Kindergarten Halloween Activities

Kindergartners should only carve pumpkins under adult supervision.

Kindergarten-aged kids are usually lively and enthusiastic, therefore classroom activities should be designed to be both entertaining and instructional. During Halloween, teachers can organize activities that help students understand ideas in subjects such as math and English while also celebrating the holiday. Halloween activities will also allow kindergartners to express their creativity as they make crafts and dress in costumes.

Costume Parade

Organize a costume parade for your kindergarten class to let the children show off their costumes. Encourage students to be creative when choosing a costume and offer ideas such as their favorite cartoon character, superhero or fairy tale character. Have the students parade around the school, playground or parking lot. Invite parents to come and watch as the class parades through the school. Create a music CD of Halloween songs to accompany the students as they parade or teach them songs they can sing as they walk. Take a picture of each student in her costume to make a costume parade class book.

Carving Pumpkins

Ask for parent volunteers to help your kindergarten class carve pumpkins. Split the class into small groups of about four kids with one adult. Have the adults cut off the tops of the pumpkins and let the students clean out the pulp and seeds. Make the activity educational by having students guess the number of seeds in the pumpkin before you start carving. Practice the student's vocabulary skills by having them describe what the pulp feels like. The students should design the shape of the mouth, nose and eyes for the pumpkin before the adult starts carving. Show off the students' creativity by displaying the pumpkins around the classroom.

Guessing Games

Guessing games are both fun and educational for kindergarten students. Place Halloween candy in a glass jar and have each student guess how many candies are in the jar. The student who guesses the closest to the right number gets a special treat. After carving pumpkins, have students guess their weight. Let students weigh other objects on the scale first such as an eraser or stapler to help them make accurate guesses. Another fun guessing game called "What's in the Box?" requires students to place their hand through a hole in a box and guess the object inside.

Crafts

Allow kindergarten students to express their creativity during Halloween with crafts. Kindergartners can make easy masks using string and paper plates. Supply students with paint, markers and items such as feathers and sequins to decorate their masks. Hold a contest, awarding prizes for the scariest, funniest and most colorful masks. Instead of carving pumpkins, kindergartners can create paper pumpkins. Make paper pumpkins by stuffing a brown paper lunch bag with newspaper. Tie the top of the bag together with green yarn. Let the students paint the bag orange and design a face for their pumpkins. Students can also use white finger paint to make ghosts. Paint a student's hand white and then have him press it onto a piece of paper. After the paint dries, the students can turn the paper upside down and paint faces on their ghosts.

References

• Kinder Helper: Halloween Games and Activities for Kindergarten Kids

Resources

• Primary Games: Halloween Games