Inside: Here are 9 fun things to do on Halloween with your kids and grandkids! Decorating Halloween cookies, art & crafts, sensory activities, making haunted houses, reading spooky Halloween books, and more!

Fun Things to Do on Halloween!

It’s October!

Time to bring out your Halloween decorations—witches, pumpkins, black cats, goblins, and ghosts! And don’t forget to plan some fun things to do on Halloween that create excitement and anticipation for your kids and grandkids. After all, Halloween is one of the most favorite holidays of the year!

Here are 9 super fun things to do on Halloween with your family…

#1 Halloween Cardboard Witches

Halloween isn’t Halloween until you’ve made a witch or two!

Creating, coloring, painting, and gluing these spooky cardboard witches is a great way to trigger creativity, fine motor skills, and bilateral coordination in the youngest of children.

Here’s what you need:

Supplies

• Cardboard
• Tempera or acrylic paint or Kwik Stix markers—yellow, purple, orange, black, and green
• Template for witch’s head, hat, eyes, and mouth. You can also draw different face shapes (nose, eyebrows, etc.)
• Hot glue gun

Directions

• Download the templates of a witch’s face, hat, eyes, and mouth
• Trace the templates onto the cardboard. Cut them out
• Hot glue the pieces on the witch’s face—see example
• Use either tempera or acrylic paints or Kwik Stik markers and paint the witch’s face. Think of a green face, black hat, red lips, purple or orange hair, etc.
• Let dry and add a spider or two on her hair or hat

#2 Funny Black Halloween Cats

I got this idea from Art Projects for Kids—an amazing website for downloading lots of art tutorials for children.

I encouraged the grandkids to make them look like Halloween cats, but other than being black—each cat ended up with their own unique personality, and not necessarily looking very “Halloweenie”

What I love about Art Projects for Kids are the step-by-step tutorials your kids/grandkids can follow to create something fun and amazing! And it’s a great way to develop spatial intelligence.

(even my teenage granddaughter joined the fun–and named her cat, Gerald!)

Supplies

• Black cardstock paper (12″x12″)
• Metallic markers
• Cat tutorial

Directions

• Go to Art Projects for Kids; sign up for her newsletter and download her “How to Draw a Laurel Birch Cat Tutorial”
• Follow the directions to make the cat on black poster paper
• Use metallic markers to color your cat. On the body of the cat, you can add shapes, stars, Halloween figures, flowers, etc. Enjoy!

#3 Pasta Pumpkins—Fun Kids Halloween Crafts!

Here’s easy art & crafts Halloween pasta pumpkin that increases fine motor skills, spatial awareness, and bilateral coordination.

Here’s what you need:

Supplies

• Pumpkin Template
• Orange cardstock paper
• Rotelle pasta (spiral pasta)
• Elbow or tubular pasta
• Red and yellow food coloring (to make orange) and green food coloring
• Isopropyl Alcohol (70%)
• Glue
• Googly eyes or pumpkin template eyes

Directions

• Download the pumpkin template and copy it off on orange cardstock paper
• Cut the pumpkin out and mount it on a black, white, or green piece of cardstock paper
• Dye the Rotelle pasta with orange food coloring (directions below)
• To dye pasta: take 2 cups of dry pasta, 1/3 cup of Isopropyl alcohol, and 5-7 drops of food coloring (mix together red and yellow to make orange). Mix together the pasta and food coloring mixture; put in a plastic bag and shake to coat. Let sit for 30 minutes (turning frequently) and pour out on a sheet of parchment to dry overnight.
• Color the elbow pasta with green food coloring using the same directions as above.
• Glue eyes and mouth on the pumpkin and then glue the orange spiral pasta all over the pumpkin. Glue the green elbow pasta on the stem

Inspiration: @abcdeelearning

#4 Halloween Garland  

Here are more fun things to do on Halloween! Make a Halloween garland to hang on your fireplace.

Take different Halloween templates—ghosts, goblins, witches, pumpkins, bats, etc., and using a lettuce spinner, spin paint on each figure.

This activity increases fine motor skills, bilateral coordination, hand-eye coordination, and the sensory concept of stickiness.

Click here to watch the 24-second video of the Halloween garland:

Supplies

• Free Halloween templates—5 per child—ghosts, bats, spiders, cats, witch’s hats, etc.
• Tempera or acrylic paints—black, orange, green, purple, etc.
• Cardstock—white, orange, neon green, purple
• Lettuce spinner
• Glue
• Halloween straws
• Twine

Directions

• Download and print the Halloween templates onto white cardstock
• Cut out each figure
• Using a lettuce spinner, tape one of the Halloween figures on the inside bottom of the spinner
• Squirt 2-3 colors of paint onto the figure
• Attach the lid and spin. The colors will splatter all over the figure.
• Repeat with all the Halloween templates
• Let dry
• Glue the pieces onto colored cardstock. Cut out leaving an edge of the cardstock showing.
• Cut the Halloween straws into 4-5 sections per straw.
• Weave the straws through the twine–we had 15 Halloween figures and used 6 feet of twine.
• Hot glue the Halloween figures onto the straws & twine.
• Hang up by a fireplace, etc.

#5 Graham Cracker Halloween Haunted Houses

Making a haunted house is a “must activity” for Halloween.

These are super easy to make. Use melted sugar for your glue and glue cinnamon graham crackers together to form a house.

Next, decorate your haunted house will all kinds of candy. And, if you want, add plastic construction pieces—for an artistic dimension to your haunted house.

Definitely suitable for Hansel & Gretel!

Supplies

• Cinnamon graham crackers—6 sections per child—2 crackers per section
• Melted sugar—it’s extremely hot so parents/grandparents need to glue the house together
• Halloween paper plates
• Halloween candy—candy corn, eyeballs, chocolate bars, M&M’s, skittles, plastic construction pieces, and a plastic skeleton
• Frosting (black, orange, green) to glue the candy on the Haunted House

Directions

• To see a video example on how to put together the haunted houses click here (I make these at Christmas–Gingerbread Houses)
• Melt about 1 cup of sugar—do NOT add anything but sugar
• First cracker: dip bottom in melted sugar and glue to a paper plate
• Second & third cracker: dip the bottom and side; glue to the paper plate and side of the other cracker
• Fourth cracker: dip 3 sections of the cracker–bottom and 2 sides; glue to other crackers to form a square.
• Take 2 graham cracker sections, dip the top sides of each cracker in the sugar, and glue them together forming a triangle (roof)
• Turn the entire house over and dip into the melted sugar. With the triangle—dip the sides into the sugar and glue to the square box forming a house
• Use frosting and candy to decorate

#6 Painted Halloween Cutouts Decorated with Washi Tape

We’re not done yet—here are more fun things to do on Halloween!

Paint 12″ wooden Halloween cutouts such as pumpkins, Frankenstein, black cats, or skeletons and cover them with colorful Halloween washi tape—it’s fun and stirs the creative juices in children and grandkids!

Easy-peasy to do and the final product is nothing short of spooky!

Supplies

• Halloween wooden cutouts (Dollar Store or Walmart)
• Tempera paints & paintbrushes
• Halloween washi tape

Directions

• Paint the Halloween cutouts using different Halloween colors of paint. Let dry
• Take Halloween washi tape, cut into 1-1.5” pieces, and tape on the painted cutout

#7 Making & Decorating Halloween Cookies  

Years ago, my husband took cake decorating classes and ended up winning awards for his cakes.  Recently, he’s been honing his cookie decorating skills.

After watching a bunch of videos on cookie decorating, he found some cute Halloween cookies for our grandkids to decorate in color flow. They are easy—you need a square cookie cutter and other Halloween cookie cutters.

This was our first try at using color flow with grandkids (ages 2-9) so they didn’t turn out perfect–but we had fun!

Here are the directions and click on the links for pictures and videos

Supplies

• Sugar cookie recipe (click here for my recipe–it’s delicious!)
• Square cookie cutters (3”x3” or 2”x2”)
• Pumpkin, gravestone, spider web cookie cutters
• Different colors of color flow frosting—black, white, orange, green, purple
• Stainless Steel Rolling pin
• Gel food coloring
• Clear Vanilla
• Scribe tool

Directions

• Make a batch of sugar cookies. When they come out of the oven, press the cookie cutter into the cookie again–it will make the image very clear.
• Using a square cookie cutter, cut out about 2 dozen square cookies and other Halloween cutters (see above). Bake and cool
• Make color flow frosting in orange, white, neon green, purple and black. My husband learned color flow in the 80s, but he says he likes this color flow recipe a lot. Click here for the recipe.
• Click here for a step-by-step video to make these Halloween cookies

#8 Digging for Halloween Treasures in Jell-O

Two years ago, we did this activity with our grandkids and they LOVED it! So, we repeated it again this year.

It can be used as a “filler activity” because it’s not difficult and the kids can do it while you’re setting up the next project.

Make up different colors of Jell-O—purple, blue, green, orange, yellow, and red and once you’ve dissolved the Jell-O in a square or round pan, place a bunch of different Halloween items—skeleton skulls, bones, eyeballs, plastic hands, and spiders into the Jell-O and set in the refrigerator until firm.

Give each child a spoon or large tweezers and have them dig out the Halloween items.

Let the kids squish their hands around in the Jell-O—it’s a great sensory activity!

Click here for supplies and directions: Why These are the Best Halloween Activities for Grandkids & Kids

#9 Super Fun & Exciting Halloween Books

One of the most fun things to do on Halloween is reading Halloween books—every night throughout the month.

I have other blog posts about Halloween books—check them out here

• Everything You Need to Know About Great Halloween Books
• Here are the Best Halloween Books for Children & Grandchildren

And here are some more super spooky books to read to your kids for Halloween:

Miss Smith and the Haunted Library by Michael Garland (my favorite)

Pumpkin Hill by Elizabeth Spurr

Don’t Push the Button! by Bill Cotter

Boo! by Colin McNaughton

Story Book Trick or Treat! by Thomas Nelson

How to Catch a Witch by Alice Walstead

What fun things for Halloween do you do? Please comment in the section below

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