Spooktacular Halloween Crafts & Activities for Kids
Halloween is a time of wonder, excitement, and creativity for children, making it an ideal occasion for incorporating play-based learning into festive crafts and activities. Parents and educators can use Halloween’s engaging themes to nurture children’s natural curiosity while supporting their cognitive, physical, and social-emotional development. By blending hands-on activities with the spooky fun of the season, children can explore important developmental skills such as fine motor coordination, problem-solving, and collaborative play. In this blog, we’ll explore a variety of Halloween crafts and activities that promote play-based learning and early childhood development, offering fun ways for children to learn while celebrating the spirit of Halloween.
You can also download our FREE Halloween Printable activities here
Skeleton Soup Water Play
Get ready for some spooky sensory fun with this Skeleton Soup water play invitation! This is such a fun and easy halloween themed water play activity that children will love as they pour, scoop, measure and create!
Collect all kinds of spooky loose parts, scoops, bowls. jugs, etc and place them in your playtray compartments. Then fill it with water and gently stir in black liquid watercolour paint. Add your scoops, kichen utensils, bowls, and spooky ingredients in the water etc. Then invite children to mix and explore creating soup!
Sensory Exploration: Water play helps children engage their senses, exploring textures, temperatures, and movement.
Fine Motor Skills: Scooping, pouring, and stirring enhance hand-eye coordination and strengthen small hand muscles.
Imagination & Creativity: Children use their creativity to create spooky concoctions, building narratives and stories in their play.
Get ready for some spooky fun with this process art invitation that lets creativity run wild! Using spoons and paint, children can create their own unique monster masterpieces, exploring different textures, colours, and patterns while expressing their creativity. This process art activity focuses on the journey of creation rather than the outcome, fostering confidence and self-expression in young artists.
Why is this activity beneficial?
Creative Expression: Encourages children to explore different techniques and freely express their ideas.
Process Art: Focuses on exploration, sensory experiences, and the act of creating—perfect for early childhood development.
Fine Motor Skills: Using spoons to manipulate the paint strengthens hand-eye coordination and dexterity.
Open-Ended Play: No right or wrong, just fun! Let children experiment with mixing colours and creating their own monster designs.
Extend the learning:
Add googly eyes or other craft materials to bring their monsters to life!
Ask questions like, "What kind of monster is this?" or "What happens if we mix these two colours?"
Encourage children to describe their monsters and tell a story about them.
Bubble bubble toil & trouble, what will we find hidden in your spooky sensory brew? This sensory activity is a great way to celebrate Halloween and create some spooky sensory.
Boil your pasta in food colouring water (do about three colours) and drain! Place in a freezer bag and ensure the colours are fully mixed. Then allow to cool! In playtray compartments add your ingredients for your brew; bats, bugs, eyes, crystals, bones and more!
When ready in your PlayTray place all your coloured spaghetti and mix all your ingredients in and encourage children to explore!
Extending the play:
-Can they sort all your brew’s ingredients?
-Can they follow recipe cards?
-Measure put a certain amount of pasta for each brew!
-Describe how your sensory soup feels?
Can you rescue all the spiders who have fallen off their web and balance them?! This fun and easy activity is a great way to build fine motor skills and practice hand eye coordination!
In a PlayTray pour a black sensory base (I used black beans) and hide spiders all around. Once you have all your spiders hidden take white Mavalus tape and form a web all over the top of the tray! Offer fine motor tools for children to use to rescue the spiders than balance them on the web.
Can you create the letters to match the gravestones?
To create this activity simply fill a container with dirt (or a black sensory base) and place the bones throughout the tray. Then take a sheet of black construction paper and cut out gravestone shapes and use a white crayon or chalk marker to write uppercase letters on them and place them around the tray! Encourage children to either write the letter with their finger in the dirt and then use the bones to form the letter.
Ways to extend the play:
-Count how many bones you used to form each letter
-See how many letters you can form with the bones available
-Match the alphabet gravestones to premade alphabet letters
Can you tell some spooky stories with your new monster friends? These process art monster puppets ARE so fun.
Pour washable tempera paint on a plate and offer plastic forks! Then dip the forks in the paint and create monsters of all shapes, sizes, colours and textures. Let them dry and cut them out and then add glue to Popsicle sticks and paste your monsters.
Begin telling your spooky stories!
This activity is a great way to get kids outside and exploring an easy STEM Halloween themed activity!
All you need for this activity is:
‑Pumpkin
‑A shallow bowl
‑Baking Soda
‑Water
‑Vinegar
‑Dish soap
‑Food Colouring
Step One: Carve and clean out a pumpkin
Step Two: Place 3 scoops of Baking Soda, 1/4 cup water, a spoonful of dishsoap, 8 drops of food colouring in a shallow bowl and mix it up! Pour vinegar in a separate cup!
Step three: Place your bowl in the pumpkin near the mouth, and once ready pour vingear in your mixture and watch your pumpkin juice explode and flow
Haunted Counting Houses
Math meets spooky fun in this engaging Haunted House Counting invitation! Perfect for blending play-based learning with math, this activity invites children to use loose parts like googly eyes, bones, and spiders to explore early numeracy skills in a playful, hands-on way. Each haunted house on the mat is numbered, encouraging children to practice counting and one-to-one correspondence—all while enjoying the Halloween excitement!
Using tweezers to place the items also strengthens fine motor skills, making this a well-rounded activity that supports early childhood development.
Why is this activity beneficial?
Math Skills: It introduces counting, number recognition, and one-to-one correspondence, which form the foundation for further numeracy skills.
Loose Parts Play: Children can manipulate small items, fostering creativity and exploration in open-ended ways.
Fine Motor Development: Using tweezers helps refine hand-eye coordination and dexterity, perfect for strengthening those little hands!
Ways to extend the learning:
Add a roll-the-dice component, where children roll to see how many spooky items they need to place in each haunted house.
Explore number sequencing by asking, "What comes after 7?" or "How many do we need to fill house 12?"
Let children record their spooky findings by drawing numbers or counting aloud, blending math and literacy!
Watercolour Webs
Get ready to explore process art with this watercolour web invitation! Using droppers and vibrant watercolours, children can create stunning spider webs while developing their fine motor skills and enjoying the sensory experience of watching colours blend together. The beauty of process art lies in the creativity and exploration—there's no right or wrong way to play!
Why is this activity beneficial?
Creative Exploration: Encourages children to experiment with colours and patterns as they design their webs.
Process Art: Focuses on the experience of creating art, fostering confidence and self-expression.
Fine Motor Development: Using droppers helps strengthen hand muscles and coordination.
Colour Mixing: A playful way for children to learn about colours and how they combine to create new hues.
Ways to extend the learning:
Nature Play: Pair this activity with a nature walk to collect real spider webs for inspiration!
Storytime: Read a book about spiders and let children create webs to match their favourite spider stories.
Seasonal Fun: Use this as a Halloween activity or incorporate different colours for year-round fun.
Can you create a spiderweb for all the spiders using different pre writing shapes and patterns! This activity is a fun and easy way to explore mark making inspired by spooky season!
In your tuff tray pour a fine layer of flour! Add spiders, paint brushes and pre writing stones to inspire your web makers!
Then let children get creative as they explore creating their webs!
STEM Process Art Fizzy Pumpkins Craft
This activity is a great way to incorporate stem learning and creativity!
All you need:
‑Baking Soda
‑White vinegar
‑Washable Watercolor Paint or Food Colouring
‑Watercolour paper
‑Spray bottle or pipettes
Step one: Cut the shape of a pumpkin from watercolour paper and place it on a tray.
Step Two: In seperate paint cups place one scoop of baking soda and using either liquid watercolour paint or food colouring dye the baking soda and mix. Add drops untill it reaches your desired colour and allow to dry!
Step Three: Shake the coloured baking soda over your pumpkin shapes!
Step Four: Pour white vinegar in a seperate paint cup and using either a spray bottle or pipettes drop vinegar on the pumpkins and watch them fix!
Step Five: Leave to dry and then enjoy!
This activity is such a fun way to explore spooky sensory in an easy way!!
Fill your ice moulds with water and drop different colours of food colouring in each mould. Mix and then add googly eyes of all colours & sizes! Place in the freezer. Fill a large container with water and dye it with food colouring and shake some glitter in and mix! Once ready pour your frozen monsters in and add different fine motor tools then explore.
Children can colour sort the googly eyes, melt the monster eye cubes, pour & scoop, make potions, anything they can imagine
Can you find the ghosts and match them to the right number? This activity is a fun and easy way to work on number recognition and early math skills!
Take a white piece of paper and draw ghosts! Once you have drawn a face then draw the representation of a number underneath.Then trace them with black permanent marker and cut them out!
In a PlayTray fill your tray with a spooky sensory base (I used black beans) and hide your ghosts and add other spooky loose parts! Add your PlayTray to a tuff tray and using chalk markers draw ghosts and write the numbers in the same format as the paper ghosts! Encourage children to search, match and find.
Can you count and match the correct number of spiders to the webs? This activity is a perfect easy activity for spooky season to practice number recognition and counting!
Take a paper plate and in the middle write a number, around the number begin to draw a spide web for your spiders! Sort out your spiders from your bug jar and place them in a bowl. Once ready present the spiders with the webs to children and ask them to count and place their spiders!
Ways to extend the play:
‑Ask them to count that many spiders of the same colour
‑Can you organize them from least to most spiders?
Can you count and match the correct number of eyes for each spider? This activity is a fun and easy way to build fine motor skills while practicing number recognition and counting!
To set up your spider sensory bag simply take a large freezer bag and remove the label. Using a black permanent marker draw spiders of all sizes and draw a number beside them! Pour in hair gel and water, smooth it out! Then pour in loose googly eyes. Seal the bag and place tape on the edges to ensure it doesn’t move!
Encourage children to count and place that many eyes in the matching spider!
Can you see the ghosts flying through the night sky? This fun spooky season process art craft is fun, easy and super cute.
All you need:
-Black Construction Paper
-White Tempera Paint
-Googly Eyes
-A Straw
To get started pour white tempera paint in a paint pot and gently water it down! Mix until it is slightly runny then pour the paint in dots of all sizes on your black construction paper! Take a straw and gently blow on the paint to get it to spread and form a ghost shape then once you have all your ghosts let the paint dry! Once dry stick googly eyes on the ghosts and draw a mouth. Then you have ghosts flying through the night sky.
Haunted House Building Challenge
Building with a spooky twist! Using Magna-Tiles and creativity, children are invited to take on the Haunted House Challenge. Their mission? To construct a haunted house that can hold 3 skeletons, 5 spiders, and 1 eyeball! This playful challenge blends building and imaginative play, encouraging early learners to engage in open-ended problem-solving and design. The task sparks curiosity as they experiment with shapes, structures, and how to fit all their spooky elements into their haunted masterpiece!
Why is this activity beneficial?
STEM Skills: Children explore basic engineering concepts as they build stable, creative structures using Magna-Tiles.
Problem-Solving: The challenge of making sure the house holds specific items encourages kids to think critically and experiment with solutions.
Creativity & Imagination: Building a haunted house opens up space for imaginative play, combining spooky elements with their creations.
Fine Motor Development: Handling and placing small objects like spiders and skeletons supports dexterity and hand-eye coordination.
Ways to extend the play:
Try adding more spooky challenges like balancing ghosts or stacking pumpkins!
Encourage children to draw blueprints of their haunted houses before building, integrating early literacy and design thinking.
Read "Ten Timid Ghosts" alongside this activity to blend storytelling with hands-on play!
This haunted house building challenge makes for the perfect seasonal STEM play experience—fun, spooky, and packed with learning! Happy building!
Light Panel Pumpkin Faces
Get ready to light up math skills with this festive Jack-o'-lantern activity on the light panel! Children are invited to explore shape recognition and spatial awareness by matching colourful translucent shapes to the pumpkin’s outlines. This playful, hands-on invitation combines light table play with early geometry, encouraging young learners to engage with math concepts in an exciting and visually stimulating way!
Why is this activity beneficial?
Math Skills: Introduces children to shape recognition, patterning, and spatial awareness.
Light Play: The glowing light panel adds an engaging, sensory element that enhances focus and creativity.
Fine Motor Development: Picking up and placing the small shapes helps refine hand-eye coordination and dexterity.
Ways to extend the learning:
Encourage children to sort the shapes by size, colour, or type before placing them on the pumpkins.
Try creating new patterns or designs to challenge spatial reasoning.
Let children draw their Jack-o'-lantern creations after play, adding a literacy component to the activity.
This Jack-o'-lantern light panel invitation is perfect for playful learning that shines a light on early math skills!
Can you see create all your fun monsters & ghouls? This fun spooky season process art craft is fun, easy and super cute.
All you need:
-Cardstock Paper
-Liquid Watercolour Paint
-Googly Eyes
-A Straw
To get started pour liquid watercolour on your cardstock paper! Take a straw and gently blow on the paint to get it to spread and form your monsters. then once you have all your monsters let the paint dry! Once dry stick googly eyes on the monsters!
Monster Mac & Cheese Party
You’re invited to the monster mac and cheese party! But humans can’t bring boring boxed mac and cheese to the party, so they must be creative! So that’s exactly what children are invited to do, create unique monster mac & cheese mixtures.
In your playtray add different monster and halloween themed loose parts (spiders, bats, eye balls, bones, etc) and sensory materials in compartments to mix and make you monster mac & cheese! Then place your playtray in a tuff tray and then add all types of pasta and scoops, bowls, and colourful bowls for your mixtures!
Ways to extend the play:
-Ask children to write their recipes on cards
-Talk about measurement and measuring materials in their mac & cheese
-Draw your monster mac & cheese creations
-Compare your mixtures
Spin Art Pumpkins
This is such a fun and easy process art activity for children to create unique jack o lanterns for spooky season.
All you need:
-Washable Tempera Paint
-A Salad Spinner
-Construction Paper
Print out a pumpkin outline and cut it out! Using tape secure your paper pumpkin to the bottom of the salad spinner and then pour paint of all pumpkin colours on your pumpkin. Spin, spin, spin! Then reveal your jack-o-lantern!
Once your paint pumpkins are dry, take a black marker and draw a unique jack o lantern face!
Monster Counting
Math meets Halloween fun in this spooky ten-frame roll and count invitation! Perfect for blending playdough play with math learning, this activity encourages children to use bones, spiders, and pumpkins as loose parts to explore early numeracy in a playful, hands-on way. By rolling the dice and counting out the matching number of items into the ten-frame, little ones can practice counting, one-to-one correspondence, and even simple addition—all with a festive twist!
Why is this activity beneficial?
Math Skills: Introduces children to counting, number recognition, and the concept of ten frames—a foundation for understanding place value.
Loose Parts Play: Fosters creativity and exploration as children manipulate small, themed objects in open-ended ways.
Fine Motor Development: Pressing the playdough and placing the tiny parts helps refine hand-eye coordination and dexterity.
Ways to extend the learning:
Try simple addition by combining two rolls and asking, “How many bones do we have now?”
Explore pattern making by alternating different Halloween objects in the ten-frame.
Let children record their findings by drawing or writing numbers, integrating math and literacy skills.
This Halloween ten-frame invitation makes learning math a spook-tacular adventure!
Leafy Math Monsters
This activity is a great way to use children’s nature walk finds for a fun, crafty math activity! Simply offer children a die (or dice) to roll and count / add up your numbers and place that many eyes on your chosen leaf!
Spooky Spiders
Math gets a little spooky with this engaging spider counting invitation! In this playful outdoor activity, children are invited to add the legs to their spider drawings and practise counting how many spooky spiders they can spot!
This hands-on activity encourages early numeracy skills like counting, one-to-one correspondence, and number recognition. By engaging in playful math games, children build a strong foundation in early math skills while enjoying some Halloween-themed fun!
Why is this activity beneficial?
Math Skills: Strengthens counting, number recognition, and basic addition through fun, interactive play.
Fine Motor Development: Drawing the spider legs and manipulating the chalk helps develop hand-eye coordination and fine motor control.
Play-Based Learning: Fosters creativity and imagination while making math an exciting, approachable subject for little learners.
Ways to extend the learning:
Ask questions like, "How many legs does each spider need to have?" or "How many spiders are there in total?" to boost problem-solving skills.
Encourage children to draw their own spooky spiders with different numbers of legs to further challenge their counting abilities.
Let children draw more Halloween creatures and explore even more math concepts through themed play!
This spider counting activity is perfect for encouraging early math skills in a playful, engaging way. Happy counting, spooky friends!
This activity is a fun way to allow children to be creative as they give all the Jack O'Lanterns unique faces.
Simply cut pumpkin shapes of different sizes out of orange construction paper and offer loose parts in a bowl and see where children's creativity will take them!
This activity is a fun way to experiment with colour and be creative!
All you need:
Watercolour Paper
Liquid Watercolour Paint
Paint Brushes
White crayons
Black Construction Paper
Pipe Cleaners
Step One: On a piece of watercolour paper, using a white crayon draw a spider web
Step Two: Pour liquid watercolour paint into paint cups and offer paint brushes to your child! Use multiple colours all over the page to reveal your web and create a unique stained glass effect!
Step Three: Once dry, cut the shape of a body of a spider with black construction paper and then cut a pipe cleaner in multiple sections and glue three “legs” on either side of the spider body!! Glue on to your web!
Get those little hands busy with this playful pumpkin beading invitation! Perfect for supporting early fine motor skills and creativity, this arts & crafts activity invites children to thread beads onto pipe cleaners to create their own pumpkins. As they bead, kids refine their hand-eye coordination, build their pincer grasp, and practice patterns—all while engaging in imaginative play.
Why is this activity beneficial?
Fine Motor Skills: Beading helps strengthen the muscles in small hands, making it a great pre-writing activity.
Arts & Crafts: Encourages creative expression as children design their own unique pumpkins.
Pattern Recognition: Practicing different bead patterns introduces early math skills in a fun, hands-on way.
Ways to extend the learning:
Encourage children to explore patterns with different coloured beads, adding a math element to their crafting.
Turn it into a fall decoration project by stringing several pumpkin beads together to create garlands or ornaments.
Spooky Light Panel Play
Get ready to light up your Halloween learning with this eerie light panel play! Children are invited to explore spooky loose parts like ghost shapes, pumpkins, and letters to engage their curiosity and creativity while developing early literacy and numeracy skills. By playing with these materials on the light panel, little ones can manipulate the shapes, practice letter recognition, and even create their own spooky stories—all while embracing sensory play!
Why is this activity beneficial?
Light Table Play: Provides a unique, engaging way for children to interact with materials while enhancing their focus and exploration.
Loose Parts Play: Encourages creativity as children arrange and manipulate objects in open-ended ways, making their own discoveries.
Fine Motor Development: Picking up, placing, and arranging the small parts helps refine fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.
Ways to extend the learning:
Explore sorting the spooky loose parts by size or colour, adding a fun layer of categorization to the play.
Use the letter pieces to spell out simple words or practice identifying letters as part of early literacy learning.
Add a magnifying glass for an extra spooky detective element, encouraging children to examine each item closely!
Spider Web Threading
Can you weave a spider web for our spider friends? This is a super fun crafty fine motor activity that will be as unique as each spiderweb!
All you need:
-A paper plate
-Washable tempera paint
-White yarn
-A hole punch
-Spiders
Begin by pouring black tempera paint on a paper plate and then painting your paper plate! Then using a hole punch, punch holes all along the outside of the paper plate then take white yarn and weave a web across the plate! Once you have your web, place your spiders.
Process Art Paint Scrape Pumpkins
This activity is a fun and easy Halloween process art that results in unique pumpkins every time.
Using a pencil draw the outline of a pumpkin, take washable tempera paint and put drops of paint on the outline! Then take a Popsicle stick or paint scraper and scrape the paint down and all over your pumpkin. Leave to dry and then take scissors and cut it out!
Make an entire pumpkin patch to decorate your bulletin boards, windows or wherever!
Monster Wreath
Get ready for a monstrously good time with this playful monster wreath craft! Perfect for little ones to explore their creativity, this arts & crafts invitation encourages children to glue pom-poms and googly eyes onto a wreath form, creating their own silly monster masterpiece. As they build their wreath, they’re also developing fine motor skills and strengthening hand-eye coordination.
Why is this activity beneficial?
Fine Motor Skills: Picking up and gluing small pom-poms and eyes helps strengthen hand muscles essential for pre-writing skills.
Creativity & Self-Expression: Crafting a unique monster wreath allows kids to explore their imagination and design skills.
Arts & Crafts Fun: This activity encourages hands-on play, promoting concentration and focus through engaging, playful learning.
Halloween Suncatchers
Get into the Halloween spirit with this delightful suncatcher crafts! This activity is a fun way for children to explore arts & crafts while working on fine motor skills. By cutting and pasting tissue paper, little ones can create a vibrant Halloween decoration that looks magical when the sun shines through!
Why is this craft beneficial?
Fine Motor Skills: Cutting shapes and gluing tissue paper helps strengthen little hands and improves coordination.
Creativity & Expression: Kids can mix and match colours, creating unique designs while using their imagination.
Arts & Crafts Play: Encourages focus and concentration as children follow steps and bring their creations to life.
Here's how you can create your own spooky suncatchers at home:
What You'll Need:
- Black construction paper (for pumpkin & bat outlines)
- Orange, green, and purple tissue paper
- Scissors
- Glue stick
- Clear contact paper (optional for backing)
Instructions:
- Draw or trace a pumpkin or bat outline onto black construction paper and cut it out.
- Cut shapes out of the tissue paper—like triangles for pumpkin eyes and squares or circles for bat decorations.
- Place the cut tissue paper on the suncatcher outline, gluing them in place.
- Optional: Cover the back of the suncatcher with clear contact paper to give it extra strength and shine.
- Hang the finished suncatchers in a sunny window and watch the colours glow!
Play dough invitations to create are a great activity for children of all ages to be creative, build those key fine motor skills and create stories!
Simply offer playdough in a tray with some tools and loose craft materials for them to explore and see where their creativity will take them!
Our monster themed set‑up includes:
‑Taste safe playdough
‑Buttons
‑Pipe Cleaners
‑Googly Eyes
‑Feathers
‑Gems
‑Foam shapes
You can ask children to identify each part of the activity, have them describe their creative choices, or read a book about Halloween and create the characters!
Brewing Potions
Spooky season is not complete without some fun home brewed potions! This activity is a great way to let children experiment, explore and have fun.
To make your potion bubble and bubble with toil & trouble simply mix dish-soap, water and baking soda and in a separate container mix vinegar and food colouring.
Ways to extend the learning:
-Record your recipe! What did you use and how much of each?
-Tell me about the reaction when you mixed different materials
-Stir, pour, transfer & mix to build fine motor skills!
-Talk about what colours you made when you mixed different colour potions
This activity is a fun way to encourage open ended creativity with loose parts! Can you create a monster using different shapes?
You can extend the play and learning by talking about the different shapes you used and count them! Did they create 3D or 2D monsters? Ask children to describe their monster ‑ do they have a name? An origin story? How did they create them?
As Halloween approaches, it’s important to harness the potential of play-based learning to create enriching and memorable experiences for young children. Through Halloween-themed crafts and activities, parents and educators can encourage creative expression, support developmental milestones, and foster a love of learning. Whether it’s through sensory activities, imaginative play, or collaborative projects, these Halloween activities offer children the chance to develop essential skills in a fun, engaging environment. By making learning part of the spooky celebrations, we can help children explore, grow, and thrive, all while enjoying the magic of Halloween.
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