10 Halloween-Themed Learning Activities and a Monster Writing Lab

Leaders,

Does it ever feel like you’re leading a group of monsters? You know how it is, some days you just wonder, “What was in the water?” “Is it a full moon tonight?” “Did aliens invade and plant secret technology in all the kids that just made them turn?” Well, whatever it is, know that we feel it too!

Today, we’re sharing a slew of activities for you to do with your little monsters. These are hand-picked, child-tested, and monster-ready! We’ve used them in our lab on our little monsters and we’re alive to tell the tale! We’re even sharing our secret formula derived from the creative potion of another educational chemist. Let’s welcome those monsters into our educational lab. No way they’ll be prepared for what we have in store.  Mwhahahaha!   

1. Pumpkin Spice Playdough  

This recipe (from Tinker Lab) sat in the to-do pile since the end of September. But, when we came across the next activity, we knew it was time to move it on up to the must-do list. Leaders, it smells like heaven. Seriously. My brother smelled it and asked if it was cookie dough. We were a tiny bit concerned our monsters might eat it, but so far, they have managed to keep their grubby, cute, little, playdough-covered paws out of their mouths. If they do, however, happen to sneak a taste, it is made with all edible ingredients, so no big deal.

2. Roll a Play Dough Monster

With the delectable playdough, our little monsters roll to create their own monsters, thanks to Fun Learning for Kids. In this activity, your monsters form a playdough blob for the body, then roll to see how many body parts to add.  Included is a record sheet, because, after all, every mad scientist must record their data. How smart is this educational chemist?!? Obviously, we agree, because this is the creative potion from which we derived our own secret formula. Keep reading for our monster lab remix. 

3. Candy Corn Numbers

On our An Idea for Everyday Calendar – October Edition, we shared these activities for Candy Corn Day (October 30^th) from We are Teachers. Our monsters piece together candy corn number puzzles and continue candy corn patterns (we’re saving this one for Halloween). 

4. Number Puzzles

Next up is even more puzzles for our monsters with this great contribution from Fantastic Fun and Learning. Monsters match numbers to candy pieces while we secretly boost their fine motor skills. 

5. Pumpkin and Apple Count and Covers

Thanks, again, to the educational chemist at Fun Learning for Kids, our monsters place small, Halloween themed erasers equal to the numbers on these mats. No erasers to be found? How about candy corn? Googly eyes? Playdough? Pom poms?  You work in a monster lab! I am positive you stock all sorts of interesting ingredients.

6. 5 Little Pumpkins

Somewhere, we have the Pete the Cat version of this poem.  And IF we find it, that will be read, as we do each year in our monster lab. But, even if we can’t, there are so many other available versions we will just improvise with one of those. Besides which, Stuck on Glue’s version (above link) incorporates the poem with the craft. Talk about handy! 

7. Little Boo

We love this book (by Stephen Wunderli; illustrated by Tim Zeltner)! It tells of a pumpkin seed that wants to be scary. As the story progresses, we join the seed through its life cycle. Now a full-grown pumpkin, Little Boo, picked and carved by a boy, finally becomes a scary jack-o-lantern. After hearing about Little Boo, our little monsters make their own pumpkin life cycle book to take home. We made our own pumpkin life cycle book, but it’s not cleaned up for sharing (yet). So, I’m sharing this (free) one by Fun Time Early Learning. Not only do your monsters get to color the life cycle stages, but they also trace key vocabulary words.   

8. Draw a Costume

Thanks to Fantastic Fun and Learning, our monsters will draw and write about their Halloween costumes. We all know they are already talking about it, endlessly… even when asked not to… in whispers they think we can’t hear... 🤷🏻‍♀️ We might as well use it as a learning opportunity!

9. Don’t Feed the Monster

Check out this one! Our monsters practice their letter sounds while we sneakily get them to practice math as well. Thanks to Stay at Home Educator for this bright, colorful, and multi-functional learning game.

10. Color Centers

Finally, monsters practice color identification, coloring, counting, number formation, and probability with this activity from your locally owned and operated mad scientists at Wolfe Stew.

Monster Writing Lab

We hope the lab experiments completed with our little monsters prove useful to you and yours. And, as promised, we have our remixed secret formula potion to share with you. If you recall, it manifested from the "Roll a Play Dough Monster Activity" provided by Fun Learning for Kids. The steps are similar, but we added in a writing element and remixed the recording sheet to spread the fun to older learners. 

If your monsters range from grades PreK-2, invite them to build the monster, then adapt what they record to purpose. For example, PreK and K write the number, first graders write the number word, while second graders write the number word and an adjective to describe the body parts.

Third graders and up may skip the playdough part or embrace it like the children they still are. Up to you! The monsters in these age groups vary so much. We know some of them will totally dig the playdough part, while others are too cool for it. So, gauge your monsters and act accordingly.

Following the monster creation lab activity, your monsters draw an inspired monster (or a completely new one) then formulate a plan for their monster’s story. You can choose to have them write an open-ended narrative (we suggest 3^rd – 5^th) or a realistic sounding monster origin story (we suggest 6^th and up).   

Click the picture or here to open your own monster writing lab.

However you mix it up, this secret formula potion is certain to keep your monsters working.  Mwhahaha.

In it With You,

P. S. You’re still here and that’s awesome!  We have more fun in store for you!  Take this “Which Hogwarts Professor are You?” Quiz and post your results below. 

P. S. S. You might find this link helpful for the question about dragons. 

Interested in even more educational resources?  Then stop by our Learning Lab.  It's here where we store all the educational resources we've cooked up to date.