Goblins and witches that used to roam school hallways in late October have become ghosts of Halloweens past at many Valley schools.

Most now offer fall educational activities in lieu of costume parties.

Taking up a school day for costume parties, parades or other events in honor of the Oct. 31 occasion pulls children away from academics and violates some families' religious beliefs, many educators say.

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"We've been encouraging fall-type festival things," said Jim Cummings, a spokesman in the Peoria Unified School District. "As opposed to ghosts and goblins, you can link it a lot more with classroom activities."

Pumpkin viewings, listening to teachers read books about pumpkins, making graphs representing the number of plastic spiders and other fall or Halloween-type lessons often take place around this time of year in Valley schools.

Some schools will have parades this week where kindergarten and first-grade pupils will dress up in Halloween costumes; several have fall festivals with subtle Halloween themes in the evenings.

In the Scottsdale Unified School District, a fall festival, kindergarten parade, pumpkin walk, and "crazy hair day" are some of the Halloween activities going on this week in elementary and middle schools.

At Fuller Elementary School in Tempe, the parent-teacher association will have a "Trunk or Treat" Halloween gathering where costume-clad children can collect candy from parents' decorated vehicle trunks Friday night.

Amy Strefling, Fuller principal, said teachers could have Halloween parties that are "academic in nature" on Friday and kindergartners and first-graders can participate in a short costume parade at the school that day.

Alvin Rosenfeld, a psychiatrist in New York City and Greenwich, Conn., believes Halloween celebrations are healthy for children.

"Halloween gives them a chance to dress up as their alter-egos, or to express their fears, dreams, hopes, nightmares and anxieties through a costume," Rosenfeld wrote in an e-mail. "It gives them a night when adults shower them with unlimited sweets.

"How sad it would be to steal that from them for some ersatz academic, religious or politically correct reason."

Fuller kindergarten teacher Amber Larson says that in the past, some parents said their religious beliefs prohibited their children from participating in a Halloween party.

So Larson brings spooky, fun creatures to school. Kindergarten classes viewed bats, a tarantula, scorpions and other enclosed "creepy crawlies" brought to school by a Phoenix Zoo employee earlier this month.

"I don't teach ghosts and monsters and witches," she said. "I try to tie it back into science."

In Mesa Public Schools' Jordan Elementary School in Chandler, students are not encouraged to wear costumes but teachers can have short autumn-themed parties Friday if they choose, Principal Mark Andrews said. Michele Moses, whose daughter Gabriela Bell, 6, attends Ahwatukee Foothills' Kyrene Monte Vista Elementary School, says she thinks Halloween celebrations make for "a fun day for the kids."

Monte Vista's parent-teacher organization is organizing a Pumpkin Patch Party on Friday night at the school.

"The small amount of time that would be taken away from instruction, that doesn't bother me," Moses said. "They're young. Let school be a place they associate with fun."