Halloween (also known as All Hallows Eve) is celebrated on 31st October every year. The word Halloween or Hallowe’en dates to about 1745 and means “Saints’ evening”.
Many homes, gardens and public spaces may be decorated with traditional Halloween decorations including witches, skeletons, ghosts, cobwebs and headstones, making it fun and exciting for children dressed up to come and “Trick or Treat”.
Halloween Activities for Early Years Settings
Celebrating Halloween provides lots of fun activities and learning opportunities in Early Years settings. Here are some of our favourite Halloween activities for Early years settings to get you started!
Read Halloween Themed books:
Reading Halloween-themed books is a great way to explore what Halloween is all about with the children in your setting. You could even pair them with some character teddies or puppets to bring the stories to life!
Here are some of our favourites:
- Meg & Mog written by Helen Nicoll and illustrated by Jan Pieńkowsk
- That’s Not my Witch written by Fiona Watt and illustrated by Rachel Wells
- Funnybones written and illustrated by Alan Ahlberg and Janet Ahlberg
Make witches’ potions:
Use food colouring, bicarbonate of soda, and vinegar to make exciting witches’ potions as a fun Early Years Halloween activity.
Provide little cups of food colouring mixed with bicarbonate of soda. Give the children lots of different ‘ingredients’ (little toys) to mix into their potion, and then when they’re ready use a pipette to add a bit of vinegar to their mixture and watch it come to life!
Pumpkin Patch Role Play:
Set up a “pumpkin patch” using small real or foam pumpkins.
Encourage the children to use their imagination to pretend they’re working at or visiting a pumpkin patch. The children could pick pumpkins, load them into wheelbarrows, stack and store the pumpkins, and even set up a pretend pumpkin shop! This encourages imaginative play and cooperative skills.
Spider Web Fine Motor Activity:
Use string or wool to create a “spider web” inside a shallow tray or basket.
Provide small toy spiders or other Halloween-themed objects for the children to place or pull through the web, which helps with fine motor coordination.
Ghost Footprints:
Create little white ghosts using children’s footprints.
Paint the children’s feet with white paint and press them onto black construction paper. Once dry, add googly eyes and a mouth to create ghost footprints. It’s a fun, tactile art activity that creates a spooky keepsake for the children to take home with them!
Spooky Sensory Bags:
Create Halloween-themed sensory bags for the children in your setting to enjoy.
Fill clear plastic bags with Halloween-themed items like fake spiders, plastic bats, or orange and black pom-poms. Seal the bags and let the children squish and explore the items through the bag. This provides an exciting sensory experience for the children to explore, whilst introducing them to the themes of Halloween.
Halloween Dance Party:
Have a dance party in your setting with Halloween-themed songs and costumes. Play Halloween-themed songs like “Monster Mash”, “Five Little Pumpkins”, or “Witch Doctor”. Encourage children to dance, clap, and move to the music. You can even provide small props and costumes like witch hats or soft toy pumpkins for them to hold while they dance. Music can be vital for the development of toddlers and babies, so pair this with a fun Halloween activity and you have great themed entertainment in your early years setting this October.
Capturing spooky experiences
Halloween is a great time to capture all the spooky moments that the children in your setting experience.
By using an online Early Years learning journal like eylog by eyworks you can easily snap a pic and capture all those really important moments that the children in your setting have!
To learn more about eyworks and how we can help you run the best early years setting possible, please book a demo.
