Even if you don’t celebrate Halloween there are a lot of fun ways to weave science and playful learning into the month of October with seasonal activities and nonfiction studies about some of the symbols of Halloween. Here you’ll find a wide variety of engaging October preschool activities to do with preschoolers throughout the month.
The free printable October kids’ activity calendar includes a ton of fun activities to do with kids at home or in the classroom. Use it yourself, or send a copy to parents so they have a little inspiration for hands-on fun and learning.
Read over the brief descriptions of the October preschool activities below. Then download your own free printable October activity calendar, and you’ll have a full month of activity ideas at your fingertips. The free download includes links to each post so you can click through online for more information, and you can also print it out to use as a quick reference.
We’re also always creating new activity ideas, and I know you want to stay up to date on those was well. In addition to an introduction to the activities originally included in the free printable calendar, I also add new activities we create related to each theme so you’ll have more options to choose from. Those are listed below each week’s original activity suggestions but are not reflected in the free printable calendar.
For some themes we have full theme planning guides and printable lesson plans. If those are available for a particular theme, there are also links to those resources included with the related weekly theme.
October Preschool Activity Themes
For our October preschool activities we’re exploring the following topics:
Week 1: Community Helpers
Week 2: Spiders
Week 3: Bats
Week 4: Monsters
Week 5: Halloween
Note: The free printable does not include dates. Simply pick and choose which theme you want to do for each week in October, and change the order as necessary.
Week 1: Community Helpers
LOW-PREP IDEAS…
For this week try these…
- BRAINSTORM: Together think of a list of community helpers in your local area. Make a list and decide on one or two you want to learn more about throughout the week.
- WRITE A THANK YOU NOTE: Make a thank you note or picture to deliver or mail to a community helper in your area.
- PRETEND: Choose a community helper and set up a pretend play area to act out some of the jobs the community helper does.
Community Helper Activities from the Free Printable October Activity Calendar
Construction Site Slime: If there’s one community helper that my kids are ALWAYS fascinated by it’s construction workers! Give kids time to play and act out things they are learning about the machines and tools. Make your own construction site pretend play area…complete with slime “cement”!
Dentist Play Dough Invitation: Have some pretend play fun with this dentist play dough invitation. I set the play dough out with jumbo tweezers, lanyard string, and a clean toothbrush. Our junior dentist insisted that her patient had sore teeth, and she needed to fix them all!
ABC “Cookie” Bakery: For this activity I grabbed some foam letters, and we used them to do some pretend baking. Toss in some baking tools and clothing if you have it, and you’ve got a recipe for tons of play!
Community Helper Map: Create a large community map to help kids learn more about the helpers within their own neighborhoods. This activity is a great way to talk about map skills, extend knowledge about community helpers, and get the kids excited about their neighborhood!
Community Helper Self Portrait Craft: Grab some paper bags and construction paper, and you’ve got all you need for some awesome community helper puppets! We even included a free printable writing response activity, so kids can draw and write about their favorite community helper.
Additional Resources
Community Helper Theme Preschool Lesson Plans
Get a full week of community helper theme lesson plans and activity ideas.
Week 2: Spiders
LOW-PREP IDEAS…
For this week try these…
- SING: Spend some time learning and practicing the Itsy Bitsy Spider. Act it out with movements. Then weave in some phonemic awareness by discussing the rhyming words in the song.
- READ: Grab some nonfiction spider books or do a little research online together to learn some facts about spiders.
- SNACK: Have some snack time fun by building spiders for snack. Together brainstorm what would work best for the body and the legs. Then test out a few options.
Spider Activities from the Free Printable October Activity Calendar
Spider Hat: These silly spider headbands are one of my favorite kid crafts EVER. As we read nonfiction books and learn more about real spiders we take some time to create these hats. The giggles are worth every second it takes to make these spider hats!
Spider Play Dough: I like to set out this ply dough invitation for kids to build their own spiders as we learn about them! Kids can incorporate some of the information they are learning, or make up their own wacky spiders. The spider babies are always a big hit… don’t skip those!
Painting with Spiders: I’m not going to lie….this one is MESSY! But often the most memorable process art activities are the ones that are the messiest, so take some steps to make clean up a breeze and then just go with it! No live spiders were harmed in the making of this art.
Spider Babies Fine Motor Play: As we read nonfiction books for our spider theme little ones are always fascinated to learn that spiders carry their babies on their backs. It’s a great way to introduce this easy spider babies fine motor play.
DIY Spider Rings: These DIY spider rings are quick and easy to make, and you probably have the craft supplies to make them already. We make tiny ones to wear around as jewelry for Halloween events and large ones for pretend play and other learning activities.
Additional Resources
Spider Theme Preschool Lesson Plans
Get a full week of spider theme lesson plans and activity ideas.
Week 3: Bats
LOW-PREP IDEAS…
For this week try these…
- BAT MOVEMENT GAME: This one is perfect for little learners. After learning what it means to be nocturnal. Tell kids they are going to pretend to be bats. When the lights are on they’ll curl up and pretend to be sleeping, and when the lights are off they’ll pretend to swoop and soar through the room and “fly” around. Take turns letting kids be in charge of the lights for even more fun.
- BAT RESEARCH: Read some nonfiction books about bats or look up information together on the internet. There are even some great videos on YouTube about real bats. Discuss the information or record key facts in a science journal.
- -AT RHYMING: Together brainstorm a list of words that rhymes with BAT. Turn this into a movement game too. Each time you call out a word that rhymes with bat kids can flap their bat wings. If the word, doesn’t rhyme with bat they can pretend to be sleeping.
Bat Activities from the Free Printable October Activity Calendar
Bat Hat: We have so much fun with our spiders headbands that I just had to make some bat headbands for our bat theme! We love reading a few nonfiction books about real bats. Then we grab some black and white construction paper and large googly eyes to make these easy bat hats.
Bat Sensory Bin: Bowtie pasta makes perfect little bats! Pop over to the profile link to learn how to create this sensory bin for your little ones.
Egg Carton Bat Craft: This was a very easy craft, and the bats look so festive hanging around! You’ll need just a few basic craft supplies: An egg carton, black paint, googly eyes, and ribbon!
Bat Counting: We started this math activity by creating some egg carton bats out of egg cartons and foam sheets. Then we used a glitter glue pen to draw numbers and sets of dots on the bat wings. For the math activity kids matched the correct wings to make each bat!
Bat Word Families: For this word family game we reused the bat bodies from our counting game so we only had to cut out new wings for the bats. Then we used a glitter glue pen to write “at” on one of the bat wings, and initial consonants on the remaining wings.
Additional Resources
Bat Theme Preschool Lesson Plans
Get a full week of bat theme lesson plans and activity ideas.
Week 4: Monsters
LOW-PREP IDEAS…
For this week try these…
- MY MONSTER FRIEND: Invite kids to pretend they can create a monster friend to be their buddy and help them. Ask kids to think about the features of their monster, and let them draw them. Then brainstorm ways their monster friend would help them. Together write a list of ideas.
- SNACK: Gather your favorite snack items and use them to create a monster face. You might use green and purple grapes cut in half, different shapes and sizes of pretzels, raisins…get creative with whatever is in your pantry.
- GET MOVING: Dance along to a fun monster song like the Monster Shuffle.
Monster Activities from the Free Printable October Activity Calendar
Monster Hat: We always have so much fun with our spider and bat headbands this time of year, so I thought it would be fun to make a new version. I love that kids can get creative with their own silly designs as they make these monster headbands.
Monster Play Dough: What’s a monster theme without a play dough invitation? To set up our monster play dough we gathered a variety of collage materials. We used googly eyes, chenille stems, jewels, and colored straws cut into small pieces. We also included multiple colors of play dough.
Monster Sensory Bottle: Discovery bottles are an excellent way to work on vocabulary, practice skills independently, or just simply provide a quiet calming activity. With our monster discovery bottle creation, you can even able to sneak in some math skills!
Shape Monster Art: Learn about 2D shapes as you create shape monsters, then use collage materials to decorate them. Every time I do this project with kids I have to print more… and more… and more shapes because the kids had so much fun coming up with new features and extra details for each new monster they made.
Monster Art Invitation: I gathered a collection of loose parts craft materials, coffee filters, colored paper, and glue. I recommend glue sticks, so they don’t show through the coffee filters. School glue will also come in handy for the loose parts.
Additional Resources
Monster Theme Preschool Lesson Plans
Get a full week of monster theme lesson plans and activity ideas.
Week 5: Halloween
LOW-PREP IDEAS…
For this week try these…
- DESIGN: Invite kids to get creative and design their own Halloween costume…or costumes for the whole family! They can draw their designs, or extend the activity by gathering recycled materials and old fabric (outgrown clothes are perfect!) to create a 3D version of their vision.
- SORT & COUNT: As kids get Halloween candy from different festivities throughout the month use it to practice early math skills like counting and sorting. Let them choose ways to sort. They might start initially sorting the items by kind. Then challenge them to sort the candy a different way (maybe by size or by types like chocolate/not chocolate).
- SPREAD KINDNESS: Is there someone in your family or neighborhood who would be delighted by a special Halloween surprise? Brainstorm a way to surprise theme. You might make them a Halloween card or deliver a special treat.
Halloween Activities from the Free Printable October Activity Calendar
Halloween Jar Candles: These Halloween jar candles make gorgeous decorations for Halloween or even nightlights…which is what my kids used them for. We made this pumpkin version and a not-so-spooky monster version.
Jack-o-Lantern Sensory Bag: Squish bags are great for this age, and preschoolers enjoy the sensory experience, too. Try a jack-o-lantern squish bag (or sensory bag). They take about two minutes to put together, and kids just love to play with them.
Halloween Sensory Bins: Single color sensory bins are a great way to explore colors with toddlers and preschoolers. When we first made these sensory bins we were also working on ordering objects by size, so these black and white sensory bins were a fun way to practice both of those skills.
Spider Puppets: I love crafts that turn into toys. Making these spider puppets also involves some great fine motor practice and counting, so we get to touch on quite a few early learning skills in the process of making them.
Chalk Skeleton: This Chalk Skeleton works well with a human body unit or Halloween activities. Kids have so much fun drawing the bones. You can also let them create their own unique skeleton art instead of modeling the human skeleton.
Additional Resources
Halloween Theme Preschool Lesson Plans
Get a full week of Halloween theme lesson plans and activity ideas.
Get the Free Printable October Activity Calendar
Note: Updated version is slightly different from the one pictured here. It does not have dates listed so that it can be used again and again from year to year.
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