10 purposeful & developmentally-beneficial Halloween themed play activities for Preschoolers

Here at The Know & Play Space, we're all about LOW PREP, HIGH ENGAGEMENT, PURPOSEFUL and DEVELOPMENTALLY-BENEFICIAL play-based learning. Here's 10 Halloween-themed play activities that Mr 4 has had great fun with this year. His favourite was activity 5!

1. Spider Legs

Cut out a cardboard circle and colour it black. Poke 4 holes round either side of the circle and thread black pipecleaners through them. Wrap the pipecleaners round and back on themselves so that they don't come out the holes. Add numbers or coloured patterns next to the legs for added challenge, or just let your child have fun threading beads onto the spider.

2. Roll & Mark Make Pumpkin

Add some mark making patterns onto a dice to replace the dots. Roll the dice, see which pattern it lands on, and then have a go at making it on the pumpkin using a whiteboard pen. Wipe clean and play again another day, or use the pumpkin for another activity!

3. Spotty Spiders

Use a chalk or acyrlic marker pen to create a spider web. Draw on little spiders and add numbers onto them. Add corresponding numbers onto dot stickers for your child to match to the spiders. For added challenge, write number sentences eg. 3+2 onto the dot stickers, and encourage your child to solve the question and stick the dot sticker onto its answer. They may need to use physical resources to support with solving the problem.

4. Frosted Webs

Use PVA glue to create a spider web shape. Sprinkle salt over the PVA glue and leave it to dry. Once dry, you can then use watercolour paint to paint over the salt and watch the colour spread.

5. Funny Face Pumpkins

Use playdough funny face pieces to create characters on the pumpkin, instead of carving it!

6. Sound Detective

Using a magnifying glass and a selection of halloween-themed books, go on a sound hunt through the books and see how many of letters you know are in the books. You could mark or tally them up as you go to see how many you can find the most of!

7. Pumpkin Hammering

A small scale bit of risky play. Instead of using golf tees when hammering into a pumpkin, use real nails and a hammer or screwdriver and screws. Real tools is one of the six forms of risky play.

8. Spiderlings & Webs

Using some fake spider web (or similar alternative) create some webs with a parent spider on. Encourage your child to add each parent spider's spiderlings - looking carefully at how many they need on their web.

9. Uppercase Lowercase Matching

Write lowercase letters onto a set of golf tees, and the corresponding uppercase onto a pumpkin. Using a small hammer, hammer in the matching lowercase tee to uppercase letter.

10. Teeny Tiny Potions

Make potion making quality fine motor work by using small versions of everything - mini funnels, mini spoons, mini bowls, mini pipettes. Add some halloween-y loose parts like gems, fake spiders or mini pumpkins for extra fun!

For over 300 MORE purposeful play ideas, head over to 'The Play Space' for all year round, developmentally-beneficial play ideas. There's activities on there suitable for all developmental stages, from birth - 7 years!