4 Amazingly Simple Halloween Activities for Kids with CVI

Halloween Activities for Kids with CVI Activity #1- Adapted Books

These CVI-friendly Halloween adapted books are a great way to introduce and reinforce Halloween-themed vocabulary. The bright-colored images on a black or grey background are engaging. Furthermore, tactile supports can be added to make the book more engaging. These adapted books pair perfectly with the Halloween-themed activities found throughout this blog post. Like many of my other adapted book sets, the Halloween adapted books include 5 levels (7 versions). The levels range from errorless, to a single word (in large yellow font or red bubbled words), to a single sentence, to two sentences, and finally to a book with interactive pieces. This differentiated set is perfect for multiple students with CVI to use to learn about Halloween.

Sensory Bin

The next CVI-friendly Halloween activity that I love using is sensory bins! For Halloween, I love using black beans as a filler. Most importantly, the black beans provide a great contrast to the other items in the bin. Additionally, black is a common color seen during the Halloween season. 

For this jack-o-lantern themed bin, I used:

        –squishy pumpkins from Amazon

        –wind up pumpkins from Amazon

        -pumpkin eggs from Target

        -Halloween fillable pumpkin from Target

This bin allows students to become familiar with the vocabulary word: jack-o-lantern. In addition, students can engage with the different sensory toys within the bin as well. 

For the second sensory bin activity, you can still use the black beans from the previous example, with the vocabulary cards from the adapted books that were mentioned above. Students can work on simply finding and picking up the vocabulary cards. They can also work on identifying a named Halloween-themed item. Furthermore, two sets of cards can be printed, and students can work on matching. 

Halloween Activities for Kids with CVI Activity #3- Light Table Activity

For this light table activity, students will be making a jack-o-lantern-themed sensory bag or you can pre-make the sensory bag for them. 

To do this, you will need:

• a large plastic bag with a zipper closure
• hair gel
• black foam
• red and yellow food coloring
• clear tape

To create this sensory bag, follow these steps:

1. Print a jack-o-lantern template from Google. 
2. Cut jack-o-lantern face shapes out of the black foam. Either two eyes and a mouth can be cut or two eyes, a nose, and a mouth (depending on your student’s ability level). 
3. Put the hair gel, red and yellow food coloring, and foam shapes into the plastic bag. For the food coloring, use equal parts yellow and red. If the gell appears too dark after mixing, add more yellow food coloring. 
4. Seal the bag shut with clear tape.

Students can use this sensory bag with or without the light table, however, the light table can make the bag more visually engaging. Students can work on pushing the foam shapes around to create the jack-o-lantern’s face. 

Adaptation: If creating the jack-o-lantern face is too challenging for your students, you can draw a face on the bag with a permanent marker, prior to filling it, and students can simply work on pushing around the orange hair gel. 

Textured Candy Corn Craft

For this craft:

1. Print out a simple candy corn outline from Google on white paper. 
2. Cut out the candy corn shape and glue it onto black cardstock.
3. Cut up different orange, yellow, and white (optional) textures.
4. Students will glue the different textures onto the candy corn.

Interested in learning about more CVI-friendly activities? Check out these blog posts:

My Favorite Textured Materials for CVI

4 Easy Fall Activities for Kids with CVI

5 Engaging Toys for Children with CVI