Happy (not so spooky) Halloween, my friends! If you’re looking for some engaging, hands-on centers to add to your toddler or Preschooler’s school time in October, I’ve got LOTS of treats for you!
This Halloween Preschool 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 Halloween 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 Halloween 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 Halloween pack, etc. These items make the perfect backdrop for the printable items in our preschool fire safety 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 Halloween 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!
Halloween Preschool Theme Overview
This Halloween 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 Halloween 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 Halloween 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! There is no better way to get children excited about their practice like turning it into a game! To play, children roll the provided shape dice and identify the shape they land on. Using a manipulative from the sensory bin, they cover the matching shape and continue until all of the shapes are covered!
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, call out a letter for children to find in their sensory bin and “feed” to the cauldron!
For children who are ready for a little more challenge, guide them in identifying the sound of the letters they “feed” to the cauldron! 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 Halloween 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!
Clip strips are such a fun way to combine fine motor skills practice with other skills! To use this activity, children identify the Halloween picture on the left side of the clip strip. Then, using clothespins they clip all of the other matching pictures on the rest of the strip. This is such a fun activity for little hands!
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 Halloween 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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