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I got very inspired this month to create a number of fun Halloween Montessori activities for my kids.
Some of these activities have already been put out on our shelves, and other activities will be appearing later this month.
My kids just love it when I place new work on our shelves for them to do!
I hope you’ll find some inspiration for your own Montessori-style activities among the ideas shown below.
Note: You can find more Halloween ideas on my Halloween Activities for Kids page.
Hammering golf tees in a pumpkin
I set out a pumpkin, a lightweight hammer, and some golf tees. The idea was for the kids to hammer the golf tees into the pumpkin.
I knew this one would get some attention, and indeed, it was the first activity my daughter chose to work with when I changed the trays on our shelves.
And just a note that putting holes in the pumpkin speeds up the rotting process, so don’t expect your pumpkin to last too long after you do this activity.
Tweezing Halloween erasers
For this tray I filled the little pumpkin container with Halloween-themed erasers. I added our Learning Resources Easy Grip Tweezers and a pumpkin-shaped ice cube tray I picked up at the Dollar Store.
The goal is for the kids to tweeze the erasers out of the pumpkin container and put them into the ice cube tray, sorting the purple bats and green monsters as they do.
Scissors Practice
Both kids have been enjoying scissors practice lately. I printed these cutting practice sheets from my Jack-o-Lantern Printable Pack and I added a pair of kid-friendly scissors.
Halloween-themed number puzzle
My son can now recognize numbers 1 through 10 pretty accurately. And since he just learned to count all the way to 20 without skipping any numbers, I thought it would be a good time to introduce this Halloween-themed number puzzle that goes from 11 to 20.
This puzzle can be found in my Halloween Printable Pack.
Pattern copying
I printed this pattern copying activity from my Jack-o-Lantern Printable Pack. This tray includes a control card and a basket with the picture cards the kids use to copy the pattern on the control card.
Here is what the finished work looks like.
Halloween do-a-dot worksheets
Even though do-a-dot worksheets are below my kids’ level, they still enjoy doing them from time to time.
For this month, I decided to have them use Halloween stickers to fill in all the dots in our Halloween Do-a-Dot worksheets.
Balancing candy on golf tees
In honor of Halloween, I wanted to include some candy in our activities. For this activity, I set out a tray with a jar of ball-shaped candy, a bowl of orange and black golf tees, and a styrofoam block.
The kids have to insert the golf tees into the styrofoam and then balance the candies on top.
When we tried a similar activity back in July, my daughter had difficulty getting all the items on the golf tees without knocking others off. I’m anxious to see how she does with this activity this month.
Halloween Initial Sound Identification Game
For this activity I have nine cards with Halloween-inspired images and nine cards with letters written on pumpkins (which you can download here).
The goal is for the kids to match each letter with the picture beginning with the same sound.
Uppercase and lowercase letter matching
I printed these uppercase and lowercase letter matching cards from my Halloween Printable Pack.
My son uses these to match the uppercase and lowercase letters. I laminated them for extra sturdiness using our awesome thermal laminator.
Candy corn math activity
On this tray I placed five strips of paper with 1 to 5 candy corns printed on them. I also included a jar of candy corn.
My daughter will put the strips in order from least to most candy corns. Then she will have to place one candy corn from the jar on each of the candy corns on her paper.
Using chopsticks to transfer candy corn
I prepared this tray with a dish of candy corn, our Pororo training chopsticks, and the pumpkin ice cube tray. The kids have to use the chopsticks to transfer the candy corn into the ice cube tray.
Tweezing candy corn
I also created another version of the candy corn transfer activity by using our Learning Resources Easy Grip Tweezers instead of our Pororo training chopsticks. The kids have to be careful not to squeeze the tweezers too hard so as to not crush the candy corn.
Candy corn counting and number matching
Can you tell yet that I was really inspired by candy corn this month? 🙂
On this tray I included a bowl of candy corns, cards with the numbers 0 through 10 on them, and plates with 0 to 11 candy corns illustrated on them.
The kids have to put the numbers in order, match each plate to a number, and then add the indicated number of candy corns from the bowl to the plate.
Fine motor work stringing Halloween beads into necklaces
On this tray I put a bowl of Halloween foam beads and a bowl with a blunt-tip needle and thread. Both kids LOVED making their own necklaces! And I loved all the fine motor practice they got.
My son was so proud of himself because he learned how to thread the needle all by himself!
Halloween counting
I created a tray with our sandpaper numerals and Halloween foam beads. The kids practice putting the numbers in order (I give my daughter only 1-5, but my son gets 0-9). Then they count out a number of beads equal to the number on the card and place them below the card.
Halloween Dice Game
There are two versions of this Halloween Dice Game.
I set out the more advanced version for my son so he could practice some basic addition.
Using our jumbo foam dice, he had to roll them both and add up their sum. Then he had to find that number on the game board and cover it with one of our pumpkin foam beads.
Halloween addition game with candy corn manipulatives
I printed this addition game from my Halloween Printable Pack.
The kids select two addends (the white cards) and place them into the indicated boxes on the game board. They count out candy corns equal to the numbers they selected. Then they have to sum the numbers and select the appropriate yellow sum card and place it in the box on the right.
I hope you enjoyed the tour of our Halloween Montessori activities!
More Halloween resources
More Halloween posts from Gift of Curiosity:
- Mason jar jack-o-lantern
- Halloween sensory bin
- Candy experiments
- Ghost bubbles
- Pumpkin decomposition experiment
- Describe a pumpkin using all five senses
- Drip painted pumpkins
- Halloween Printables Pack
- Jack-o-lantern Printables Pack
- Halloween do-a-dot printables
- Halloween Sudoku
- Pumpkin outlines
You can find more Halloween activities and printables on my Halloween Activities for Kids page and Halloween Activities for Kids Pinterest board.
Stacy
I love these ideas! I printed out your Halloween pack, and can’t wait to use these ideas with it! Thanks for sharing!
Stephanie @ From the Burbs to the Boonies
These are really neat ideas. A theme probably gets them excited about things they’ve done in other ways before. LOVE the pumpkin hammering one! Ha! I will pass this on as it seems like very valuable lessons for little ones.
Carla
Oh, what great activities! When I see fantastic ideas like this, it motivates me to want to go out tomorrow and simply open my preschool…immediately! Love all your creative, wonderful ideas! Thank you for the constant inspiration!
Carla M
Claire
These are AWESOME! I’m an occupational therapist and I love using Montessori-inspired activities in my treatment sessions – lots of hands-on, multi-sensory opportunities for fine motor skill-building! Thanks for the great ideas! 🙂
Renae
This is a great set of activities! Thanks for all the ideas!
Carli
Wow! What an amazing list! I am totally pinning this for later! Thank you!
Jen @ Making Our Life Matter
Great ideas! I’m sending this to my SIL and a friend who are both teachers!
Deb @ Living Montessori Now
Great ideas, Katie! I love your variety of activities and printables! I shared your post today on Sulia.
Kirstylee
These ideas are all so great. I usually don’t use candy in my trays, but I absolutely love that tray with the tweezers and the candy corn. I especially love that it has the added challenge of not smooshing the candy corn. Love it!
Lisa
Thank you for your ideas! These are so much fun!