Halloween Preschool Activities: 21 Ideas That Aren’t Scary

1.The ghost, bat, pumpkin run

Three days, three drawings, in this order. Draw a ghost on day one: it is six lines, and a three year old can do it. Draw a bat on day two, which adds the wings. Draw a pumpkin on day three, with the face they choose. Put all three up together on Friday. Twenty children times three drawings is a display wall, and every single child has something on it.

For the youngest, the Halloween printable pack has the same three subjects as trace pages and coloring pages, so a three year old can trace the ghost at the same table where a five year old is drawing it.

2.Draw the haunted house together

Put the haunted house on the whiteboard and draw it as a class, one line at a time, with the children calling out what comes next. Then hand out paper and let each child draw one ghost in one window. Cut them out and stick them on the big house. One house, twenty ghosts, and every ghost is different.

3.A black cat that is just a cat

The cat is the first drawing most children ever finish, and at Halloween it just gets colored black. Children who find the ghost a bit much are completely fine with a cat. Same drawing skills, same display, no nightmares.

4.Friendly monsters for the ones who don’t like Halloween

Some children are genuinely frightened by this week, and forcing it makes it worse. Have a "not scary" option ready that still fits the wall: a robot, a monster truck, a wizard. Same step-by-step format, and nobody has to explain why their drawing is different.

5.Draw your costume

The day before the parade, each child draws what they are going to be. No guide, no steps, just "draw yourself tomorrow." It’s the one open drawing of the week, and it’s also how you find out that four children are coming as the same dinosaur.

6.Paper plate spider webs

Cut notches around the edge of a paper plate. Give each child black yarn and let them wind it back and forth across the plate through the notches. Add a plastic spider from the dollar store. Twenty quiet minutes, and it looks great hanging from the ceiling.

7.Torn paper pumpkins

No scissors. Children tear orange paper into small pieces and glue them onto a pumpkin outline. Tearing is harder than it looks for small hands and it’s the skill that comes before cutting. The result looks like a mosaic and no two are the same.

8.Handprint bats

Black paint, both hands, thumbs touching, on white paper. Add two eyes when it’s dry. Takes five minutes per child and every parent keeps it.

9.Ghost footprints

Same idea, one foot, white paint on black paper. Turn it upside down and it’s a ghost. Do this one outside or on the day the floor is being cleaned anyway.

10.Toilet roll mummies

A cardboard tube, white tape or torn strips of white paper, two googly eyes peeking out. Wrapping the tube is the fine motor bit. Line them all up on the windowsill.

11.Egg carton spiders

One cup from an egg carton, painted black, four pipe cleaners pushed through for eight legs. Bending the legs so it stands up is the part children find hardest and most satisfying.

12.Pumpkin investigation

Cut the top off (you, not them). Count the seeds in groups of ten. Feel the inside and find a word for it. Weigh it before and after scooping. Float it in the water tray and be surprised that it floats. This is a whole morning, and children talk about it for a week.

13.Fizzing pumpkins

Baking soda, vinegar with orange food coloring, small pumpkins or bowls with a face drawn on. Spoon the vinegar in and watch it foam out of the mouth. Every child gets a turn, and the ones who are done can color a pumpkin at the next table.

14.Spooky sensory bin

Black beans, plastic spiders, small pumpkins, a few scoops. That’s it. Runs itself for a week in the corner, and it’s the bin the anxious children go to.

15.Ghost balloons

White balloons with a face drawn on, inflated, and let go in the room. Chasing them is the activity. Ten minutes of running, then everyone is ready to sit down for the drawing.

16.Freeze dance, monster edition

Music on, everyone stomps like a monster. Music off, everyone freezes. Anyone who moves has to do a monster laugh. It’s freeze dance; the costume is the only difference, and it’s the difference that makes them play it for twenty minutes.

17.Pass the pumpkin

Children sit in a circle and pass a small pumpkin around while the music plays. Whoever is holding it when the music stops says one thing they like about Halloween. Turn-taking and speaking in front of the group, in a game nobody notices is a lesson.

18.Mummy wrap

Pairs. One child stands still, the other wraps them in a roll of toilet paper. Then swap. Loud, ridiculous, five minutes, and the cleanup is part of the game.

19.Costume parade rehearsal

The day before the parade, practice it. Walk in a line, stop, turn around, wave, walk back. It sounds silly. It is the difference between a parade and a stampede, and it means the children who are nervous about the parade have already done it once.

20.Draw the story

Read a Halloween picture book, then draw one character from it together. The ghost or the vampire both work. Drawing right after a story is the calmest the room gets all week, because they already have the picture in their head and they just want to get it onto paper.

21.Not-scary storytime

Keep two books ready that are about Halloween without being frightening: a pumpkin book, a friendly ghost book, a book about a cat. Read those on the day a child comes in worried. You will need them at least once.

What Halloween activities are good for 3 year olds?

Tearing, gluing, painting with hands and feet, and tracing. Torn paper pumpkins, handprint bats and the trace pages in the Halloween pack all work at three. Save the step-by-step drawings and the scissors crafts for the fours and fives, or do them one-on-one.

How do I handle children who are scared of Halloween?

Give them a way to join in that isn’t scary: a black cat instead of a ghost, a robot instead of a monster, a pumpkin book instead of a ghost story. Don’t make them opt out in front of the class. The same drawing format with a different subject means their work goes on the same wall as everyone else’s.

How long should a Halloween drawing activity take?

Ten to fifteen minutes for the ghost, bat or pumpkin, which are each under fifteen lines. The haunted house is longer, about twenty minutes as a class. Any longer than that and you’ve lost the back row.

Do I need iPads for the drawing activities?

No. Every drawing here works on a whiteboard with the class following along, or on paper from the printable pack. iPads are useful when you want children drawing independently, or for a relief teacher who hasn’t seen the drawings before. There’s more on running step-by-step drawing in a classroom in the directed drawing guide.

Can I do these with a mixed-age group?

Yes, and the drawings are the easiest place to do it. The same ghost is a trace page for a three year old, a step-by-step drawing for a four year old, and a "now add a background" drawing for a five year old. One activity, three levels, one display.