Perfect for Halloween on 31 October 2026
By BEST Childcare Consulting
For many young children, Halloween is exciting — pumpkins, costumes, funny characters, stories and imaginative play. For others, it may be unfamiliar or frightening, and some families may prefer not to participate. This raises an important question for early childhood services: Are we actually allowed to celebrate Halloween?
The short answer is yes. There is no general rule within the National Quality Framework preventing services from acknowledging Halloween. What matters is how and why we choose to do it — ensuring experiences are safe, inclusive, respectful of families and developmentally appropriate.
Rather than Halloween being limited to costumes, decorations and treats, educators can use children’s interest as a springboard for meaningful learning. Pumpkins can become science investigations, friendly monsters can encourage conversations about emotions, shadows can inspire experiments with light, and costumes can extend storytelling and dramatic play. Even the service cook can become involved through healthy cooking, measurement and food literacy experiences.
Across the service, children can investigate, question, predict, measure, create, cook, taste and imagine, with experiences adapted for babies through to OSHC.
So perhaps the question is not simply, “Can we celebrate Halloween?” but “How can we use Halloween to create meaningful, safe, inclusive and developmentally appropriate learning?”
Approached thoughtfully, Halloween can support creativity, literacy, numeracy, STEM, healthy eating, emotional development, children’s agency and family engagement — turning one day of fun into a genuine whole-service learning opportunity.
Halloween Doesn’t Have to Be Scary
Halloween has historical and cultural origins, but the version most Australian children encounter today is largely through popular culture. Children may see pumpkins, costumes, ghosts and Halloween characters in shops, books, television programs, neighbourhood displays and family celebrations.
This means Halloween may naturally emerge in children’s conversations and play. Rather than ignoring those interests, educators can use them as a starting point for learning.
However, acknowledging children’s interest in Halloween does not mean reproducing every aspect of it. For children under five, there is little educational value in deliberately frightening them. Realistic blood and gore, frightening masks, violent imagery, weapons, threatening characters and elaborate haunted houses can easily be replaced with experiences that retain the fun and imagination of Halloween without creating unnecessary fear.
Halloween in early childhood can instead focus on pumpkins, friendly ghosts, silly monsters, nocturnal animals, shadows, light, colour, costumes, imagination, sensory exploration, storytelling, music and creative play.
A Halloween environment can be mysterious without being frightening, exciting without being overwhelming and imaginative without compromising children’s sense of safety.
What About Families Who Don’t Celebrate Halloween?
This is where thoughtful practice becomes particularly important. Halloween should not automatically appear on the program simply because “we do it every year.”
Services should consider whether Halloween is meaningful to their particular children, families and community. Families can be invited to share whether they acknowledge Halloween, whether there are aspects they would prefer their child not to participate in and whether they have their own traditions or perspectives they would like to contribute.
This is also an opportunity to reinforce an important principle: participation should never become a condition of belonging.
A child should be able to say, “I don’t want to dress up,” “I don’t like that,” or simply choose another experience and remain completely included within the program. Respecting that choice supports children’s agency, dignity, emotional safety and rights.
The Educational Benefits of Halloween
When approached intentionally, Halloween can provide considerably more learning than simply colouring in a pumpkin.
Costumes, characters and imaginary worlds can encourage creativity, storytelling and symbolic play. Rather than deciding that every child needs to become a witch, ghost or vampire, educators might ask, “If you could become anything for a day, what would you be?” A dinosaur, butterfly, firefighter, astronaut, fairy, dog or superhero can be just as welcome as a traditional Halloween character.
Friendly monsters can also provide an engaging way to explore emotional literacy. Children might create happy monsters, worried monsters, excited monsters, sleepy monsters or angry monsters. Educators can ask, “What do you think your monster is feeling?” “What helps you when you feel frightened?” or “Can something look scary but actually be friendly?” Imaginary characters can provide children with a safe way to explore and communicate complex emotions.
Halloween also provides rich opportunities for language and literacy. Words such as spooky, enormous, tiny, shadow, nocturnal, mysterious, slippery, slimy, hollow, underneath and disappear can become part of children’s developing vocabulary. Children can invent characters, dictate stories, make signs, create books and predict what might happen next during shared reading.
Early numeracy can be incorporated naturally through pumpkins, spiders, patterns and sorting experiences. Children might count spider legs, compare the size and weight of pumpkins, create orange-and-black patterns or investigate how many small pumpkins balance against a larger pumpkin.
The scientific possibilities are particularly valuable. A pumpkin becomes far more educational when children investigate it rather than simply seeing it as a decoration. Will it float? What is inside it? How many seeds might there be? What does it smell and feel like? What happens when it begins to decompose? Halloween can also become a springboard for investigating shadows, light, colour, bats, spiders and Australian nocturnal animals.
Imaginative Halloween play also supports social development. Children creating a monster house, potion laboratory or imaginary world together need to communicate, negotiate roles, solve problems, share resources and respond to one another’s ideas. What initially looks like Halloween play can involve remarkably complex learning.
Don’t Forget Halloween Safety
Halloween activities require the same careful risk assessment, supervision and professional judgement as every other experience within an early childhood service.
Costumes should not create tripping, strangulation, visibility or overheating risks. Face coverings and masks need particular consideration around very young children. Decorations should be assessed for choking, entanglement and access hazards, and educators should consider how changes to familiar environments may affect supervision and children’s emotional wellbeing.
Particular care is also required with Halloween treats. Hard lollies, popcorn, nuts and other foods can present serious choking risks to young children. Allergies, medical conditions, dietary requirements and family preferences also need to be considered.
There is no reason Halloween in early childhood needs to revolve around confectionery. The experiences, relationships and learning can be the celebration.
Educational Programming Ideas
Babies
For babies, Halloween should remain primarily sensory, relational and playful. Educators could create gentle sensory experiences using orange, black, purple and white fabrics, soft balls, textured materials, soft pumpkin toys and friendly puppets. Halloween-themed board books can be shared during relaxed one-to-one or small-group interactions.
A real pumpkin can become a wonderful sensory investigation. Babies can feel its cool, firm surface, explore its shape and texture and watch as an educator opens it. Educators could introduce simple language such as round, smooth, orange, big, small, inside and seeds, turning the experience into an opportunity for sensory exploration and early communication.
Gentle light and shadow play can also introduce early concepts of movement and cause and effect. Familiar toys, hands or friendly puppets can be placed in front of a light source to create moving shadows while educators talk with babies about what they can see. Raising Children Network provides a useful introduction to torch light games and shadow play for children, including suggestions for making the experience less intimidating for children who may be nervous in darker environments.
The emphasis for babies should remain on secure relationships, communication, sensory discovery, curiosity and shared enjoyment, rather than creating a complicated Halloween experience.
Toddlers
For toddlers, think silly rather than scary. A Friendly Monster Laboratory could invite children to combine playdough and age-appropriate creative materials to make funny creatures. Rather than providing an educator-created model for children to copy, offer open-ended materials and see what sort of monsters the children invent.
The monsters can also become a way of exploring emotions. Children could create a happy monster, sad monster, excited monster or angry monster and talk about how they know what their monster is feeling. The free Teach Your Monster feelings resources include a Make a Monster activity designed to encourage children to explore facial expressions, emotions, communication and empathy.
Pumpkin painting can provide a creative alternative to carving, while a simple Feed the Monster posting game can support fine-motor development, counting, sorting and colour recognition. Create a friendly monster face on a sturdy box, cut an appropriately sized opening for its mouth and invite children to feed it large, age-appropriate coloured objects. Educators might ask, “Can you find something orange for our monster?” or “How many balls has our monster eaten?”
Toddlers may also enjoy making orange playdough, dancing with scarves and simple costumes, listening to humorous monster stories and exploring shadows.
Most importantly, educators should remember that a costume or mask that seems funny to an adult may genuinely frighten a young child. Children should be able to approach costumes, characters and unfamiliar experiences at their own pace.
3-Year Kindy
Three-year-old children can begin taking a more active role as investigators. A Pumpkin Science Laboratory could begin before the pumpkin is even opened. Educators might ask children what they think is inside and document their predictions. Once opened, children can investigate the seeds, fibres, smell and texture, estimate how many seeds there might be, sort or count small groups of seeds and predict whether the pumpkin will float before testing their hypothesis.
The investigation does not need to finish after one experience. Children could compare several pumpkins by size, weight, colour and shape, observe what happens to a pumpkin over time or save some seeds for planting. In this way, the Halloween pumpkin becomes a genuine inquiry rather than simply a seasonal decoration.
A Monster Emotions project could invite children to design a monster representing a particular feeling. What might an excited monster look like? What colour could a worried monster be? What could help a frightened monster feel safe? The Teach Your Monster feelings resources provide useful printable ideas for extending this type of emotional-literacy experience. LEGO Education also provides a lovely example through its Jeesun’s Anger Monster preschool experience, where children use monster construction to explore emotions and begin thinking about emotional regulation.
Spiders can also become a genuine scientific investigation rather than simply being presented as frightening Halloween creatures. Children can investigate how many legs spiders have, whether spiders are insects, why some spiders build webs and what spiders might be found within their local environment. Instead of teaching children that spiders are “scary”, Halloween can therefore become an opportunity to develop curiosity and respect for living things.
4-Year Kindy
Four-year-old children can engage in more complex projects and investigations. A pumpkin project could involve estimating circumference, measuring pumpkins, comparing their weight, testing whether they float, counting seeds and documenting changes as a pumpkin begins to decompose. Seeds could then be saved and planted, allowing an investigation that began at Halloween to continue well beyond October.
Halloween also provides a wonderful opportunity for a Light and Shadow Laboratory. Children can experiment with torches, translucent materials, cardboard shapes, toys and screens while investigating questions such as, “What makes a shadow bigger?” “How can we make it smaller?” “What happens when we move the light?” and “Can everything make a shadow?”
The South Australian Department for Education provides an excellent step-by-step Shadow Play activity for children aged three to five, including materials, questions educators can ask, relevant vocabulary and ideas for extending the investigation. Its related What Makes a Shadow? Playing with Sun and Light resource also incorporates science, mathematics, literacy and creative learning.
For educators wanting to take the science further, the Australian Council for Educational Research provides a Science in the Early Years: Light and Shadows educator resource, which explains the science behind shadow formation and provides guidance for introducing these concepts to young children.
Instead of educators creating a frightening haunted house for children, children could also be challenged to design a Friendly Halloween House themselves. Ask, “How could we make a Halloween house that is exciting but doesn’t frighten anyone?” Children might suggest lights, funny ghosts, friendly monsters, secret passages, sensory materials or mysterious sounds.
Educators could draw children’s initial plans, provide construction materials and allow the project to evolve over several days. Children might need to negotiate where things will go, test whether structures stand up, change unsuccessful designs and decide collectively what should be included. The experience then becomes much more than Halloween decorating—it incorporates design, engineering, collaboration, problem-solving, creativity and children’s agency.
OSHC
School-age children can explore Halloween at a deeper level through research, design and critical thinking. Children might investigate where Halloween traditions originated, explore how Halloween is celebrated in different parts of the world, create costumes from recycled materials, produce stop-motion Halloween movies, write mystery stories or design Halloween puzzles and escape-room challenges.
A particularly valuable project could be to challenge the OSHC children to design a Halloween experience for a three-year-old child. Older children would need to consider what might frighten a younger child, which colours, sounds and characters would be appropriate, how the experience could remain exciting and how children who do not celebrate Halloween could still feel included.
They could begin by interviewing younger children about what they like and dislike, develop plans, construct prototypes, seek feedback and modify their designs. This transforms Halloween into an exercise in empathy, leadership, consultation, inclusion and design thinking.
Older children could also create shadow-puppet stories for younger children. The South Australian Department for Education’s Shadow Play activity explains how simple cardboard figures can be attached to pop sticks and used with a torch or lamp to create shadow characters. OSHC children could extend this significantly by writing scripts, constructing scenery, creating characters and performing their stories for younger rooms.
Another possibility is a Halloween stop-motion movie project. Children can plan a storyline, create characters and sets, photograph small movements sequentially and add narration, sound effects or titles. Rather than educators providing the story, children can decide whether their movie is funny, mysterious, magical or adventurous.
The key for OSHC is to move beyond simply providing Halloween activities and give children genuine opportunities to research, plan, design, create, lead and evaluate.
A Note About Using Online Halloween Activity Ideas
Pinterest, Facebook and early childhood websites contain thousands of Halloween activity ideas, but an attractive photograph does not automatically make an experience suitable for an education and care service. Educators should apply professional judgement before reproducing any online activity.
Consider the age and development of the children, choking and ingestion hazards, allergies, supervision requirements, sensory sensitivities, cultural and family perspectives and whether the experience actually contributes to children’s learning. Small loose parts, googly eyes, buttons and similar materials shown in online craft examples may be inappropriate for babies and toddlers.
Most importantly, use online ideas as inspiration rather than instructions that children must reproduce. A picture of 20 identical educator-directed pumpkins may look impressive on social media, but an investigation where 20 children ask different questions, test different ideas and create completely different representations of Halloween is likely to tell us far more about their thinking and learning.
Halloween cooking for the childcare cook
A childcare cook could make Halloween food fun and recognisable without relying on lollies, chocolate or heavily processed treats. I’d also keep the names playful rather than frightening, particularly for under-fives.
Halloween Morning Tea
Pumpkin Fruit Cups – Create individual fruit cups using orange-coloured fruits such as rockmelon, mandarin, orange, mango and pawpaw. Add a little green kiwi at the top to resemble a pumpkin stalk.
Banana Ghosts – Cut bananas in half and use tiny pieces of blueberry to make simple faces. For younger children, modify presentation appropriately to minimise choking risk.
Monster Smoothies – Blend banana, mango and yoghurt for an orange “monster smoothie”, or spinach, banana, pear and yoghurt for a green version. Give them fun names such as Friendly Monster Smoothie or Witch’s Green Smoothie.
Pumpkin Pikelets – Make small pikelets using pumpkin purée in the batter, served with yoghurt and fresh fruit rather than syrup.
Halloween Yoghurt Cups – Layer natural yoghurt with puréed mango, berries or other fruit to create orange, white and purple layers.
Halloween Lunch
Jack-o’-Lantern Pumpkin Soup – A nutritious pumpkin and vegetable soup served with wholegrain toast fingers. The cook could create simple pumpkin faces on individual bowls immediately before serving using an appropriate yoghurt garnish.
Monster Veggie Pasta – Wholemeal pasta with a green sauce made from vegetables such as spinach, peas, zucchini and avocado, depending on the service’s recipe and allergy requirements. Add colourful cooked vegetables and call it Friendly Monster Pasta.
Pumpkin Mac and Cheese – Add pumpkin or butternut purée to a reduced-salt cheese sauce and serve with pasta and vegetables. It creates a naturally orange Halloween lunch while adding vegetables.
Mini Monster Pizzas – Children can help design individual pizzas using wholemeal bases, tomato sauce, cheese and vegetables. Capsicum, mushroom, tomato and other vegetables can become funny monster faces before cooking.
Orange Halloween Risotto – Pumpkin, sweet potato and vegetable risotto creates a naturally orange meal without needing artificial colouring.
“Witches’ Garden” Vegetable Platter – Accompany lunch with a colourful selection of appropriately prepared vegetables arranged as a garden, rather than presenting healthy food as the less exciting alternative to a “treat”.
Halloween Afternoon Tea
Apple Monsters – Apple pieces can be turned into funny monster mouths using suitable fillings and fruit. For younger children, the apple should be prepared in an age-appropriate way rather than served as hard chunks or wedges.
Pumpkin Scones – Homemade pumpkin scones are an excellent Australian-style Halloween option. They can be served with a small amount of suitable spread, ricotta or natural yoghurt and fruit.
Carrot and Pumpkin Mini Muffins – Make small muffins containing grated carrot and pumpkin, keeping added sugar low. A little cinnamon can provide flavour without needing icing.
Fruit “Wands” – For older children, colourful fruit can be arranged creatively; for children under five, I’d avoid serving fruit on sharp skewers and instead create the same pattern flat on a plate.
Frozen Yoghurt “Boo Bites” – Natural yoghurt blended with fruit and frozen in suitable moulds can make a refreshing Halloween afternoon tea, provided the texture and size are appropriate for the children.
Watermelon Monsters – Use watermelon and other soft fruits to create funny monster faces on platters. Children could even help the cook design the monster before it is served.
A Simple Halloween Menu
If you want something realistic for a childcare kitchen producing meals for an entire service, I think this combination would work particularly well:
Morning Tea: Pumpkin pikelets with natural yoghurt and fresh fruit.
Lunch: Friendly Monster green veggie pasta with colourful cooked vegetables.
Afternoon Tea: Pumpkin and carrot mini muffins with a Halloween fruit platter.
It is healthy, relatively inexpensive, achievable in bulk, visually Halloween-themed and doesn’t depend on confectionery or artificial food colouring.
Halloween cooking with children
Pumpkin Scones: Children can help measure and pour ingredients, mash cooked pumpkin, mix the dough and use child-safe cutters to create pumpkin, ghost or other fun shapes. While cooking, educators can explore measurement, counting, changes in texture, following a sequence and where ingredients come from. The finished scones can then be shared for afternoon tea.
Healthy Monster Pizzas: Children can create their own funny monster faces on small wholemeal pizza bases using tomato, capsicum, mushroom, spinach, corn and cheese. Children can count ingredients, identify colours and vegetables, make choices and design individual faces before the pizzas are cooked. This combines healthy eating with creativity, fine-motor development, numeracy and children’s agency.
Involving the Cook in the Learning
Halloween can also provide a wonderful opportunity to bring the service cook into the children’s educational program. Before preparing the Halloween menu, the cook could visit each room with a whole pumpkin and talk with the children about what it is, where pumpkins grow, what they think might be inside and how it can be used in cooking. She might ask, “What do you think we will find when we cut it open?” “Do you think we can eat the seeds?” “What does pumpkin smell and feel like?” and “What could we make with it for our Halloween lunch?” The cook could explain that rather than having lots of lollies and sugary treats for Halloween, the kitchen is going to turn healthy foods into something fun and special, such as pumpkin pikelets, monster pasta, pumpkin soup or pumpkin muffins. Children could share their ideas and even help name the dishes for the Halloween menu. This simple interaction connects the kitchen with the educational program and supports children’s language, science inquiry, food literacy, healthy eating, sense of community and understanding of where food comes from, while also helping children see the cook as an important member of their learning community.
QIP write up
QA1 – Educational Program and Practice
Embedded Practice: Educators had responded to children’s emerging interest in Halloween through meaningful play-based learning involving literacy, numeracy, science, creativity, dramatic play, emotional literacy, healthy eating and cooking. Pumpkin investigations had moved between the rooms and kitchen, with children exploring whole pumpkins, making predictions about what was inside, investigating seeds and textures and then seeing ingredients transformed into healthy Halloween foods. Children had also participated in cooking experiences such as pumpkin scones and healthy monster pizzas, providing authentic opportunities for measuring, counting, sequencing, predicting, communicating and developing fine-motor skills.
Critical Reflection: Educators had critically reflected on whether Halloween experiences were genuinely contributing to children’s learning or were simply adult-directed activities associated with a calendar event. This resulted in greater emphasis on inquiry, experimentation, children’s questions and open-ended experiences. Educators had also reflected on how everyday experiences such as food preparation could become meaningful curriculum opportunities rather than being viewed separately from the educational program.
Meaningful Engagement: Children’s interests, questions and ideas had influenced the direction of Halloween experiences. Children had contributed suggestions about what could be made from pumpkins, helped name healthy Halloween dishes and participated in planning and preparing food. The service cook had also become actively involved in the educational program, visiting rooms and sharing her knowledge about ingredients, food preparation and healthy eating.
QA2 – Children’s Health and Safety
Embedded Practice: Children’s physical and emotional safety had remained central to Halloween planning. Educators had considered costumes, decorations, supervision, frightening imagery, allergies, medical conditions, choking hazards, food hygiene and the developmental appropriateness of cooking experiences. Rather than focusing on lollies and highly processed Halloween treats, the service had promoted healthy alternatives through foods such as fruit, vegetables, pumpkin dishes, homemade muffins, scones and healthy pizzas.
Critical Reflection: Educators and the cook had reflected on the traditional association between Halloween and confectionery and questioned whether this was consistent with the service’s approach to children’s health and wellbeing. The team had also considered whether particular foods, decorations, costumes or experiences could create unnecessary physical or emotional risks for younger children. This reflection had resulted in a Halloween approach that remained exciting while prioritising children’s safety, nutrition and wellbeing.
Meaningful Engagement: Families had been invited to communicate allergies, dietary requirements, cultural considerations and individual concerns about Halloween participation. Children’s views had also been respected, including their right not to taste unfamiliar foods, wear costumes or participate in experiences they found uncomfortable or frightening.
QA3 – Physical Environment
Embedded Practice: Indoor, outdoor and dining environments had been used flexibly to support Halloween learning through sensory exploration, dramatic play, science investigations, light and shadow experiences, creative arts and cooking. Pumpkins and other natural foods had become learning materials rather than simply decorations, while children’s creations had contributed to the Halloween environment.
Critical Reflection: Educators had considered whether commercially produced Halloween decorations genuinely contributed to children’s learning or simply changed the appearance of the environment. This resulted in greater use of child-created displays, natural materials, investigations and interactive experiences. Cooking and food experiences had similarly focused on children actively investigating, creating and contributing rather than simply being presented with themed food.
Meaningful Engagement: Children had contributed ideas about how learning spaces should look and what should be included. Their monster creations, Halloween artwork, investigations, menu ideas and collaborative projects had become visible within the environment, demonstrating that the space reflected children’s thinking rather than an adult-created Halloween theme.
QA4 – Staffing Arrangements
Embedded Practice: Halloween had been approached as a whole-service learning opportunity, with educators, room leaders and the service cook contributing their different skills and knowledge. Educators had collaborated to ensure experiences were developmentally appropriate across babies, toddlers, Kindy and OSHC, while the cook had contributed knowledge about food, ingredients, healthy eating and food preparation.
Critical Reflection: The team had reflected on the valuable knowledge held by staff members beyond traditional room-based educational roles. Involving the cook in classroom discussions and children’s cooking experiences had strengthened recognition that all members of the service community could contribute meaningfully to children’s learning.
Meaningful Engagement: Educators and the cook had communicated about children’s interests, dietary requirements, planned experiences and menu ideas. Children’s suggestions had also been shared with the kitchen, allowing their ideas to influence what was prepared and strengthening collaboration between the educational program and the service kitchen.
QA5 – Relationships with Children
Embedded Practice: Educators had respected children’s choices about Halloween costumes, characters, activities and food. Children had been supported to participate at a level that felt comfortable to them and were not pressured to dress up, taste unfamiliar foods or participate in experiences they found frightening. Cooking experiences had provided relaxed opportunities for educators and the cook to work alongside children, listen to their ideas and engage in sustained shared conversations.
Critical Reflection: Educators had reflected on children’s right to say no and had reconsidered practices that might unintentionally pressure children to participate simply because Halloween was being celebrated by the wider group. Educators had also considered how food experiences could support positive relationships with healthy eating without requiring children to taste or eat particular foods.
Meaningful Engagement: Children’s voices had directly influenced Halloween experiences. Their questions about pumpkins, ideas for monster characters, suggestions for Halloween foods and choices during cooking experiences had been listened to and acted upon. This demonstrated to children that their ideas were valued and that they were genuine contributors to the program.
QA6 – Collaborative Partnerships with Families and Communities
Embedded Practice: Family perspectives, beliefs, dietary requirements and traditions had been routinely considered when planning Halloween experiences. Families had been informed about the service’s emphasis on a less-scary, healthy and educational approach to Halloween, including the use of nutritious Halloween foods rather than a celebration centred on confectionery.
Critical Reflection: Educators had examined whether Halloween was meaningful to their particular service community rather than assuming that all families celebrated it. The team had also reflected on how celebrations involving food could be made inclusive of children’s cultural, medical and dietary needs and how families could be involved without feeling that participation was expected.
Meaningful Engagement: Families had been invited to contribute their perspectives, traditions, recipes and ideas. Where appropriate, families could share healthy recipes or ways they use pumpkin and other seasonal foods at home. Children’s conversations about cooking and food had also created opportunities for learning to move between the service and home, strengthening connections between families, educators and the service kitchen.
QA7 – Governance and Leadership
Embedded Practice: The service’s approach to Halloween had reflected its philosophy and commitment to children’s rights, health, safety, inclusion, cultural responsiveness, play-based learning and children’s agency. Leadership had supported collaboration between educators and the service cook, demonstrating that curriculum development was understood as a whole-service responsibility rather than something occurring only within children’s rooms.
Critical Reflection: Leaders and educators had reviewed how celebrations were selected and implemented and had challenged the idea that calendar events should automatically involve themed craft, costumes and sugary treats simply because they had traditionally been celebrated that way. The service had instead considered how Halloween could reflect its philosophy, healthy eating practices and educational priorities.
Meaningful Engagement: Feedback from children, families, educators and the cook had informed how Halloween was planned and evaluated. This feedback had also contributed to broader discussions about how the service approached celebrations throughout the year, including how food, cultural perspectives, children’s interests and the knowledge of different staff members could be incorporated more meaningfully into future events.
Keeping the Learning Going Beyond 31 October
The pumpkin decorations may disappear in November, but the learning doesn’t have to.
A pumpkin investigation can become a gardening project as children save seeds, plant them and observe their growth. Interest in spiders can develop into investigations of insects, minibeasts and biodiversity. Shadow play can continue into investigations of sunlight, reflections, transparency and colour. Friendly monster experiences can become part of ongoing emotional-literacy work, while costumes and props can remain available within dramatic play environments throughout the year.
Children’s interest in bats can lead to investigations of Australian nocturnal animals, habitats and conservation. Conversations about why some families celebrate Halloween and others do not can develop into broader discussions about culture, traditions, diversity, respect and belonging.
Most importantly, the reflective thinking used around Halloween can be applied to every celebration on the service calendar. Educators can continue asking: Why are we celebrating this? What are children learning? Is it meaningful to our children and families? Whose perspectives are represented? Does every child have a genuine choice about participating? Could we turn this event into something deeper than a craft activity?
That is where calendar events begin to move from celebration to curriculum.
BEST Childcare Consulting
At BEST Childcare Consulting, we believe special events have their greatest value when educators look beyond “What activity can we do?” and instead ask “What can our children learn from this?”
Halloween can certainly be acknowledged in early childhood education and care, but it doesn’t need blood, gore, frightening masks or mountains of lollies to be exciting.
A pumpkin can become a science investigation. A monster can begin a conversation about emotions. A costume can inspire an extraordinary story. A shadow can create a scientific question. A spider can spark an investigation of the natural world. And a conversation about why some people celebrate Halloween while others don’t can help children begin to understand diversity, respect and belonging.
Keep it playful. Keep it inclusive. Keep it safe. Keep it child-led. And above all, make the learning more important than the celebration.
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