiest clue is the one for eerie, and nothing on the list is gory. If one answer still bothers a child, delete its line; the grid is rebuilt without it, and the preview names anything that no longer fits.

Some families in my class skip Halloween. Is there an autumn version?

You can make one in a couple of minutes. Delete the lines for jack-o'-lantern, cauldron, skeleton, haunted, disguise, eerie and trick or treat, and change the October clue to "The month after September". Then add five autumn answers with clues of your own, such as "Acorn: The nut of an oak tree", "Squirrel: A bushy-tailed animal that buries nuts for winter", "Leaves: Many trees drop them in autumn", "Hayride: A trip on a wagon piled with straw bales" and "Harvest: Bringing in the ripe crops". The fourteen answers still link into one grid. Change the title to Autumn Crossword before you print.

What do the numbers in brackets after two of the clues mean?

They are word lengths. (4-1-7) after the jack-o'-lantern clue says the answer is three words of four, one and seven letters joined by hyphens; (5,2,5) says trick or treat is three separate words. The grid has no spaces, so without the numbers a solver would hunt for a single twelve-letter word. Untick "Show word lengths for phrases" to leave them off for a harder puzzle.

Bats are the only mammals that fly? What about flying squirrels?

Flying squirrels glide. They spread a flap of furry skin that stretches between their front and back legs and sail downwards from one tree to the next. A bat flaps its wings, so it can climb, turn and stay up in the air, which is what "truly fly" means in the clue. It makes a good two-minute science question once the puzzles are handed in.

Is there a Halloween word search or bingo game to go with it?

Yes. The Halloween word search is written for first to third grade, so it suits younger brothers and sisters or a class that isn't ready for clues yet. Halloween bingo has fifty words for the whole party. Several answers here, such as cauldron, scarecrow and skeleton, appear in both.

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