1… 2… 3… 4… 5… I love the sound of my kids counting from our kitchen table. “Is this right mommy?”
“Yep, looks like you have five little ghosts ready to glue on.”
Counting is a great skill for your little one to develop, so you won’t want to miss out on this super easy Halloween counting activity – with extensions too!

Supplies

• Cotton balls (55 in total if you glue 1-10)
• Sharpie marker for drawing on ghost faces
• Glue
• Numbers 1-10 Drawn/ Printed/ Cutout

Extension Supplies

• Tape
• Dice
• Check off sheet
• Dart gun/ fly swatter/ sock

Part 1

• Gather supplies and draw ghost faces on to your cotton balls with black marker.
• Lay out your numbers (these can be cut out, or just drawn onto paper) and your cotton ball ghosts, and let your child choose what number they would like to begin with.*
• Let them count out their ghosts to match the number, offering help if needed.
• Let your child attach those ghosts to the matching number with glue.
• Set aside to dry, and choose a new number!

*For this Halloween counting activity, I chose to cut out the numbers. I really like the contrast of black paper and white ghosts. This is also a great activity for children to help with! However, when cutting out the numbers, I did run into an unexpected minor problem. As I was helping one of my other children count out his ghosts, my kindergartner had glued her ghost on the wrong side, making the number 5 backward when tapped to the wall. We were able to fix the minor problem in no time and it was a great chance for us to chat about number directionality! 

After completing all our counting and gluing, we recounted one last time to make sure all the numbers had the right amount of ghosts. 

My daughter even took it a step further and pulled out paper and a pencil and began to write the numbers down unprompted.  She used the numbers we had just made as a reference for her work. I just love how activities like this invite learning to grow!

Part 2: Halloween Counting Activity Extension

Later that day, I hung up our numbers around our yard. I explained that our number ghost had escaped and that I needed some brave and hardworking ghost hunters to round them up.

To immobilize the ghosts, they needed to be shot with these special ghostie balls — aka “socks”. My kids were thrilled to help me out.

I explained that they needed to hit the numbers the same amount of times as there were ghosts. So, they needed to hit the ghosts 10 times if it was the number 10 before they could move on. We even made a counting chart on a mini whiteboard to make sure they got every number. 

For this game, my kids rolled a dice and went hunting for the corresponding number ghost running back for their next target once they succeeded. I checked it off the list and helped manage the rolling and counting.

This Halloween counting activity can be used in so many ways and it takes just minutes to get ready. It was also a great opportunity for me to observe my children counting out loud.

Being a Halloween ghost hunter is a great way to learn numbers – and bond with your children playfully as well!

I hope you take the time to try out this Halloween counting activity at your house.

Kyanne graduated from Utah State University and worked with youth of all ages as a 4-H coordinator before taking a leave from her professional career to start a family of her own. She has four darling, creative, and outgoing young children ages 5, 4, 2, and 6 months. She enjoys teaching her children, crafting – they make just about anything together, and adventuring in the outdoors of Idaho with her family. 

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