12 Fun Halloween Learning Activities for Toddlers and Preschool Kids
12 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.
🎃 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.
🧟♀️🧟♂️ 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.
🧙 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.
🕸️ 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.
🎃 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.
8 - 12 🎃 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:
8.
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.
9. 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!
10. 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!
11. 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!
12. 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
🎨 Final 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!
