Best movies like Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade

A Liverpool juvenile liaison officer struggles with a young and dangerous pyromaniac.

The school year is finally ending, and T.J. Detweiler is looking forward to summer. But boredom quickly sets in when his friends leave for camp — until T.J. uncovers an evil plot to do away with summer vacation! A crazy former principal, Dr. Benedict, is planning to use a laser beam to alter the weather and create permanent winter. Faced with the dire threat of year-round school, T.J. rounds up the RECESS gang and bands together with some unexpected allies — Miss Finster and Principal Prickly — in a nonstop adventure to save everyone's summer break. As the kids discover the heroes inside themselves, a platoon of wacky characters, far-out music, and sci-fi surprises turn this madcap mission into a major victory for fun!

Several days in the life of Kenny, a typical 12-year-old, and his friends. Kenny goes through all the activities that most of us went through as kids as he and his friends prepare for Halloween. Along the way, Kenny deals with such childhood issues as bullies and his first crush on a girl.

Five school friends seek adventure on Halloween night in an abandoned, haunted mine, only to find to their horror that the ghostly rumors may be true as they fight for survival.

It's Halloween 1989, best friends Sam and Josh are trying to enjoy what's left of their final Devil's Night before graduating high school. But trouble arises when the two pals and a group of friends take a detour on their way to a rock concert, finding an old abandoned barn and awakening the evil inside. Now it's up to Sam and Josh to find a way to protect their friends and defeat the creatures that lurk within "The Barn".

Madea winds up in the middle of mayhem when she spends a hilarious, haunted Halloween fending off killers, paranormal poltergeists, ghosts, ghouls, and zombies while keeping a watchful eye on a group of misbehaving teens.

Madea and the gang encounter monsters, goblins and boogeymen at a haunted campground.

Jess Aarons and new girl Leslie Burke create a world of their own and call it Terabithia and pretend to be the king and queen. They return to their magical kingdom every day after school.

A teen is visited by aliens after he broadcasts a message into space.

Mystery Inc. has cracked the case to top all cases! They’ve tracked down Coco Diablo, the head of a notorious costume crime syndicate. With Coco and her kitty in prison, Mystery Inc. thinks that they can finally enjoy a break. Wrong! Suddenly, menacing doppelgänger ghosts of the Scooby crew and favorite classic foes show up in Coolsville to threaten Halloween. Now it’s up to the meddling kids to unmask the latest scoundrel and save Halloween!

Remake of the popular Disney classic, this time featuring some well known voices as two dogs and a cat trek across America encountering all sorts of adventures in the quest to be reunited with their owners.

A comedy-adventure in which three twelve-year-olds have a close encounter with a 3,000-year-old mummy. Marshall, Gilbert and Amy accidentally set the mummy free, but if they don't get him back to his resting place by midnight on Halloween, he'll turn into dust and lose his only chance of being reunited with his long-lost love.

Max Keeble, the victim of his 7th grade class, plots revenge when he learns he's moving; it backfires when he doesn't move after all.

Disney's irresistible talking puppies are back in an all-new movie that takes them far across town to a mysterious mansion where something very spooky is going on.

A young, white school teacher is assigned to Yamacraw Island, an isolated fishing community off the coast of South Carolina, populated mostly by poor black families. He finds that the basically illiterate, neglected children there know so little of the world outside their island.

Based on the bestselling book series, DreamWorks Animation presents the long-awaited global movie event, Captain Underpants. This outrageous family comedy tells the story of two overly imaginative pranksters, George (Kevin Hart) and Harold (Thomas Middleditch), who hypnotize their principal (Ed Helms) into thinking he’s an enthusiastic, yet dimwitted, superhero named Captain Underpants.

A socially awkward home-schooled kid forces his way into public-school against his suffocating but loving mother's wishes.

It's Halloween day in 1989 and college student Jackie Blue wants to enjoy a quiet birthday in the midst of a chaotic semester at school. Her friend Amber has other ideas and persuades Jackie to come to the annual Halloween party on campus after her shift at the local movie theater. As the night unfolds, it becomes apparent that Jackie will get more excitement than she bargained for on her birthday this year.

Four children learn the origins of Halloween customs while trying to save the life of their friend.

A teen faces a night of terror when three malevolent trick-or-treaters come knocking at her door.

A young Halloween buff accidentally downloads recently deceased stand-up comic, who ends up helping her foil two bumbling crooks, as well as finishing her haunted house.

When principal Joe Clark takes over decaying Eastside High School, he's faced with students wearing gang colors and graffiti-covered walls. Determined to do anything he must to turn the school around, he expels suspected drug dealers, padlocks doors and demands effort and results from students, staff and parents. Autocratic to a fault, this real-life educator put it all on the line.

Phil, Melissa, Mitch, Mary, and Vinnie are high school friends, who unwittingly raise the dead on Halloween night. Once the dead have returned, Pitchford Cove will never be the same again....or will it?

Halloween is an exciting time of year for Hannah Marie who is joined by her Scary Godmother and all sorts of new friends including kooky monsters, friendly vampires and silly skeletons. It's a journey to the Fright Side she'll never forget as Hannah and her friends must foil her cousin Jimmy's plans to ruin Halloween for everyone!

A group of middle schoolers discover a Spirit Halloween store is haunted and must survive the night.

When the nephews come to Donald's house in their Halloween costumes he dumps water on them and laughs at his trick. A witch sees this and decides to help the kids. By magic she gives Donald a bad time and the kids finally get their treats.

A young third grader named Molly Conway suffers depression when she finds out about her parents are getting divorced. She tries everything to get them together, but mostly backfires and eventually accepts their departure.

Jack Powell suffers from an affliction that makes him grow four times faster than normal, so the 10-year-old looks like a 40-year-old man. After years of being tutored at home, Jack convinces his overprotective parents to send him to public school. The children don't know what to make of Jack, but with the help of his fifth-grade teacher, he makes an effort to win them over.

Four children enter a high-stakes lottery. If they win, they can attend one of the best schools in New York. A look at the crisis in public education, The Lottery makes the case than any child can succeed.

A modern-day retelling of the Arthurian legend with the Lady of the Lake as a reporter and Pendragon as an evil businessman. Merlin's immortal apprentice is trying to protect a powerful sword forged by Merin from the clutches of Pendragon.

Peter Gifford is a likable, dedicated schoolteacher that teaches a senior life skills class. When student Janet Sommers brings up the topic of sex and dating, he asks students to write questions on the topic, and will cover them in the next class. The parents get wind of what Gifford is about to do, notify the principal, and he warns Peter not to read the questions in class. Gifford decides to go against this and is suspended. The whole student body protests, and the administration gets worried on what to do.

Following an incident on Halloween, the lives of a roofer, waitress, romantic rookie, and mysterious clairvoyant converge due to an undiscovered connection.

Monster High: Ghouls Rule unearths an old conflict between "Normies" and monsters - and things are about to get scary! For years, students at Monster High were warned that Halloween was a night to stay inside and avoid conflict at all costs. But Frankie and her friends discover that ghouls and "Normies" once loved to spend the holiday together! The ghouls decide to turn back the clock and use the night to celebrate their individuality and show that it's okay to "Be Yourself. Be Unique. Be a Monster!"

After releasing a mythical monster upon the islands, a group of three young friends must use local legends to restore peace to their home.

A witch, disgruntled by the fact that no one takes Halloween seriously anymore, decides to stir things up and disrupt the social gathering in her old house as well as turn a couple of kids who love monsters into actual monsters.

The story of Charlie Darby, who has everything going for him: a great job, friends, family, the whole package. The one thing Charlie doesn't have is love, because every time he gets close, he goes clinically insane. When he meets the perfect girl, Charlie must overcome his psychosis to claim his chance at true love.

An adaption of the British TV series, this documentary chronicles the lives of a group of economically, racially and socially diverse 7-year olds living throughout America in 1990. The filmmakers will return every seven years to chronicle the children's growth.

Five 2nd-grade kids who don't follow strict rules by their school principal Brinway are dubbed "Stinkers" by him. On the class visit to an aquarium the Stinkers decide that a sea lion called Slappy doesn't feel too good there, "free" him, and plant him into Brinway's hot-tub.

Growing up in a small town, Charlie, Alex and Nick weren't the most popular kids around after they formed "The Elite Monster Unit". Chasing notorious, mythical legends and ghosts was exciting to them, not "cool" to the other kids around. So they lived their lives on the outside of the "in" crowd. Making matters worse was Charlie's obvious crush on Brandy, one of the most popular kids in school and sister to one of the biggest bullies around. Trying to impress Brandy, Charlie accepts a dare from her brother Nick that says he and his friends must spend Halloween night in a house long rumored to be haunted.What seems to be an easy challenge quickly turns out to be a night of frights as Charlie, Nick and Alex find themselves in the fight of their lives trying to out smart (and outrun) their new nemesis, a ghost dog named Salty, who does whatever he can to make this the worst night of their lives...

Poppy Summerall is hired near Halloween as a temporary nanny by Ryan Lawson, a widowed, work-obsessed executive. Through a series of adventures, the eternally optimistic Poppy sets out to teach Ryan and his two young children what is important in life - unconditional love, family and the joy of everyday occurrences. Poppy and Ryan soon find they are drawn to each other. Could it become more than temporary?

Young career woman Samantha 'Sam' Hoyt gets swept off her feet by Benjamin 'Ben' Rosen, who romances her better then anyone before, so she jumps at the offer of becoming his fiancée. If Ben thought a girls typical obsession with the perfect wedding was testing, she soon proves a particularly bad case, and before he gets used to that meeting each-others parents complicates things gravely, as Jewish and church wedding traditions don't exactly mix easily. They take their time preparing while living together. Then fate strikes again: the key man from the client of her firms advertising campaign is Luke Stinson, the perfect gay at college whom she could never date because of a rather serious fall just when they could have kissed. Luke proves still as irresistible, gorgeous, charming, easy-going and simply too sexy for any female not to lust for at first sight, and...

A young couple buy their dream home in New Orleans, only to be tormented by an obsessive mother who believes the house should be hers.

12-year-old Riley Ann Taylor recently lost her grandfather, who died right in front of her while teaching her how to play soccer. She soon finds a portal leading to the place people talk about but never see: Heaven. She gains a miraculous healing ability and uses it to help those who are sick but soon gains the diseases these people and animals had. You know what they say, every good thing comes with a price.

10 years after a young girl goes missing on Halloween night, her sister returns to their hometown to look for answers. Along the way she becomes entangled with two mysterious identical twins who run the town's roadside haunted house.

As Marshall, Gilbert and Amy are preparing for her father’s Spooktacular Halloween-themed wedding to his fiancé Carl, plans go awry when they discover that their mummy friend Harold and his beloved Rose may be in danger.

On Halloween night, Hairy Scarey, Winifred Witch and Screech Ghost are plotting their mean-spirited spookings. Casper refuses to join them and decides to go trick-or-treating dressed as a real boy, but neighborhood kids see through his disguise and run away in fear. Casper is heartbroken until he meets a special group of orphans who accept him for who he is, a ghost. But their fun is soon spoiled as Hairy Scary and his ghostly crew interfere. Now it is up to Casper and his new friends to stop their ghastly games and save Halloween before it is too late. --Wikipedia

The Cat in the Hat takes Nick and Sally on the craziest Halloween adventure, where they go to the Oooky-ma-kooky Closet to help find Nick and Sally the best Halloween costumes ever.

In 1986, three teens were brutally murdered after knocking on the door of 59 Oakwood Lane. The killer was never found. Over the next forty years, rumors turned to legend, and while few will admit to believing the stories, kids are still warned never knock on the door of 59 Oakwood Lane for fear of what may answer. On this Halloween night, Grace and her friends are going to wish they’d heeded the warnings and never knocked…

A zombie wedding party gets locked inside a Halloween Store on Halloween night and faces the wrath of the return of the legendary, possessed cowboy, Ole Jeremiah, who means to make sure nobody gets out alive.

An unflinching verité portrait of the children of Stanton Elementary School in North Philadelphia, an inner-city neighborhood where 90% of the students live below the poverty line. Seen through the viewpoint of devoted principal Deanna Burney, the film shows Stanton as grossly underfunded, understaffed, and filled with children struggling to overcome their difficulties. But for these at-risk kids, however, the hope for their future survives only in the success of their education. A captivating series of vignettes concerning children growing up outside the American dream, echoing current “hot-button” issues in our country’s ongoing political discussion.