Inside: Here are 8 super fun, super spooky Halloween activities for kids and grandkids. Buckle up and enjoy—you’re in for the ride of your life!
8 Halloween Activities for Kids & Grandkids
Halloween is right around the corner and there’s still time for some last-minute Spooktacular Halloween activities for kids and grandkids!
These 8 Halloween activities have all been tried-and-tested by our 6 grandkids. They include—art & crafts, sensory play, field trips, baking in the kitchen, books, and more…
If you can’t find what you’re looking for, click here for more Halloween activities for kids and grandkids.
#1 Art Painting Pumpkins with Fingernail Polish
I saw this activity on the Better Homes & Gardens website. It’s a creative and interesting way to decorate pumpkins. Supplies are minimal and the process is easy.
Supplies
- Artificial pumpkins
- Pumpkin Picks. A pick is easier to hold onto as you immerse the pumpkins in water.
- Fingernail polish in Halloween colors: orange, black, purple, and green (Dollar Store)
- Bucket deep enough to completely immerse your pumpkins
- Toothpicks
Directions
- Fill the bucket with room-temperature water
- Drop 5-10 drops each of 3 different fingernail polish colors–do this step every time you dip a pumpkin.
- Swirl the colors with a toothpick
- Immerse your pumpkins completely in the water. The polish will stick on the pumpkin
- Lay on a piece of Styrofoam to dry–it can take several hours
- Create a Halloween bouquet from your fingernail polish pumpkins
#2 Making Monster Cookies in the Kitchen: Halloween Activities for Kids & Grandkids
In the 1980s, I took several cooking classes from Marlene Sorosky in Sherman Oaks, California. One of her many recipes was Double Chocolate Crinkle Cookies. It’s a family favorite and a great recipe to make Halloween cookies with your kids/grandkids with some added fun–keep reading…
- 4 oz. unsweetened chocolate
- ½ cup shortening
- 2 cups of sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 4 eggs
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup of chocolate chips
- 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
- Melt chocolate and shortening together in a double boiler.
- Stir in sugar
- Place mixture in a medium bowl, cool
- Beat until blended
- Add vanilla
- Beat in eggs; one at a time, mixing well after each addition
- In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt
- Stir flour mixture into the chocolate mixture
- Stir in chocolate chips
- Refrigerate dough for several hours
- Take out of the refrigerator and make it into walnut-size balls. You may freeze them at this point and bake later
- To bake cookies, preheat oven to 375 degrees
- Lightly grease baking sheets; set aside
- Roll each cookie in the powdered sugar and place 2” apart on the cookie sheet
- Bake 10 minutes (do not over-bake)
- For Halloween, put edible eyeballs on each cookie to make it look like a monster
- Place on racks to cool
Fast forward 40+ years and with a little more ingenuity, you can now make Halloween monster cookies by dyeing the cookie dough in different colors. Check out this recipe from Lil’ Luna to learn how to dye cookie dough.
We made both recipes because we wanted some of the cookies to be “black” for Halloween and the others to be different Halloween colors of orange, purple, and green.
A word of warning—the colored dough is very sticky and was difficult for my grandkids to work with, so, I rolled the cookies into the size of a walnut and put them in the freezer for about 1 hour before baking them
After they bake, quickly put them on a counter and have the kids/grandkids put several edible eyeballs on each cookie while they are still hot so the eyes stick.
#3 Halloween Arts & Crafts with Kids & Grandkids: Ghosts & Pumpkin Stamping
I found these amazing marshmallows at Walmart—one is a ghost and one a pumpkin, and eliminates the tedious task of carving a stamp on a marshmallow!
Have your kids/grandkids paint each marshmallow and then “stamp” it onto black paper. If they dip them in the paint and stamp them, they don’t turn out as well. It’s best to paint them.
And—be sure and have a bowl of marshmallows for eating nearby!
Supplies
- One package each of ghost marshmallows and pumpkin marshmallows (Walmart)
- Halloween colors of tempera paint
- Paintbrushes
- Black poster paper for each child
- Glitter (optional)
Directions
- Give a plate of ghost and pumpkin marshmallows to each child
- Squeeze the paint onto paper plates.
- The kids/grandkids paint the marshmallows with the paint.
- Remove excess paint with a brush or the image will look blurred
- “Stamp” the marshmallows on the black paper
- Provide glitter if they want to put it on their ghosts
#4: What to Look for in a Pumpkin Patch
Nothing says “Halloween” like pumpkin patches! Find a fun pumpkin patch to take your kids/grandkids. And since pumpkin patches are not created equal, find one that offers:
- Big slides
- Corn mazes
- Pick-your-own pumpkin patch
- Hayrides
- Dried corn piles
- Horse or donkey rides
- Bounce trampolines
- Tours through the farm
- Places to purchase food such as donuts, cider, etc.
Some pumpkin patches charge an entrance fee but the fee usually includes something extra like a wagon ride through the farm, a chance to see and feed farm animals, and other amenities.
We took our grandkids to Green Acres Farm. The admission price was $5 and free for kids 2 years old and under and included a big slide, rides on a “cow wagon,” access to the pumpkin patch, hay maze, pumpkin patch, and a corn “sandpile.”
#5 Halloween Activities for Kids & Grandkids: A Game of Emotion with Halloween Bats
Two books that trigger lots of conversation with my grandkids are, The Way I Feel by Janan Cain and Today I Feel Silly by Jamie Lee Curtis. Both are about different feelings and emotions kids have as they experience the world, friends, and people.
Each time I read either of these books, my 2 older grandkids immediately start talking about times they felt the same emotions expressed in the books—jealousy, anger, silly, scared, disappointment, happiness, sadness, excitement, etc.
They are always fully engaged when we read these books! It’s our emotions that make us human and those emotions start from birth.
Here is a fun Halloween bat craft to use when reading these books.
Supplies
- Black paper plates
- Cardstock paper–black and other colors
- Googly eyes
- Glue
Directions
- Make bat wings and ears from black construction paper. Glue on the back of the paper plate
- Glue googly eyes onto each paper plate
- Using construction paper, create different mouth shapes to correlate with the different emotions discussed in the book. Glue them onto each bat.
To play the game
- Say an emotion out loud from one of the books
- Each child/grandchild finds a corresponding bat expressing that emotion and holds it up
- Then talk about each emotion—what it is, who has experienced it, and why
#6 Sensory/Fine Motor Halloween Activity: Picking up Halloween Paraphernalia
I try to always have at least 1 sensory activity for my grandkids for each visit. Why? Because for years, research has shown (and now more than ever) the importance of sensory activities for brain development in children.
Sensory activities help build nerve connections in the brain which helps a child learn more complex learning tasks. It also helps with language development, fine and gross motor skills, problem-solving skills, and social interaction.
So—when your grandkids come to visit—sneak in a fun sensory activity!
This activity helps with fine motor development. I used the same Halloween things I bought at the Dollar Store for the sensory Jell-O activity we did earlier.
Give each child/grandchild some Dracula teeth (Dollar Store) and a plastic container filled with Halloween paraphernalia—rings, bones, skeleton heads, eyeballs, etc. and have them pick up each item with their Dracula teeth.
Fun. Quick. Easy. Powerful for fine motor development.
#7 Making Halloween Pumpkins with Polka-dots. Copying Yayoi Musama–“The Queen of Polka-Dots!
In the mood to copycat, a famous artist as your kids/grandkids create fun Halloween pumpkins?
Most of you have heard of Yayoi Musama—affectionately known as “The Queen of Polka-Dots!” She is a Japanese avant-garde sculptor and painter best known for her use of repeating dots on pumpkins, mushrooms, and even mirrors. She creates patterns with her amazing placement of dots.
We took artificial pumpkins and the grandkids just simply (or not so simply) began coloring polka-dots of different sizes up and down the pumpkins to create their copycat Yayoi Musama pumpkins! Pretty cute, huh?!
Our grandkids’ version of Musama pumpkins!
Supplies
- Artificial pumpkins (Dollar Store)
- Black permanent markers
- Circle template
Directions
- Use a circle template or just “eyeing” circles; make vertical dots up and down your pumpkins with a black marker
- Create different sizes of dots–some medium size; some small, and some very tiny (like the picture). You’re creating a design by using patterns of dots.
Simple and amazing!
#8 Books about Pumpkins: Halloween Activities for Kids & Grandkids
Any holiday is more meaningful when books are added! Here are some fun Halloween books—all centered around PUMPKINS! If you want some additional activities to do with pumpkins, click here
- The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin by Joe Troiano
- From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer
- The Biggest Pumpkin Ever by Steven Kroll
- Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell
- The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams
- Apples and Pumpkins by Anne Rockwell
What Halloween activities do your kids and grandkids love? Please share and comment in the section below
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And here’s another absolutely amazing set of activities for the kiddos! You’re absolutely wonderful at this, Sharlene. Your creativity and the way you put all the different learning styles into your activities truly blows me away. All the activities are darling but my favorite one is with the nail polishes in the water. I think I might try doing that with Zach and his girlfriend next week as a fun Halloween activity!
Thank you so much, Tiffany! It’s been fun and it has brought back a lot of memories of things I did as a child in preparation for Halloween. Yes, Zach and his girlfriend will love doing the fingernail polish pumpkins. If they decide to make a bouquet, there are also bat picks I saw at the Dollar Store. And do it outside–less mess to clean up. Thanks again for all your support!
Sharlene you are AMAZING! You always have such fun and. educational projects! Your darling grands will always remember the time and love you give them! BTW, do you have time to sleep?
Ahh…thanks Cheryl! We’re having fun, but there are times when I think I’m going to die from exhaustion! And, yes, I hope these darling grandkids remember this–if not–I have the pictures to prove it!