If you’re searching for some engaging and educational October themes for your preschool classroom, look no further! This blog post provides several different October themes, perfect to spruce up your lesson plans. With these new ideas, your students are sure to have a blast learning all about the fall season.

To learn more about integrating state-aligned curriculum and activities into your program, book a demo with Playground.

Ghost Themed Lesson Plans

• Read October related books such as “Room on the Broom” and “Five Little Ghosts”. Purchase Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson here, and Five Little Ghosts by Patricia Hegarty here

• The classic ghost craft: Use any size of white sheet and add black paint for eyes and mouth. Allow the paint to dry, then cut out in the shape of a ghost.

• Make homemade ghost pizza! This is a fun way to work as a team during October. Check out this recipe

  

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• Dance to spooky music and create your own ghostly moves

• Make ghosts by painting an empty egg carton white. Once dry, add googly eyes and cut out a triangle from black construction paper to create a mouth. These little ghosts make for a great decoration and can also be used as a counting activity. Simply have students take turns taking one ghost out of the carton until they’re all gone

Apple Themed Lesson Plans

• Visit an apple orchard (if possible). Research different types of apples beforehand and have students taste test different varieties.

• Make homemade applesauce! heres a link to our favorite applesauce recipe

  

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• Read related books such as “The Biggest Apple Ever”, By Steven Kroll or the classic “Ten Apples Up On Top” by Dr. Seuss

  

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• Count and sort apples by color, size, and type!

  

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• Make an apple tree out of construction paper and glue on real or artificial leaves

Leaf Themed Lesson Plans

• Go on a nature walk and collect leaves of different shapes, sizes, and colors

• Paint with leaves using water colors, this is a great learning opportunity to talk about fall colors and why leaves change with the season

  

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• Use the leaves to make a collage or glue them onto construction paper to make patterns

• Press leaves in a heavy book to dry and preserve them. You can create a beautiful keepsake for your students to take home

• Create a collage out of fall leaves. You can talk about different shapes and colors, which will educate your students on how to identify them

• Make leaf rubbings by placing a leaf under a piece of paper and rubbing with a crayon

  

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Pumpkin Themed Lesson Plans

• Read books such as “The Runaway Pumpkin” by Kevin Lewis or “Five Little Pumpkins” by Dan Yaccarino

• Make pumpkin spice playdough! Check out this recipe

  

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• Carve (or pretend to carve) pumpkins and make pumpkin seeds

• Make a life-size outline of a child on construction paper. Cut out different sized and shaped pumpkins from orange construction paper to glue on as the child’s clothes. This is a good teamwork activity for the classroom to enjoy

• Decorate pumpkins together as a class using glue, glitter, markers, and October craft supplies

Halloween Themed Lesson Plans

• Sort candy by color, size, or shape

• Make Halloween cards for classmates, family, or friends. Decorate with stickers, glitter, or markers

• Have a Halloween parade around the classroom or outside

• Dress up in costumes and have a fashion show. Include other classes and cheer each other on!

• Recreate a scene from a book using props and costumes. For example, the students could be ghosts flying on broomsticks in “Room on the Broom”

  

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• Have your students make their own pumpkin stamps. Cut a pumpkin in half and then let the students carve their own designs into the pumpkin. Then, put some paint on a paper plate and let them stamp away!

• With black paint, make spiders or ghosts on a white piece of paper

• Make a bat headband! What you need: -1 sheet of black construction paper -1 headband -Scissors -Glue -2 googly eyes. Next, cut two bat wings out of the black construction paper. Make them different sizes so they look more realistic. Then glue the bat wings onto the headband. Finally, glue on two googly eyes to the larger bat wing and that’s it! You now have a cute little bat headband to wear on Halloween

  

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These are just a few of the many great October themes and lesson plans that you can use for your preschool classroom.

Get creative and have fun with these ideas to make them your own. Your students will love learning about all the different aspects of fall during this month!

Get themed monthly activity boxes and state-aligned curriculum through the Highlights partnership with Playground. Book a demo to learn more.