Halloween is a fa-BOO-lous time to get creative and have some spooky fun with your kids! We made a list of our best fine motor Halloween activities for toddlers, preschoolers, and grade schoolers that we have tried with our children.
Check out our Halloween fine motor activities!
Hammering Nails in Pumpkins
This easy and fun pumpkin hammering project is a great Halloween activity that will help your toddler build their fine motor skills. All you need is a few nails and a hammer, and your little one can get busy, and you can relax for a little bit!
Materials needed:
- Pumpkin
- Nails, golf tees
- (Wood) Hammer
Alternative:
Guide to Hammering Nails in a Pumpkin
As you can see, you can use nails, golf tees, or screws for this fine motor activity.
Golf tees are perfect for toddlers, because golf tees have a wider head, making them for little ones easier to hammer in. It’s also an excellent idea to start the nails, and slightly hammer them in for toddlers.
When preparing this Halloween activity for preschoolers and bigger kids, you can give them nails and real tools, but always talk about safety, before giving them into their hands.
When we set out to hammer nails into our pumpkin, I was dismayed to find that I didn’t have any nails at home. Not wanting to give up on my pumpkin-nailing project, I decided to use screws instead.
I hammered in the screws all the way in and pulled them back to make the holes a little bit looser. It worked perfectly, then, I grabbed a screwdriver and gave it to my daughter to try driving in a screw.
She tried it, but preferred hitting 😀 I am sure bigger children will enjoy this variation too.
This activity is also great for hand-eye coordination. As your toddler works on hammering the nails into the pumpkin, they will start to develop a better sense of coordination.
Smash the Pumpkin
This simple Halloween activity is a spooktacular way to keep the little ones entertained on such a fun holiday. Make your own playdough pumpkins, then let your child smash them in a fun way (and watch the playdough fly, just kidding).
What Will You Need?
Let’s Get Smashing
Grab a piece of playdough and form a ball, then wrap the string around it, and pull it, repeat it a few more times to get the lines from the pumpkin.
Then make the stem from a small piece of playdough.
Finally, let your child smash the pumpkins with a toy hammer or with their hands.
Pumpkin Painting
This year, try something different with your pumpkin for Halloween! This easy and fun project is perfect for both kids and adults.
Pumpkin painting is a Boo-tiful way to show off your creative side while still enjoying the holiday season.
Check out our pumpkin sensory Halloween activities for kids!
What will you need?
What to do?
Just start painting! Use whatever colors you like best – there’s no right or wrong here. You can also write a fun message or quote on your pumpkin. Just have fun and be creative!
Acrylic paint, acrylic markers, and sharpies are all great options for creating a one-of-a-kind design for your pumpkin, you can combine them.
If you mess up your drawing with acrylic markers, quickly wipe it off with a wet wipe, and restart your pattern, but act immediately!
Let us know how your pumpkins turned out!
Ladybug Pumpkin
If you’re looking for a fangtastic pumpkin activity for your kids that doesn’t involve carving, try adding some ladybugs instead! Your toddler will love the tactile sensation of sticking the stickers on the pumpkin, and you’ll love watching them concentrate and use their fine motor skills.
What will you need?
- Pumpkin
- Ladybug stickers (wooden)
What to do?
Just get some pretty pumpkins, and let your kids decorate them with ladybug stickers.
They’re easy to apply and add a fun touch to any pumpkin. It will be too cute to spook!
Once you complete this project, find more pumpkin ideas in our Halloween Sensory Activities.
Halloween Ice Painting
Halloween is a fa-BOO-lous time to get your kids involved in some fun holiday crafts!
If you are looking for a low-prep activity to keep the kiddos busy and get into the Halloween spirit, check out how to paint on ice!
What Will You Need for Ice Painting?
- Silicone Halloween mold
- Paint and paintbrush
- Water
How to Paint on Ice?
Simply fill the Halloween mold with water and let it freeze overnight. The next day pop the ice out of the mold and let the kids go wild with the paintbrushes!
Your children will enjoy this activity, they will be strengthening their fine motor skills in the process and they’ll be practicing while they play!
Halloween Sticker Matching
Ended up buying loads of Halloween stickers? Don’t worry, there are fine motor activities for toddlers that can be prepared in a few minutes, including stickers.
What Materials Will You Need?
Fine Motor Activity Guide
Add identical stickers in two columns on a sheet of craft paper. Give your child a marker and let them connect the matching pictures.
You can also cut the stickers in half, then stick them in different columns, then connect the right ones.
Another option is to cut the stickers in half, then stick them in one column, then stick the matching halves in the right place.
These picture matching Halloween themed activities are suitable for strengthening your child’s visual discrimination skills.
Halloween Line Tracing with Printable Worksheets
Line tracing activities are a perfect way for kids to improve their fine motor skills.
By tracing lines, children can develop the muscles in their hands and fingers that are necessary for tasks such as writing. Line tracing can be an interesting and creative activity for kids, as it is an excellent exercise for their fine motor abilities.
We just BOO-sted up this activity with a little Halloween spirit.
What will you need?
What to Do?
Print the downloaded Halloween fine motor worksheets down below and give them to your child to trace the lines.
Using different colors of crayons or markers to trace the lines will help keep your child’s attention focused on the activity.
Give your toddler plenty of praise when they do a good job completing their fine motor practice. This will help them feel proud of their accomplishment and encourage them to keep practicing.
Halloween Sprinkles Sensory Writing Tray
One of the best parts of Halloween is the candy. Prepare your sweet tooth for Halloween fun!
But before you indulge in all that sugar, test your brain with some spooky riddles.
We’ve prepared a sensory writing tray full of Halloween sprinkles and riddle cards for you to enjoy. See if you can solve them all!
If you have younger kids and prefer to skip the riddles, we prepared some Halloween-related words for them too.
What Will You Need?
- Writing tray
- Halloween sprinkles
- Printable riddles / Halloween related words
What to Do?
Download and print the riddles and/or word flash cards, and fill your tray with Halloween sprinkles.
Read together the riddles. Once your child figures out the answers, let them write down the words in the sprinkles using their fingers.
If you will use the cards with words only, simply give them one by one to copy those words in the tray full of sprinkles, using their finger.
They can also write the words without looking at the flash cards. First, say them out loud, then check the cards together for the right spelling.
This sprinkle writing tray can also be used for a Halloween name writing activity.
Sensory writing trays are a super easy way to get kids interested in writing. It helps children practice fine motor skills while exploring their senses.
Spookghetti Halloween Fine Motor Activities
One of the great things about being a kid is that you can have fun with just anything. Even something as simple as spaghetti can provide hours of enjoyment.
And if you’re looking for a fun and not so scary Halloween activity to do with your kids, try one of these spaghetti activities or all three of them. You can put on your Halloween costumes to have even more fun completing these activities.
It’s a great way to help them develop their fine motor skills and they’ll love making a mess with the spaghetti.
Spookghetti ingredients
How to Prepare Spookghetti?
Cook the spaghetti, then drain it and rinse it. Divide it into 3 different zip lock bags. Add a little Halloween twist with a few drops of food coloring (green, orange, purple) to each bag. Rinse it again after coloring.
Spaghetti Letters
This Halloween Activity is perfect for helping preschoolers practice and improve their writing skills.
What Additional Materials Will You Need?
- Halloween shaped plates
- Printable riddle cards
How to Play?
Download and print the riddle and/or word flash cards. Go through the riddles with your child and once they find out the right answer, they can form the words on the tray using spaghetti noodles. Smaller kids can copy the words from the flash cards, using spaghetti.
- Spaghetti Letters and
- Sprinkles Sensory Writing Tray activities.
Spaghetti Tracing
It’s so satisfying to twirl spaghetti around on a fork but try twisting it around your fingers too. This can be a good warm up for your tracing activity.
Kids will enjoy playing, and at the same time, their little hands will be busy practicing a pincer grasp while completing this task.
What Additional Materials Will You Need?
How to Play?
Have your child use spaghetti noodles to trace the different shapes of the Halloween shaped plates. Make them follow the facial features of the party plates.
Spaghetti Bin – Tweezer Fine Motor Sorting
Halloween fine motor activities like these sorting games are very helpful for toddlers to improve their dexterity and hand-eye coordination.
Halloween Cutting Activities with Spaghetti – Practicing Scissor Skills
We all know that learning to use scissors is a vital part of early childhood development.
Spaghetti is actually a very valuable accessory to help your little ones practice their scissors skills.
What Will You Need?
- Child-safe scissors (kid’s scissors)
- Spooky toys
What to Do?
Give your child a plate of spaghetti and a pair of child-safe scissors and a little Halloween twist of course. Help them by demonstrating how to hold the pasta in one hand and the scissors in the other, then encourage them to start cutting!
Fine Motor Halloween Activities for Toddlers – Printable Pumpkin Painting
Check out and download this printable template! We have prepared 3 fine motor activities for Halloween on this coloring sheet.
Cotton Pad Pumpkin Painting with Water Dropper
This activity has a delicious secret ingredient – orange juice! You’ll have so much fun painting with it, you’ll want to drink it all up!
What will You Need?
- Water dropper
- Cotton pads
- Orange juice (or add a few drops of orange food coloring to a glass of water)
- Printable pumpkin template
What to do?
Start by downloading and printing our free printable pumpkin template. Cut out the pumpkin shape from the template and place it on a tray, then cover it with cotton pads. Give your child a water dropper to paint the cotton pads. Watch the cotton pads soak up every drop of the orange juice.
Holding and using the pipette is helping the development of the pincer grasp and hand strength.
Pumpkin Painting with Fingers
With finger painting, you can create a beautiful keepsake and work of art in no time. If your child enjoys and wants to paint more, try this technique on a real pumpkin!
What will You Need?
- Orange Paint
- Little Hands 🙂
What to Do?
It’s easy to get started. Just print the template, grab some paint, and get those little fingers moving.
When children are finger painting, they are strengthening the small muscles in their hands.
Pumpkin Painting with Q-Tips
This fine motor activity will improve the pencil grip by incorporating a pincer grasp on the Q-tip. It strengthens the tiny muscles of the hand.
What will You Need?
Just print the template, dip your Q-tip into the paint, then dab it onto the template.
Skeleton Halloween Fine Motor Activities for Toddlers
I love Halloween because there are so many fascinating ideas and available accessories for all sorts of activities and crafts. Making skeletons from Q-tips for this occasion is an easy way to teach kids a little bit about anatomy.
Skeleton Q-Tips Arm X-Ray
For this activity, we were exploring the bones of the forearm by touching them and feeling them under our skin. So we can do our own X-ray.
This activity is suitable for kids of all ages. They will learn about the bones in their body, but they’ll also get to practice their fine motor skills.
This could be a spooky Halloween craft for babies too!
What Will You Need?
What to Do?
Simply make a print of the forearm of your child using white paint on black craft paper. Once it’s dry, arrange the Q-tips as the bones, and VOILA! You’ve got yourself a spooky x-ray!
Skeleton Q-Tips Halloween Craft
Let’s create the cutest skeleton ever!
What will You Need?
What to Do?
Print the face of your little one and stick it onto the craft paper. To make the skeleton, start by gluing the Q-tips on the paper in the shape of a human skeleton. Cut the Q-tips for short bones and use the hole pieces for long bones.
Skeleton from Natural Materials
For anyone who’s looking for a last-minute Halloween craft that won’t break the bank, we’ve got just the thing. You can find the materials in your backyard.
What Will You Need?
- Twigs, Sticks
- 1 Big Rock
- Paint and Paintbrush
What to Do?
Collect a variety of twigs and sticks of different sizes and one large rock. Paint the rock to make the skull. Then use the twigs and sticks to form a skeleton.
Witch’s Broomstick – Halloween Fine Motor Crafts
Witch upon a time I came up with this activity idea that is perfect for kids who are practicing counting and identifying colors.
It’s a simple yet fun activity that will keep them entertained while they’re learning. And I know they’ll sweep you off your feet!
What Will You Need?
- 6 Pipe Cleaners (in different colors)
- Pony Beads (in the same color as the pipe cleaners)
What to Do?
To get the broomstick, twist the 6 pipe cleaners together till halfway. Thread the beads along the pipe cleaners in matching colors.
You can also count the beads together.
Don’t forget to check out our Halloween Sensory Activities and search for more ideas on our social media channels: Instagram, Facebook, TikTok or YouTube.
