One of the most exciting parts of the fall season for kids (and adults!) is choosing a Halloween costume. There’s something so magical about the opportunity to dress up as anything! Dramatic play and dress up is a great learning activity for kids in general. As a result, it’s only natural that young readers would love a Halloween costume story time. Today I’m sharing our 6 favorite picture books that are all about choosing a Halloween costume. Stick around to the end where I share an idea for a creativity activity inspired by the books.

This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through a link in this post, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Commissions like these allow me to continue providing free content on the blog AND help support my next Target run. So, shop ’til you drop guys!

WHAT TO READ FOR HALLOWEEN COSTUME STORY TIME

Little Blue Truck’s Halloween

Alice Schertle’s Little Blue Truck’s Halloween is a sturdy board book perfect for young hands. The book has a lift the flap format, so little readers remain actively engaged throughout. Jill McElmurry’s illustrations are adorable. The vibrant depictions of all the farm friends dressed in Halloween costumes will keep kids guessing as they listen to the rhyming text.

Caillou Dresses Up!

This book is adapted from the animated series by Francine Allen, with illustrations from CINAR animation. (Remember when I mentioned our screen time choices? Here’s a great example of a screen character shared with my kids in book form!) I love Caillou books for introducing new ideas or activities via a social story. Readers can hear a reassuring tale about a child their own age dressing up and trick or treating. Nervous children will identify with little sister Rosie’s fears and feel less alone.

Curious George Goes To A Costume Party

A newer edition in the long running series from Margaret and H.A. Rey, Curious George Goes To A Costume Party shares one of George’s many fun adventures. Martha Weston’s bright, lively illustrations seamlessly match the original series’ artwork. Kids will love seeing George choose a fun costume, and cause a bit of mischief at a Halloween party.

Monster Needs A Costume

One of our favorite Halloween books, Monster Needs A Costume is written by Paul Czajak and illustrated by Wendy Grieb. The book is a fun look at a little boy and his monster preparing for Halloween by choosing the perfect costume for Monster! The illustrations are magical- Grieb packs so much detail in each of them, and personalities truly shine through. Kids will love the silly costume Monster ultimately settles on, as well as the subtle message that you can be anything you want to be.

Trick Or Treat Pout-Pout Fish

Deborah Diesen’s beloved series is one of #thelittleone’s favorites, so of course, we have the Halloween edition. The board book follows the undersea friends as they hunt for Pout-Pout in his Halloween costume. Children will love Dan Hanna’s fanciful images of the sea animals dressed up for the holiday.

Spooky Pookie

Our last choice comes from another well known children’s board book series. Sandra Boynton’s sweet little pig is featured in Spooky Pookie. Pookie must choose a Halloween costume with his mother, but it takes many tries to get it right. The illustrations are adorable, and there’s always something very lovable about the books in the Pookie series.

CREATIVE HALLOWEEN COSTUME ACTIVITY

Inspired by the many Halloween costume ideas in the books above, as well as my own children’s hunt for the perfect Halloween costume, I designed this fun and creative activity. It’s fairly simple, and requires very little prep. Depending on your child, there may be a bit of mess potential, but nothing too crazy I hope!

You Will Need:

• Halloween costume printable. (Get yours at the end of this post).
• Laminating pouches.
  • Viable alternatives to laminating: contact paper, plastic sheet protector sleeves.
• Assorted colors of play dough.
• Optional: play dough tools like rollers, plastic knives, cookie cutters, etc.
• Optional: tray to contain the activity. (We always use a cookie sheet with raised edges).

How To Make It Happen:

• Grab your Halloween costume printable mat below.
• Make your mat more sturdy by laminating it.
  • I always use a self seal, non-heat laminating pouch at home.
  • You may be able to have it laminated at many office supply stores.
  • Sandwiching the page between sheets of contact paper works well.
  • Sliding the page into a plastic sheet protector is also a simple solution.
• Place the mat on your tray.
• Provide your children with play dough.
• Encourage your children to use the dough to sculpt and create a fun Halloween costume for the figure on the mat.
• Talk about colors, shapes, details, etc. with your child as they work.
  • Are they creating a Halloween costume for themselves or someone else?
  • What kind of Halloween costume would they pick for your or your spouse?
• When the Halloween costume is complete, the mat can be cleared and used again.

>>> Pair this mat with my Printable Halloween Play-Doh Tags for a special Halloween treat! <<<

One Quick Alternative:

If you’re not in the mood for play dough (no judgement here, I promise!), the laminated page also works well with dry erase markers. Your child may need to use mainly a black marker, because the colors of the printable mat are fairly deep. It’s still a fun, creative activity, with minimal clean up, and is much more portable than the play dough version.

>>> HERE’S A PRINTABLE HALLOWEEN COSTUME MAT, JUST FOR YOU! <<<

Have your kids chosen their Halloween costumes for this year yet? What are they planning to be? Let me know in the comments!

Some Essentials You May Need…

We picked up Room On The Broom at the bookstore on a whim around Halloween a few years ago. It quickly became one of our favorites to pull out each fall. Today I’m sharing a very simple fine motor craft for young learns that is inspired by Room On The Broom. Read on to learn more about the book, and the fun project that accompanies it.

This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through a link in this post, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Commissions like these allow me to continue providing free content on this blog AND support my next Target run. So click away, my friends!

READING ROOM ON THE BROOM

Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s Room On The Broom is a lively tale about a witch who meets a cast of characters while out on her broom. As the poor witch keeps dropping things mid-flight, helpful animals return her belongings in exchange for a spot on the broom. Eventually, the broom is too full and breaks. The witch and her friends face a fierce dragon when they land, and must work together to escape him. The story is told in rhyming verses, which keep kids listening and engaged. Rhythmic stories like this can also help children to guess what word may end a verse, based on rhyme pattern. The illustrations are bright, and the characters’ faces are filled with personality and wide, expressive eyes.

ROOM ON THe bROOM FINE MOTOR

Materials:

• Brown pipe cleaners.
  • I used 2 pipe cleaners to create 1 broom.
• Assorted beads.
  • Pony beads or similar size work well.
  • Center hole should be large enough to thread onto doubled pipe cleaner.
• Shears- to snip pipe cleaners.
• Small rubber band.
  • 1 band for each broom.

How To Assemble A Broom:

For young children, I advise assembling the brooms ahead of time. Older children may enjoy helping to assemble their brooms, but adults should always snip the pipe cleaners for safety.

1. Take 1 brown pipe cleaner and fold it in half.
2. Take a second brown pipe cleaner and fold it into quarters.
   1. Use shears to snip the ends open at one side of quartered pipe cleaner.
3. Hold quartered pipe cleaner at the bottom of the halved piped cleaner.
   1. Free, ‘snipped’ ends of both pipe cleaners should be together at the bottom.
4. Use the rubber band to attach the quartered pipe cleaner (essentially, whisks of the broom) to the bottom of the halved pipe cleaner (essentially, the handle of the broom).
   1. Wrap the rubber band around the bundle of pipe cleaners many times. The broom should be secure and snug when assembled.

Is There Room On The Broom?

Set out a bowl of beads and encourage children to thread the beads onto the ‘broom handle’. Explain to them that the beads represent the witch and the animal passengers on her broom. How many beads can they fit onto their broom? If there are assorted bead sizes, does that number change depending on which beads they choose? You might encourage children to create patterns of beads on their broom. The fine motor and hand-eye coordination needed for threading the beads is excellent practice for pre-writers. Counting and patterning ads some math skills to the learning activity as well.

Have you done any fine motor play with your little ones? Which activities were their favorites? Let me know in the comments below!

Some essentials you may need…

Every October, my boys love hunting for Halloween decorations when we’re in the car or taking a walk through our neighborhood. This year, I’m having them do an entirely different – but equally fun – Halloween I spy activity! Keep reading to see my family’s favorite Halloween seek and find books. Then grab a printable Halloween hunt that your family can work on at home!

This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through a link in this post, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Commissions like these allow me to continue providing free content on the blog, and support my next latte run. So, win-win!

READING HALLOWEEN I SPY BOOKS

I Spy A Pumpkin

This edition is not entirely Halloween themed. I had to include it in the list though, since it has pumpkin front and center. The riddles were written by Jean Marzollo. All of the photographs were taken by Walter Wick. The riddles in this edition include photo prompts. This is great for very early readers. They can still participate even without understanding the words.

I Spy A Skeleton

Here’s another set of riddles and photographs from Marzollo and Wick. Like the pumpkin book, these photos are not entirely related to Halloween. There are more spooky pages in this edition than the pumpkin one though, so it’s a great choice for October. This edition also has the photo prompts, making it another great book for young readers.

I Spy Spooky Night

This third Halloween I spy book from Marzollo and Wick is the largest that we own. The photos are all related to spooky themes. The photographs in this edition are very detailed. Kids will easily find themselves drawn into the photos during their hunt. The riddles for this book are a bit more complex than in the smaller books. They do not include the photo prompts either. Children will either need to be able to read the text independently in order to solve the riddles, or work with an adult. My oldest definitely has some favorites in this book of Halloween I spy games. He finds the cemetery scene and the skeleton cloud extra creepy!

PRINT YOUR OWN HALLOWEEN I SPY

I created a fun Halloween I spy page for my son to work on at home. (You can grab your own copy at the end of this post!). It’s a simple, quick activity to keep your kids engaged. Children will need a copy of the Halloween I spy page, and something to color with. To complete their seek and find, kids simply color the Halloween objects according to the color listed. Color words are key sight words for young readers, so the opportunity to read each of them is great practice. Even younger children will benefit from some ‘clues’ before they start. Use the appropriate color on each of the Halloween objects across the top. With hints, young kids will be able to work their way through the Halloween I spy page fairly independently.

>>> GRAB YOUR HALLOWEEN I SPY PRINTABLE <<<

What other sorts of Halloween games and puzzles do your kids like? Tell me about them in the comments below!

Essentials You May Need…

Halloween decor has been in stores around us since late August. My kiddos are distinctly split on their reactions. #thebigone complains that it’s too early, and Halloween is (still) ages away. #thelittleone begs to be taken to ‘see Halloween’ in any store we visit. He announces every time he sees a pumpkin, and declares all the ghost decorations ‘very spooky!’ To engage him in learning surrounding this interest, #thelittleone and I have been counting Halloween items in stores. I also picked up some fun Halloween board books for him to read. Today I’m sharing how we use those books for counting fun at home. (Plus, stick around to the end of the post where I’m sharing a link to lots of Halloween ideas for kids!)

This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through a link in this post, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. These commissions allow me to continue providing free content here on the blog AND help support my next Target run. Shop ’til you drop, friends!

READING HALLOWEEN BOARD BOOKS

Five Little Pumpkins

Natalie Marshall’s sweet little board book is described as ‘a finger & toes nursery rhyme book’. The classic Five Little Pumpkins singsong rhyme is presented with adorable, lively illustrations. The faces on all the characters are so quirky and fun! I particularly love this version because it includes instructions for using sign language with the book. Double the learning options is always good! The tabbed pages make it easy for small hands to turn on their own.

Five Spooky Ghosts

Salina Yoon’s Five Spooky Ghosts also includes chunky tabbed pages for young fingers. The shiny holographic ghosts add a fun sensory experience to reading it. This book counts down from 5, giving an opportunity to introduce another basic math skill. Although the word ‘spooky’ is in the title, it’s too cute of a book to scary anyone!

Five Black Cats

Five Black Cats from Julia Woolf has quickly become #thelittleone’s FAVORITE book. (As I write this, I’m waiting for him to fall asleep so I can take some pictures of it. He refuses to part with it while he’s awake). Five Black Cats tells the tale of some black kitties out on a Halloween adventure. It does not count up to 5 or down to 5 specifically, but we practice counting the black cats on each page. We also count other objects through out the book while we read, like bats or mice, so it’s a perfect Halloween board book for very early math.

HALLOWEEN BOARD BOOK MAGNET PLAY

I created a simple and fun magnet play opportunity that accompanies these Halloween board books well. The activity is very flexible. It can be easily adapted to any Halloween books. Using it to bring holiday finger plays, rhymes, or songs you may already know is also a great idea. Additionally, your child may enjoy engaging in imaginative Halloween play without the stories at all. That’s always a fun option.

Halloween Magnet Play Supplies

• Stickers to match your Halloween board books.
  • Don’t go too small- you want little hands to be able to grab them.
  • Good alternatives to plain stickers are felt, wood, or foam craft shapes.
• Magnetic sheets.
• Double stick tape or glue, if your shapes do not have adhesive on them already.
• Scissors.
• Halloween magnet play printable. (Scroll to the end of the post to get yours).

How To Create Halloween Magnet Play

• Attach Halloween shapes to magnetic sheets.
• Cut magnetic sheets down to size of shapes using scissors.
• Hang the Halloween magnet play printable on a magnetic surface like a refrigerator or door.
  • Cookie sheets are a great option for kids to hold on their lap. They’re also perfect for low-mess, portable play time.
• Add the shape magnets to the play printable.
  • For some books, you may start with all your shapes on the printable, and remove them one by one.
  • Others, you may add shapes one at a time as you count up.

Alternatives to Magnet Play

If you’re feeling adventurous and open to some sensory play, the printable can also be used as a play dough mat. I advise making it more sturdy (and reusable) by laminating it first. Sandwiching the mat between contact paper, or sliding it into a plastic page protector sheet are alternatives to laminating that work well. Your child can sculpt the Halloween shapes from play dough and add them to the mat as you read and count.

Another great alternative with laminated pages is drawing with dry erase on top of them. You may need to stick with a black dry erase marker for this particular mat, as the colors are deep. Drawing pumpkins, ghosts, cats, etc, allows children to work on fine motor and math skills while being creative.

>>> GRAB YOUR HALLOWEEN BOARD BOOKS PRINTABLE MAT <<<

Does your family have any favorite Halloween board books? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below!

Some essentials you may need…

Monster Brownies / The Moments At Home
Haunted House Printable / Mama Smiles
Neon Splatter Paint Banner / Projects With Kids
Sponge Print Ghosts / Preschool Toolkit
Jack-O-Lantern Maze & Coloring / Mosswood Connections
Tea Cake Spiders / The Gingerbread House
X-Ray Exercises / Growing Play
Frightfully Fun Photo Shoot & Sensory Play / Swami Mommi
Cardboard Tube Monsters / The Joy of Sharing