Halloween Activities For Kids: Easy Low-Prep Sensory Play & Early Learning Halloween Activities for Classroom and Home
Updated: Oct 10
When it comes to Fall fun and thematic learning in your early childhood classroom or own home, nothing beats spooky season! Here are 16 of our favorite low-prep, easy-to-do Halloween activities for kids!
Sticker Plates
Getting in all of our favorite Halloween activities during spooky season is so much fun, and if you know me, you know I love the simple ones the most! This kept both of my kids happily engaged for a good chunk of time and all that was involved was putting stickers on a paper plate!! Novelty is over half the battle when it comes to engagement!!
Fine Motor
Creative Expression
Thematic/Seasonal Play
Cause & Effect
Spatial Awareness
Pumpkin Painting
This is the simplest activity and one that we do every year!! You can encourage them to paint and wash and repeat, or paint as decoration to leave up for the rest of the season!
Fine Motor
Creativity & Self-Expression
Seasonal Play
Color Recognition
Process Art
Simple Halloween Sensory Play
This may not be the most "photo-worthy" setup, but it is a real setup that my toddler played with for days!! I think it’s super important for us all to remember that so many parents and teachers don’t have time, money, energy (or even the desire!!) to set up elaborate creations and setups, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still offer meaningful sensory play to our little ones. It doesn’t have to look like a magazine to be worthwhile, hold their attention, and be packed with learning benefits!! That being said… If beautiful invitations to play bring you and your child joy, that is certainly a treasure!! But if they don’t, but you still want to offer sensory play, just know you can toss cereal and some cookie cutters in a large tray or pan and let them explore!
Taste-Safe & Food Exposure
Explore Capacity
Pour & Scoop
High-Engagement Fine Motor
Shape Recognition
Looking for ready-to-print materials that are perfect for the spooky season? Check out this printable pack from Love And Excellence for literacy, math, and social-emotional learning Halloween-themed activities that are just a click away!
Clothespin Pumpkin Number Match
Here is a super simple cardboard DIY pumpkin activity for toddlers and preschoolers! Older children can match numbers and practice counting, while younger children can work on fine motor abilities by squeezing and pinching the clothespins as they take them on and off of the pumpkin. Perfect for little hands and developing brains!
Alphabet Soup Potion Play
Creating sensory setups that are safe for multiple ages and stages can be tricky, but this one engaged both a toddler and a kindergartener! Letter matching and word building for my older child, fine motor, letter/sound exposure and music for my younger child, and sensory play for both!
Low-Mess Potion Play
While fizzy play is by far the most fun potion play for most kids, when my little one was just not ready for THAT much fun (aka I was not ready for that level of mess)
Cue… Low-Mess (Liquidless) Potion Play! All items are too big for choking, and the lack of liquid makes the mess super containable. Plus, we used leaves that we collected together on a nature walk as a bonus sensory experience!
Hand-Eye Coordination
Open & Close
Mix, Scoop, Pour, Dump, Transfer
Nature-Based Materials
Holiday-Themed Play
Sensory Experience
Looking for ready-to-print materials that are perfect all Autumn long? Check out this printable Bundle from Love And Excellence for literacy, math, and social-emotional learning Halloween-themed activities that are just a click away!
Candy Corn Counting
Festive math that you can eat!… if you like candy corn then this one is for you! My son really loves them and I have no idea why… but in a recent conversation with some friends I discovered he’s not alone in his love for those gross little Halloween treats! Either way, they make a great sensory bin filler and math manipulative!
Roll the dice and add the numbers using the tens frame
Add the timer if your child likes a challenge or race against the clock scenario
Sensory & Creative Play (I was offered multiple bowls of candy corn soup… yummmm....)
Use a “math mat” to encourage written math expression and number recognition
Candy Math
Don’t want them to eat alllll the Halloween candy? Use it in their play! My son was so excited when he found out his new “fun cool game” used M&M’s (his favorite!). They usually eat some while they play, but that’s part of the fun (and you can adapt it to only use candy or snacks you feel comfortable with them eating)! I used our same DIY egg carton tens frame and dice for addition practice, but added a white board for writing, and colorful containers to encourage sorting- by color, size, or other attribute! Of course, my son also made some M&M soup (much better than the candy corn soup from the last activity)!
Adding & Subtracting
Writing Practice
Taste-Safe Sensory Play
Sorting & Categorization
Fine Motor Work
Imaginative Play
Looking for academic worksheets that are perfect for sub packs, morning work, centers, or Halloween? Balance fun and learning this spooky season with this 2nd Grade Halloween fun pack! Also available for 3rd Grade in the Love And Excellence TpT Shop!
DIY Cardboard Haunted Castle
We made these Halloween friends together a few years back, so the next step was to throw them a Haunted Castle Party this Halloween season! My son always loves to build, so letting him add whatever recycled materials he wanted to use in order to change or enhance the castle design was another fun way for him to play!
Build-A-Skeleton
So easy, festive, and fun! Plus, for only a few materials, it offers great learning benefits. This is fun for home and classroom, and I often used this as a Halloween party activity each year for my students!
Body Part Recognition/ Anatomy for Preschoolers
Artistic Representation
Halloween Play
High Engagement Fine Motor
Verbs (design the skeletons so they can jump, cheer, clap, run, stand, etc.)
Halloween Window Clings
These are a favorite that I bring back almost every year because they are super cheap, reusable, and tons of fun!
Natural Light
Fine Motor
Creativity
Letters & Words
Halloween Play
Open-Ended
Popsicle Stick & Pipe Cleaner Monster Friends
I saw this idea a few years ago (but with clothespins) and one evening my son asked if we could make them before dinner. I had to admit, they were the cutest little monsters ever, and I knew that I could give him some craft sticks, glue, googley eyes, and pipe cleaners in under ten minutes, so truly, how could I have said no?!
These fuzzy friends stuck close by my son the rest of the night after we intitially made them, and even joined us at the dinner table!
Fall Friends At Play
I used our DIY Halloween rice as a base and tossed in all our DIY Autumn and Halloween friends for sensory and imaginative play!
Looking for printable and reusable resources for Preschool, Pre-K, or Kindergarten? Students will love these Fall-themed resources for Literacy, Math, Social-Emotional, and General Cognition centers and activities! Check out this Fall Activity Pack for fun tons of Fall and Halloween activities for kids!
Monster Mash Potion Play
This book has been one of our go-to stories since my older son was a few months old! Pairing it with sensory play is always so fun and provides endless possibilities for play!
Sensory Play
Potion Making/Creative Play
Dramatic Play w/ Halloween Friends
Fine Motor Work w/ Pipe Cleaners & Creepy Crawler Rings
The ABCs of Halloween
Hidden magnetic letters inside of pumpkin eggs, sensory scoops, and creepy crawlies make for some spooky sensory and learning fun! This activity adds in a sensory and fine motor component to academic skills through the options to open and close the eggs, magnetic materials for added weight and resistance, and interesting textures that boost engagement for a wide range of learners.
Paper Bag Color & Play
This is a two-for-one activity!! First, I made DIY Jumbo Coloring Pages on paper grocery bags (Halloween-themed, of course!). After we were done coloring together, we set up the bags as a Spook-tacular tossing game, using some soft ball pit balls (older kids might like to use thematic materials such as little eyeball pingpong balls). You can easily add in academic skill practice between tosses, such as reading a word, doing a math problem, or answering a question related to a learning topic of your choice!
Enjoyed these ideas and want some more free fun?! I would love for you to check out the FREE K-6th Grade Activity Guide that lets creativity, independence, and child-led learning take center stage!
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