H Is For Halloween
H Is For Halloween
H Is For Halloween
Halloween Theme
Letter: H
Number: 3
Color/Shape: Orange
Song: The Eensy Weensy Spider
Tricks or Guts
Use attached activity to use the sense of touch to explore spooky textures
and find a prize!
Pumpkin Faces (Shapes)
Cut out a large circle shape from orange felt. Place the pumpkin shape on a
large felt board. Set out 2 black triangle shapes, a small square shape, and a
large rectangle shape. Show your child how to arrange the shapes to create
the pumpkin’s face. Name the shapes as you place them on the pumpkin. Allow
your child the chance to create their own pumpkin faces.
Witch’s Buttons
Using attached witch, set out a bowl of buttons. Ask child to find 3 matching
buttons for the witch’s dress. You could also ask him/her to find 3 of the
same color, shape, etc.
Halloween Movement
Use attached cards to practice: gross motor skills. (Creep like a cat, march
like a mummy, etc.)
Use attached list to practice fine motor skills. (This is encouraging child to
warm up their hands in different spooky ways. Ghosts flying, etc.)
Jack-O-Lantern
Cut out a pumpkin out of orange paper and add a brown stem. Using black
paper, create a jack-o-lantern face on one side of the pumpkin. Then sing this
song with your own visual aid! Start by holding the pumpkin up on the first
verse, and then turn the pumpkin so it shows the jack-o-lantern’s face on the
second verse.
5 ½ c. flour
2 c. salt
8 tsp. cream of tartar
¾ c. oil
1 container (1.5 oz) pumpkin pie spice
Orange food coloring (2 parts yellow/1 part red)
4 c. water
Mix all of the ingredients together. Cook and stir over medium heat until all
the lumps disappear. Knead the dough on floured surface until it is smooth.
Store in airtight container. Remind children not to taste!
Hookey Spookey
Cut on 14-inch orange and on 14-inch black crepe paper streamer per child.
Ask them to hold one in each hand. Sing the Hokey Pokey song:
Put your orange hand in,
Put your orange hand out,
Put your orange hand in and you shake it all about.
You do the Hookey Spookey and you turn yourself around.
That’s what it’s all about.
Pumpkin Stamping
Cut small pumpkins in half. Let children dip pumpkin halves in orange paint to
make pumpkin prints.
Mummy Art
Cut out a gingerbread man shape out of cardstock or poster board. Have
child paint it with watered down glue. Rip strips of tissue paper and place
them horizontally over the man. Add 2 google eyes, and you’ve got a mummy!
Spider Webs
Paint a paper plate black. Punch several holes around the outside. Fold the
plate in half and punch more holes. Now have your child lace white yarn
through the holes. Start in the center hole and tape the beginning of the
yarn to the center. Lace yarn through holes until your run out, and then
tape the end to the plate. Stick a spider in the web!
SCIENCE
Pumpkin Investigations
Explore a pumpkin with some of the following investigations:
• Ask children to guess how much yarn it will take to measure around the
pumpkin.’s circumference They can cut the yarn they believe will be the
right amount. Then perform actual measurements with yarn and compare
real circumference yarn to your guess.
• Weigh the pumpkin. What else do you think would be a similar weight?
• Guess if the pumpkin will sink or float and see if you’re right!
To end the activity, cut open a pumpkin and allow children to use their sense
to explore the pumpkin. Don’t forget to save the seeds! (The Pumpkin Book
by Gail Gibbons is a great informational book to read with this activity.)
Play-dough
Add googly monster eyes to the pumpkin pie play-dough, and have children pull
out the monster eyes.
MATH
Pumpkin Seed Counting
Create circles out of orange paper or use orange paper plates as “pumpkins.”
Write numerals on each pumpkin, and ask child to match the correct number of
pumpkin seeds to each pumpkin. (Example: Match 5 seeds to the pumpkin with
the numeral 5 written on it.)
Sorting
Give children a bowl of 4 Halloween-themed paper cut-outs. Have children
sort the cut-outs.
Pumpkin Sizes
Using attached pumpkin sheet, arrange pumpkins according to size.
Mr Pumpkin Head
This is a fun play on Mr. Potato Head. To learn about facial features, create
an orange circle for the pumpkin and funny faces to create a pumpkin head.
You can find printables for this activity here:
http://lilmoptop.blogspot.com/2010/10/mr-pumpkin-head.html
LITERATURE CONNECTIONS
Go Away, Big Green Monster
Make a big green monster out of felt by making patterns of the monster’s
face modeling the pictures in the book. As the story is read, add pieces of
the monster’s face and then take them away.
Feelings
Glad Monster, Sad Monster by Ed Emberley is a great chance to talk about
feelings. After reading the book, ask children to think about what a happy
face looks like, sad face, angry face, etc. Practice making these faces. Then
create jack-o-lanterns faces that look that way.
Pumpkin Picking
Before picking out your pumpkin at the pumpkin patch, a great book to read
is The Pumpkin Patch by Elizabeth King.
FOOD IDEAS
Pumpkin Seeds
After cutting open a pumpkin, roast the seeds. Rinse the seeds and then
season as desired. Bake them in the oven at 300 degrees until browned. (You
can use these later for the pumpkin seed counting activity!)
Cupcake Spiders
Create chocolate cupcakes according to the directions on the box. Let cool
and frost. Cut Twizzlers vertically and cut in half. Place 4 into each side of
“spider.” Place M&M’s for eyes.
Individual Mini Pumpkin Pies
1 cupcake liner
1 vanilla wafer (for crust)
¼ c. prepared vanilla pudding
¼ tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 T. canned pumpkin
Cool whip
Candy pumpkin (optional)
Place the vanilla wafer in the bottom of the cupcake liner. Mix pudding,
pumpkin pie spice, and canned pumpkin. Stir and spoon into crust. Top with a
spoon of cool whip and a candy pumpkin.
Witch’s Stew
Using attached “Witch’s Stew recipe”, create a spooky snack mix for everyone
to share! Great idea for a play date!
Swampy Treat
Make green jell-o according to directions on the box. Just before it fully
sets, add gummy worms, plastic spiders, and other spooky treats. (Don’t eat
the spiders!)
Spider Crackers
Put a dab of peanut butter on a Ritz cracker. Break pretzel sticks into 3-
inch pieces. Stick three pretzel sticks on each side of cracker to create legs.
Place two raisins at one end of cracker for eyes.
Jack-o-Lantern Waffles
Make pumpkin waffles or pancake.s. Let child drop chocolate chips to create
eyes, nose, and mouth. Enjoy your jack-o-lantern!
FUN SONGS ON CD
We will be singing these fun songs from CD:
Witch’s Brew by Hap Palmer
Fat Little Witch by Stephen Fite
Five Little Pumpkins by Raffi
Monster Mash by Bobby “Boris” Pickett
Orange Collage
Create an orange collage with orange fabric scraps, pompoms, buttons, yarn,
pipe cleaner, tissue paper, paint chip samples, etc.
Orange Songs
“Orange” from Color songs by Stephen Fite
Food ideas
Carrots, oranges, sweet potatoes, Reese’s pieces, pumpkin, squash, candy corn,
Cheetos, orange bell peppers, canteloupe, apricots, mangoes, peaches.
Fashion Show
Have a day where everyone in the family wears orange!
Halloween Rubbings
Create a pumpkin and spider shape out of cardboard. Tape the cut-outs
onto a table. Let your child place paper on top of the shapes. Have them
use the sides of an orange crayon to make a rubbing.
Books
Orange by Nancy Harris
NUMBER: THREE
Writing Rhyme
While practicing writing the number three, say this rhyme to help form the
numeral:
Around the tree, around the tree.
That’s the way to make a three!
I like to practice writing numbers in fingerpaint, shaving cream, sand, or using
Crayola’s window crayons.
Numeral Activity
Print out attached numeral sheet. Have children count out the correct
number of Halloween-themed paper cut-outs and glue them to the sheet.
Tactile Learning
Cut the numeral 3 out of sand paper. Have child trace with his/her finger.
You could also do a rubbing of the numeral by placing paper on the top and
coloring over it, perhaps with the color of the week!
Sticker Sentences
Help your child place 3 stickers (possibly Halloween stickers) on a page. Write
a math sentence at the bottom like “George has three ghosts” or “Suzy has 3
skeletons.”
Three Exercises
Have child do 3 hops, 3 stomps, 3 kicks, etc.
Deck of Cards
Have child look for 3’s in a deck of cards.
Snacks
Three-decker sandwiches, crackers with cream cheese with 3 raisins on top,
ants on a log with 3 raisins on top.
Books
Three by Dana Meachan Rau
The Three Bears by Byron Barton
The Three Pigs by David Wiesner
The Three Blind Mice Inside the Spooky Scary and Creepy Haunted House by
Charles Reasoner
The Three Bear’s Halloween by Kathy Duval
Songs
Three Halloween Cats Song
(Tune: Three Blind Mice)
Three Halloween cats,
Three Halloween cats,
See how they run,
See how the scat.
They run loose all over town.
They cause a mess and knock things down.
They better watch out or they’ll be in the pound.
Three Halloween cats.
Three-Color Painting
Place a piece of white paper inside an oatmeal container. Place globs of 3
colors of paint inside. Place marbles or acorns inside and roll the container
around. Look at your painting!
Triangle Introduction
Introduce that a triangle has 3 sides. Point out the triangles you may see
when making jack-o-lanterns. Also, you could allow your child to take 3 craft
sticks or toothpicks to create a triangle.
Number Review
A fun way to review all the numbers is to sing “The Ants Go Marching.” Make
number posters and ask child to hold the numeral as you sing about it. March
around the house with the numerals, and really hype up the number three this
week. Perhaps you could stomp the loudest or sing the loudest on this number.
H is for hands
I always love letting the child paint using something that starts with that
letter. Cut an H out of paper. Let child stamp their hand s in paint and
then onto the letter H.
This would also be a good time to practice the fine motor skills to do hand
exercises.
Songs
Horsi e, horsi e
Horsie, horsie, on your way,
We’ve been together many a day,
So let your tail go swish,
And your wheels go round,
Giddy up! We’re homeward bound.
(This is fun for Mom & Dad to play horsie!)
Hokey Pokey
If You’re Happy and You Know I t
(Verses for H actions)
If you’re happy and you know it, give a HUG
If you’re happy and you know it, tap your HEAD
If you’re happy and you know it, HOP up and down
Food ideas
Hamburger, ham, hot dogs, honeydew, hashbrowns, hot chocolate, hot fudge,
humice
H Activities
Create a large H on the floor using masking tape. Ask child to HOP on the
letter, put their HANDS on the letter, use a HOOLA HOOP while standing on
the letter, etc. Be creative!
PreKinders
Linda's Learning Links
Making Learning Fun -Witch Button Match
Perpetual Preschool
A Child’s PlaceThe Virtual Vine
Kiz Club - Song visual aids
Preschool Express
Kiz Club – ABC flashcards
Montessori For Everyone – pumpkin sequencing cards
Dimple Prints - Letter Banner
Totally Tots - Pumpkin Bowling
A Child's Place
Lil Mop Top
The Idea Room
The Crafting Chicks
Mrs. Home Ec.
Counting Coconuts
Moomoo’s and Tutus
Naptime CraftersDJ Inker’s clip art
Borders for my digital creations came from this paper pack by Echo Park
Paper Co.