25 awesome and easy Halloween fine motor activities for kids

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Now that fall is here, try all these fun Halloween fine motor activities with your children this year. All of these Halloween activities are festive, fun, and simple enough to do at home or in a classroom. From sensory bins to play dough to plastic spiders, there’s a fine motor activity for everyone.

1. Pom Pom Sorting

sorting pom poms into three bowls

Pom pom sorting is a simple and easy fine motor activity that children love to do. To bring in the Halloween theme, get these black, orange, and purple pom poms. You can have your child use their fingers or use child tweezers to help with the pincer grasp that they’ll need down the road when they learn to write. 

2. Pom Pom Pumpkin

Another way you can use your orange pom poms is by making a pom pom pumpkin. Draw or print out an outline of pumpkin, and then have your child use a glue stick to cover the pumpkin. Then, they can stick the pom poms to the glue. 

3. Q-tip Pumpkin Painting 

Print out an outline of a pumpkin or draw your own, and your children can paint the pumpkin with Q-tips. All you need is some orange paint and Q-tips! This is a fun way to build fine motor skills and paint, too.

4. Sorting Spiders and Bats

child sorting plastic bats and spiders

Sorting activities like this one are a great way to build hand strength as well as critical thinking skills. Get this pack of plastic spiders and bats for your children to sort through. Again, they can use tweezers or their fingers. 

5. Spider Web Activity

Halloween is the time of year that spiders and spider related activities come out. Create a spider web with white masking tape on black construction paper, sticky side up. Then have your kids place the plastic spiders on the sticky web. 

6. Painting Mini Pumpkins

If you’re planning on going to the pumpkin patch this year, grab a few little pumpkins for your child to paint. Painting is an easy way to build small muscles of the hand and hand-eye coordination. Children also happen to love it, and it’s one the simpler (but fun!) Halloween crafts. 

7. Sorting Halloween Beads

child sorting halloween beads

Here’s another way to keep those little hands busy with Halloween fun. Get this pack (or any pack) of large Halloween beads, and have them sort the beads by color. Because these beads are a choking hazard, this activity is best for older children or kindergarten students.

8. Halloween Necklace

After sorting all the beads, your child can use the beads and a string or shoelace to make their own Halloween necklace. Stringing beads on a string is the perfect way to build finger strength, hand muscles, and fine motor coordination. 

9. Beads and Pipe Cleaners

A different way to use the beads is to have your child string them on pipe cleaners. Pipe cleaners are a little easier for children that may have a hard time with a string. This way, children can still make necklaces, bracelets, or rings with their beads. 

10. Halloween Sensory Bin 

child playing in a Halloween sensory bin

Sensory bins are one of my son’s favorite fine motor activities, and Halloween is the perfect time to create a new one. Get into the Halloween spirit with this black and orange sensory bin we made. This is a fun activity you can keep on hand, and then pull out at any time this Halloween season. 

11. Halloween Scissor Activity for Beginners

One of the best ways for children to get fine motor practice is through activities that build scissor skills. For beginners, our favorite scissor activity is simply cutting snippets, or cutting a big piece of paper into little pieces. Grab some orange and black paper for them to cut, and check out our complete guide to scissors here. 

12. Halloween Scissor Activity

If you’re looking for a scissor activity for older students that are more skilled with scissors, try the simple activity of cutting out pumpkins and candy corn. This seems like a simple task, but it’s hard work for children still mastering scissors. Scroll down to the bottom of the page for our free printable worksheets that can double as a scissor practice sheet.

Or this Pumpkin shapes craft!

13. Pumpkin Painting with Utensils

painted pumpkins on green paper

Your child will love painting for utensils (here’s our favorite ones to use), so break out the orange paint. Once they’re all done, cut their painting into the shape of a pumpkin. There are so many creative ways to use paint for fine motor development, and the most important thing in messy play like this is the process-not the end result.  

14. Felt Pumpkin Patch

Cut out some orange felt pieces to make pumpkins. Then, using a piece of green felt, have your child put together their own pumpkin patch scene. You can also add in other Halloween themed felt items for them to add like bats, scarecrows, or leaves. 

15. Black Bat Sensory Bin

plastic bats in black beans

This is one of the simplest Halloween themed fine motor activities that is an absolute favorite at our house. Create an easy bin using dried black beans as the filler material, add in some black bats, and then some scooping and pouring tools. It’s optional to add in more seasonal items like googly eyes, plastic spiders, or felt leaves. 

16. Black Cat Q-tip Painting

Here’s another great q-tip painting activity that’s simple, but still so much fun. This time all you need is the outline of a cat, q-tips, and some black paint. There are so many fun activities like this one that are great for fine motor skills but still simple to set up. 

17. Halloween Play Dough

child playing  with orange play dough

Play dough is a great activity for the development of fine motor skills that young children absolutely love. All you need to make it Halloween themed is orange play dough and some pumpkin cookie cutters (check the dollar store!). We also used plastic spiders and little pumpkins that we already had for other seasonal activities. 

18. Halloween Soup

Similar to a sensory bin, Halloween soup is a plastic bin of water (that you can color orange or purple if you want) that children can ‘make’ their own soup in. Give them festive ingredients like mini gourds, pumpkin seeds, or anything you can think of, and then utensils to mix it all together. You can even make an outdoor soup, and let your child collect sticks, rocks, and leaves to use for great open-ended play. 

19. Halloween Sorting

child sorting black, orange, and purple pom poms

Sorting activities are a great hands-on way to build fine motor, visual scanning, and academic skills. Grab your whole collection of Halloween related items, and mix them together. Then, have your child sort through it all with their fingers or a tweezers. 

20. Pumpkin and Candy Corn Printable

This is the perfect printable to use for the q-tip painting activity or the pom pom craft. You can also use it for scissors skills or simple coloring. Download the pdf here

outline of a pumpkin and candy corn

21. Pumpkin Tracing Practice Sheet

Here’s a free printable we made to help with tracing skills this Halloween. This is a great way to practice the proper pencil grip with your child. The letters and pumpkins offer both curved and straight line practice. 

Download the pdf here.

p is for pumpkin tracing sheet

22. Black Cat Outline 

The black cat outline can be used for coloring, painting, or cutting out. This is a simple outline to use for all your Halloween projects. Download the pdf here.

outline of a cat

23. Simple Pumpkin Template 

This is a simple pumpkin template that you can use for some of the activities on this list. Or you can just use it as a simple coloring page. Download the pdf here.

two pumpkin outlines

24. Jack O Lantern Face Worksheet

Practice drawing and learning about emotions with this jack o lantern worksheet. Have your child fill in different faces on each pumpkin like happy, sad, or silly. Download the pdf here.

four pumpkin outlines

25. H is for Halloween Coloring Page

Print out this fun Halloween coloring page for your children. This is perfect for free time, rainy days, or when you just need a little break. Download the pdf here.

h is for halloween coloring sheet

​Check out more fall sensory bin ideas

Sensory bins are one of our favorite activities. Any of these fall sensory bins are a great addition to fall activities for your children this year. 

fall sensory bins graphic

Fine Motor Goals

Check where your child should be at based on their age with this easy to follow fine motor goals guide.

​Move on to Thanksgiving activities next

After Halloween has passed, it’s time to pull out the Thanksgiving themed activities. Try these awesome turkey activities and crafts next!

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