Fun Halloween Tricks to Do With Preschoolers

Fruit and Noodle Trick

• Let your child help you make a tricklike meal salad that you then serve to another parent or older sibling. Peeling grapes yourself and letting your preschooler add a tablespoon of olive oil to a small bowl of cold pasta is enough to create the illusion of worms and eyeballs. Let her serve the dish to someone you've briefed beforehand. Avoid serving this dish to younger siblings or the preschooler herself, who could very well start crying if told she's feeling or eating worms and eyeballs.

Make a Mummy

• Let your preschooler wrap and be wrapped as a mummy using crepe paper or, if you have plenty to spare, paper towels. Demonstrate on an older sibling or yourself first, as you wrap your entire body in crepe paper. Then wrap your preschooler up the same way and let her surprise her other parent or older sibling. Wrap arms and legs separately, since not being able to move her arms -- or any other part of her body -- can be scary for a young child.

Scary Face Pizzas

• Create personal scary face pizzas using a variety of veggies and toppings. Take sliced English muffins and let your preschooler help cover them with tomato sauce, then use a small chunk of mozzarella cheese as the mouth and eyes. As the cheese melts in the oven it will look like the pizza face is screaming. If your preschooler doesn't automatically reject every vegetable, make a larger pizza and use strips of green pepper as furrowed eyebrows and a few pieces of crinkled carrot as an angry mouth.

Ghost House

• A ghost house will seem less scary to your preschooler if she's involved in the creative process. Let her help string synthetic cobwebs between two secure points, such as an armrest and an end table. Stringing ghost-shaped decorative lights and, with your assistance, making a mix of scary noises to play, are a few other ways she can help create a spooky environment to "trick" trick-or-treaters or older siblings.