With the spooky season upon us and my love of all things Halloween and Autumn, I thought it would be fun to come up with some Halloween-themed activity ideas for EYFS. These activities can be linked to multiple areas of learning and development.
- Spooktacular dancing
Ask pupils how different characters associated with Halloween might move. Model and encourage descriptive vocabulary. Try different moves as a class, then give children opportunities to work in groups to create some moves for a specific character. Ask children to perform and give feedback to each other. Work as a class to combine these different groups moves into one class dance routine. Record on video and watch back and discuss as a class.
- Marvellous masks
This could link to the ‘spooktacular dancing’, as the pupils could make a mask for the character their group created the dance for. Then these masks can be worn in a special performance of your class’s dance that could be shared with parents.
You can make a simple mask with card, string, scissors, a hole punch, pens/pencils, glue and/or paint and brushes. There are loads of templates online you can use to save you time! You may also want to give pupils 2D shapes to draw around or print out for their masks too.
Basic mask instructions
- The pupil can draw around a template mask onto a larger piece of card and cut it out with scissors.
- Ask them to write their name on the back of their mask.
- Before the pupil starts to decorate the mask, make a small hole on each side of it, using the hole punch (ready for attaching the string later).
- Help the pupil mark where they will need eye holes – then they can cut these out.
- For the face decoration, pupils could paint, draw, colour, create shapes on separate bits of card and stick them on, print with shapes – there are so many options for creativity!
- Once the mask is complete (and dry, if paint/glue was used!) you can then attach the string and measure it to fit the size of the pupil’s head.
- Potions lesson
You will need: a cauldron or hat, objects/words for spell ingredients, containers of different sizes, food colouring, water.
Using a hat or cauldron pop some spell ingredients inside. These could be ingredient names written on pieces of paper, actual objects, or a mixture of both. You can then pull these out to show the children, who can then read or spell the words using their phonics skills. Once you have been through all the ingredients, it is time to make the potions! Mix water with food colouring in different size containers. And begin to pour different amounts into other containers. Have discussions about capacity, as well as what happens when different colours are mixed together.
- Pumpkin biscuits
Pupils can make and decorate their own pumpkin biscuit.
You will need: rolling pin, bowl, biscuit dough, plain flour, plastic knife/scalpel, different coloured writing icing.
- Give the pupils enough dough to make one biscuit (the amount will depend on how much dough you have, e.g. you may have a dough ball for 12 biscuits, so you would give each pupil 1/12).
- Ask the pupil to knead the dough – talk about texture.
- Then the pupil rolls the dough into a ball with their hands.
- After that, they need to roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface until it is about the thickness of a £1 coin.
- They can then cut out a small upside-down triangle at the top, using the plastic knife/scalpel to make the dipped part of the pumpkin top.
- Then take that piece of dough and roll it into a sausage shape.
- They can then roll this out to the same thickness as the rest of the dough.
- They carefully attach this piece to the top to make the pumpkin stalk.
- Pressing gently with the scalpel/knife, they can mark some thin lines down the pumpkin body for the final touch.
- Bake in the oven according to the instructions for the dough.
- Allow to cool.
- Pupils can then use the writing icing to create decorations of their choice on their pumpkin.
- Taste the season
Gather different seasonal fruits, vegetables, dishes etc. for pupils to taste. Talk about flavours, textures, what they like and don’t like and why. Following this, the pupils could record which they liked and didn’t like in different ways e.g. sticking photos of the food in different columns and explaining on a voice recording, creating a poster of their favourites, and so on.
Autumn foods/flavours examples: pumpkin, apple, carrots, kale, parsnips, cabbage, pears, pecans, potatoes, blackberries, toffee, cinnamon, sweet potato, maple syrup.
Happy Halloween everyone!
