You know when you walk through Target’s Bullseye’s Playground for one completely unrelated thing and suddenly find yourself holding something and thinking, Ohhhh, I could use these for so many things. That’s exactly what happened when I found these little wooden Halloween characters.
I found them in Target’s Bullseye’s Playground (or the Target Dollar Spot, as I will probably forever call it), and immediately started thinking about all of the ways we could use them for preschool play and learning. The best part is that none of my ideas required an elaborate activity or a long list of materials.
One little Target find gave me three really simple Halloween preschool activities: a matching activity, a sensory bin, and interactive story props. Each one gives children different ways to explore and participate while also creating natural opportunities for connection and communication.
What Are Some Easy Halloween Activities for Preschoolers?
Halloween preschool activities don't need complicated crafts or lots of prep. A simple set of Halloween toys can become a matching activity, sensory bin, or interactive story activity with just a few additional materials.
That's one of my favorite things about finding open-ended materials like these. Instead of thinking about one specific activity I can make, I like to think about all the different ways we could use the same material. Can we match with it? Add it to sensory play? Bring it into a book? Use it during play to model communication?
Suddenly one little package from the Target Dollar Spot can give us multiple ways to engage children without requiring us to prep five completely different activities. And you know I'm always going to choose that option.
Halloween Preschool Activity #1: Easy Character Matching Game
This might be the easiest activity of all! I placed the wooden Halloween characters directly onto the glass of my color copier and made a color copy. That's it. The copy instantly became a matching mat featuring pictures of the exact characters the child would be using.
Place the printed page on the table with the wooden pieces nearby, and children can match the characters to their pictures. You could put out all of the characters at once, offer just a few at a time, or simply leave the materials available and see what the child does with them.
There's no need to require a child to finish every match or complete the activity in a particular order. Follow their lead, talk about what they're noticing, move the pieces around, and have fun exploring the characters together. The matching activity gives you a starting point, but it doesn't have to dictate where the interaction goes.
What Skills Can Preschoolers Practice With a Matching Activity?
A simple Halloween matching activity can support visual discrimination and early learning concepts while also creating natural opportunities for communication and shared interaction.
Depending on the child, you might model words and concepts such as same, match, find, here, there, on, off, more, colors, or the names and descriptions of the different characters. These words can be modeled through speech, gestures, signs, or AAC.
And model is the important word here. We don't need to hold up the witch and ask, “What's this?” five times until we get an answer. Instead, we can communicate while we're playing:
- “Oh! I found the pumpkin.”
- “Same!”
- “Put it on.”
- “There's the ghost!”
- here
- there
- on
- off
- more
- colors
- character names and descriptions
For a child who uses AAC, we can model some of those same words on their communication system as they naturally come up. The child doesn't have to imitate us or respond. We're showing them that communication is available and meaningful within something we're already enjoying together.
Halloween Preschool Activity #2: Make a Halloween Sensory Bin
Next, take those same characters and add them to a sensory bin. Seriously, we're keeping this easy.
For this Halloween sensory bin, I used rice, small pumpkins, scoops, and the wooden Halloween characters. You can easily use whatever sensory materials you already have available in your classroom. Shredded paper, pom-poms, crinkle paper, or even strips of construction paper can create a simple base. Add cups, spoons, tongs, small containers, or scoops for pouring, filling, hiding, and finding. Children can scoop, pour, bury, find, move, line up, and play with the characters however they choose.
And don't feel like you need to buy anything special. Take a look through your classroom cabinets first; you probably already have everything you need.
- Sensory bases: rice, dry pasta, dry beans, oats, pom-poms, shredded paper, crinkle paper, tissue paper, construction-paper strips, fabric scraps, or kinetic sand
- Tools: measuring cups, spoons, scoops, tongs, tweezers, funnels, muffin tins, ice cube trays, cups, bowls, or small containers
- Halloween additions: mini pumpkins, plastic spiders, bats, eyeballs, leaves, small Halloween erasers, or other seasonal manipulatives
That's one of the things I love about sensory play. We can create the invitation without deciding ahead of time exactly what the child's play needs to look like. One child may spend their time searching for every character while another might be much more interested in scooping and pouring the sensory material. Both are engaging with the experience.
How Can a Halloween Sensory Bin Support Communication?
Halloween sensory play can create natural opportunities to model communication while children scoop, pour, find, move, hide, and explore the materials.
Think about how much language naturally comes up while you're sitting beside a child playing. You might model words such as:
- in/out
- find
- go
- stop
- more
- scoop
- pour
- up/down
- monster
- pumpkin
All depending on what is happening in that moment.
If the child buries the monster, you might model “monster in.” If they're scooping and suddenly stop, there's an opportunity to model “stop.” If they reach toward you for more sensory material, you have another meaningful opportunity for communication.
For children who use AAC, we can model those same words on their communication system when they make sense within the play. The goal isn't to ask question after question or require the child to say or select a particular word. We're modeling language while sharing an enjoyable experience together, rather than turning play into a test.
Halloween Preschool Activity #3: Use the Characters as Story Props
Now we're going to use those little Target Halloween characters one more time. This time, bring them to story time.
I paired mine with Halloween and monster-themed books, including Ten Little Monsters and I‘m Not Scared of Monsters. The wooden characters don't have to perfectly match every character in the books. They're simply giving children another hands-on way to connect with the story.
A child might hold a character while you're reading, find one that reminds them of something on the page, or move the characters around as the story unfolds. They may also become completely inspired by one little monster and start creating their own play before, during, or after the story. That's okay, too. The props are there to provide another point of connection with the book, not another set of rules for how children should participate.
How Can I Make Halloween Story Time More Interactive?
Simple props can make Halloween story time more interactive by giving children ways to participate beyond sitting, listening, and answering questions.
Participation can look like a lot of different things. A child might move a character, point to something on the page, use AAC, make a sound, act something out, hold a monster, or simply explore one of the props while listening. This can be especially helpful for children who connect more easily with books when we add movement or hands-on materials.
Sometimes we have a very specific picture in our heads of what “listening to a story” is supposed to look like, especially in a preschool classroom. But listening doesn't have to mean sitting perfectly still with hands in a lap and eyes on the book. When we give children multiple ways to engage, we're opening another door into the experience.
How Can I Adapt These Halloween Activities for Autistic Preschoolers?
Adapt Halloween activities for autistic preschoolers by considering each child's communication style, sensory preferences, interests, and regulation needs rather than expecting every child to participate in the same way.
There isn't one “right” way to do any of these activities, and there isn't one right way for a child to participate in them. One child might love digging through the sensory bin while another wants absolutely nothing to do with the sensory material. One child might match every Halloween character in two minutes while another takes the ghost and uses it in their own play.
All of that gives us information about the child in front of us.
Allow children to explore the materials in their own ways without requiring eye contact, spoken words, or a particular response before they can participate. If a child uses AAC, model without requiring them to copy you. If the sensory material isn't working for a child, change it or remove it. And if a child becomes much more interested in one of the little wooden characters than the activity you carefully planned, follow that interest.
Sometimes the best learning opportunities happen when we take a simple material, join a child in what they're already interested in, and see where the play takes us.
Simple Halloween Preschool Activities Don't Need to Be Complicated
One inexpensive Target Dollar Spot find can become so much more than a cute seasonal toy. These little Halloween characters gave us opportunities for matching, sensory play, interactive reading, communication, connection, and plenty of good old-fashioned play.
And the best part? You don't need to spend your entire weekend creating a Pinterest-perfect activity. Keep it simple, think about a few different ways you could offer the material, and then watch what the children do with it.
Follow their lead and have fun playing together.
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