70 Best Halloween Activities for Preschool (2023)

Halloween is just around the corner and I couldn’t be more excited to show you my Halloween activities for preschool! Halloween is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate in the preschool classroom because there are tons of fun learning opportunities.

You can use the magic of Halloween to help your preschoolers build early learning skills in math, literacy, and science. 

Are you planning Halloween preschool activities for your students this October? If so, you won’t want to miss all the exciting Halloween activities for preschoolers here at The Primary Parade.

Keep reading to discover Halloween preschool songs, crafts, printables, games, and book suggestions your kids will love! 

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, I may earn commissions from purchases made through links in this post at no cost to you.

Candy Corn Science Experiments For Halloween

Halloween is the perfect time to explore science through a hands on Candy Corn science experiment. Kids love science, especially when candy is involved, which makes this Halloween science experiment a winner all around.

To recreate this you’ll need to grab my Halloween science experiment printables (3 different variations are provided to help you differentiate based on your students writing abilities). You will also need 3 clear cups, Candy Corn, soda, vinegar, and hot water.

Your little scientists will love watching to see what happens when you place Candy Corn into each liquid and record their answers like a true scientist. Be sure to check out my other science experiments with hot chocolate, candy canes, and gingerbread man cookies.

Halloween Activities for Preschool

These Halloween centers for preschool are filled with all kinds of fun activities you can use to help build important early math and literacy skills this October. Practice literacy skills with letter recognition games, beginning sound practice, as well as nouns and adjectives activities too.

Then, develop your preschoolers’ early math skills with Halloween theme color by code printables, ten frames, and Halloween activities for kids with graphing and counting practice.

Halloween Math Centers

Incorporating math centers in your preschool classroom is a fun way to help your preschoolers master early math concepts and practice important skills including counting, sorting, and problem-solving.

In my Halloween Math and Literacy Centers Bundle you can get fun Halloween themed math activities covering the following topics:

• Ten Frames
• Addition Practice
• Subtraction Practice
• Solving Puzzles
• Counting Skills
• Graphing Activity
• Non-Standard Measurement

Haunted House Printables for Kids

If you need another Halloween themed center for kids, you’ll want to grab this free Halloween printable. Your students will reinforce their counting skills in this fun Halloween activity for kids.

Grab these festive Halloween peeps to make this fall counting activity even more fun, use cotton balls that you have lying around the house, or the ghost printables that are included.

Ghost Activities and Ideas

Get ready for a spooky good time with these ghost activities for kids! Your little ones will love going on a hunt for these ghost printables and identifying the letters on them.

To play, simply write a letter with an invisible ink pen on each ghost (or use the prewritten ghost cards that are also included in the set). Then, toss the cards into a sensory bin or hang them around the room for added gross motor fun.

As they find a card, they can shine the UV light on the ghost to reveal the letter and color it in on the worksheet. Your students will love learning the alphabet with this fun Halloween activity for kids.

Halloween Shape Pumpkin

Another fun preschool Halloween center activity to try is carving shape pumpkins with cookie cutters. It’s a hands-on way to practice identifying shapes with in this Halloween activity for kids. Here’s how:

First, you’ll need a carving pumpkin, metal shape cutters, and a rubber mallet. Then, have your preschoolers choose a shape and press it into the pumpkin. Use the rubber mallet (with supervision) to hammer it into the pumpkin. 

Extend the learning by talking about which shapes are on the pumpkin. Try these cute cookie cutters from Ann Clark to get you started.

Halloween Literacy Centers

Exposing your preschoolers to alphabet letters has never been more fun! I’ve got Halloween centers for building literacy skills with your preschoolers that are going to be a hit in the classroom this October. Preschoolers will get to practice letter identification, beginning sounds, putting letters in order, and identifying parts of speech too.

Halloween Easy Readers

These Halloween early readers are a perfect way to teach both literacy and early math skills with preschoolers. Simply build the book and have your children color the pages.

When they’re ready to begin reading their Halloween emergent readers, the students will count how many eye balls are in each jar and trace the word on the page.

Then, practice beginning reading skills with your preschoolers and read the Halloween story together.

Halloween Writing Tray

Want more Halloween themed literacy practice with your preschool learners? Build a Halloween writing tray to practice letter writing skills. You’ll need a Montessori writing tray, ABC flashcards, and orange craft sand. Preschoolers will build strong fine motor skills and prewriting skills as they use their fingers to form the letters of the alphabet in the sand.

Halloween Preschool Crafts

Crafts are a lot of fun to make for preschoolers and lots of fun for parents and teachers to display. As preschool teachers, we know crafts are filled with early learning opportunities for our students too. Doing crafts with your preschoolers is a fantastic way to help them learn and grow.

Preschoolers develop important motor skills, learn self-regulation, and explore their own creativity through crafts. Plus, crafts offer an opportunity for us to reinforce important early learning concepts too.

Like this Frankenstein Halloween craftivity. These printable craft templates come with both boy and girl Frankenstein characters and writing prompts to encourage your preschoolers this Halloween.

Check out some of our other favorite Halloween preschool activities and crafts to do in your preschool Halloween centers this October:

Halloween Crafts for kids

Every October, my classroom is full of detailed conversations all about what each child would like to dress up as for Halloween. That’s why these adorable Halloween Crafts for Kids are perfect for your Halloween themed lessons this year.

Your preschoolers can have fun creating their very own ghosts, vampires, mummies, and more. The best part is they’ll be practicing cutting and pasting skills while having fun this Halloween.

Pumpkin Tear Art

Tear art is definitely one of my favorite activities to do with preschoolers because it’s easy and the materials are usually items I already have on hand.

This adorable Pumpkin Tear Art is a Halloween preschool art activity that your kids will have tons of fun with! Plus, they’ll be building fine motor skills and strong finger muscles too.

Pumpkin craft for kids

This pumpkin craft is a great way to reinforce fine motor skills this fall. Plus, it’s a very simple set up that is a whole lot of fun for kids.

To recreate this fun Halloween activity follow the following steps:

1. Print my free pumpkin craft template
2. Trace the template on cardboard and cut it out
3. Glue cotton balls onto the pumpkin template
4. Use a dropper to squeeze orange food coloring onto the pumpkin craft

Paper Plate Mummy Craft

This easy Halloween preschool activity is always a big hit in the classroom! You’ll need paper plates in fun colors, masking tape, googly eyes, and glue to create your very own paper plate mummies this Halloween. You can extend the learning by asking your preschoolers to name their mummy friends and make up a story all about their paper plate mummy.

To get started, give each child a paper plate, two googly eyes, and several strips of masking tape. Then, have your preschoolers wrap their plates with strips of tape. Finally, attach the google eyes to create a spooky mummy friend. It’s a Halloween activity for preschool learners that can lead to hours of fun role-play games.

Halloween Handprint Art

If you’re looking for a low prep Halloween craft to do with kids, try this Halloween handprint art. To recreate this, draw a letter b on a piece of paper and glue googley-eyes on it.

Then, paint your preschoolers feet white and have them step onto a piece of paper. Create two cute ghosts with marker to finish off the Halloween preschool craft.

Frankenstein Craft

Here’s another cute Halloween handprint craft for your kids to complete this autumn. Turn those toddler toes into an easy Frankenstein craft with paint, googly eyes, and my free trick or treat printable.

Witch Name Craft

Celebrate Halloween with this cute witch name craft for kids. This free Halloween name craft will teach your preschoolers their name and fine motor skills this Halloween.

Simply print out the witch template and assemble it as shown. Then write your child’s name on purple paper and glue it on the witch’s legs. Wouldn’t this look adorable on your Halloween bulletin board?

Scaredy Cat Splat

One of our favorite Halloween stories is Scaredy Cat Splat. It’s cute, funny, and the perfect Halloween read aloud for preschoolers.

What makes this Halloween book even more fun is pairing it with my Scaredy Cat Splat craft. This Halloween craft is perfect for little hands and looks adorable as decoration on fall bulletin boards.

Halloween Shape Craft for Preschoolers

Need an educational way to incorporate math into your craft time? Try my Halloween shape crafts for preschoolers.

This Frankenstein shape craft comes with two different shape faces to differentiate your students learning.

Simply print my template, cut and paste the craft together, and record how many of each shape you used to create your Halloween craft.

I even have a Witch shape craft you can try this Fall too. They’re both super fun to try this not so spooky season as you teach your little ones all about the basic shapes.

Halloween Preschool Books to Read Aloud

Hands down, my favorite activity to do with preschoolers is storytime. Reading aloud to children is the very best way to turn your kids into lifelong readers and book lovers. There are all kinds of amazing benefits to reading aloud to your kids, even after they can read independently.

In preschool, reading books aloud is the best way to expand vocabulary and prepare kids for reading. Check out some of my most favorite preschool Halloween books to read aloud:

Dem Bones by Bob Barner

This whimsical Halloween book for preschoolers is a perfect read-aloud for storytime.

It pairs well with the Shake Dem Skeleton Bones song mentioned below. Plus, in addition to the lyrical verses on each page, kids can learn all about the human skeletal system with extra reading on every page.

It’s a fun way to add a little science learning fun to this Halloween activity for kids.

Room On the Broom by Julia Donaldson

This preschool Halloween read-aloud classic is a great book to share with your kids this October. You can use this book to teach your preschoolers about the importance of making room for everyone and being inclusive.

Plus, there’s a super cute movie version available on Netflix to watch with your preschoolers after you read the book. Need another activity to pair with this? Try my Room on the Broom craft as a fun Halloween craft for kids.

We’re Going On a Ghost Hunt by Susan Pearson

In the spirit of the monster hunt song below, this page-turning Halloween book is a great way to teach your preschoolers about story order, positional words, and add a little suspense to your storytime this October. 

Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell

Pumpkin Jack is definitely one of our most favorite Halloween stories. This book is filled with beautiful pictures and a heartwarming story.

Plus, it’s a fun way to incorporate science with lessons about the pumpkin life cycle included in this sweet preschool book about a pumpkin named Jack.

If You’re a Monster and You Know It by Rebecca and Ed Emberly

This preschool monster book is a fun and interactive tale that plays with the popular children’s song If You’re Happy and You Know It. It’s sure to get your preschoolers singing, moving, and giggling with this silly tale featuring beautiful paper collage monsters on every page.

Bat Activities for Kids

Are you looking for free bat activities for kids? This bat counting mat is perfect for teaching number recognition and counting.

Simply dye pasta black to look more like a bat and choose a number. Place that many bats on the counting mat and you have a fun math center to use this Halloween.

Bat Sensory Bin

Sensory bins are one of my favorite ways to incorporate play and hands on learning in the classroom. This counting bats sensory bin for Halloween is no exception.

To recreate it you’ll need my bat printable cards, bat worksheet, and bat pasta.

Toss the cards into a sensory bin full of pasta. As your little one chooses a card, they will count how many bats are hanging on the branch and color it in on the worksheet.

Bat Crafts for Kids

Here’s a great bat name craft for your preschoolers to do this October.

Glue pom poms, bow tie pasta, or stickers to your students first initial (A-Z are included in this Halloween freebie). Then write their name and something they are “batty” about. This is such a cute Halloween name craft to see on a Fall bulletin board.

All About Bat Book and Craft

Halloween is a great time to learn all about your students favorite spooky animal, the bat.

With these adorable bat printables, you’ll get a bat craft and an all about bat book to learn facts about this flying creature.

Free Halloween Preschool Printables

In addition to cute songs, engaging books, and preschool Halloween centers, you’ll love all the awesome Halloween preschool printables available here at The Primary Parade. Check out some of my favorite printable preschool activities for Halloween:

Halloween Color By Number Printables

Celebrate Fall with these cute Halloween color by number printables. These free Halloween worksheets will teach your preschoolers letters, numbers, and colors this fall.

Simply follow the key to create cute Halloween color by number worksheets. 3 free Halloween worksheets are included in this cute bundle.

Bone Letter Worksheets

You can get free Halloween preschool printables to build letter recognition skills and practice handwriting with your preschoolers this October. Each page fits easily inside a sensory bin for a fun hands-on letter learning activity you can do in literacy centers this Halloween. 

These Halloween preschool printables are perfect for learning to identify letters, practice tracing and writing letters, and learning letter sounds too. Grab some skeleton hand salad tongs to have even more fun with this Halloween preschool activity. 

Skeleton Activities for Kids

Here are some fun ways to teach in a skeleton theme this Halloween. Practice skills such as counting, graphing, handwriting and more with these fun skeleton activities for kids.

You’ll want to grab these bone chips to add even more fun to the Halloween season. They come in 3 flavors so pick your favorite, or grab them all! Then build a skeleton with my free skeleton worksheet and count how many bones are in yours!

Use the bone chips in different ways. Work on vocabulary skills as you build and label your very own skeleton.

Or practice sorting, counting, tallying, coloring and graphing with this fun skeleton worksheet. Which one will you do first?

Witch Activities for Kids

This witches brew Halloween counting game is the perfect way to practice number recognition this Fall. Simply grab my free template, googly eyes, plastic spiders, and bones (or q-tips) to bring this fun Halloween activity for preschoolers to life.

Halloween Ideas with Monsters

Here’s another free Halloween activity for kids! Your preschool students will love to count the fangs on these cute monster printables as they enhance their math skills this fall.

I love using counting activities like this in sensory bins or as write the room activities with kids. This fun Halloween idea is the perfect way to teach counting and number recognition in a math center! How will you use it?

If your little ones aren’t quite ready to count, but are identifying colors, this is the perfect Halloween activity for you. Hide these free monster printables around your room and send your students off on a monster hunt.

As they find each one, they will identify the number and color the monster on the worksheet the correct color.

Sweet Treat Notes to Students

If you’re looking for a festive way to encourage your preschoolers this Halloween, you’ll love my printable Sweet Treat Notes for students. You can use these printable candy-themed notes to encourage and praise your preschoolers or write notes to send home for parents this October. 

Alternatively, print these sweet notes and encourage your preschoolers to give sweet treat notes to others as a random act of kindness this Fall. They’re perfect for adding to Halloween treat bags for students to take home too!

Free Halloween Printables

Halloween Play-Doh mats are fun, hands-on activities for kids to do in October. Your students will love building some of their favorite spooky characters with these free Halloween printables. All while their fine motor skills strengthen as they trace Halloween vocabulary and roll Play-doh into different Halloween shapes.

Free Halloween Math Ideas

Grab these fun Halloween colored M&Ms to use with my free Halloween graphing printables this October!

Your students will love working on skills such as:

• Sorting
• Colors
• Counting
• Tallying and
• Graphing with this freebie this Fall.

Two worksheets are included in this fun Halloween set. The one shown, and one with questions about the graph as well.

Counting Monster Brains

Learn to count this Halloween with this monster brain printable activity.

Simply grab my free template and a fun manipulative like these festive monster brain candies to bring this Halloween game to life.

Build a Monster Template

This Halloween try to build a monster with this adorable counting monster teeth template. It’s a fun way to practice counting, fine motor skills, and number recognition.

Plus, there’s even an added handwriting component with this adorable Halloween activity for preschoolers!

Halloween Sensory Bin Ideas

Sensory bins are one of my favorite ways to have unstructured play time with kids. They’re great for exploring all 5 senses as well as teaching academics. Plus, they build strong motor skills too!

Here is one Halloween idea to use in a fun fall sensory bin. Take these Frankenstein printables and hide them in a filler. As your students search for each card, they will identify the shape and color it in on the Halloween worksheet for kids.

Spider Halloween Printables for Preschoolers

Spiders make a really cute theme for Halloween with preschool learners. I’ve put together all kinds of fun spider activities you can do in the classroom this October.

Plus, you can snatch up these free printable Spider Activities for Halloween to help your preschoolers practice letter identification with uppercase and lowercase letters. 

Or go on a spider hunt with this fun count the room Halloween activity. To play, simply:

1. Hang the spider web cards around the room
2. Count how many spiders are on each web
3. Identify and color the matching number on the free Halloween worksheet

Preschool Songs to Sing for Halloween

Listening to music and singing songs with your preschoolers is a really fun way to help encourage language development. Preschool songs introduce kids to new sound patterns, help them build listening skills, and expand their vocabulary.

Incorporating preschool songs in your lessons this Halloween is a great way to teach your preschoolers about rhyme, rhythm, and practice important early learning concepts too.

Check out some of our favorite Halloween preschool songs to sing together:

Five Little Pumpkins

This preschool Halloween song is a classic! Plus, it’s a really cute way to help your preschoolers practice counting skills. Five Little Pumpkins from Super Simple Songs is a cute free version you can use in your classroom this October. 

As an added bonus, the Five Litle Pumpkins song is a great Halloween activity for kids to practice developing social-emotional skills too. You can help your preschoolers learn to identify emotions using facial expressions and practice expressing their own emotions too, including happy, sad, grumpy, and sleepy.

Down By The Spooky Bay

Down By The Spooky Bay is another cute Halloween preschool song from Super Simple Songs. It’s perfect for teaching your preschool learners about rhyming this October. This preschool song is a silly version of the popular children’s classic Down By The Bay. It’s sure to have your preschoolers giggling with verses like “Did you ever see a ghost eating some toast down by the bay?” 

Shake Dem Skeleton Bones

This preschool Halloween song from The Kiboomers is a great opportunity to begin teaching your kids about human anatomy and practice identifying body parts too. Plus, it’s a whole lot of fun to sing together! 

Going On A Monster Hunt

If you’re looking for a Halloween preschool song that incorporates movement and gross motor skill building you’ll love this one from Crocamole. Plus, it’s a really cute Halloween themed activity for teaching positional words to your preschoolers too.

Celebrate Halloween with Preschool Games

Another fun way to celebrate Halloween and squeeze in more learning fun in your preschool classroom this October is with games. Adding games to your lessons is an exciting way to reinforce early learning concepts like taking turns, counting, and motor skills. Check out some of our favorite Halloween preschool activities and games to play:

Halloween Bean Bag Toss

This carnival-style Halloween preschool game is perfect for practicing hand-eye coordination and building gross motor skills with your kids this October. Plus, Halloween bean Bag Toss is a great way to get kids out of their seats and moving around.

You can encourage healthy physical activity by using this game as a “brain break” in the classroom or add some fun to your class’s Halloween party.

Halloween Charades

Another fun way to get your preschool classroom up and moving this October is to play an exciting game of Halloween Charades. Your preschoolers will have a blast pretending to be their favorite characters like Count Dracula and Frankenstein.

Plus, you’ll be helping them build critical thinking skills with this Halloween activity for preschool learners.

Haunted Mansion Board Game

This cute Halloween preschool game is themed after Disney’s Haunted Mansion attraction. It’s a super fun board game that will help your kids to practice counting spaces on the board, taking turns, and good sportsmanship as they move around the mansion collecting “ghost cards” to win. Your preschoolers will love it!

Want More Free Halloween Ideas and Freebies?

I’ve teamed up with a couple of teacher authors to bring you even more free Halloween ideas and activities to use this October. Click on the picture or links below to head start to the resources!

In Conclusion

I hope these Halloween activities for preschool, Halloween preschool printables, and games have given you lots of ideas to use in your classroom this October. How will you celebrate Halloween with your preschoolers? Share some of your favorite Halloween preschool activities and ideas in the comments. I can’t wait to read them!