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Ghosts and goblins,
A princess and more.
Which happy children
Will reach my door?
Halloween is one of the most popular holidays with kids and grown-ups
alike. How will you recognize this special day in your classroom while
keeping the excitement at an acceptable level? Young children will surely
love hearing a good Halloween story, and who doesn’t love trying a special
Halloween treat? We’ve put together a “handful of Halloween” for you to
use in your classroom, so have fun and happy pumpkin day to all!
Susan LaBella,
Education
World's Early Childhood Education Newsletter, October 10, 2005
 ACTIVITY
IDEAS
MAKE A SHAPE-O-LANTERN
Children can reinforce their understanding of shapes as they make
these fun jack-o-lanterns. Give each child a large circle cut from orange
paper. Provide children with black pre cut shapes -- half circles,
triangles, squares, and rectangles. Encourage children to make a
jack-o-lantern face with the shapes. As children glue the shapes onto the
circles, they can name each shape they are using. Display the completed
jack-o-lanterns and ask: Which ones have triangle eyes? How many squares
are on this jack-o-lantern? And so on.
 YUMMM!
Read to children Halloween Mice, by Bethany Roberts (Clarion Books).
Then invite children to make their own Halloween cookies. Provide each
child with a plain sugar cookie. Let each child spread marshmallow crème
onto his or her cookie. Then place out in containers raisins, chocolate
chips, or other candy or fruit bits. Invite children to use the bits to
create funny or spooky Halloween faces on their cookies.
MAKE HALLOWEEN GHOSTIES
Provide each child with a sheet of black construction paper. Use a
white crayon to draw an outline around each child’s foot on the black
paper. Invite children to turn the footprint outline so the heel is at the
top. Next have children fill in the white outline with white paint. Let
children sprinkle some white glitter onto their shapes before they dry.
Finally, encourage children to add eyes and a mouth to the heel area to
create their own ghosts.
A GREAT BIG BOO!
Prepare for each child a white piece of construction paper on which
you have drawn with white crayon a ghost shape and the word Boo! Have
children paint a watercolor of their choice over their paper. Children
love to watch the “magic” as the crayon images appear.
GREAT GAMES FOR HALLOWEEN
--- Let children crouch down in various spots in the room to look like
pumpkins. The teacher walks around the room saying, “Pumpkin, pumpkin,
round and fat. Turn into a jack-o-lantern just like that!” On “that” the
teacher taps the head of the nearest child. That child then gets up and
repeats the activity with the teacher until all children have been chosen.
--- Cut out from heavy paper a number of small pumpkin or ghost shapes. On
a sheet of poster board draw a tic-tac-toe grid. Laminate the board if
possible. Invite children to play this familiar game with the Halloween
shapes.
PUMPKINS IN THE PATCH
Lay out 11 large sheets of green construction paper and give each one
a number from 0 to 10. Cut out 55 orange paper pumpkins. Invite children
to count out and place no pumpkins on patch 0, 1 pumpkin on patch 1, 2
pumpkins on patch 2, and so on.
ON
THE WEB
Check out the following Web sites for more background and activities.
 Trick
Or Treat Safety
A listing of Halloween safety tips. Be sure to review them with
students.
http://www.zeeks.com/440.html
Halloween Songs
You’ll find a nice selection of Halloween songs to teach your
children. Sing out!
http://www.perpetualpreschool.com/halloweensongs.html
The Jack-O-Lantern We Carved
Print out this cute page to liven up Halloween pumpkin pictures.
http://www.preschoolcoloringbook.com/noline/nlhalloween2.shtml
Preschool Halloween Books
What a great display of Halloween books to share with your class.
Bright full-color cover shots too.
http://www.everythingpreschool.com/themes/halloween/books.php
Boo-Ti-Ful Trees
Try making some Halloween Hearts!
http://www.kinderart.com/littles/boo.shtml
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