Keeping children happily busy at a Halloween party, a restaurant, or a family dinner is easier with a placemat full of activities. While the grown-ups chat, kids can solve a maze, draw a face on a pumpkin, play tic-tac-toe, and count the bats. This placemat is sized at 17 x 11 inches, the standard placemat size, so it fits a table setting perfectly.
A Placemat Packed with Activities
The placemat is landscape, 17 x 11 inches, on a warm cream background with a border of candy corn triangles running around all four edges. HALLOWEEN FUN MAT is set in purple Creepster lettering at the top. Below it, the activities are laid out across three columns:
- Left: a real, solvable maze in purple lines with the prompt Help the ghost find the candy!. A little ghost waits at the top-left entrance, and a lollipop sits at the exit on the bottom-right.
- Centre: a large blank pumpkin outline in orange with a green stem and the prompt Draw a face on the pumpkin!. Below it, five purple bats fly around the line Count the bats: ______.
- Right: two tic-tac-toe grids under the heading Tic-tac-BOO!, a JOKE TIME box (Why are ghosts bad liars?You can see right through them!) and a big outlined candy corn to colour in.
The OTO logo sits at the bottom centre, just inside the border.
The Maze Is Really Solvable
The maze is generated as a proper perfect maze: there is exactly one path from the ghost to the candy, with dead ends along the way. It is sized for children aged about four to eight. Younger children can trace the path with a finger first; older children can race to finish it before their food arrives. For older kids who want a bigger challenge, add a few extra walls with the editor’s line and rectangle tools, or set a timer and see who finishes fastest.
Placemat Games for Preschoolers and Big Kids
| Activity | Ages 3 to 5 | Ages 6 to 9 |
|---|---|---|
| Ghost maze | Trace with a finger, then a crayon | Solve without lifting the pencil |
| Pumpkin face | Draw a happy or silly face | Design a carving pattern |
| Count the bats | Count aloud with a grown-up | Count and write the number |
| Tic-tac-toe | Play with a grown-up | Play a best-of-two match |
| Joke time | A grown-up reads it aloud | Read it to the table |
| Candy corn | Colour any way they like | Colour in the real candy corn stripes |
Where to Use the Placemat
- Children’s tables at Halloween parties and family dinners.
- Restaurants and cafés offering a Halloween kids’ menu.
- Classroom Halloween parties during snack time.
- Church fall festivals and community suppers.
- Waiting rooms in October, such as dentists’ and doctors’ offices.
- Long car journeys, clipped to a clipboard.
Restaurants and Cafés
A Halloween placemat is a simple, inexpensive way for family restaurants to make October special. Print in bulk on paper placemat stock, put one at every child’s seat with a small pack of crayons, and add your restaurant’s name and logo in the corner. Families appreciate anything that keeps children content while food is being prepared, and a themed placemat makes visits feel festive.
Personalising the Fun Mat
All the text is editable. Change the title to Monster Fun Mat or add a child’s name for a personalised party placemat. Replace the joke with another favourite, or the bat count prompt with Find the hidden spider. The candy corn border is one grouped object you can recolour to purple and green, for example. The maze is grouped, so it moves as one piece. The ghost and lollipop are editable vector icons, the bats are vector silhouettes, and the pumpkin outline and candy corn are simple shapes. Fonts are Creepster and Montserrat from Google Fonts.
Answers for Grown-Ups
There are five bats to count on the placemat. The maze always has a single route; if a child gets stuck, follow the wall on one side with your finger, and you will reach the lollipop. The joke’s punchline is printed right under the question, so even early readers can enjoy it with a little help.
Wipe-Clean and Reusable Versions
For a placemat that lasts all month, laminate it after printing. Children can then use dry-erase or washable crayons, and you can wipe it clean for the next meal. Laminated placemats also protect the table from sticky fingers and spilled juice, which is a bonus at any Halloween party.
Turning the Placemat into a Party Activity
At a party, the placemat can do more than keep children busy at the table. Make the maze a race: everyone starts at the same time, and the first to reach the lollipop wins a small prize. Hold a pumpkin face contest where the children vote for the funniest, scariest, and silliest faces. Give a sticker to every child who counts the bats correctly. Afterwards, hang the finished placemats on a wall or string them up with clothespins as a gallery, so parents can see the artwork at pick-up time.
Printing at 17 x 11 Inches
Download the PDF. Most home printers cannot print 17 x 11-inch paper, so print it at a local print shop or office supply store, which can also laminate it. Alternatively, scale the PDF to fit letter-size paper when printing; the layout still works at the smaller size, with slightly smaller activities.
Activity Placemat Questions
Can I print it on letter paper?
Yes. Choose “fit to page” in your print settings, and it scales down neatly.
What crayons work best?
Chunky wax crayons suit little hands, while coloured pencils work better for the maze.
How many bats are there?
Five. Children can check their answer with a grown-up.
Can I add more activities?
Yes. Add a word scramble or a dot-to-dot in the open spaces using text and shapes in the editor.
Is the placemat suitable for toddlers?
Toddlers enjoy colouring the pumpkin and candy corn, with help on the maze.
Print a stack, set out the crayons, and let the Halloween games begin. Dinner might even stay on the plate.
