We spent more than a week on this Halloween Theme Preschool Week because there was just too much that I wanted to do! That's the great thing about doing preschool at home with your kids-- you can decide how you'd like to fill your time! Spend a little time or a lot! These Halloween crafts, learning activities, and literacy activities are a great way to celebrate the holiday. At the time we did these activities, Lena was almost 4.5 and Maggie was 2.5.
If you regularly do preschool using weekly themes, be sure to check out Over 30 COMPLETE Weekly Preschool Theme Units that we've completed as well as my entire list of 52 Weekly Preschool Themes. You may also want to check out of Daily Home Preschool Schedule and this handy FREE Printable Preschool Planning Page.
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Halloween Sensory Bin
This Halloween Sensory Bin has been so much fun to play with over the last couple of weeks. I've found that for us, it's best to have it out for a few days and then put it away for a few days. That way, the girls stay interested (and I don't have nearly so much of a mess to clean up!). I love seeing the creative ways my girls come up with to play! We have also ended up using these little mini-erasers for all kinds of activities that you'll read about below.
Picture Books
For my picture book selections this week, I'll refer you a jumping off page to this completely AWESOME Halloween Read and Play. Over 25 bloggers, including myself, came up with book extension activities to go along with great Halloween books. Just scroll to the bottom of the post and you can see a list of all the participating bloggers and books. There are tons of great ideas here!
We used the book Click, Clack, Boo!: A Tricky Treat by Doreen Cronin and came up with 2 really fun activities. The first was a sound effects box (shown above), and the second was a spooky shadow garland (shown below) inspired by the illustrations in the book.
Spooky Yarn Ghosts
This little guy is awfully creepy, isn't he? Lena had a breakthrough in her tolerance for messy crafts while we made these, so I count it as a success! Read all about them!
Pumpkin Place Value
Lena has a pretty good grasp of numbers, and I thought she was ready to be introduced to the concept of place value. Of course, I don't really have any sort of math curriculum, so I may have introduced this in the wrong way or wrong time. Oh, well.
We used big foam pumpkins to represent 10s and tiny little pumpkins to represent 1s. I set out some pumpkins (both big and little) and we counted them, first by skip counting the 10s and then adding the 1s. Then I wrote some numbers and introduced the terminology of '10s column' and '1s column' and let her see how that all worked. While she's by no means mastered this concept, I think it was a good introduction.
Sparkly Spiderwebs
This is a classic Halloween craft that both of my girls enjoyed! Aside from a little bit of glitter mess to clean up, it was super easy and you almost certainly have the materials on hand. Here is my post on our Sparkly Spiderwebs.
Halloween Music
Once again, we turned to trusty ole' Pandora Internet Radio for some fun Halloween music while we've done our Halloween crafts the past few weeks. On the 'Halloween Party' station, I occasionally had to advance past a song that was too spooky, but for the most part it was all great!
Easy Sticker Letter Pages
Maggie loves stickers, and she also loves "doing school" along with Lena, so I made up some simple letter pages for her to work on. I just draw a big letter on a sheet of paper, then let her put stickers over the lines while I talk to her about the letter and the sound that it makes. This is my go-to, no-prep letter learning activity! This week she did a P for Pumpkin and H for Halloween.
Candy Corn Cookies
We made these cute cookies last year and had planned to make them again this year. Then, the Halloween candy and other goodies started rolling in and this Mama decided we didn't need extra cookies in the house. Isn't this a precious idea, though? Read how to make them in this fun post from Everyday Living At Home.
Eraser Sorting
Using the mini-erasers that I bought from Target for our sensory bin, I set up a simple sorting activity. Just put all the erasers in one giant bowl and provide smaller containers for sorting. I also let the girls use some little tongs and that provided an extra challenge (until it got too challenging, so then they switched back to using their hands).
Lena loves a good sort!
Benny Bones App
We originally played this app, Benny Bones, during our "My Body" Preschool Theme Week. It seemed perfectly appropriate for Halloween, too! Benny Bones is a little skeleton and he helps you learn the names of the bones in our bodies. It's quick and easy.
Storybook Treasures
There are some cute and not-so-scary stories in this Scholastic Storybook Treasures DVD. This particular set contains 3 DVDs, and some of the stories are too scary for my girls right now, but I know they'll enjoy them in years to come.
Eraser Patterns
I set up two trays of patterns using all the Halloween mini-erasers that I bought at Target for our sensory bin. They're getting a lot of use! I made very simple patterns for Maggie and more difficult patterns for Lena. I love activities like this that I can do with both kids at the same time, but on a level appropriate to each of them. When I was teaching, this idea was called differentiated instruction. Is that still what it's called?
Need even more ideas for a Halloween theme week? Follow Cutting Tiny Bites on Pinterest or check out the Halloween board (over 100 pins) below.
You May Also Be Interested In:
Halloween Play Dough Tray
Top 10 Halloween STEM Activities from Crafty Kids At Home
10 Ways For Kids To Go On A Halloween Scavenger Hunt from Hands On As We Grow
Hair Gel Halloween Sun Catchers from Happy Hooligans
From Other Great Bloggers:
75 Halloween Craft Ideas for Kids from Powerful MotheringTop 10 Halloween STEM Activities from Crafty Kids At Home
10 Ways For Kids To Go On A Halloween Scavenger Hunt from Hands On As We Grow
Hair Gel Halloween Sun Catchers from Happy Hooligans
