Halloween Activities for Toddlers

by Martha Leuthner, PT, DPT
Physical activity is essential for lung health. While toddlers are already physical beings at their baseline, it is still important to encourage as much heavy breathing work, muscle building, coordination, and breathing techniques as possible. It is especially important to learn and make activity routine at a young age for a child with cystic fibrosis.

Here are some Halloween inspired activities, keeping things simple and fun for you and your toddler! All you need is some masking or painter’s tape and cushions.

Halloween Howls

The Fun: Take a deep breath in and exhale with a long hoooowwwwlll!

The Why: Add in breathing practice after their games by being a wolf howling at the Halloween moon.

Peek-a-Boo Jumps

The Fun: Tape squares on the floor and prop cushions up to give your toddler a “hiding place”. Have your toddler jump as quietly as they can from square to square before popping out from behind a cushion to shout, “BOO!” scaring you from behind the cushions. Then they can fly while making ghost sounds to another square and start their jumps again.

Why: Jumping, booing, and flying around will get them breathing heavier while practicing long exhales while building muscle during quiet jumps.

Sneaky Skeleton

The Fun: Have your toddler army crawl like a sneaky skeleton ready to give someone a fright! (You can put cushions or a blanket down if needed).

The Why: This activity builds core muscles needed for breathing techniques.

Spider Trap

The Fun: Create a spider web on a door or window. Have your toddler run to it like a spider or fly to it like a fly and do a quick turn and stop!

The Why: This activity works on age appropriate coordination and balance while getting them breathing heavier for lung health.

Witch’s Broom

The Fun: With supervision, have the child jump from a higher surface to a cushion below as they jump off of a witches broom! They can then fly around and hop up to jump off their broom again.

The Why: This will get them breathing heavy while additionally giving their legs muscle mass boost aiding in bone health!