Halloween Preschool Unit Theme
My preschooler LOVES spooky season, and as she’s genuinely excited about EVERYTHING this time of year, it’s a great chance to bring in some fantastic learning activities. So to bring in some spookiness into our preschool time, I created this Halloween preschool unit theme for her. It’s full of low-prep, hands-on activities that are holistic and Montessori-inspired.
Plus, my toddler also loved joining on many of these!
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Language Activity
Learning Double Letter Sounds
As preschoolers are working on letter sounds, one concept that I LOVE to work on during Halloween is the idea of double letters. (Think “ee” and “oo.”) Halloween is FULL of double letters in words such as “spooky,” “eek,” “boo,” “moon,” and “Halloween.”
So for this activity we used the book Eek! Halloween! by Sandra Boynton. It’s one of our absolute favorite Halloween books and we’ve been reading it ever since my oldest was a baby. She has it 100% memorized by this point.
So after introducing the idea of double letters making special sounds, we read Eek! Halloween! together and I had her point out all of the words with double letters that she could find. She had so much fun with it! It was like watching her see a book that she knows and loves so well in a whole new light.
Then after finding all the words, we used our letter tracing board to etch the letters with Halloween colors to spell different words.
Practical Life Activity
Decorating Halloween Cupcakes
One of my favorite Halloween traditions has become making spooky cupcakes with my kids. For one- it helps keep them occupied during the day when they can barely wait for trick-or-treat to finally arrive. But mostly, it’s just so much fun.
We turn on Goofy’s version of “Monster Mash,” bake, and decorate together.
Then when we’re done, we deliver our cupcakes to the kids on our street (after we’ve eaten some ourselves, too, of course!)
Science Activities
Make a Witches’ Potion or a Spooky Pumpkin Volcano
This is my FAVORITE activity on this list. Grab some vinegar, baking soda, food coloring, and anything that resembles a witch’s cauldron. (I found these at Dollar Tree at St. Patrick’s Day- I love reusing seasonal items to keep my activities budget friendly.)
Then we pulled out some of our science kit with funnels, eye droppers, and measuring glasses.
My kids loved mixing different food colorings together to see what color potion they could create.
We had a blast. (And I HIGHLY recommend keeping the cauldrons in a large roasting pan to contain the mess.)
If you don’t have anything to pass as a cauldron, you could carve out the top of a small pumpkin and make a spooky pumpkin volcano instead!
Learn About Bats
I created this bat activity for our Discovering Caves unit, and my daughter LOVED IT. Plus, it’s perfect for Halloween. You can find the printable here for free. If you want more ideas for learning about bats, along with book suggestions, be sure to check out my post for our Discovering Caves Preschool Unit Theme.
For Halloween, we kept it simple and just reviewed what we had already learned.
Arts and Crafts
Make a Flying Paper Plate Bat
Once your preschooler learns more about bats, make one with them!
I got a pack of these black paper plates at Dollar Tree one day and I’ve found SO MANY uses for them this Halloween season. I’m pretty excited about them.
After learning about bats, we decided to make our own bats out of these paper plates. And the coolest part? The wings move.
Here’s what you need:
- A black paper plate
- Glue
- Googly Eyes
- Black Construction Paper
- Brad Fasteners
- A Hole Punch
- Scissors
- A Bat Wing Template (I found the one we used here.)
My four year old is OBSESSED with cutting, so she cut out the template. Then I helped her trace the outline of the template onto black construction paper, which she then also cut out. After she had two wings, we added hole punches to the plate and then fastened the wings to the back of the plate brad fasteners. This way- the wings could move and flap.
We glued on some eyes and we used the leftover white paper from the template to cut out little vampire teeth and glue those on as well.
It was fun, easy, mess-free, and low-prep. And the best part-it bought me at least twenty minutes of my kids chasing each other around the house with their flying bats.
Make a “Mr. Skinny Legs”
I’m not sure at what point my daughter started calling all spider decorations that she saw around the neighborhood “Mr. Skinny Legs,” but it’s definitely stuck. So to make a SIMPLE craft spider, I grabbed the following supplies:
- A black paper plate (or a regular paper plate with black construction paper cut out)
- Glue
- Googly Eyes
- White Paper
- Scissors
- Pipe Cleaners
- A Hole Punch
- Tape
That’s it. It had all of the materials already in my craft cabinet. A minimal prep, no shopping craft is my kind of craft.
Punch 8 holes around the paper plate and let your kid weave the pipe cleaners through the holes. (We taped them on the back for extra security.)
Cut out teeth shapes from the white paper and glue it on. Glue on the googly eyes and you’re done. You now have your very own “Mr. Skinny Legs.”
What I love about this craft (besides that it’s mess-free and about as simple as it comes) is that it incorporates all sorts of different skills into it.
Count with your preschooler as you punch the holes. If they’ve already mastered counting, ask them how you think you could divide the eight spider legs to be on each side evenly.
If they’re old enough, have them punch the holes themselves or cut out the teeth themselves to work on fine motor skills.
Have them do different patterns with the pipe cleaner colors to work on early math skills.
It’s really up to you how many skills you want to highlight while also making a super adorable craft.
Geography Activity
Map Out a Trick or Treating Route
Understanding that maps represent real places can be a tricky concept for preschoolers to wrap their heads around. So to help with those map skills, we made a map of our neighborhood with our trick or treating route on it.
My daughter picked out the houses she wanted to be sure to get to (based on who had the most fun decorations), drew symbols for the houses, and sketched out our roads.
Would anyone else be able to use it to find their way around our neighborhood? Absolutely not. But it helped my daughter think about the directions she needs to turn on each road and helped her think about how to represent that on paper.
Fine Motor Activity
Sewing a Spider Web
REALLY making use of those paper plates here! Sewing is a great fine motor skill for preschoolers to work on. All I did was punch holes around the edge of the paper plate, and got my daughter started with the yarn by taping some to the back of the plate to secure it. From there, she wove the yarn whichever way she chose throughout the holes.
Once she was done, we added some fake spiders to it.
(And if you’re having trouble with the yarn fraying at the end, you can wrap scotch tape around the edge to create an end that’s almost like a shoelace.)
Math Activity
Matching Patterns on Witch Socks
An early math skill is matching patterns. I created this free printable that you can download here. Have your child color in the pattern and make it copy the original sock.
I added a few questions on at the end just to help grow those counting skills and recognizing more and less.
Sensorial Activity
Halloween Themed Sensory Bin
This might lean a bit more towards the toddler age, but holiday themed sensory bins are one thing I really lean into to homeschool on a budget. Grab some random items from the Dollar Tree, toss it in a storage bin, and then pull it out year after year.
While toddlers will enjoy just sifting through the items, preschoolers can work on fine motor skills such as using tweezers to sort items, counting items above ten, grouping into groups of fives and tens, etc.
For a spooky theme, use black, purple, and orange pom poms as the base. Then toss in plastic eyeballs or skulls or pumpkins or spiders or whatever else you can find cheap at Dollar Tree.
Related Posts
If you’re also looking for more activities and book ideas for the month of October, be sure to check out my post about the best Halloween books for preschoolers here, as well as a complete pumpkin themed preschool unit.
Additionally, if you have littler ones in the house, too, don’t miss by favorite fall books for babies and toddlers here.
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