Get tons of Halloween party ideas for the classroom or daycare to have a fun, engaging, & simple-to-plan party for your preschool, pre-k, or kindergarten students. You don’t have to spend a bunch of money to have a successful Halloween party, so read on to see all the fun activities I plan for my kiddos!
Grab the Halloween Math & Literacy Centers, Halloween Fine Motor Mats, and the Little Learners Science All About Pumpkins Unit to have all the resources you need for Halloween time.
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Planning and Prep
Plan and prep as much as you possibly can to ensure you have everything ready to go when the party begins. This will make it so much less stressful for you! Think about the order you want to do everything. Most of the time, we ate first, did gross motor games second, and ended with a craft or some sort of table activity. Once you know what games or activities you are going to play, practice playing them with your students BEFORE the party so students know how to play the game and what the expectations are. Â
Before the Halloween Party
Halloween Card Making! I like to have a Halloween card-making station for students to make cards for their family or friends. This is an authentic reason to get kiddos writing! I lay out all kinds of writing utensils, paper, stickers, and Halloween word cards. I like to do this the morning of the party.
Grab a HUGE freebie of Family Writing Cards HERE!
Halloween Sensory Bin! I like to have the sensory bin made ahead of time, so students can play while I help put on costumes. Costumes can be tricky to put on, so most students will need help getting their costumes on. Plan a fun sensory bin for the other students to play in while you help with the costumes. Make this Halloween-themed sensory bin with black beans, pumpkin gems, and small pumpkin containers. Add in some scoops and small containers to practice counting, sorting, and one-to-one correspondence.Â
Check out this post for more ideas for holiday-themed sensory bins.
Halloween Party Snacks
Party Table! I like to make a party table to make it even more special. Cover a table in butcher paper or a tablecloth. I grab a plastic one from the dollar store, along with some festive plates, cups, and napkins. Earlier in the week, we painted pumpkins, so I used those to decorate the table, as well. At the end of the part, each student found their pumpkin and took it home.
Party Snack! I grabbed some orange fruit cups and drew a jack-o-lantern face on them to add in a healthy option for the party snacks.
Pumpkin Snack Mix! Grab a CLEAN plastic pumpkin bowl/bucket and make a fun snack mix. I put pretzels, candy corn, marshmallows, & cheese crackers in ours. You can also add fun Halloween cereals too!
Monster Drinks! I used juice with food coloring for the base. Then, I added some plastic eyeballs and frozen hands for a spooky twist. To make the frozen hands, I put water and food coloring in a plastic glove and froze it overnight. The kids loved it!
Gross Motor Halloween Party Games
Mummy Wrap! Partner students up and give them a roll of toilet paper. Students take turns wrapping each other up to turn them into mummies!
Jack-O-Lantern Tower! Build towers with orange plastic cups to get students up and moving! I drew some jack-o-lantern faces on a few of the cups to make it more festive. I didn’t do it on all of them because I wanted to use these cups at other times of the year.
Ghost Toss! Students can toss them into any small ghost bucket or container. Make the mini ghosts by covering a ball in tissue for a fun gross motor activity.
Ghost Bowling! Use toilet paper rolls for bowling pins and small pumpkins for bowling balls. I taped small black circles onto the toilet paper to create ghost faces. Students roll the pumpkins to knock down the ghosts.
Table Halloween Party Games
Spider Count & Snack! Stick straws or rods into a playdough ball. Then, students will roll a die and place that many spider rings on the straw. If you have younger students, skip the die and just have them place spiders on the straw for a fun hand-eye coordination activity.Â
Pumpkin Geoboard! Students put golf tees in the pumpkin earlier in the week with plastic hammers. Then, they added rubber bands during the party for a spin on a geoboard activity. If there is a fun Halloween activity that students loved, do it at the party!
Halloween Fine Motor Mats! These are a great way to sneak in math during the party! There are mats for pom poms, playdough, pattern blocks, and linking cubes. Students create the picture and then trace the word while making their fine motor muscles super strong.
Witch Potions (only do this if your students DO NOT wear costumes)! Grab a tub and fill it with shaving cream. Then, sprinkle it with liquid watercolor. I added some cups with soapy water for another sensory option and some plastic eyeballs, pumpkin mini erasers, letter manipulatives, witch fingers, and small Halloween containers. Now, students can create magical potions!Â
Graham Cracker Haunted House! Students will have so much fun making their own edible haunted house. They will work on fine motor skills, creativity, and STEM skills during this fun activity. This will take some time, so be sure to allot plenty of time for this Halloween activity and prep as much as you can before the party.
Set-Up- Use some plastic to-go cups to have your icing already divided for each student. Each child gets a popsicle stick to spread their icing. I do this the night before or the morning of the party to make it easier during the party chaos.
Structure- Students will use graham crackers and icing to make the structure of the house.
Decorations- Each student gets a cup filled with items to decorate their house with. This can be prepped the night before or the morning of to make set-up easier. I gave them candy corn, M&M’s, cereal, candy bats, ghosts, and pumpkins, and a ghost marshmallow.
Now, gather some supplies and get to planning an awesome Halloween party for your preschool, pre-k, or kindergarten students! I hope these ideas are helpful and that you and your little learners have so much fun this fall. If you need more party ideas, check out this link!
Bring Halloween into the classroom with these Halloween Activities!
Stir up some Halloween Sensory Bottles too!
Check out this post for 26 Halloween Teacher Costumes That Are Easy to Make!
Pick up the Pumpkin Math & Literacy Centers to have all the handouts and resources for literacy and math in the preschool, pre-k, or kindergarten classroom!
Explore pumpkins with the Little Learners Science All About Pumpkins Unit!
Want to see these Halloween party tips and tricks in action? Check it out here.
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hey, i’m jackie!
I’m Jackie, your go-to girl for early childhood inspiration and research-based curriculum.