Add some spooky STEM fun into your preschooler’s learning with this Halloween graphing activity!
Halloween Graphing Activity:
Start by printing this free template. The Halloween graphing template includes the di, colored tiles, and graphing chart. I used regular printer paper; however, if you use cardstock, then your dice will be much sturdier.
Begin by cutting out the dice. Gently fold the gray tabs inward. Then begin to fold your squares into a cube shape. Add some glue to the tabs and glue them onto the underside of the squares as you form your cube. The very last tab is hard to glue and might require tape. Once your cube is formed, set it aside to dry.
Cut out all of the colored tiles. You will have 4 of each color–red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Each color corresponds with one of the Halloween pictures. Here’s the color scheme: witch=red, pumpkin=orange, moon=yellow, Frankenstein monster=green, bat=blue, and spiderweb=purple.
Now it is time to begin Halloween graphing. Ask you child to gently roll the di. Which Halloween picture is on top? Is it a purple web? Take a tile of the same color and set it on the graph above the corresponding-colored Halloween picture. Keep rolling the dice and setting tiles in the correct columns until you reach the top of the column. Since you are not gluing the colored tiles to the chart, you can use this activity over and over again. The witch was the first to reach the top for us. Which Halloween picture made it to the top of your graph first?
Why STEM?
STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and math. It is important to introduce these concepts to preschoolers in a fun way so that as they get older, they are excited about STEM subjects. What are preschoolers learning in this activity? Preschoolers are learning their colors (science)! They have to identify the color on the di, find the same color on the chart, and then correctly add the same color tile to the graph. Preschoolers are learning how to graph, an important math concept! Add some extra math into this activity by counting how many of each color tile is on your graph and how many tiles your have altogether. Preschoolers are also learning about engineering as they help build the di!
More STEM Activities
If your child enjoyed this graphing activity, I made a free blank di template so you can customize it with your own pictures. You can add computer images, stickers, or draw whatever you want on the dice and graph for your child to practice more graphing skills.
This paper plate shape weaving activity is great for preschooler’s fine motor skills and shape recognition. Kids get to paint and wrap yarn! As they wrap the yarn, talk about how many sides the shape has and how many points it has. Ask you child what their favorite shape is!
Supplies needed:
paper plate
watercolor paints
paint brush
cup of water
scissors
yarn
tape
How To:
Pick a shape you would like to make. There are so many possibilities — square, triangle, heart, circle, a star, and more! My son made a star as part of our Learning Letter S Week.
Start by drawing a shape in the center of the plate and cutting it out.
Kids can paint the plate with a variety of watercolors; be creative! My preschooler loved using paints and had a lot of fun with this activity. Let your plate dry before wrapping it with yarn.
Pick out yarn or string to wrap around your plate. I had some of this rose colored yarn left over from a crochet project, so we used it for this craft. I suggest cutting a 36-inch piece of yarn. You can always cut off any excess yarn when your child is done weaving.
Tape one end of the yarn to the back of the plate and then let your child start wrapping. When you are finished wrapping yarn, cut the yarn (if you have extra) and tape the end to the back of the plate.
You can repeat this paper plate shape weaving activity with other shapes and make a whole bunch. Be sure to make your favorite shape!
Incorporate STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) into your preschooler’s learning activities with this fun (and yummy) Froot Loops tower! My son really enjoyed this activity, so much so, that we’ve done it a few times. Not only is this fun to do, but it is great for for kids’ fine motor skill development too! While you are your child are making this tower, take the opportunity to talk about colors and making patterns with the Froot Loops. Patterns and sequencing are important math components for preschoolers to learn. By making Froot Loop Towers, they can experiment with patterns by putting the cereal on the spaghetti noodle in different sequences.
Supplies Needed:
Froot Loops cereal
spaghetti noodle
Play-Doh
How To:
Start by making a mound out of your Play-Doh to use as the tower’s base. Then stick the spaghetti noodle into the mound. Make sure that you smush the Play-Doh around the noodle so that they noodle stands up straight.
It’s Froot Loops time! We dumped some Froot Loops onto a paper plate for my son to use for this project. He decided to make a rainbow tower. He did a fantastic job getting his rainbow colors in the correct order! Pick colors and a pattern you like. Now that you have a pattern in mind, take your Froot Loops can carefully drop each piece down the noodle, building a tower as you stack cereal pieces.
This looks like an easy activity, but little kids are still working on their fine motor skills, so getting the Froot Loops onto the noodle and building the tower is really work for them. And then add in making patterns, and they are really working hard. Fortunately they are having fun creating their tower and munching on the cereal as they go along!
We tried this boat float STEM activity from Good Housekeeping Amazing Science Free STEAM Experiment Sampler (free e-book on Amazon). This sampler book has 7 awesome things to make with your kiddo. It is recommended for ages 8-12, but with some modifications, my son is able to do some of their STEM ideas. In this activity your child gets to see if objects sink or float by themselves, and if the ones that sank can float on the boat.
Supplies Needed:
aluminum foil
sink with water
various objects to test if they sink or float
How To:
For this activity you will make a boat out of aluminum foil. I tore off a piece about 8 inches long. I folded all 4 sides inward about 1/2-1 inch until they were flat. Then I folded them over again, but this time I left the sides standing up. I tried to fold one end of the foil loosely into a boat shape, but it just looks like a triangle. I think leaving it as a square is fine. (The book has picture instructions.)
We grabbed some objects to test if they sink or float by themselves. My son picked a small plastic piece (that might be a Lego); a plastic Olaf figure; and a rubber duck. I helped by suggesting a metal snowman charm and some coins. He happily grabbed his piggy bank to see if the coins would float.
Sink or Float?
Fill your sink up halfway with water. Go object-by-object, and ask your child if you think it will sink of float. Test each object. We found that the small plastic piece, Olaf, and the rubber duck all floated on their own so they did not need a boat. However, the snowman charm and the coins sank.
My son placed his foil boat in the sink and he put the metal snowman charm on the boat. It didn’t sink! Then he put pennies on the boat, and the boat floated. He dumped a lot of his coins into the boat to see if it would still float. He was surprised that the boat full of coins stayed afloat!
This boat float STEM activity (with our modifications) was a success! I will definitely be referring to this book as my son ages for more STEM ideas. Please check out my STEM page to see other science, technology, engineering, and math activities that my son and I have done together.
Looking to incorporate more STEM education into your preschooler’s activities? Then try this fun Christmas fizz preschool STEM activity! To make this Christmas themed, we used red and green food coloring and we added red and green glitter for sparkly fun. We had a blast watching it bubble up and we loved seeing the red and green glitter sparkle in the bubbles! Play some Christmas music in the background and enjoy this holiday STEM activity together.
CHRISTMAS FIZZ
Supplies Needed:
supplies for Christmas Fizz STEM Activity
bowl or foil tray
1 box of baking soda
red and green glitter
white vinegar
2 paint cups ( we reused plastic fruit cups)
red and green food coloring
Teaspoon (for spooning the vinegar into the tray) or eyedroppers/pipettes
Prepare the Tray:
Pour baking soda inside the tray so that the entire bottom is covered
Sprinkle the red and green glitter around the tray on top of the baking soda
add baking soda and glitter
Prepare the Paint Cups:
pour vinegar in each cup
add a drop of red food coloring to one cup and a drop of green food coloring to the other cup
stir the food coloring until it is well mixed with the vinegar
Making the Christmas Fizz
Christmas Fizz
Christmas Fizz
To make the fizz, spoon some of the colored vinegar into the tray. Watch as the vinegar bubbles up when it touches the baking soda! The glitter looks awesome as the bubbles rise up 🙂
Keep spooning vinegar* into the tray until all of the baking soda is covered in red and green.
*the larger amount of vinegar that you dump into the tray at a time, the larger your fizz will be!
We love making fizz and incorporating it into our learning themes! We’ve made superhero fizz, rainbow fizz, pumpkin fizz, and winter fizz too! Just change the food coloring colors and use different glitter to make any kind of fizz you want 🙂
These acorn dot number coloring worksheets are perfect for fall! My son doesn’t like coloring very much, but he does like using his dot pens! I made these fun worksheets for him to practice identifying numbers 1-10.
Using dot pens (or color with crayons), spot and dot all numbers 1-10. There are two pages of worksheets. They are divided into groups 1-5 and 6-10. Spot the numbers and dot (or color) accordingly. Download your free PDF worksheet: Acorn Number Coloring
Pumpkin Counting and Coloring
This is a fun math skills worksheet to help your preschooler visualize quantities. You can use your dot markers again for this pumpkin coloring worksheet or color in the pumpkins with crayons. Look at the number on the left and then color the same number of pumpkins. Download and print your free PDF: Pumpkin Coloring
Fall Counting
Get in the fall-spirit with this math worksheet full of cute fall shapes. Count how many of each picture are shown in the box on the left. Then write your answer. Download and print your free PDF: Fall Counting
My son loves numbers and counting! I made “I Spy” worksheets for him to practice counting and writing his numbers. There are lots to choose from, including a super cute Fall I Spy worksheet to go along with these acorn dot number coloring worksheets.
Apple Counting Activity
For a more hands-on counting experience, I made an Apple Counting game with flashcards and pompom apples. Download these free flashcards and apple tree picture for your preschooler to practice apple counting too!
Check out my MATH SKILLS page for more math worksheets and ideas.
There are so many great fall-themed books for preschoolers that it is hard to narrow down a list. Here are some preschooler-approved books that I have read to my own son, as well as to the library’s preschool storytime group over the years. After checking out fall-themed books, try the fall activities for preschool.
Preschool Books
Fall Books:
1. Hedgehugs: Autumn Hide-and-Squeakby Steve Wilson — The Hedgehugs are two absolutely adorable hedgehogs who happen to be best friends! My son and I love all of their stories. In this adventure, the Hedgehugs make a new bat friend. The friends play a game of hide-and-seek, hiding in cute, fall-themed things, such as leaf piles and pumpkins.
2. The Squirrels Who Squabbled by Rachel Bright — Rachel Bright is a fantastic author! My son and I love her books, and I have read several of her stories to the library’s preschool storytime group, who agree that she rocks! In this book, squirrels, Cyril and Bruce, get in a fight over the last acorn. In a story similar to the Ant and the Grasshopper, one unprepared-for-winter squirrel is ready to do battle for the last acorn. The squirrels’ squabbles lead them on a hilarious adventure!
3. Aaron Loves Apples and Pumpkinsby PD Eastman — Fall is here and Aaron the alligator loves everything about it. He loves the yummy apples, pumpkins, football, Halloween costumes, and spending time with his friends. When his friends go apple picking, Aaron tells them that he knows a better was to get the apples down; he shakes the tree so hard, that all of the apples fall down on Aaron! Oops 🙂 Now all of the apples are down and Aaron and his friends can enjoy them together. This book is part of the beginning reader series, I Can Read. It has short sentences with not a lot of words per page. It is a good choice for kids who are learning to read.
4. Ouch by Ragnhild Scamell — In this story, an adorable hedgehog gets an apple stuck on its back. Now hedgehog can’t fit into its den and winter is coming. The hedgehog’s animal friends try to help and get the apple off, however each attempt ends up with more things getting stuck to the poor hedgehog. After squeezing, and swimming, and rolling around, hedgehog and friends are running out of ideas. Fortunately, along comes a goat with a big appetite and eats all of the things that are stuck on hedgehog!
5. A Unicorn Named Sparkle and the Pumpkin Monsterby Amy Young — Lucy and Sparkle have fun doing autumn things together. They visit a pumpkin patch, explore a corn maze, and play games. Things get a little too spooky for Sparkle, who is afraid of a pumpkin monster. Lucy, who enjoys being scared, learns that not everyone likes to be a little scared. This is a sweet story about two friends who learn to respect one another’s feelings. Plus it ends with an awesome rainbow from Sparkle’s magic horn and yummy treats for the friends to enjoy together.
6.Otis and the Scarecrow by Loren Long — Otis the tractor has several wonderful stories for preschoolers to enjoy, In this fall-themed one, the farmer introduces a new scarecrow to the farm. Everyone is excited to meet the scarecrow! But when they see him, the scarecrow’s frown drives them all away. Otis worries about the friendless scarecrow and in an act of compassion, Otis includes the scarecrow in the animals’ quiet game.
Fall Leaves Books:
Fall Leaves Stories
1. We’re Going on a Leaf Huntby Steve Metzger — This rhyming story is a fun leaf-hunting adventure. Preschoolers love Steve Metzger’s books and the silly sound effects that he skillfully incorporates into the story. This one will become a fall-favorite! Have your own leaf hunt after the story to continue the fun 🙂
2. Leaf Manby Lois Ehlert: This book is a visual treat! The pictures are actual leaves and Lois Ehlert’s signature die-cut pages are fantastic. Leaf Man is beautiful tribute to nature and preschoolers will delight in Leaf Man’s wind-blown adventures.
3. Fletcher and the Falling Leaves by Julia Rawlinson: In this beautifully illustrated book, we meet a young fox named Fletcher who is unaware that some trees lose their leaves in the fall. Fletcher is determined to save the leaves from falling off of his favorite tree. Unfortunately each one of his ideas fail to keep the leaves on the tree. After the last leaf falls off the tree, Fletcher carries the little leaf home to his den. He puts it into a nice cozy bed for the night. When he returns to his tree in the early morning, a beautiful sight is waiting for him. His tree is covered in sparkling icicles! His tree reassures him that all is fine and that Fletcher is free to enjoy the beauty in front of him without worry for his tree.
4. Leaf Trouble by Jonathan Emmett: Learn about the changing of seasons with two cute little squirrels in this story. Worried about the falling leaves, a brother and sister squirrel unsuccessfully try to put the leaves back on the tree. Mommy squirrel teaches them all about fall and reassures them that new leaves will grow in the springtime.
5. There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leavesby Lucille Collandro: The silly old lady is back in this fall-themed story. She goes on a stomach-filling journey, gobbling up fall items (a pumpkin, a rope, and some leaves). Preschoolers will laugh away at all of the silliness going on in this book!
6. When the Leaf Blew Inby Steve Metzger: This fun picture book is about an autumn leaf blows that into a barn causing a cow to sneeze. The sneeze sets off a series of barnyard events in this silly tale that will have preschoolers asking you to reread it over and over again!
For more fall-themed books and activities for preschool, check out my APPLE post.
Fall Activities for Preschool:
Crafts:
Leaf Stick Puppets–Go on a leaf hunt and collect leaves to make stick puppets.
Coffee Filter Leaves — Make your own beautiful fall leaves out of coffee filters, markers, and water. This is a fun and simple craft for kids to make to usher in the fall season.
Pumpkin Handprint Craft — I love handprint crafts! They preserve your little one’s prints and you get to look back at them years later and ooh and ahh over how tiny they were. Plus, this craft is a great way to personalize the fall season.
STEM:
Pumpkin Fizz —
Incorporate fun, seasonal STEM activities into your preschooler’s education with this fun, fall-themed science experiment — Pumpkin Fizz.
Apple Counting–
Check out my preschool Apple Counting Activity for an interactive, hands-on way to practice counting! I made numbered flashcards and an apple tree for you to print off and use for your little one; all you will need is to add some pompoms (to be apples) or some other small objects to use for counting.
I Spy–
Have fun counting all of the pictures in the this fall themed I Spy game. After you count how many of each picture you find, write the number in the box.
Now that fall is here and Halloween decorations are popping up everywhere, it is time to do some fun pumpkin activities! Looking to incorporate more STEM education into your preschooler’s activities? then try this fun pumpkin fizz preschool STEM experiment! To make this fall themed, we used orange food coloring and we used a pumpkin cookie cutter to hold our fizz mixture. We thought this science experiment was so much fun! We had a blast watching it bubble up!
This turned out to be 2 science lessons in 1. First we had to make the color orange by mixing the red and yellow food dye together. This was a nice refresher for mixing colors. Second, we learned about chemical reactions when the vinegar mixed with the baking soda and created fizz.
PUMPKIN FIZZ
Supplies Needed:
bowl or foil tray
1 box of baking soda
Pumpkin shaped cookie cutter
white vinegar
paint cup ( we reused plastic fruit cups)
orange food coloring (or mix red and yellow)
Teaspoon (for spooning the vinegar into the tray) or eyedroppers/pipettes
Pumpkin Fizz Preschool STEM Activity
Prepare the Tray:
Place pumpkin cookie cutter in the center of your tray
Sprinkle baking soda inside the cookie cutter so that the entire bottom is covered
Prepare the Paint Cups:
pour in vinegar
add a couple of drops of food coloring
stir the food coloring
Making the Fizz
Pumpkin Fizz
To make the pumpkin fizz, spoon some of the colored vinegar into the tray. Watch as the vinegar bubbles up when it touches the baking soda!
Keep spooning vinegar into the tray until all of the baking soda is covered is orange.
Pumpkin Fizz
*the larger amount of vinegar that you dump into the tray at a time, the larger you fizz will be !
Apple theme books, crafts, and STEM activities for preschool
Fall is just around the corner and I love to do apple-themed things this time of year. Here is a list of some of my favorite apple books for preschoolers and kindergarteners: a tissue paper craft, a yummy apple STEM activity, and a fun apple counting idea to do with pompoms. And no apple themed activities would be complete without an apple taste test — try different kinds of apples and see which one is your favorite!
Apple Books:
1.The Apple Pie that Papa Baked by Lauren Thompson — I love Lauren Thompson’s books! This is a cute story about everything that goes into making an apple pie. As the story progresses, your child will notice more and more animals after the delicious pie! Thompson creates a cumulative and lyrical text that teaches preschoolers about nature and the apple’s life cycle.
2. Apple Picking Day by Candace Ransom — Ransom’s trademark short story with great pictures makes this book a good choice for kids who can’t sit still for long stories. The family goes apple picking and the reader gets to enjoy the fun with them. Preschoolers will get caught up in the excitement as the brother and sister race against other kids in the orchard to see who can pick the most apples.
2. 10 Apples Up On Top by Dr. Seuss — in this funny, rhyming book, a lion, a tiger, and a dog compete to see who can stack apples on their head and do tricks without the apples falling! While they keep trying to outdo each other, the animals inadvertently find themselves in a bear’s home. The bear is not happy with their shenanigans and chases them out. The animals run into more bears and more trouble. The bears chase the animals (who still have apples still stacked on their heads) into an apple cart! Now everyone has 10 apples up on top 🙂 Your child laugh at this silly story and enjoy the animals’ crazy antics. Plus, this books offers a fun way to incorporate counting!
3. Ouch by Ragnhild Scamell — in this story, an adorable hedgehog gets an apple stuck its back. Now hedgehog can’t fit into its den and winter is coming. The hedgehog’s animal friends try to help and get the apple off, but each attempt ends up with more things stuck to the poor hedgehog. After squeezing, and swimming, and rolling around, hedgehog and friends are running out of ideas. Fortunately, along comes a goat with a big appetite and eats all of the things that are stuck on hedgehog!
4. Aaron Loves Apples and Pumpkinsby PD Eastman — Fall is here and Aaron the alligator loves everything about it. He loves the yummy apples, pumpkins, football, Halloween costumes, and spending time with his friends. When his friends go apple picking, Aaron tells them that he knows a better way to get the apples down. Aaron shakes the tree, causing all of the apples to fall down on him! Oops 🙂 Now all of the apples are down and Aaron and his friends can enjoy them together. This book is part of the beginning reader series, I Can Read. It has short sentences with few words per page, making it a good choice for kids who are learning to read, and for those who do not want to sit through long stories.
5. Apples, Apples, Applesby Nancy Wallace — in this cute story, the bunny family goes apple picking on a lovely fall day. Farmer Miller teaches the bunnies all about apples. Kids will love learning all about apples with the bunnies. The book includes a applesauce recipe too!
6. 10 Red Apples by Pat Hutchins — everyone loves apples, including all of the farm apples. The apple tree starts with 10 red apples on it. Soon, one-by-one, a farm animal comes along and eats an apple off of the tree. The farmer eats the last one, and his wife didn’t get to enjoy a yummy apple! Oh no! Not to worry, the wife knows where to find more 🙂 This story has bright pictures, large, bold numbers on each page, and makes it easy for preschoolers and kindergartners to practice counting apples.
7. Adding Apples by Nick Rebman — this nonfiction, early math book is a great choice for preschool and kindergarten apple-themes. The child in the book leads the reader through a series of age-appropriate math problems with apples 🙂 My son liked counting the counting all of the apples on the page and announcing the answer to me! Plus the pictures in the book do a great job representing different colors in the apples.
Tissue Paper Apple Craft:
Tissue Paper Preschool Apple Craft
To make this tissue paper apple craft, you will need a piece of white paper, a pencil, a glue stick, and tissue paper in red, green and brown (or orange). I drew a rough outline of an apple on a piece of paper. Next I cut red tissue paper into 1-inch squares.
My son and I both scrunched up the red tissue paper squares together — great for preschool fine motor skills. After we had a lot of of tissue balls, my kiddo covered his apple shape in glue. Then he stuck the tissue all over his apple.
After covering then entire apple in red tissue, we scrunched up green tissue. We glued the green tissue balls in a leaf shape. Even after adding the green leaf, my son still thought his apple was missing something. He decided to add an orange stem (I didn’t have brown tissue paper).
His apple turned out pretty cute! We really enjoyed doing this craft together and I love that he added his own creative ideas with the stem.
STEM Activity:
Apple STEM activity — using our 5 Senses
Activities:
Apple Counting:
Preschool Apple Counting Activity with flashcards and pompoms
Tactile counting with pompoms really helps conceptualize numbers. For this activity, preschoolers will add red and green pompoms to their apple tree to show the same number of apples as is listed on their flash cards. I made numbered cards and an apple tree that you can print. This activity can used over-and-over again as no glue is involved. Just draw a card, look at the number, and place the corresponding number of “apple” pompoms on the tree!
For this activity you will need to print off the flash cards and cut them out; print off the tree page; and have 10 pompoms in red and green. Click on the link below for your flashcards and tree:
Looking to incorporate more STEM education into your preschooler’s activities? Then try this fun superhero fizz STEM activity!
My son is really into superheroes right now, especially Captain America. So for our science experiment, we decided to make Superhero Fizz! It was so much fun that we repeated it the next night too. To make it Captain America-themed, we used red and blue food coloring and silver glitter. The glitter looked awesome as the mixture fizzed up!
Supplies Needed:
bowl or foil tray (we used a brownie-sized foil baking tray)
1 box of baking soda
glitter
white vinegar
paint cups ( we reused plastic fruit cups)
food coloring
measuring spoons (for spooning the vinegar into the tray) or eyedroppers/pipettes
Prepare the Tray:
Sprinkle baking soda all over the bottom of the tray so that the entire bottom is covered
Sprinkle glitter on top of the baking soda
Prepare the Paint Cups:
pour in vinegar
then add a couple of drops of food coloring
stir the food coloring
Making the Superhero Fizz
To make the superhero fizz, spoon some of the colored vinegar into the tray. Watch the vinegar bubble up when it touches the baking soda! The sparkle from the glitter adds to the fun as the baking soda-vinegar mixture fizzes up and the light hits the glitter.
Rotate adding the colors to the tray until all of the baking soda is covered in the colored vinegar.
*the larger amount of vinegar that you dump into the tray at a time, the larger you fizz will be 🙂
Superhero Fizz — Preschool STEM Activity
Superhero Fizz — Preschool STEM Activity
Modify This STEM Activity for Other Themes:
This activity can be modified to fit any theme by changing the colors of the food coloring and using different colored glitter. Try unicorn fizz, or mermaid fizz, or rainbow fizz!
