With summer gone and fall finally here, it’s almost time to get ready for one of our favorite holidays of the year, Halloween! Candy, pumpkins, and costumes are just a few of the wonderful parts of the holiday, and we’re here to bring you some educational, but still fun, Halloween-inspired preschool activities for your child.
Geometric Bats
This fun craft project helps familiarize your preschooler with the shapes they need to know before they start kindergarten.
What You’ll Need:
- Cut-outs of various shapes, rectangles, squares, triangles, and circles for tracing, or download a geometric bat template here
- Black and orange construction paper
- Scissors
- Glue or glue stick
- Googly eyes
Using some black cut-outs shaped like rectangles, squares, circles, diamonds, and so much more, children can create some geometric bats on orange card paper. You can teach them the names of shapes they don’t know as they go along, and they won’t even know they’re learning.
Candy Corn Math & Matching
For preschoolers, math can be made easier by letting them count physical objects.
What You’ll Need:
- A numbered candy corn sheet, you can download one here
- Candy corn
Print or create a sheet with some numbers and candy corn patterns and let your kids play around with matching numbers and shapes. Candy corn is perfect for this activity because they’re easy to group together and have distinctive patterns – plus, they’re edible!
Counting Pumpkins With One-To-One Correspondence
It’s also important for kids to learn to count based on what they see, making sure that they’re not just reciting the numbers.
What You’ll Need:
- Green or Brown twine string or rope
- Large orange beads
Take a green stretch of twine and some orange colored beads, and let your child count as they add the ‘pumpkins’ onto the vine. You can also prepare a few of these in advance and encourage them to count how many beads are already placed on the vines.
Fall-Themed Skittle Art
Not all learning is mathematical. The things children learn in preschool help them as they transition to elementary school, but you should also constantly be encouraging their creativity.
What You’ll Need:
- Skittles
- A paper plate
- A measuring cup
- Water
Take a pack of skittles and pick out the orange, red, and yellow colors to match the Halloween theme (the rest make for a good snack!) and place them in a circle around the edges of a plate. Slowly start pouring water into the center, just enough to cover the tops of the skittles. Very soon, you’ll have a beautiful swirl of Halloween colors to look at in the dish, and you can explain to your preschooler that some things dissolve in water.
Lace A Jack-o’-Lantern
We focus a lot on the improvement of fine motor skills. Preschoolers are at the age where they start getting more comfortable with their coordination and grip, and there’s no better way to improve their motor skills than with art.
What You’ll Need:
- Orange cardstock or construction paper
- A hole-punch
- Twine rope or string
- Black marker
For this activity, cut out a pumpkin shape from some orange card stock or thick paper and use a hole punch to create a few holes around the edges. Hand over some black markers and let your child get to work on decorating their pumpkin how they’d like to. When they’re ready, give them some twine or cord and let them loop the material through the punched holes. With a little bit of parental help to get it going, you can even turn this craft into a Halloween-themed hanging decoration for when the trick or treaters come knocking!
Pumpkin Volcano
If you think back to your school days, chances are you’ll remember the infamous vinegar and baking soda volcano. This is a wonderful experiment that can follow a child through their school years. As they get older, they’ll learn more and more about the chemical reaction involved and why it happens. While the science is tough for preschoolers, this pumpkin volcano will keep them curious about the scientific world around them.
What You’ll Need:
- One pumpkin, (carved however you’d like!) hollowed out and the top cut-off
- One cup of baking soda
- 1-2 cups of white vinegar
- 4-5 drops of dish soap
- A few drops of food coloring, (for more aroma, try using a Kool-Aid packet in place of food coloring)
Fill the hollowed-out pumpkin with the baking soda, four to five drops of dish soap, and a few drops of food coloring. Then add one to two cups of white vinegar (depending on the size of the pumpkin,) and quickly step back and watch your preschooler enjoy the show!
At Providence Children’s Academy believe that learning doesn’t have to be boring, and every activity can be both educational and entertaining!