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15+ Halloween Activities and DIY Costumes

It’s spooky season and we’re ready to celebrate with seasonal hands-on activities and DIY costume ideas! Check them out:

Document
ACTIVITIES FOR SPOOKY SEASON
Sneak some learning into your Halloween or go straight to the seasonal at-home crafts and activities!
  1. Elapsed Trick or Treating Time—Practice mental math to plan your trick-or-treating route!
    • For younger ghouls and goblins: if Bobby starts trick or treating at 7:35 and stays out for an hour and 15 minutes, what time will he be back?
    • For older spooks: if it takes 4 minutes to visit a house, and there are six houses on your block, how long will it take to hit each house on the block? How long to cover three blocks? Six?
  2. Take a Guess—When you're heading home, have your child peek into their candy bag and estimate the number of pieces of candy in the bag. Count at home and see how close they were! Take it a step further by counting a small scoop and making an educated guess about how many scoops are in the entire pile. Multiply for a closer guess. Then count to confirm!
  3. Candy Sorting—Who doesn't remember the great candy dump? Emptying your bags on the carpet to admire your haul? This is the perfect opportunity for younger kids to practice sorting—a key early math skill. Sort by color, shape, or candy type and then count the contents of each pile.
  4. Colorful Candy Graph—Create a visual of your child's trick or treat bounty with a colorful candy graph! Once the candy is sorted into piles, count them, and create a graph by listing the candy types across the bottom of a page and quantities in tens up the left side of the page. Use a different colored crayon to color in a bar representing each candy's quantity.
ACTIVITIES FOR SPOOKY SEASON
  1. Candy Rainbow—Introduce some vocabulary while creating a candy rainbow! Sort your candy into color piles, then line the pieces of each pile up end to end to create each arc of the rainbow. Use words like above, below, left, right, middle, next to, and pattern while you design to practice positional vocabulary. Use those leftover lemon Starbursts to make a sun!
  2. Make Some Creepy Crafts—Crafts are perfect for a Halloween party! Set up a table with construction paper and create paper pumpkin paintings, draw a spooky scene, or color in one of our free, downloadable worksheets! Bring these monstrous, Puppet-on-a-Pen™ inspired characters to life; just download (for FREE!), print, and play for some seasonal spooky art creations. Download the coloring pages here. (combine PDFs into one link)
  3. Carve A Pumpkin (or just decorate it)—Nothing says Halloween quite like carving a pumpkin. Younger kids can paint a spooky face using non-toxic tempera or acrylic paint or try a totally awesome drip design using glow-in-the-dark paint! Older kids and grown-ups can use stencils, cookie cutters, lemon zesters, and pumpkin carving knives to carefully carve their own creepy creations.
ACTIVITIES FOR SPOOKY SEASON
  1. Bake Some Scary Snacks—Make the day super sweet with Halloween-themed treats! Bonus points if you match your themed snacks and food to your costume (like Butterbeer for Harry Potter costumes)! Check out our Halloween Pinterest board for more snack ideas.
  2. Make a Spooky Sensory Station—Grab some spooky sensory surprises! Playfoam® Pals™ Monster Party comes with a brick of glow-in-the-dark Playfoam and a collectible mini-monster hidden inside! Or make a spooky sensory bin with some Playfoam® Pluffle, the totally mesmerizing learning compound. Grab black, orange, or glow-in-the-dark Pluffle, dump it into a bin or tray, add mini-monsters or other manipulatives, and let the sensory fun begin!
  3. Watch Some (Not-So) Scary Movies—Snuggle up and put on a not so scary Halloween movie! Toddlers will love Room on the Broom, Toy Story of Terror, and Goosebumps; while in-betweeners might be ready for Spirited Away or The House with a Clock in Its Walls. Check out Good Housekeeping's list of 62 Best Halloween Movies for Kids for Every Level of Bravery for more spooky movie ideas!
DIY HALLOWEEN COSTUMES
This year, create your own, customized costumes that truly reflect your kid's style and personality? Dress up as characters from Educational Insights, complete with either a full-color or color-your-own FREE paper mask! Or create a costume around your kid's favorite learning toy! Check these ideas out:
  1. Pete the Cat®—It's all good in this groovy Pete the Cat costume, created from clothes you may already have at home and our free, downloadable Pete the Cat mask! Start with blue pants, a yellow tee, and red shoes. Cut and pin four colorful felt circles to the shirt to make buttons (glue white beads to make the stitches if you'd like). Then print our Pete mask, punch out the holes on the sides, and tie with ribbon or yarn to secure. Download the full-color Pete the Cat mask or color-your-own!
  2. Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel—Turn your kid into their favorite forest friend from The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game® with a simple grey or brown sweatsuit, homemade squirrel tail, and our FREE, downloadable Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Mask! To make the tail, simply stuff one leg of a pair of grey or brown tights (cut the other off), then tuck one end into your child's pants and pin the other to the top of the back of their sweatshirt. Click here for the full-color Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel mask or color-your-own!
  3. Artie 3000™ The Coding Robot—Turn your code-crazy kid into their favorite drawing robot with white leggings or pants, a white long sleeve shirt, a white box painted with blue and grey stripes, and our FREE, downloadable ARTIE mask! Customize your own Artie 3000 mask or download the ready-to-print template!

DIY HALLOWEEN COSTUMES CONT.
  1. Awesome Astronaut—The space explorers in your family will love this far out astronaut costume idea! Start with a white, crewneck sweatsuit, add a silver bike helmet and plastic face shield (or make a space suit helmet out of other material), grab your GeoSafari® Jr. Talking Telescope, and head out for an evening of stellar stargazing and tasty trick-or-treating!
  2. Wildlife Explorer—If your little one dreams of spotting lions, tigers, and elephants on safari, they'll love this savannah-inspired idea! All you need is a khaki shirt and pants, pith helmet or plastic safari hat, and your GeoSafari® Jr. Talking Wildlife Camera! Bonus: your kid can amaze their animal-loving friends and family with more than 120 fun animal facts, spoken in the voice of real-life Wildlife Warrior, Robert Irwin! Or grab yourGeoSafari® Jr. Kidnoculars to sling around your neck. These kid-tough binoculars are the perfect tool to get a close-up glimpse at nature, wildlife, or to scope out the next house on the trick-or-treating route!
  3. Brave Firefighter—Turn your little one's flare for all things fire trucks into a firefighter Halloween costume, complete with Design & Drill® Bolt Buddies® Fire Truck. Using yellow duct tape, add horizontal safety stripes to your kid's black pants and shirt (or sweatsuit), add black boots or tennis shoes, and top it with a play firefighter's hat.
  4. STEM Scientist—Support your kid's love of science with a simple DIY STEM scientist Halloween costume! Simply add a lab coat and lab glasses to whatever your kid wants to wear underneath, grab your GeoSafari® Jr. Talking Microscope or GeoSafari® Jr. My First Microscope and set out to make some Halloween discoveries! Our microscopes are the perfect introduction to STEM for little learners, so they can explore their world under the lens; plus, learn fun facts read by Bindi Irwin with the Talking Microscope!
Happy Halloween, everyone!
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15+ Halloween Activities and DIY Costumes

It’s spooky season and we’re ready to celebrate with seasonal hands-on activities and DIY costume ideas! Check them out:

Document
ACTIVITIES FOR SPOOKY SEASON
Sneak some learning into your Halloween or go straight to the seasonal at-home crafts and activities!
  1. Elapsed Trick or Treating Time—Practice mental math to plan your trick-or-treating route!
    • For younger ghouls and goblins: if Bobby starts trick or treating at 7:35 and stays out for an hour and 15 minutes, what time will he be back?
    • For older spooks: if it takes 4 minutes to visit a house, and there are six houses on your block, how long will it take to hit each house on the block? How long to cover three blocks? Six?
  2. Take a Guess—When you're heading home, have your child peek into their candy bag and estimate the number of pieces of candy in the bag. Count at home and see how close they were! Take it a step further by counting a small scoop and making an educated guess about how many scoops are in the entire pile. Multiply for a closer guess. Then count to confirm!
  3. Candy Sorting—Who doesn't remember the great candy dump? Emptying your bags on the carpet to admire your haul? This is the perfect opportunity for younger kids to practice sorting—a key early math skill. Sort by color, shape, or candy type and then count the contents of each pile.
  4. Colorful Candy Graph—Create a visual of your child's trick or treat bounty with a colorful candy graph! Once the candy is sorted into piles, count them, and create a graph by listing the candy types across the bottom of a page and quantities in tens up the left side of the page. Use a different colored crayon to color in a bar representing each candy's quantity.
ACTIVITIES FOR SPOOKY SEASON
  1. Candy Rainbow—Introduce some vocabulary while creating a candy rainbow! Sort your candy into color piles, then line the pieces of each pile up end to end to create each arc of the rainbow. Use words like above, below, left, right, middle, next to, and pattern while you design to practice positional vocabulary. Use those leftover lemon Starbursts to make a sun!
  2. Make Some Creepy Crafts—Crafts are perfect for a Halloween party! Set up a table with construction paper and create paper pumpkin paintings, draw a spooky scene, or color in one of our free, downloadable worksheets! Bring these monstrous, Puppet-on-a-Pen™ inspired characters to life; just download (for FREE!), print, and play for some seasonal spooky art creations. Download the coloring pages here. (combine PDFs into one link)
  3. Carve A Pumpkin (or just decorate it)—Nothing says Halloween quite like carving a pumpkin. Younger kids can paint a spooky face using non-toxic tempera or acrylic paint or try a totally awesome drip design using glow-in-the-dark paint! Older kids and grown-ups can use stencils, cookie cutters, lemon zesters, and pumpkin carving knives to carefully carve their own creepy creations.
ACTIVITIES FOR SPOOKY SEASON
  1. Bake Some Scary Snacks—Make the day super sweet with Halloween-themed treats! Bonus points if you match your themed snacks and food to your costume (like Butterbeer for Harry Potter costumes)! Check out our Halloween Pinterest board for more snack ideas.
  2. Make a Spooky Sensory Station—Grab some spooky sensory surprises! Playfoam® Pals™ Monster Party comes with a brick of glow-in-the-dark Playfoam and a collectible mini-monster hidden inside! Or make a spooky sensory bin with some Playfoam® Pluffle, the totally mesmerizing learning compound. Grab black, orange, or glow-in-the-dark Pluffle, dump it into a bin or tray, add mini-monsters or other manipulatives, and let the sensory fun begin!
  3. Watch Some (Not-So) Scary Movies—Snuggle up and put on a not so scary Halloween movie! Toddlers will love Room on the Broom, Toy Story of Terror, and Goosebumps; while in-betweeners might be ready for Spirited Away or The House with a Clock in Its Walls. Check out Good Housekeeping's list of 62 Best Halloween Movies for Kids for Every Level of Bravery for more spooky movie ideas!
DIY HALLOWEEN COSTUMES
This year, create your own, customized costumes that truly reflect your kid's style and personality? Dress up as characters from Educational Insights, complete with either a full-color or color-your-own FREE paper mask! Or create a costume around your kid's favorite learning toy! Check these ideas out:
  1. Pete the Cat®—It's all good in this groovy Pete the Cat costume, created from clothes you may already have at home and our free, downloadable Pete the Cat mask! Start with blue pants, a yellow tee, and red shoes. Cut and pin four colorful felt circles to the shirt to make buttons (glue white beads to make the stitches if you'd like). Then print our Pete mask, punch out the holes on the sides, and tie with ribbon or yarn to secure. Download the full-color Pete the Cat mask or color-your-own!
  2. Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel—Turn your kid into their favorite forest friend from The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game® with a simple grey or brown sweatsuit, homemade squirrel tail, and our FREE, downloadable Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Mask! To make the tail, simply stuff one leg of a pair of grey or brown tights (cut the other off), then tuck one end into your child's pants and pin the other to the top of the back of their sweatshirt. Click here for the full-color Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel mask or color-your-own!
  3. Artie 3000™ The Coding Robot—Turn your code-crazy kid into their favorite drawing robot with white leggings or pants, a white long sleeve shirt, a white box painted with blue and grey stripes, and our FREE, downloadable ARTIE mask! Customize your own Artie 3000 mask or download the ready-to-print template!

DIY HALLOWEEN COSTUMES CONT.
  1. Awesome Astronaut—The space explorers in your family will love this far out astronaut costume idea! Start with a white, crewneck sweatsuit, add a silver bike helmet and plastic face shield (or make a space suit helmet out of other material), grab your GeoSafari® Jr. Talking Telescope, and head out for an evening of stellar stargazing and tasty trick-or-treating!
  2. Wildlife Explorer—If your little one dreams of spotting lions, tigers, and elephants on safari, they'll love this savannah-inspired idea! All you need is a khaki shirt and pants, pith helmet or plastic safari hat, and your GeoSafari® Jr. Talking Wildlife Camera! Bonus: your kid can amaze their animal-loving friends and family with more than 120 fun animal facts, spoken in the voice of real-life Wildlife Warrior, Robert Irwin! Or grab yourGeoSafari® Jr. Kidnoculars to sling around your neck. These kid-tough binoculars are the perfect tool to get a close-up glimpse at nature, wildlife, or to scope out the next house on the trick-or-treating route!
  3. Brave Firefighter—Turn your little one's flare for all things fire trucks into a firefighter Halloween costume, complete with Design & Drill® Bolt Buddies® Fire Truck. Using yellow duct tape, add horizontal safety stripes to your kid's black pants and shirt (or sweatsuit), add black boots or tennis shoes, and top it with a play firefighter's hat.
  4. STEM Scientist—Support your kid's love of science with a simple DIY STEM scientist Halloween costume! Simply add a lab coat and lab glasses to whatever your kid wants to wear underneath, grab your GeoSafari® Jr. Talking Microscope or GeoSafari® Jr. My First Microscope and set out to make some Halloween discoveries! Our microscopes are the perfect introduction to STEM for little learners, so they can explore their world under the lens; plus, learn fun facts read by Bindi Irwin with the Talking Microscope!
Happy Halloween, everyone!
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