Kids love Halloween, and it’s not just because of the tasty treats. It’s a fun time of year to celebrate fall, dress up in costumes and enjoy different activities.
At your preschool or childcare center, you can have fun with unique activities leading up to the holiday to engage your students in a new way. You’ll find neat ideas, from fun snack ideas to letter and number activities.
Here’s a list of fun Halloween activities to engage children at your childcare center.
Preschool Halloween Activities
Teachers and students will have a blast with these Halloween-themed activities that are great for young students.
- Sensory Bins
You can create sensory bins out of a variety of materials. Perhaps some cut-up pieces of paper with hidden objects or beans you’ve dyed orange to get into the spirit of things. There are so many ways you can have fun with sensory bins during the Halloween holiday, such as hiding spiders, eyeballs, and tiny ghosts.
- Make an Erupting Jack’ O Lantern
This is a great STEM activity for young children. You’ll need to gather up some supplies first, though.
- White pumpkin (artificial or real)
- Baking soda
- Vinegar
- Dish soap for a more colorful eruption, or you can omit it to make the activity less expensive
- Glitter for a more fun effect, but optional if you want to reduce the clean-up after the activity
- Towels
- Spoons
- Containers
- Measuring cup
Carve your pumpkin with the best jack o lantern face. Then pour vinegar into a bowl or measuring cup for fast pouring later. Place a few scoops of baking soda inside the pumpkin. Add glitter, food coloring, and dish soap if you want a colorful explosion. Pour the vinegar inside your pumpkin for a fun explosion kids will love. If you can do the activity outside, you’ll reduce your clean-up.
- Ghost Bubbles
Children love blowing bubbles in drinks, so why not allow them to blow bubbles and learn some science along the way? This activity has a fast and easy setup process but offers a fun science activity. Learn the science of why bubbles form. For this activity, you’ll need three items.
- 3 cups of water
- ½ cup corn syrup
- 1 cup of dish soap
Mix the ingredients in a bowl. Then you can have your students decorate white cups to look like ghosts. Pour a small amount of the solution into the bottom of each ghost cup and give children a straw to begin blowing bubbles. Watch as children get excited as the cups overflow with bubbles they’ve created.
- Make Monsters from Playdough
Your students can be creative with how they decorate their monsters. Give children a hands-on activity using green playdough and a few monster decorations. Here’s what you’ll need.
- Pipe cleaners
- Colored gems
- Eyeballs
- Spiders
- PVC tubing
- Any other craft supplies that could look spooky
Give children the freedom to decorate their monsters how they please. Perhaps some children will want their monster to be extra spooky, while others might make more of a monster princess.
- Pumpkin Math
This pumpkin math game is the perfect way to work on a preschooler’s number recognition, counting, matching, and problem-solving. Plus, by the end of it, the student will have a fun jack o lantern that’s fully decorated. Download the necessary materials.
- Halloween Soap
Making soap can encourage good hygiene and get children excited about handwashing. You can teach children how to make soap while engaging them in a fun and engaging activity. Follow these spooky soap-making directions for a fun Halloween activity idea.
- Experiment with a Halloween Balloon
Teaching science to young children can be simple and fun when you use a balloon and a simple chemical reaction. Here’s what you’ll need.
- Baking soda
- Vinegar
- Water bottle (but drink the water first)
- White or orange balloons
- Measuring spoons
- Funnel to make the process a bit simpler
Start by drawing a fun face on your balloon. Blow up the balloon to stretch it out a bit but then allow the air to escape again. Now it will look like a ghost or jack o lantern to get more into the Halloween spirit of things.
Fill the empty balloon with a teaspoon of baking soda. Fill the empty water bottles with vinegar halfway. Place the balloons over the top of the water bottle, ensuring a good seal but being careful not to spill the baking soda. Then allow children to dump the baking soda into the water bottle to watch the chemical reaction. You might need to swirl the bottle a bit to get a full chemical reaction.
- Read These Festive Books
Books can make a season come to life for young children. Get children in the spirit with some of these fun books.
- Click, Clack, Boo
- Ten Timid Ghosts
- Little Boo
- Skeleton Hiccups
- We’re Going on a Ghost Hunt
- Pumpkin Jack
- Monster Musical Chairs
- Witches Brew Counting
Have fun with counting while getting into the Halloween spirit of things. Here’s what you’ll need.
- Black bowls or cauldrons
- Eyeballs, spiders, pumpkins, and other small objects to use for counting
- Laminated cards showing how many of each item to pull from the bowl/cauldron
- A spoon or tweezers for pulling the items from the bowl/cauldron
If you don’t want to make it completely Halloween-themed, you could also do this activity with fall items, such as acorns, leaves, or pine cones.
- Witch Number Tracing
Print off cards with a spooky image, such as a witch or ghost. Then add outlines of numbers next to the image. Make sure the numbers are large, as children will be using candy corn to form the numbers.
Then give the laminated cards to children to practice outlining their numbers. At the end of the activity, allow the child to enjoy the candy corn as a fun treat. Alternatively, you could use tiny pumpkin erasers or plastic spiders if you don’t want to give children a sweet treat.
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