Tricks, Treats, And Spooky Sweets – 10 Creative Ideas For A Fun, Safe Halloween For Young Children
Updated: Sep 12, 2022
Tricks, Treats, And Spooky Sweets – 10 Creative Ideas For A Fun, Safe Halloween For Young Children
This Halloween, parents are seeking ways to provide their little ones with safe and fun activities that will capture the spirit of Halloween and all the imagination and excitement that this spooky season brings. Although the holiday is traditionally celebrated with trick-or-treating, Halloween provides countless other opportunities for children to express themselves, explore creatively, and most importantly, have fun! These moments can also help young children, especially under six years old, develop important social-emotional skills via playful, creative, and engaging activities.
The Goddard School has developed Halloween activities and ideas to help parents get the entire family into the Halloween spirit and ensure their young children have a safe and fun holiday.
1. Mystery Bowls – Set up a spooky sensory experience for your children by filling bowls with cold spaghetti, grapes, gelatin, and more. Blindfold your children and have them guess the foods as they feel them. For each correct guess, give your children a treat, such as pieces of candy, stickers, or other fun items.
2. Monster Footprints – Cut out monster-shaped footprints from construction paper and lay them out in a path throughout your house or yard. Have your children go on a monster hunt that leads to a special Halloween treat at the end of the path.
3. Ghost Toast – This deliciously spooky recipe is perfect for breakfast or a snack. Use a ghost-shaped cookie cutter to cut out a few pieces of bread, coat one side with butter and cinnamon sugar, and then toast them in the oven. Add miniature chocolate chips to make eyes and a mouth as a finishing touch, and enjoy!
4. “Boo” Someone – Help your children spread some Halloween fun! Leave an anonymous ghost-shaped note and a treat for your children telling them that they’ve been “boo-ed.” Include instructions to pass it on and “boo” three other friends or family members.
5. Bat Snacks – This Halloween snack is perfect for little fruit bats! Trace a bat-shaped cookie cutter on a piece of black construction paper, cut the bat shapes out, and tape them to the end of wooden skewers. Help your children put cut-up fruit pieces onto the skewer and enjoy the healthy treat.
6. I Want My Mummy Game – This is a perfect way to get the whole family involved in Halloween fun! Group your household into two teams and provide each with a roll of toilet paper. When you say go, each team will wrap a team member up like a mummy. The first team to finish the roll and wrap the mummy wins!
7. Monster Mash Freeze Dance – For active little ones, you can turn on the Monster Mash and have them freeze in monster poses whenever the music stops.
8. Spider Dance Game – This game is great for developing balance, especially in toddlers. Use painter’s tape to create a spider web on the floor and sprinkle toy spiders in the holes of the web. Let your children walk on the web and pick up as many spiders as they can without losing their balance and stepping off the lines.
9. Halloween Car Parade – Try holding this physically distanced alternative to trunk or treat by coordinating with your neighbors and organizing a special Halloween car parade. Decorate your car, dress your children up in their costumes, buckle them in, and drive around your neighborhood so everyone can enjoy the festivities. Take it a step further by organizing a contest with a prize for the best-decorated car!
10. Halloween Scavenger Hunt – Create a competition among your friends and family with this spooky scavenger hunt. Have your children dress up and take a family walk around the neighborhood as you take pictures or videos to record what you find from this list:
Pretend spider webs
A graveyard scene
A ghost that looks like it’s flying
A decoration that makes noise
A real haystack
A black cat
Two scary skeletons
A witch’s hat or broom
A Halloween treat
Black and orange lights
A funny costume
Two of the same costume
A scary carved pumpkin
A silly carved pumpkin
A strobe light
A pretend bat
A spooky sign
Something sparkly
Three pieces of candy corn
A skull
Even though Halloween celebrations may be a little different this year, children can still have a spooktacular time!