Halloween is a fantastic learning opportunity for your little one! Themed activities can help your little one work on all 7 key areas of their development (click here to read more about this).
To help you your child get the most out of this Halloween, we've put together this ultimate guide with a wide range of activities, recipes and resources!
Halloween themed activities
Potion making
Making potions is a great way for your little one to build on their exploration/investigation skills.
For this activity, you’ll need a deep tray filled with water, your child can then add a range of materials to create their own potions!
These can include flower petals, coloured water/food colouring and fruit slices. They can then use different sized bowls, bottles and wooden spoons to divide out the potions and play with them!
Click here for the full guide.
Cotton wool skeletons
This one is super easy!
Make spooky skeletons using black paper, cotton buds and glue.
Your little one can use the cotton buds as ‘bones’ to create their own skeleton. This activity can encourage children to talk about their bodies and is a great activity to accompany the story Funny Bones!
Click here for the full guide.
Pumpkin play
Pumpkins are a great way to introduce Halloween and keep activities based around natural objects! There are a few ways you can play with these.
Carving or painting a pumpkin is the first that comes to mind but did you know the insides or 'guts' of the pumpkin also make for awesome sensory activities?!
Have your little one scoop out the guts - one fun way to play - then place these in a zip-lock bag so your little one can make different shapes, play with the different textures and even paint on top to make awesomely spooky art!
Click here for the full guide.
Cat masks
This can of course be a range of other masks as well - spooky or not it can get your little one involved in making their own costume!
All you'll need for this is some paint (or other craft materials), card and elastic or lollipop stick (for the functionality). Assist your little one with the cutting out process and let them go all out on the decorating. A perfect way to prepare for trick or treating!
Click here for the full guide.
Monster play-dough
Play-dough is a fun activity for children to develop their fine motor skills. Your little one can even make their own play-dough using flour, oil, water, salt and food colouring (a cheap and eco-friendly alternative to the branded stuff).
They can then use other natural materials like leaves and sticks to create their very own monsters!
Click here for the full monster guide.
Or click here for the play-dough recipe!
Halloween themed cooking/baking
Check out these spook-tacular recipes from BBC GoodFood! All of these have simple ingredients and instructions so you can get your little one involved in the cooking process.
Spider pizzas
Whip up these fun pizzas. There are plenty of ways to make the spiders on top – the website uses olives and salami but peppers work well too!
Click here for the recipe.
Ghoulish cupcakes
If you're after a sweet treat this Halloween, rustle up a batch of these ghoulish vanilla cupcakes!
Click here for the recipe.
Bloodcurdling biscuits
Create these cute spider biscuits with your little one as part of a Halloween feast. Children love adding the spooky chocolate spider legs and icing eyes!
Click here for the recipe.
Pastry snakes
Serve these pastry snakes as a spooky snack. Keep the flavours interesting by coating your snakes with a variety of seeds!
Click here for the recipe.
Black cat cake
Serve up a feline-themed treat this Halloween with this family-friendly chocolate cake. Your little one will love getting involved with the cute black cat decoration.
Click here for the recipe.
Chocolate-covered pretzels
Turn pretzels into a sweet, salty and spooky Halloween treat with some melted chocolate. You could also add coloured sprinkles for decoration!
Click here for the recipe.
Frozen banana ghosts
Bananas taste spookily like creamy ice cream when frozen in ghostly robes of white chocolate - quick and easy, with just 4 ingredients!
Click here for the recipe
More resources
Looking for Halloween inspired children's books? Click here to check out TeachWire's top 11!
Want some more crafts ideas? Click here.
Check out more Halloween activities by clicking here.
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