As a parent and former teacher, I’ve learned that children (and adults) are often drawn to the thrill of the spooky and mysterious. The rustle of leaves in the dark, a strange shadow on the wall, the idea of a friendly monster, haunted houses, and rumors of Cryptid sightings; these are the things that spark thrill and imagination. The spooky season provides the perfect excuse to indulge in this curiosity, offering a safe space to explore feelings of excitement, suspense, and a hint of fear, all within the safety of family fun.
The goal isn't to create genuine fear, but to offer a "deliciously spooky" experience. It’s about building suspense, encouraging creative expression, and turning a potential fright into fun, empowering play. These five activities are designed to get your family’s blood pumping with just the right amount of thrill, fostering connection, and creating memories that are more fun than frightening.
1. Flashlight Safari: A Nocturnal Animal Hunt
The world changes when the sun goes down. Familiar spaces become mysterious, and ordinary sounds feel amplified. A nighttime scavenger hunt taps into this natural sense of adventure, turning your backyard into an exciting new world to explore.
Grab your flashlights and a collection of nocturnal animal figurines, like an owl, a bat, a fox, a raccoon, or even some mythical nighttime creatures (cryptids or Glow in the Dark Sleepy Dragon). While one person waits inside, another can hide these creatures around the yard: peeking from behind a tree, sitting on a patio chair, or nestled in a bush. The mission? To find all the hidden night dwellers using only the beam of a flashlight.
Why it’s great: This activity helps children build confidence navigating in the dark. It transforms a potentially scary environment into a playground for discovery. As they find each animal, you can talk about what makes it nocturnal, what it eats, and how it navigates at night. It’s a hands-on lesson in biology mixed with a healthy dose of courage-building fun.
2. Build-a-Monster Invention Lab
What’s better than a monster toy? Designing your own! Turn your living room into a monster laboratory where your child is the lead scientist. Gather a wide array of materials, including Play-Doh, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, construction paper, cloth scraps, yarn, and recycled items such as cardboard tubes and plastic bottles.
For an extra layer of engineering fun, bring out an ODDY Tinkering & Invention Kit. The reusable parts can become articulated limbs or funny antennae. Let your child’s imagination run wild. Is their monster friendly or fierce? Does it have five eyes and wheels for feet? There are no rules in monster creation.
Why it’s great: This activity puts the child in complete control, removing the fear factor associated with monsters. They are the creator, which is an incredibly empowering role. It’s a fantastic STEAM activity that encourages creative problem-solving, fine motor skills, and inventive thinking as they figure out how to bring their unique creature to life.
3. Spooky Storytelling Circles and Puppet Shows
Storytelling is one of the most powerful ways to flex your creativity muscles and to connect with others. For this activity, light a few candles and dim the lights or gather around a fire pit. Bring a bag filled with intriguing props, such as a few animal figurines (like a wolf, a snake, or a spider), an interestingly shaped stick, a gemstone, a bottle of “potion”, a colorful scarf, a “magic” pebble, a bell...
The first person starts the story by pulling an item from the bag. For example, "Once upon a time, a lonely wolf was wandering through a forest when he came across a mysterious, locked door..." The next person pulls out another item and adds to the tale. The story builds collaboratively, taking unexpected and often spooky and hilarious turns.
Shadows have a natural mystique that can be easily harnessed for creative play. All you need is a blank wall, a light source (like a phone flashlight or a lamp), and your hands, figurines, puppets (DIY puppets work too!), some colorful translucent blocks, or interestingly shaped objects. You can create spooky-silly puppets by taping cardboard cutouts to sticks. Or, for a more dynamic show, use your ODDY creations from the monster lab! The unique shapes and moving parts will cast fascinating and intricate shadows on the wall. This Shadow Puppet Set is another fun option!
Work together to put on a short play, complete with silly voices and a simple plot.
Why it’s great: Collaborative storytelling teaches children about narrative structure, creative thinking, and listening skills. Because everyone contributes, the story can be steered to stay in a comfortable zone — it can be as spooky, funny, or silly as the group decides. Using figurines and props makes the story tangible and helps everyone engage more deeply. Incorporating shadow play demystifies the spooky shapes we sometimes see in the dark. It shows children how shadows are made and gives them control over creating them.
4. Slime-Making Station
Channel your inner mad scientist with a spooky slime station. This activity is all about safe and exciting sensory play. Set up a large bin or do this outdoors for easy cleanup.
Slime-making recipes are everywhere on the internet, like in our blog HERE. You can also use a DIY Slime kit or choose premade slimes, like Crazy Aarons or Dope Slimes, to blend together and add fun mix-ins. Watch kid's get creative as they mix the ingredients to create their own unique slime. You can add other fun elements, such as flower petals, glitter ("dragon scales"), or mini figurines of bugs and reptiles. Up the fun with witch, wizard, and mad scientist role play and storytelling, and give the slime fun names like "Invisibility Putty " or "Super Goop".
Why it’s great: This is a classic science experiment disguised as magical play. It’s a fantastic sensory experience that introduces chemistry concepts in a thrilling, hands-on way. Children learn cause and effect while engaging in imaginative role-play, all without any real mess or danger.
5. Haunted Gingerbread House
There’s something special about mixing classic holiday fun with a twist of spooky excitement! Gather some gingerbread house kits (or make your own pieces), then break out the Halloween-colored icing—think orange, purple, green, and black. Set out bowls of creepy candies, gummy worms, and, for an extra dash of character, add an assortment of zombies, cryptids, fantasy creatures, or even “scary” nighttime animal figurines. Kids can let their imaginations run wild, inventing haunted houses teeming with friendly monsters, mysterious creatures, or a ghoulish menagerie all their own. A low mess alternative to a gingerbread house is a haunted cardboard house.
Why it’s great: Decorating haunted gingerbread houses is a creative, hands-on activity that blends art, storytelling, and a little bit of delicious engineering. By adding figurines and creatures, children connect their play to stories and the imaginary worlds they love, all while developing fine motor skills and enjoying irresistible sweet treats.
Embracing the Fun of Fear
These activities show our children that it's okay to feel a little thrill and that spooky doesn't have to mean scary. By guiding them through these experiences, we teach them resilience, creativity, and the power of their own imagination. We give them the tools to be the hero of the story, the creator of the monster, and the scientist behind the magic.
Find more play inspo in our autumn blogs:
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Five Fall Activities
- 3 Types of Sensory Play Ideas for Halloween Fun
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Halloween Goody Bags
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A Halloween Tradition: You’ve Been Booed!