Halloween boosts excitement in childcare! A collection of ideas to liven things up with fingerplay activities
Halloween season is something both kids and adults look forward to! Why not enjoy Halloween together with the children at nursery school or kindergarten? If you give your usual fingerplay and rock-paper-scissors a slightly spooky, fun Halloween twist, you can create special memories.
With fingerplay themed around ghosts, pumpkins, and witches, let the children’s imaginations flourish while you enjoy the seasonal festivities.
Here, we introduce recommended fingerplay activities perfect for celebrating Halloween.
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Halloween makes childcare lively! A collection of hand-play activity ideas (21–30)
A ghost goes knock knock
In this hand game featuring various animals, a ghost shows up at the end.
Use your hands to act out the traits of the animals knocking on the door.
In the final ghost part, you can also play rock-paper-scissors, so try it in pairs.
At a party, you could have the teacher play rock-paper-scissors as the representative, and give a snack to the winners to liven things up.
You can also customize the animal portion—why not make it Halloween-themed by bringing in a witch or Dracula? It would be fun for everyone to come up with original poses together!
Transforming Ghost
Speaking of Halloween, ghosts come to mind, right? Here’s a fingerplay where ghosts are the stars: “Transforming Ghost.” Once you’re ready to become a ghost, let’s go! Music, start! A cute ghost who’s great at transforming will change into all sorts of things.
Try transforming together while imitating the teacher or parent! A black cat, a pumpkin—even a wolf!? Once you get the hang of it, it could be fun to come up with original poses and show them off to each other.
Make sure to play in a spacious room so the children don’t bump into one another!
witch
When it comes to classic Halloween costumes, I think “witch” is definitely one of them.
This song is a hand play where you pretend to be a witch and cast little spells.
While showing the iconic triangular witch’s hat, you lightly tug the specified parts of the body after each spell.
For toddlers, the tugging part is funny and enjoyable, and with babies it can be a fun bonding play.
If there’s a child dressed as a witch at a Halloween party, it might be nice to have them come to the front and cast spells on everyone.
magic wand
Many children who watch fairy tales and anime have dreamed at least once, “I wish I could use magic.” In this fingerplay called “Magic Wand,” you pretend your right hand is a magic wand and your left hand is a little dwarf.
As you sing, you cast spells on the dwarf to make their height shrink and grow.
The magic can be anything you like, so customizing it could be fun too.
Increasing or decreasing the number of dwarfs also makes for good finger exercises.
It’s also recommended to make an extendable wand out of newspaper and play with that.
What Shall We Make with Rock, Paper, Scissors? (Halloween Ver.)
Here’s a Halloween version of the popular hand game in childcare settings, “What can we make with rock, scissors, paper?” In this game, you make either a fist (rock), a V-shape (scissors), or an open hand (paper) with both hands and combine them to represent different things—it’s a great way to spark imagination.
Usually, kids make favorites like animals, insects, and vehicles.
But since this is the Halloween edition, it transforms into a game where you can create pumpkins, vampires, and skeletons.
Enjoy Halloween with your usual hand game!
Dance: ‘Rock-Paper-Scissors with Pumpkins’
This is the dance to “Goo Choki Paa de Pumpkin,” which was featured on the TV show Shimajiro no Wao.
It’s a two-for-one dance where kids can learn rock-paper-scissors while singing and dancing.
Many Halloween-themed songs have a somewhat dark and scary vibe, but this one feels happy and fun, doesn’t it? Let’s all dance it together as the finale of your Halloween party! Even infants can enjoy it just by hopping or clapping along.
Let’s get everyone excited with adorable costumes, too.
Halloween robot
Robots are coming for Halloween! This time, we’re introducing a fun Halloween robot hand-play activity.
Imagine your body getting pranked by a ghost and turning into a robot! When you try moving different parts of your body like a robot, you’ll find yourself smiling.
It could be fun for teachers or parents and kids to take turns calling out which body part to move next! By moving hands, feet, and heads to match the robot’s motions, children’s imaginations will grow.
Let’s cherish time to enjoy moving our bodies while feeling the Halloween vibe! With a ghost’s prank, the robot dance gets even more exciting.