Get Creative this Halloween

Halloween is a holiday with endless possibility for creativity. From costumes to decorations and festive snacks and crafts, there are so many opportunities to put your little one’s giant imagination to use! We’ve put together a few ideas to trick, treat, and craft your way into the spirit of the holiday.

Halloween Tricks: Movement & Mindfulness

Little ones may be jittery with excitement while they wait for trick or treating. Help them work out those wiggles and channel their excitement with a Halloween-themed movement break:

• Practice classic poses like chair or cat mixed with seasonal one, the skeleton pose.
• Sing a silly skeleton song while stretching and breathing.
• Use this time to teach mindfulness skills that benefit the whole family.

This playful trick helps kids regulate their energy and stay present in the moment.

Halloween Treats: Monster Mouth Snacks and Ghost Strawberries

Gather in the kitchen and make these easy-to-assemble treats together for snack time. Bonus, each one requires only three ingredients!

Monster Mouths

Ingredients:

• Thick slices of red or green apples
• Peanut butter or sunflower seed butter
• Mini marshmallows

Instructions:

1. Spread the peanut butter on each apple slice.
2. Stick the marshmallows in the peanut butter in a row like teeth.
3. Top with another slice, peanut butter side down.

You can also get creative with ingredient substitutions like cream cheese, almond butter, or chocolate spread instead of peanut butter and sprinkles for extra flair.

Ghost Strawberries

Ingredients:

• Rinsed and dried strawberries
• White chocolate chips
• Mini chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Melt the white chocolate in the microwave in slow increments.
2. Dip the room temperature strawberries in the melted chocolate by holding onto the stem.
3. Add the chocolate chips while the white chocolate is still warm. Then, allow strawberries to chill in the refrigerator until hardened.

Halloween Crafts: DIY Monster Mobile

Monsters seem to be the theme! Start stashing paper, tissue paper rolls, or similar shapes, now for a silly monster mobile to make on Halloween from one of our favorite resources, Happy Hooligans.

Materials:

• Paper towel or toilet paper rolls
• Paint or markers
• Construction paper, tissue paper, or craft foam
• Pipe cleaners
• Yarn or string
• Googly eyes
• Glue, scissors, and imagination

Instructions:

1. Color the rolls. Have your little one paint the roll any color they’d like. You’ll want to start this a bit early on as the paint will need time to dry before you can move on with the next steps. If you’re in a time crunch, no problem. Kids can color the tubes or even wrap them in construction or tissue paper.
2. When all is dry, you can create the monster’s arms by poking a hole on either side and weaving a pipe cleaner straight through so that each end sticks out. You can also make arms out of construction paper or even 2 cotton swabs.
3. Go wild with googly eyes. Have your little one glue on as many eyes as they’d like, wherever they’d like. There are no rules where silly monsters are concerned.
4. Next, cut pointy teeth, or any other features they’d like the monster to have, out of the foam or paper, and glue to the roll.
5. Patiently wait for everything to dry.
6. Hang the rolls in a mobile by tying a yarn or string around the middle of the pipe clear.
7. You may also, of course, skip the mobile and get right to playing!

Looking for more activity ideas?

Bonus Activity: Make a  spider and web using popsicle sticks, cotton balls, and yarn. It’s a fun way to turn a creepy creature into a creative project.