Image of kid dressed up as a pirate
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Past to Present,

The History of Halloween Costumes

Learn about the fascinating story of why people wear Halloween Costumes!

By Meg Richardson
From the October/November 2024 Issue

Learning Objective: Learn about the fascinating story of why people wear Halloween Costumes!

Lexile® measure: 530L
Featured Skill: Text Features, Key Details,
Vocabulary: disguised, traditions, varieties, premade
Topic: Social Studies,
Common Core Standards
  • Social Studies Focus
    Long ago and today
  • Common Core Standards
    RI2.1 Key details RI.2.4 Vocabulary RI.2.5 Nonfiction text features RI.2.10 Read grade-2-appropriate informational text SL.2 Participate in conversations about grade-2 texts L.2.4.a Use sentence-level context as a clue to a word’s meaning
TEKS Standards
  • Social Studies
    (12) Culture. The student understands ethnic and/or cultural celebrations. The student is expected to: (A) identify the significance of various ethnic and/or cultural celebrations; (16) Social studies skills. The student communicates in written, oral, and visual forms. The student is expected to: (B) apply vocabulary related to chronology, including past, present, and future; (C) create and interpret timelines for events in the past and present

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It’s time to trick-or-treat! Put on your Halloween costume! Why do people wear costumes on Halloween? 

The First Halloween Costumes 

People have worn Halloween costumes for more than 2,000 years! Halloween started in Ireland. People celebrated it right before winter started.

Long ago, winter was hard. It was dark and cold. There were no electric lights or heaters. It could feel scary. 

People were scared of bad luck. They thought that bad luck could not find them if they disguised themselves. So they wore costumes. 

The costumes were made of animal skins and animal horns. 

Homemade Costumes

About 150 years ago, many people moved from Ireland to the United States. They brought Halloween traditions with them. Other people in the U.S. started celebrating Halloween too. 

They made homemade Halloween costumes. They used sheets to make ghost costumes. They used paper bags to make masks. 

Costumes From Stores 

About 100 years ago, movies became popular. People wanted to dress up as movie characters. Stores started selling costumes of characters like Mickey Mouse and Popeye. 

Costumes Today

Today there are many fun varieties of Halloween costumes. There are so many kinds! You can buy premade costumes from stores, or you can make your own. Will you dress up for Halloween?

Halloween Costume Timeline

clu/Getty Images (Homemade); Bettmann Archive/Getty Images (Store Costumes); Sabrina Helas (Fun Costumes)

150 Years Ago: Homemade costumes

100 Years Ago: Costumes from stores

Today: So many fun costumes
 

Slideshows (1)
Activities (3)
Skills Activities
Answer Key (1)
Slideshows (1)
Activities (3) Download All Quizzes and Activities
Skills Activities
Answer Key (1)
In-Person Lesson Plan
Download the Lesson Plan

Implementation

  • Small group; whole group; independent reading

Pairings and Text Connections

Before-Reading Resources

  • Text Preview Bookmarks 
    (10 minutes) Kids can cut out the nonfiction bookmark and use it to preview the text.
  • Play the Vocabulary Slideshow
    (5 minutes) Help students become familiar with vocabulary words they will see in the article.

Suggested Reading Focus

Nonfiction text features (20 minutes)

  • Point out the bar on the right side of the page. Do students know what this is? Hint: It says in the headline. (It’s a timeline.) 
  • Explain that a timeline shows the order in which things happened. You can see how long ago each thing happened on the arrow. 

After-Reading Skills Practice

(15 minutes for each activity)

  • Quiz: Comprehension check
  • Design Your Own Costume: Students can draw and write about their own Halloween costume designs.

Text-to-Speech