Halloween Activities for Toddlers
Halloween is a wonderful time for celebration and fun, especially for younger children. Full of spooky stories, creepy crawlies and lots of colour, it’s a delight for young minds and a great opportunity to get them to explore new things.
Here at our day nurseries in Exeter, we love celebrating Halloween with our little ones. Explore some of our favourite Halloween activities we’ve enjoyed at our nurseries that you could try at home too.
Sensory Halloween Play
Toddlers develop their skills very quickly and are always looking to explore new things, which is what makes Halloween such a special time. Sensory play – often in the form of a tray filled with different mediums that allow them to be as messy as they want – is a great way to help your little one refine their motor skills, helping to build hand-eye coordination, balance and more.
Many of the activities listed here involve different forms of themed sensory play, all of which offer a fun way to help your little one build their fine motor skills and sense of exploration. These activities can also help develop other skills, such as communication and some basic problem-solving.
Spooky Slime
Sensory slime is a great way for little ones to have fun exploring new textures, and it’s a great way to set the scene during Halloween! Fill a box with some slime, add some simple Halloween decorations like spiders and eyeballs, and create some spooky stories for them to explore.
There are many recipes for creating edible slimes at home and also slimes that you can colour with food colouring. Let your little one add their favourite colours to the slime and marvel at how the different colours swirl together.
Shaving Foam Ghosts
This is a really fun and easy sensory activity for toddlers. Spray some shaving foam onto a tray and allow them to make spooky ghosts using their fingers!
Exploring new textures is fun for little ones but it’s also great to get them creating specific shapes or drawing lines through textures. Mark-making is an excellent way to develop a toddler’s hand-eye coordination. Plus, your little one will be delighted to see their own ghosts coming to life in front of them.
Witch’s Cauldron
No Halloween adventure would be complete without a witch’s cauldron! These little buckets (you can decorate a bowl or hamper if you don’t want to purchase one) are a great way to get your toddler into the Halloween spirit while also developing different skills.
Cauldrons offer a lot of possibilities for sensory play, particularly if using liquids. Use food colourings and effervescent tablets to let your little one add ingredients to the cauldron and watch the liquid change before their eyes.
Alternatively, cauldrons can make for a great scavenger hunt. Give them a spooky recipe and send them searching for ingredients – maybe hide some spiders for them to find, or make them identify which coloured cut-out frog needs to be added. If you’re reading your little one a witchy story, there might be a cauldron recipe in that for you both to follow!
Creepy Corners
Of course, no Halloween party would be complete without some spooky decorations, even if they’re just made from paper cutouts. Creating a small themed area where toddlers can explore can provide another great sensory experience.
Decorated spaces – whether a garden filled with spooky things or a small mattress den covered in paper cut-outs – are not only exciting for little ones, but they also make for great scavenger hunt opportunities. Ask your child to name the various things they spot, or give them a list of creepy crawlies to find.
Hopefully, these ideas will help you have a wonderful Halloween with your little ones! If you’re at Devon Nurseries, we look forward to all the fun we’re going to have this year.