Blog
Halloween Pattern Worksheets for Preschool & Kindergarten
Pumpkin, bat, pumpkin, bat… what comes next? These Halloween pattern worksheets turn that little guessing game into six free printable pages for preschool and kindergarten, about ages 4 to 6. Every page is a PDF in both US Letter (8.5 x 11 in) and A4.
Kids usually get AB patterns fast. The jump to AAB, or to a gap in the middle of a row, is where they slow down. So the set starts with plain two-picture patterns and works up from there: three-part ABC rows, size patterns, a missing piece in the middle, and a cut-and-paste page. The last page leaves the pictures behind and has kids trace and draw simple shapes.
Free Halloween Pattern Worksheets (PDF)
Press Download or Print under a worksheet and choose your paper size. US Letter is for the US and Canada. A4 is for most other countries.
How the Six Pages Build Up
- What Comes Next? AB Patterns: two pictures take turns. Five are shown, kids circle the sixth.
- AAB and ABB Patterns: now one picture shows up twice in a row. A third choice is added that isn’t in the pattern at all.
- Big and Small Patterns: same picture, different sizes. The last row goes small, medium, big.
- Fill the Gap: the missing picture sits in the middle, so kids have to read both sides of the gap.
- ABC Pattern Cut and Paste: three-part patterns with ten empty boxes. The ten pieces at the bottom fit exactly.
- Trace and Continue the Shapes: dark shapes show the pattern, gray dashed shapes get traced, and the open line is for drawing the rest.
Patterns Are Early Math, Even When They Look Like Pictures
When a child figures out that a bat comes after a pumpkin, they’re spotting a rule and using it to predict. That’s the same thinking behind skip counting, rhymes and, much later, multiplication tables. Halloween pictures just make the rule easier to talk about than red squares and blue circles.
The size page and the shape page matter for another reason. They show that a pattern doesn’t have to be about what something is. It can be about how big it is, or its shape. Kids who only ever see picture patterns sometimes miss that.
The most useful thing you can do is read the rows out loud together. “Pumpkin, pumpkin, ghost, pumpkin, pumpkin…” Most kids hear the answer before they find it on the page.
Ways to Stretch the Pattern Fun
- Print at 100% or “Actual size.” That keeps the cut-and-paste pieces the same size as the empty boxes.
- Black and white works. If you want color, have kids color all the pumpkins orange and all the bats purple first. The pattern pops right out.
- Slide the AB and gap pages into a dry-erase sleeve and reuse them all week.
- Turn a row into a body pattern: clap for pumpkin, stomp for bat. A noisy minute before sitting down helps a lot.
- Use real Halloween candy or mini erasers to copy a row on the table, then extend it.
- For the cut-and-paste page, have kids lay all the pieces out before gluing. Fixing a mistake is easy until the glue goes on.
Frequently Asked Questions
What age are these Halloween pattern worksheets for?
Ages 4 to 6 is the sweet spot. Pre-K kids usually start with the AB page. Kindergartners can handle the gap page and the ABC cut and paste.
Can I really use these Halloween pattern worksheets for free?
Yes. They’re free for personal and classroom use. Please don’t sell them or post the files on another site. Share the link to this page instead.
US Letter or A4?
Pick US Letter if you live in the US or Canada. Pick A4 nearly everywhere else. Both versions have the same pages.
My child keeps guessing. How do I help?
Cover the answer choices with your hand and say the row together, pointing at each picture. Then ask “What would you say next?” before uncovering the choices. If AAB is still too hard, go back to AB for a few days. That’s normal.
