Halloween Sensory Activities for Toddlers

Halloween is always a festive time at LVCC and the perfect opportunity for innovative sensory games. Located inside William Allen High School in Allentown, LVCC at Allen provides early childhood education for primarily infants and toddlers. The creative teachers came up with some fun learning activities.

First, the children danced around in costume while listening to children's Halloween music. The songs were lively and not at all scary.

Dancing to the music

Next, the toddlers crawled through a garland maze. Without knocking down the garland decorations, they had to climb over and under, working their gross motor skills. The indoor pumpkin patch created additional obstacles to crawl around.

Garland maze and indoor pumpkin patch

At the sensory table, Ms. Maisha (center director and teacher) guided the children through hands-on exploration of a pumpkin. Seeing the size and bright color of the pumpkin, the children each attempted to roll or lift it. As soon as the lid of the pumpkin was removed (precut by Ms. Maisha), the children discovered the gooey texture inside. Some of the children tasted or smelled the pumpkin flesh. Combining sensory experiences with science makes for a full day of learning fun.

Further activities to engage toddlers include painting designs on the pumpkin, using the pumpkin lid as a paint stamper on paper, or adding the pumpkin seeds and flesh into see-through resealable zipper storage bags to make squishy sensory bags.

Pumpkins in the sensory table

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A Day at the Farm Harvests More than Pumpkins

What's red, orange, and full of energy?

The Pre-K Counts class from LVCC at South Mountain picking pumpkins!

Ms. Cathy and Ms. Heather, Pre-K Counts teachers, took the children on a field trip to Sieple Farms in Bath, PA. By visiting a working farm, the young children discovered that vegetables are grown from the ground and milk comes from cows, not a supermarket. The day was filled with fun, outdoor activities. 

A visit into the barn introduced the children to a number of farm animals. Being able to see, touch, and smell the cows and sheep up close was an exciting first-time experience for the children who had only ever seen these types of animals in books. 

They explored the maze made of straw bales, then took a bouncy hayride pulled by a tractor through the pumpkin patch. In the outdoor classroom, the preschoolers exercised their math skills by counting, measuring, and sorting at the corn sensory table. After the group worked together with their teachers to find their way out of the corn maze, they picked their very own pumpkins from the pumpkin patch at the end of the maze. 

An annual tradition, other LVCC sites that have taken or will take a trip to a pumpkin patch include three Allentown centers (Union Boulevard, Judith Chase Early Learning Center, Walnut Street) and two Bethlehem centers (Campus Center and Fowler Center).