As the months turn colder it is important to still enjoy time playing outside - dress for the weather and embrace the play opportunities and health benefits of spending time outdoors.

Halloween Games

• Mystery box - cover and cut a small hole in the lid. Fill with creepy things such as brains (cooked spaghetti or sponge), witch fingers (carrots with almond nails), eyeballs (peeled grapes or olives), a hand (rubber glove filled with flour), an animal (fake fur), a monster's tongue (sliced banana), witch hair (wool), maggots (rice) and try and guess what's in the box.
• Tasting competition - wear a blindfold and guess the different and unusual foods.
• Pumpkin bowling - see who can collect the most seeds in a cup afterwards.
• Play pumpkin bean bag toss or crazy golf after carving your pumpkin.

Arts & crafts

• Paint and decorate pumpkins.
• Make 3D pumpkins, dream catcher spiderwebs or a witch's hat.
• Spooky lava lamp - fill a bottle 1/4 full of water, then almost to the top with vegetable oil. Once separated add 6 drops of food colouring and effervescent vitamin tablets bit by bit to watch the bubbles form.

Outdoor fun

• Chalk fireworks on your driveway.
• Have a winter BBQ, make s'mores over a fire pit and enjoy a spooky mocktail – blend a cupful of skimmed milk with 5 strawberries and 5 blackberries.
• Go for a walk in the woods and collect conkers and leaves. Try leaf printing or making a conker worm or necklace. Roll your conker in paint to make a picture.
• Go on a pumpkin hunt in your garden - use mini pumpkins, mark one, and see who finds it.
• Have fun on a spooky sweet hunt or Halloween scavenger hunt around your house or garden.
• Glow in the dark bowling - fill empty bottles with cold water, pop in a glow stick and close. Start bowling once it's dark.
• Slime splat - add some water to cornflower along with a little green food colouring and stir until it forms a slime that you can make into a ball, but returns to liquid when you let go. Set up a large card outside and try to hit your target with the slime.
• Go stargazing in your garden on a clear night.