As Halloween is approaching we’ve been having fun starting the celebration early. Halloween-themed activities are a fun way to keep curiosity and the love of learning alive.
Whether you are distance learning or homeschooling, these awesome ideas are sure to be a hit in your household. Here are a few of our favorite Halloween activities we’ve completed so far.
Spooky Ghost Blow Art
Take painting to the next level with this Spooky Ghost Blow Art activity. You will need black construction paper, white paint, and a straw. Simple!
Drop a few dots of white paint on a piece of black construction paper.
Next, take a straw and hold the straw at an angle right at the base of the white paint.
Blow into the straw and watch the paint spread.
Play with the direction of the straw as you blow on the paint. Observe what happens to the shape of the ghost with each movement.
The last step: take googly eyes and place them on your ghost. You can use a sharpie when the paint dries to draw a mouth on your new spooky creation.
He decided to make one huge ghost with about twenty eyes. I enjoyed watching him count every eye as he talked about his spooky Halloween ghost.
Halloween Themed Writing Center
Getting a child who prefers to move when he learns to sit and practice writing is no easy task. Depending on your child’s age you can tweak the center to reflect their writing level.
We are currently working on identifying lowercase letters as well as practicing writing both upper and lower case letters.
Materials on the writing center include an upper and lowercase stamp set with tombstone shaped paper. A small whiteboard and a few easy Halloween sight words in a bucket. A pumpkin notepad and a mason jar with various writing tools. The goal is to make the center look fun and enticing. Never make them stay longer than they want too.
Create Your Own Spooky Story
We used the pumpkin notebook to create our very own spooky Halloween story. Together we chose three of the Halloween sight words and created a short story around them. Although, I wrote down the majority of the story as he dictated. His job was to write down the Halloween sight word when it was first used in the story.
Halloween Playdough Station
Theme or no theme, a playdough center is the perfect sensory and fine motor skill activity. We love making our playdough from scratch. Not only is it super soft and non-toxic, but we can also always find the ingredients in our pantry. The recipe we use does not contain cream of tartar.
Depending on the age of your child, making playdough is something that can be done on a countertop together. Just be careful, the wet ingredients have to be on the very warm to hot side when mixing with the dry ingredients. Place all the wet ingredients in the microwave for about 45 seconds to a minute. Mix the wet and dry ingredients together and mix until it forms a ball. Knead the playdough until it cools down.
- 1 cup of flour
- ¼ cup of salt
- ¾ cup of water
- 1 tablespoon of oil
- 3 tablespoons of lemon juice or vinegar
- Black and orange food coloring
Set out Halloween cookie cutters, craft items, and a rolling pin for the playdough.
Charlie the Spider Craft
Roll a small piece of black playdough into a ball. This is the main body of the spider. Set out google eyes and small pieces of black pipe cleaner for spider legs. Let your child create their own spider with as many legs and eyes as they would like.
Jack O’ Lantern Math Activity
A simple and exciting way to introduce basic geometry concepts is through a fun hands-on symmetry activity. Take orange card stock or construction paper and cut out four pumpkin shapes.
On the paper, pumpkins draw a different Jack o’ lantern face on each one. Introduce the word symmetry and cut the pumpkins in half in front of your child. Cut all four pumpkins in half. Explain two sides of the pumpkins which are the same is symmetrical. Use two different pumpkin sides to demonstrate an asymmetrical pumpkin.
Using two sheets of black construction paper have your child glue two symmetrical pumpkins on one sheet. And two asymmetrical pumpkins on the other. Easy peasy!
The main goal of this activity is to simply introduce the words Symmetrical and Asymmetrical. Don’t worry too much if your child is still confused on the concept.
Don’t forget to comment on which Halloween activities you are going to try out this season. For more homeschooling inspiration follow us on Instagram @mom.life_with.u.
