Halloween faves we love! easy, peasy & a little bit spooky!

4 hours ago

9 min read

Monday, October 12, 2026

Halloween is only a few weeks away

and the excitement is building!

Our Littles love this season

AND

we love seeing the excitement in their eyes!

Last week, we took you along for some Halloween fun

with memories of Laurie’s family’s annual BOO Bash,

and then we explored how to make learning fun

with our post on Pumpkin Math!

Both posts were filled with ideas to make this Halloween season extra special

for you and your Littles.

And we're not done yet!

Today, we're back with even more Halloween inspiration…

Easy-peasy activities, creative crafts, and a few delightfully spooky ideas

to keep the fun going and the memories growing!

There’s just something about Halloween that brings out the kid in all of us,

including we Grands!

From silly spiders and friendly ghosts

to creepy-crawly crafts and just-a-little-bit-of-spooky shenanigans,

October is brimming with opportunities to make

some magical memories with our Littles!

And the best part?

Halloween fun doesn’t have to be complicated to be memorable!

A few everyday supplies, a sprinkle of imagination,

and a willingness to get a little messy are often all it takes

to turn an ordinary afternoon into something boo-tifully fun!

We've gathered some of our favorite easy-peasy ideas to get the fun started.

No fancy supplies, no frighteningly long to-do lists!

Just simple, creative fun and a whole lot of reasons to giggle together!

Spider Pick Up Sticks!

Laura saw this idea floating around on the internet

and knew it would be an activity she and her Littles would enjoy!

So simple!

Did you ever play Pick Up Sticks as a kid? This is a fun variation of the game!

All you need is a box of spaghetti noodles, a colander and a plastic spider or two!

Before we played the game, our Littles had fun building our game board, too!

DIRECTIONS

Thread spaghetti noodles through the holes of the colander in different directions. Your noodles will overlap and that’s just fine. This set-p is a great activity for Littles on its own as it provides good practice for eye-hand coordination!

Place the plastic spider on top of the noodles.

Players take turns pulling out one noodle at a time. The goal is to pull out a noodle without letting the spider fall. If the spider falls after a player pulls out a noodle, that player is out. Put the spider back on top of the noodles and continue playing until only one player is left!

Don't be the one to cause the spider to fall!

Stacking Ghosts!

Our Littles love to stack objects

and this simple adaptation makes for a fun Halloween version!

You’ll need 10 or more white paper/plastic/styrofoam cups and a black permanent marker. Turn the cups upside down and draw a ghost face on each of the 10 cups.

Then let your Littles

have fun building towers OR stacking the cups.

Spider Ring Count and Stack!

Here’s another fun way to practice hand-eye coordination

while sneaking in a little math practice, too!

For each player, place a straw upright in a blob of play dough. Take turns rolling one or two dice, then add that number of spider rings to your straw. The first player to stack all their rings to the top wins!

It didn’t take long before we discovered

that there is a strategy on how to best stack the rings on the straw!

Do you see the difference?

Window Cling Halloween Puppets!

We love our Dollar Tree finds!

Look at this fun set of window clings we found! We glued them to construction paper, cut them out and taped a craft stick to the bottom of each. To help them stand up, we cut slits in the top of small paper cups and stuck the popsicle sticks inside.

Our Little could then move the puppets all around as we told stories and sang songs together! She also did a wonderful job of showing different puppets when asked… Where’s the ghost? Where’s the jack-o-lantern? and more!

Find That Ghost!

We’ve got 2 versions of this game for you!

WHERE’S BOO?

Have you played The Elf on the Shelf during the holidays? If so, here’s a Halloween version… Where’s Boo? We’ve even thought of a way for Distant Grands and Littles to play together!

Make a ghost out of a piece of paper or a paper plate. If your Littles live far away, either send the ghost to them through the mail (FUN!) or ask mom or dad to make one for them! Hide the ghost each day (and even during naptime) and then have your Little hunt for it.

If you are a distant Grand ask your Little where the ghost was each time you talk to them. If you FaceTime, your Littles can hunt for the ghost during your time together or show you where it was found!

Another Option for Distant Grands! If you FaceTime with your Little regularly, you could make the ghost and hide it in your home prior to each call. Then have your Little search for the ghost as you carry your phone around your home! Such a fun way to connect with each other!

HIDE ‘N SEEK, BOO!

To celebrate National Ghost Hunting Day few weeks ago, we shared this idea on Instagram and, the best part? While Hide ‘n Seek, Boo! is a fun game to play during Halloween season, it works well any time, any where!

Make a couple of ghosts out of cardboard tubes. Attach a Kleenex with a rubber band OR a sticker OR your own cut-out ghost. This year our Little used wasabi tape and googley eyes to make a ghost!

Hide your ghosts around the house and let your Little hunt for them.

This game never gets old!

BOO!

Marble Roll Spider Web!

Laurie’s Little P recently wanted to make a spider just like the character in one of her favorite children’s books, Hairy and Scary! (which also happens to be a wonderful book to read at Halloween, too!)

I cut a piece of construction paper to fit a box lid. We squirted some paint on the paper, added some marbles and Little P rolled the marbles back and forth in the lid, tilting it up and down, creating squiggly web lines all over.

While the paint dried, I used black paint and painted four of Little P’s fingers and her palm on both hands to make a double handprint - we made a print of this on another piece of white paper, palms on top of each other, as shown

Can you see Little P's spider emerging?

We cut Little P’s handprint spider out and glued it to the web. We added googly eyes, too!. (Little P wanted her spider to be just like the one in the story book, so we added pom poms to our artwork, representing her friends!)

When we said “good-bye” that day, Little P announced,

“I want to hang this in my room!”

Success!

A Friendly Ghost!

This cotton ball craft is simple to make and you only need a few supplies on hand to make one!

You’ll need white and/or black construction paper, cotton balls, glue and scissors! Cut a ghost shape from the construction paper (black or white) and lay it on an area covered with newspaper or paper towels for added protection. Show your Little how to add an area of glue to the ghost and then cover it with cotton balls. Depending on the age of your Little, he/she can then follow steps to make the ghost OR you can add glue to small sections at a time for your toddler Little and let him/her fill in the glued area with cotton balls. Younger Littles will use the entire cotton ball and glue each down. Older Littles may stretch the cotton balls out or break them apart to make more of an eerie appearance!

Once the ghost shape is filled in with cotton, your Little can glue on black eyes and a mouth (older Littles can get creative and cut out their own while you can cut out these shapes for younger Littles to glue on.) Invite your Little to name his/her ghost, too! ❤

A Beaded Spider!

Laura’s Little L had such fun recently

creating pattern legs on this spider beading project!

All you need is cardboard, some black paper, a glue stick, a white crayon, eight pipe cleaners and pony beads!

Cut out a spider body from black paper and draw a face on it. Glue your spider body to the middle of a piece of cardboard. Poke eight holes, four on each side of the spider’s body. Add the pipe cleaners (four on each side of the spider’s body) and secure them by simply twisting the backside slightly.

Time for your Little to lace beads onto each pipe cleaner leg! Little L was excited to make a pattern on each leg, but our younger Little, two-year-old Little P, really had fun simply stringing on any beads she chose!

Such a cute spider! Do you agree?

Feed the Ghost!

This final idea we’re sharing today,

is a game that Laurie’s Littles have loved over the years!

It took a bit of time to prep it,

but is one that's been played with, over and over again!

We think your Littles would love it, too!

MATERIALS NEEDED

• a box

• white paper

• a plastic baby wipe container lid (see our note below for other options)

• a dice

• a black marker or crayon

• items to feed the ghost (uncooked pasta, coins, cotton balls, paper clips, small blocks, even M&Ms are some ideas that will work well) I was lucky to have a collection of rubbery creepy crawlies available so my Little chose bats to feed to her ghost!

Why is a kindergarten teacher’s house so messy?

Because she saves everything!!

🤣 🤣 🤣

DIRECTIONS

Cover the box lid with black paper if you’d like (not necessary). Then cut out a ghost shape from white paper and glue that to the top of the box. Figure out where you would like the mouth of your ghost to go and trace the opening on the ghost. Use a utility knife or razor blade to cut the hole. Glue the mouth (the baby wipe lid) to the ghost around the hole.