10 Fun Halloween Learning Activities for Toddlers and Preschool Kids
10 Fun Halloween Learning Activities for Toddlers and Preschool Kids
Halloween is the perfect time to mix play, creativity, and learning — without the sugar rush! Whether you’re a parent at home or an educator in the classroom, these simple, hands-on activities will spark curiosity, fine motor skills, and laughter.
Here are some of my favourite Halloween-themed activities designed with young children in mind. 👻
🧪 1. Spooky Magic Potion
Mix a little science and imagination! Add green slime (coloured water), and a few “creepy” ingredients like plastic spiders, googly eyes, or plastic body parts into a Halloween theme mixing bowl or cauldron. Mix and stir and ask your child to add the “ingredients” to your spooky potion.
Learning Focus: Science exploration, sensory engagement, creativity.
👻 2. Spooky Silhouette Art
This one’s a Halloween art favorite! Place a paper cutout (like a bat, pumpkin, or ghost) on cardstock and tape it down, then paint over it with sponges or brushes. When you lift the cutout, a magical silhouette appears.
Learning Focus: Fine motor skills, creativity, spatial awareness.
Watch the Video to Learn How HERE!
🧡 3. Pumpkin Spice Play Dough
Make your playtime smell amazing! Combine your favorite homemade dough recipe with pumpkin spice and orange coloring. Add cookie cutters, small pumpkins, and rolling pins for endless open-ended play.
Learning Focus: Sensory play, imagination, math and literacy through shape and pattern play.
Watch the Video to Learn How HERE!
🕷️ 4. Monster Math Sensory Bag
Turn counting and sorting into slimy fun! Fill a zip-top bag with hair gel, googly eyes, and foam numbers or spiders. Tape it to the table and invite your child to squish, move, and match — no mess required!
Learning Focus: Early math, number recognition, sensory processing.
Watch the Video to Learn How HERE!
🧙 5. Orange Salt Letter Tracing
Create a spooky writing tray with orange-dyed salt and letter cards. Kids use their finger or a paintbrush to trace letters — perfect for pre-writing practice.
Learning Focus: Literacy skills, letter formation, fine motor control.
Watch the Video to Learn How HERE!
🕸️ 6. What’s Hiding Under the Cobwebs?
Cover your sensory bin with spider webs to make a spooky sensory bin full of textures, shapes, and surprises! 👻
Add Bats, ghosts, pinecones, tongs and tweezers —lots of sensory fun for little hands. 💛
Learning Focus: Sensory exploration, tactile play, imaginative thinking.
Watch the Video to Learn How HERE!
🎃 7. Halloween Fine Motor Sensory Bin
Spooky sensory fun! 👻
Add small pumpkins, leaves, pinecones, spiders, plastic body parts and other themed Halloween items. Add cups, tongs and tweezers. This experience is full of textures, colors, and creepy-cute surprises.
Perfect for toddlers + preschoolers! 🎃
Learning Focus: Sensory exploration, tactile play, Fine motor skills.
🎃 5 Fun Things To Do with a Pumpkin
Pumpkins aren’t just for carving — they’re perfect for hands-on learning and sensory exploration! Here are 5 creative ways to use a pumpkin in your play:
1️⃣ Explore the Seeds and Pumpkin Guts
Let your little one dig right in! Squishy textures, cool temperatures, and slippery seeds make this a full sensory experience.
2️⃣ Make a Pumpkin Sensory Bag (for Younger Infants or Toddlers)
Seal pumpkin parts inside a clear zip-top bag so babies can safely explore without the mess!
3️⃣ Paint the Pumpkin
Use bubble wrap, sponges, or brushes to explore patterns and textures. Encourage creativity with bright colors or glow-in-the-dark paint!
4️⃣ Hammer Tees into the Pumpkin
Give children toy hammers and golf tees to tap into the pumpkin’s surface. A fantastic fine motor workout that’s both fun and safe!
5️⃣ Pumpkin Volcano Experiment
Cut out a Jack-o-lantern. Add baking soda, dish soap, green food coloring, and vinegar to your pumpkin for a bubbling, fizzing surprise. Science + Halloween = magic!
Learning Focus: Sensory exploration, creativity, fine motor skills, and science discovery.
🎨 Wrap-Up
Each of these Halloween activities helps children learn through play, combining fun with meaningful skill development. Whether your child is mixing potions, tracing letters, or exploring pumpkin guts, they’re building brain connections that last long after Halloween night!
💡 Want more step-by-step sensory play guidance?
👉 Explore my mini-course, Sensory Play Made Simple for easy, science-backed ideas you can use all year long!
Halloween: Tips to prepare your toddler or preschool child
Halloween: Tips to prepare your toddler or preschool child to be safe and have fun!
By Nichole Folino
Halloween can be an exciting and scary time for children. For most of their lives we have told them not to talk to strangers and now here we are sending them up to peoples houses that they don’t know and telling them to take candy from them. How can we as parents make sure that our children feel safe and have fun on Halloween night?
It is important to be honest and prepare your child in advance, even if they aren’t having anxiety. Talk to them about what the night will be like, let them know that they are safe and okay with you. Ask them what they are excited about and help them with any fears they may have. It is important that they realize that there might be scary costumes and that it is only a person underneath that.
Here are 5 tips to ensure success on Halloween.
1. For young children, it is best to avoid masks, which can be scary and also difficult to see from. We recommend using non-toxic face paint to complete their costume if needed.
2. Purchase costumes in light coloured material if possible which will help drivers to see your child on a busy street. For darker costumes, you can add reflectors to the front and back of the costume.
3. Your child’s costume should fit properly to ensure they do not trip and fall. They will be going up and down stairs quite a bit, so ensure they can move freely.
4. It is important to remember that some candy given out on Halloween can be a choking hazard for young children. Also, be sure to check it for anything that may have open wrapping or looks like it has been tampered with.
5. If you have friends who live in the area with children, it is great to invite them to join you. This could help with any anxiety your child could be facing. It’s always fun to go trick-or-treating in a group.
If you still feel that going out trick or treating may not be the best for your child, you can always look into events in your community. Check out the local mall, the library, a community centre or even consider hosting your own party and inviting friends. There are many daytime events at indoor playgrounds in the area that host Halloween parties for young children.
At Alpha’s Discovery Kids, the toddler and preschool children get to experience trick or treating indoors, and some of them for the first time! We put on costumes and each class visits all the other classes to trick or treat. The day continues with fun Halloween activities. For information about our programs, contact us.