We wanted to share some sensory activities for Halloween…
Pumpkin carving is a great sensory activity – but remember you can try other vegetables as well. It is hard work turning the traditional Scottish turnip (a swede in England) into a lantern – but you will fill the air with a lovely turnip-y smell if you give it a go. An adult will need to cut up and loosen the turnip’s ‘insides’ with a knife before a child can join in and scoop them out.
Gather together a variety of squash for tactile exploration. Or try some mini pepper jack o’lanterns for snack time!
The simplest activities are often the most fun – try some pumpkin painting with your child(ren) – unlike pumpkin carving this does not involve any knives! Nice chunky brushes make this more fun. If you use ordinary children’s paint it will wash off in the rain if you put the pumpkins outdoors – but many children are more interested in process than product so you could make washing the paint off the pumpkins afterwards part of the fun! (For more detailed instructions just google ‘pumpkin painting for children’. Be sure to use non-toxic paints.)
For some Halloween baking try a pumpkin pie – the smell is heavenly! A slight cheat is to use pumpkin puree from a tin – Libby’s Pure Pumpkin comes with a simple recipe on the label.
Or bake some spider bread – this recipe is quite easy because it uses ready-made pizza dough.
In Scotland the treacle scone game is traditionally played at Halloween – treacle scones are hung from a string and have to be eaten without any hands! Baking treacle scones is a lovely activity – and you can eat them off a plate if you prefer! (Lots of recipes online.)
If you are looking for something a bit different to do with a pumpkin how about this pumpkin bird feeder from the Audubon Society? You will probably have to do some of the activity yourself – but for your child scooping and handling the pumpkin and the seeds gives lot of opportunities for tactile exploration and nice smells, followed up by outdoor fun choosing a spot to hang the feeder.
Slime-making is always a fun Halloween activity. Try some shaving cream slime. On the same website (7 Days of Play) is a recipe for gorgeous looking pumpkin oobleck! (Oobleck is usually called goop in the UK – and this recipe uses corn-starch which in the UK is called corn-flour.)
And this idea for spider painting looks a lot of fun – go to fantasticfunandlearning.com for instructions. (Once you have baked your spider bread and made your spider pictures you could sing a spider song – try There’s a Spider on the Floor from the Scottish Book Trust song library.)
Don’t forget to try our Halloween sensory stories as well – The Spooky House is simple to tell and very popular (and free to download!)
Happy Halloween to one and all!
