🎃 Trick or Teach: Halloween Themed Fun in Preschool

October brings cooler weather, colorful leaves, and one of the most exciting holidays for preschoolers — Halloween! It’s the perfect time to mix spooky fun with hands-on learning. From themed books and crafts to sensory play and math games, Halloween offers endless opportunities to engage young learners while keeping lessons playful and developmentally appropriate.

👻 Halloween-Themed Books

Reading Halloween stories helps build vocabulary, spark imagination, and set the tone for the season. We love matching activities to the books we read, too! Choose books that are festive but not too scary for little ones. Here are a few classroom favorites:

• “Room on the Broom” by Julia Donaldson – A fun rhyming story about friendship and teamwork.

• “The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything” by Linda Williams – Perfect for call-and-response storytelling and movement.

• “How to Catch a Monster” by Adam Wallace & Andy Elkerton – A playful story about a brave kid who sets out to catch the monster hiding in his closet—only to discover that the monster isn’t scary at all.

• "Pete the Cat: Trick or Pete" by James Dean – A fun Halloween story where Pete goes trick-or-treating with his friends.

• "Creepy Carrots" by Aaron Reynolds – A fun tale about imagination, paranoia, and getting what you deserve.

Click below for our Amazon Halloween Books for Preschool affiliate link. We have so many books included in the list to keep the month fun and festive!

🧙‍♀️ Halloween Crafts

Crafting is a wonderful way for preschoolers to develop fine motor skills and creativity. Try these easy, low-prep ideas:

• Paper Plate Pumpkins: Provide orange plates, black construction paper shapes, and glue sticks for children to create their own jack-o’-lantern faces.

• Halloween Handprint Art: Use our amazing set of handprint art for a cute keepsake.

  

• Spider Web Art: Have children use white yarn or string to weave “webs” across a black paper plate. We like to cut out the center of the paper plate and use a whole punch around the edges. number the wholes to add a good number sense review and to help students go across the plate with the string. Add a plastic spider to the web for a added touch!

  

  

  

• Decorate Tiny Pumpkins: All you need is tiny pumpkins (real or fake), glue and tissue paper. Paint glue on the pumpkin and place colorful tissue paper to decorate. Add some glitter to make it extra fancy!

  

• Halloween Directed Drawing: Easy to follow tutorials on YouTube! Here is one of our favorite creators:

🕸️ Halloween Sensory Bins

Sensory play engages multiple senses and encourages exploration, sorting, and problem-solving. Try one of these Halloween-themed sensory bins:

• Pumpkin Patch Bin: Fill a bin with orange rice, mini plastic pumpkins, and scoops. Add number cards to “pick” pumpkins and count them out.

• Witch’s Brew: Green glass beads, colorful jewels, plastic spiders and bugs, and cauldrons. Include spoons and ladles for stirring “potions.”

• Spooky Texture Bin: Combine cotton balls (ghosts), dry black beans (bats), and small Halloween toys for a mix of textures and hidden treasures. Use the bins to introduce descriptive language like squishy, bumpy, or smooth.

• Halloween Fun and Games: FIll your sensory bin with a variety of Halloween themed items. Include mats to play tic-tac-toe and trays to practice 10 frames with eyeballs.

🧛‍♂️ Halloween-Themed Gross Motor Activities

Movement activities help children strengthen coordination, balance, and body awareness — all while having fun!

• Monster Mash Freeze Dance: Play Halloween tunes and have students dance like monsters, ghosts, or skeletons. When the music stops — freeze!

• Jack Hartmann Brain Break Videos - Silly Themed dances to get moving!

• Pumpkin Roll Relay: Use mini pumpkins for a relay race. Kids can roll them with their hands, elbows, or even their noses!

• Spider Web Obstacle Course: Use yarn or crepe paper to create a “web” that children must crawl under or step over.

• Bat Balance: Have children walk on a taped “bat path” on the floor while flapping their arms like wings.

• Halloween Themed Yoga - Stories to get kids moving! We love Cosmic Kids Yoga!

These games burn off energy while reinforcing listening skills and teamwork.

🎃 Make A Halloween Snack!

• Spookly Square Pumpkin Snack - Graham Cracker Squares - Spread orange frosting on the graham cracker and draw a little face with frosting.

• Halloween Trail Mix - This is fun because each student can contribute to the mix and students can customize what they like! Items to consider including: cereal (especially Halloween themed cereal), cheez it crackers, candy corn, chocolate chips, pretzels, marshmallows, popcorn, chocolate candies and anything else that sounds yummy!

  

  
  

🧮 Halloween Math

Halloween math activities make counting, sorting, and pattern recognition exciting!

• Candy Corn Counting: Use real or paper candy corn to practice number recognition, patterns, and one-to-one correspondence. Click below for Candy Corn centers and math learning.

  

• Pumpkin Patterns: Cut out orange, green, and black pumpkin shapes to create AB, AAB, or ABC patterns.

• “How Many in the Cauldron or Pumpkin?” Game: Fill a small cauldron or plastic pumpkin with Halloween erasers or pompoms. Students guess, then count how many items are inside.

• Halloween Number Games - Included themed cards to play Go fish, memory, sorting and matching games. Click below to find our Halloween Number Games resource!

  

Math becomes more meaningful when children can touch, move, and play with themed materials.

🧙‍♀️ Halloween Learning - Worksheets and Centers

• Halloween Activities - 12 Halloween themed preschool level worksheets to reinforce skills! Click the link below to check it out!

  

• Shapes Jack O'Lantern Center - Decorate Jack O'Lanterns with different shapes! Perfect for a little independence practice and creative fun. Click below for the center!

• Pumpkin Exploration - Grab a real pumpkin and learn about the pumpkin life cycle and parts of a pumpkin. Click below for resources for pumpkin exploration and check out our YouTube videos all about it.

  

🎃 Wrapping It All Up

Halloween is more than costumes and candy—it’s a chance to make learning magical with themed books, snacks, crafts, sensory experiences, and active games, preschoolers can explore literacy, math, and creativity in a way that feels like pure fun. By weaving in these hands-on activities, you’ll create a classroom full of laughter, curiosity, and a love for learning that lasts long after October 31st.