If you’re anything like me, you probably like to keep your Halloween themes pretty chill for your little learners. This time of year brings so much festive fun, but can also be scary for little ones! So I like to keep things light with themes like our monster preschool theme!
This monster theme is a great way to help children combine important Math and Literacy practice with a unique theme that, really, could be used any time of the school year if you wanted to mix things up! Below you’ll find tons of activities and tips!
Table of Contents – CLICK to jump ahead!
Halloween Theme Sensory Bin
One of the easiest ways to add excitement and hands-on learning to your preschool week is with a themed sensory bin. So many of the activities in our Monster Preschool pack incorporate a sensory bin, so it’s best to knock out the preparation early on! Our Halloween sensory bin is always a hit with this theme—it’s simple to put together and offers tons of playful learning opportunities! Here’s how I like to set ours up!
FIRST, gather your materials. I like to use a plastic storage bin with a lid so I can cover and store the bin once it’s prepared. Choose your filler, like the dry black beans we use in ours. Something about the beans really makes all the colors in our monster theme POP and gives children a very unique texture to experience. Once you’ve chosen your filler, fill your storage bin as much as you feel comfortable with (knowing each individual child can handle working with different amounts of materials).
NEXT, grab some extra Halloween themed items like puffy Halloween stickers, Halloween mini erasers, colorful pompoms, sensory bin supplies from our monster pack, etc. These items make the perfect backdrop for the printable items in our preschool monster pack! Scatter them throughout your sensory bin filler and watch the theme really come to life!
FINALLY, choose a space that you feel comfortable using the sensory bin with your child. I tuck ours away in our homeschool room with the rest of our Preschool manipulatives, and keep our sensory bin blanket nearby for when it’s time to get to work. The rule with our bins – everything stays on the blanket! This makes clean up SO much easier.
READY, SET, PLAY!!! When your sensory bin is not being used for the printable activities in our Monster Preschool theme, allow children to explore freely! Watch them scoop, pour, dig, and more! I love taking our bin our when I need a little extra quiet time for homeschooling an older child, or honestly if I just need an extra minute to sip my hot coffee!
Monster Preschool Theme Overview
This Monster Preschool theme is sure to give your little learners TONS of fun practice! Children will have 15 center-style activities to choose from – 5 Math, 5 Literacy and 5 Fine Motor centers. In addition, I’ve included book recommendations for 5 monster themed picture books and links to their read aloud videos on YouTube!
To use these printables, you can follow the PRE-MADE lesson plans for a week full of fun! Each of the 5 pre-planned days your students will have 1 read aloud, 1 Math activity, 1 Literacy activity, and 1 Fine Motor activity to work on. This is a great pace for little learners! But if you’d like to spread the activities out or rearrange them according your own child’s needs, simply print our provided Build-Your-Own Plans page and make your own plans!
PS See how we use this theme in our Preschool scope and sequence by grabbing our FREE Preschool Curriculum Map below!
Math Activities
This set of printables has 5 fun Monster Preschool theme activities for practicing early Math skills. Children will practice number formation, number identification, counting, colors, and shapes. Our Preschool activities always include the use of small manipulatives for added fine motor skills practice!
One of my favorite Math activities from this pack is the activity shown above! Children identify the numbers on each of the monsters. Then using manipulatives like counting cubes, build the correct number on each monster. We love to use the counting cubes for this because it creates fun towers for each number AND gives children a great visual of what each number represents!
Literacy Activities
In addition to the Math centers, this set includes 5 early Literacy activities! Children will practice skills like letter identification, letter formation, beginning sounds, and handwriting practice with monster body part themed vocabulary words!
One of my favorite Literacy activities from this theme is the one shown above. “Find and Feed” activities are such a fun way to get children excited about the skill they’re practicing, and add excellent fine motor skills practice! To use this activity, children choose letter cards from their sensory bin and identify whether the letters are uppercase or lowercase letters. Then, they “feed” their letters to the corresponding monsters!
For children who are ready for a little more challenge, guide them in identifying the name or even the sound of the letters they “feed” to the monsters!
However you choose to use this activity, know that your little learners are getting TONS of important early Literacy practice!
Fine Motor Activities
When working with little learners, strengthening fine motor skills is a must! Our 5 monster theme fine motor activities will have your children working hard and having TONS of fun! They will practice matching using clothespins, mold using play dough, trace using manipulatives, match objects, and so much more!
My favorite thing to include in all of our Preschool Curriculum themes is a set of themed play dough prompt cards to match that week’s theme. It’s always so much fun to see kiddos find new excitement in their good ‘ole play dough when paired with bright pictures to build!
Just a tip – laminate each of your play dough cards or pop them in sheet protectors to give them the glossy cover that keeps the play dough from sticking!
And… I lesson planned FOR YOU!
This set of activities (and all of the other 45+ sets in our FULL Preschool Curriculum) include a full week of print and go visual lesson plans! It shows you exactly which books and printables to use each day for a 5-day school week, making lesson planning an absolute breeze!
Want to build your own? Or maybe your kiddos are ready for some of the activities but not all of them? That’s great! Use the included Build Your Own lesson plans page! These thematic centers were designed with growing learners ages 2.5 to 5 years old in mind, so this lesson planning page allows you to choose which activities your child is ready for right now!
Ready to learn with your toddlers or Preschoolers ALL MONTH LONG?! You can save TONS when you grab this set of centers in our October Preschool Curriculum! The bundle includes over 4 engaging October themes (like spiders, Halloween, and more!), complete with a week of lesson plans for each! You’ll also get 25 NO PREP Halloween themed fine motor skills worksheets and crafts, and 38 NO PREP Math and Literacy worksheets for extended practice!
Let’s hang out!
I hope this post helped you get a better look at our Monster Theme Preschool activities! Got questions? Let me know! I’d love to chat and get to know you better! You can find us below in some of our favorite places to hang out. Can’t wait to chat with you about your Preschooler’s learning journey!
SAVE THIS POST FOR LATER!
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