Fall/Halloween activities & crafts for Pre-K

[forkids]

I really love doing fall and Halloween activities & crafts with my students, but I am tired of the same old things. Let's share ideas.
I'll start:

Read The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything and the children make the sounds with various musical instruments.

Make a 'spooky' scene by having the kids draw a scene then wash over it with watered down black tempera paint.

Torn paper pumpkins on small or large paper plates.

Handprint ghosts.

Pumpkin math activities.

[gillianvt]

I just saw one where you stuff a piece of orange tissue paper with newspaper (I think it was) and tie it closed at the top. Add a leaf and stem and you have a nice pumpkin. The children could then glue on a jack-o-lantern face if you want.

For leaves I've done several things. Cut out leaves from paper towels and have them use droppers and the liquid watercolor paints to make red/orange/yellow leaves. Or cut out squares from contact paper and have the children put red/orange/yellow tissue paper on it. Then put another piece of contact paper on top with a trace of a leaf on it and have them cut out the leaf. These look nice in a window as the light shines through.

[mmswm]

Pipe cleaner spiders....

Take 4 black pipe cleaners and fold them in half. Grab them about an inch and a half down from the fold and twist. Pull two of the loops in one direction and the other two in the other direction. This is the body of the spider. Form the ends into legs and glue on googly eyes. There's pictures of the finished produce here...

http://forums.atozteacherstuff.com/s...ad.php?t=70875

[inhisgrip20]

I love this time of year too!

Here are a few activity ideas I use with my kiddos:

Carving a pumpkin, of course, or you could also get small pumpkins for each student and let them decorate with paint.

Do the "Hooky Spooky!"Put your arm in, take your arm out
Put your arm in and shake it all about
Do the hooky spooky and everybody shout
That's what it's all about! BOO!

Continutes with additional body parts

Halloween Candy Holders: Take a large can (ex. coffee can) and paint it white for the primer. Let dry. Then kids paint the can with orange paint. Let it dry. Help them draw a jack-o-lantern face on the can with black marker/paint. Punch two holes into the top edges of the can on opposite sides. Tie string or twine to make a handle. They can take all of their Halloween goodies home in these cans and use them for trick-or-treating.

Paper Plate Pumpkin Shakers: Have children paint 2 paper plates orange. Add face with markers to make Jack-O-Lantern. Staple plates together but leave room to add popcorn kernels and construction paper stem. Finish stapling. Makes a fun pumpkin shaker.

Monster Mash:
Ingredients per student:
1 scoop of Boo Goo (vanilla ice cream),
1 T. of Swamp Mud (chocolate syrup),
1 T. Spider Fangs (miniature chocolate chips), and
10 Mummy Toes (miniature marshmallows).
Place the ingredients in a paper cup. Mash them together with a plastic spoon. Top with a spoonful of Snake Slime (green-tinted whipped cream). Kids will love making and eating this monster mash!

You can find more Halloween ideas on my website here:
http://workofheart.bravehost.com/halloween.htm

[WaProvider]

Game:Find shaped erasers (really for any holiday)

find containers or jello jiggler molds to sort into (more fun the muffin tins-but not necessary)

roll dice take that number of items

or

just sort the figures into the bins that best match.

2 levels of play-

as many players as you want.

covers:

sorting
counting
teamwork
social skills (taking turns)
winning/loosing well-sportsmanship
numeral identification
fine motor
hand eye

[Dzenna]

I do a lot of math activities this month.

-I bought foam Halloween shapes at the Dollar Store. I handed a handful to 6 children sitting at a table. I started a pattern and they continued it.

-I bought Sponge Bob Halloween fruit snacks. Each child will get a bag and we will sort and graph the different characters. We will do the same with Halloween orange, white, and black ghost marshmallows.

-I found bones and skulls candy in little bags. We will read Dem Bones and shake the bags to the chorus. Then we'll sort and graph those.

-We'll play dice games and count candy corn.

-We make a skeletin with Q-Tips as the bones.

[WaProvider]

Tree cut outs with leaves from dollar store to put on the tree in correspondence with the numeral printed on it. I also have the dice spots on the bottom so they can count it out if they don't know.

We are all about numbers right now.

[imat]

I Love Fall!!! The ideas are endless. I just updated my page on Pumpkins and Scarecrows with things that are happening in the classroom right now.
Pumpkin Patch
http://kidsworldexploration.com/id19.html

We are just starting out on the Scarecrow unit. Our director wants us to come up with a scarecrow based on our classes favorit book. I think I will do the Little Old Lady that Swallowed the Fly.
Scarecrow Link
http://kidsworldexploration.com/id20.html

[TeacherSandra]

I don't see your pictures, IMAT??

[TeacherSandra]

Several years ago, one of my students gave me a cute "pumpkin" for my desk...it was a roll of toilet paper wrapped in orange material (with the gathering at the top). She added a stem and leaf; no face. Too cute! I take it out every year.