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elebrate Halloween with more than just costumes, candy and trick-or-treating this year! There are many fun Halloween-themed activities you can do with your children to hone their gross motor, fine motor and visual motor skills which they may struggle with as a result of their NF1. Here are a few fun suggestions for activities and iPad apps to keep your children occupied this Halloween.
Pipe Cleaner Spider Webs
Materials: pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, duct tape and googly eyes (with sticker backs)
Skills Addressed: fine motor, visual motor, motor planning
Instructions: Place the popsicles in a cross pattern and tape them together to create the structure. Then wind the pipe cleaners around the popsicles in different patterns to form the web. Twist a couple of pipe cleaners together to form the spider, stick it into the pipe cleaner web and stick a couple of googly eyes on for a fun Halloween spider web, complete with spider!
Many thanks to Therapy Fun Zone for this great idea!
Ghost Walk
Materials: white copy paper, colored markers, scissors and tape
Skills Addressed: gross motor, fine motor, academic – shapes, colors and counting
Instructions: Trace each child’s foot on the white copy paper, and (depending on age) have your children cut out about 20 feet total using child-safe scissors. Decorate each foot “ghost” by drawing on black eyes and different colored/shaped mouths with markers. Then tape the ghosts to the floor in a large circle. Turn on your favorite spooky Halloween music (or anything you have on hand) and have your children walk around the circle stepping on each ghost as they go. Stop the music and:
- Call out a specific mouth color/shape they have to locate and stand on.
- Ask the children to call out the color and/or shape they are standing on.
- Ask the children to do an activity on a specific colored/shaped ghost – “Go sit on the ghost with the purple triangle” or “hop with one foot on the ghost with the red circle”
Repeat the steps and try having them do different things each time the music stops!
Thank you Toddler Approved for this fun Halloween activity!
Halloween Eyeball Toss
Materials: Plastic pumpkin tub, ping pong balls and colored markers
Skills Addressed: gross motor, fine motor, visual motor, balance, coordination
Instructions: First, draw eyeballs on the ping pong balls. Then, set up the pumpkin in a safe area without any breakables.The children can try to toss or bounce the eyeballs into the pumpkin from different distances while sitting or standing. Increase the difficulty by having them stand on one foot while tossing the eyeball!
Thanks to Ramblings of a Crazy Woman for this fun and easy activity!
Halloween-themed Apps 
Sago Mini Monsters: Children can create their own loveable monster, choosing from different features, colors and decorations. Once their monster is complete, they can feed them snacks, brush their teeth and take pictures to share with friends and family.
Toca Boo: In this fun app, children can help Bonnie sneak around her big old house in a ghost costume scaring her family as they are getting ready for bed.
Go Away, Big Green Monster!: This interactive book is a great read for children on Halloween. Children can read or sing along with the book’s narrator as they interact with the story and watch the monster react to their selections.
Thank you to MAC and Toys for these great Halloween app suggestions!