16 Fun Halloween Crafts for Kids

By Rachelle 11 Comments

Here comes Halloween! I scoured some of my favorite kid-friendly sites and found this awesome selection of Halloween Crafts for Kids. I think you’ll love them.

What does this Halloween Crafts for Kids roundup include?

Ghosts, pumpkins, spider webs, mummies, monsters, and skeletons.
Activities for toddlers, preschoolers, and school age kids.
Crafts that kids can actually do. Some with a little adult assistance.
Projects that use easy-to-find household materials such as spaghetti, cardboard rolls, candy, paint, string, jars, egg cartons, gauze, and cotton balls.
Sixteen projects to keep us busy for a while!

Halloween Crafts for Kids

Let’s get started…

Even little kids can get in on the Halloween action with this festive Cotton Ball Ghost for Toddlers: No Time for Flash Cards

This Pumpkin Mummy Family is not messy to make and beyond cute: Hands on as we Grow

Build fine-motor skills with this simple Marshmallow Skull Craft: No Time for Flash Cards

I would have to give in to my kids’ begging to eat the candy corn while making this Candy Corn Monster but it would be worth it: Crafty Morning

These Marble + Paint Spider Webs are toddler-friendly. Making these is soooo addictive : TinkerLab

The tutorial for these Handmade Spider Sacks is wonderful! : Modern Parents Messy Kids

Cut up some circles and then invite your child to decorate for this Easy DIY Halloween Garland: TinkerLab

Add a little holiday glow to a dark patio or room with these Halloween Lantern Jars: Red Ted Art

Use cardboard rolls as the base for a Monster Mobiles, and let your child have fun decorating: Happy Hooligans

Got K-cups? Save them for a Recycled K-cup Recycled Lantern: Handmade Kids Art

These Glowing Pumpkin and Monster Jars are dipped in colored salt! What a cool texture: Fantastic Fun and Learning

Make a handprint spider and practice lacing in this Handprint Spider in a Spider Web: Mom Endeavors

Before making a Spaghetti Spider Web, build memories by inviting a child to play with slimy, green spaghetti: Hands on as we Grow

Fun! With the addition of a rubber band, make this Easy Halloween Craft Bouncy Spider: Kids Activities Blog

Invite your child to cover paper with masking tape, and then cut out a Masking Tape Mummy: No Time for Flash Cards

Save those egg cartons for this simple Egg Carton Bat: Crafty Morning

More Halloween Ideas

If you enjoyed this post, you have to check out 50 Simple Halloween Ideas for Kids.

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Easy DIY Halloween Garland

By Rachelle 2 Comments

Is it feeling like Halloween or are you looking for some easy Halloween craft ideas? This Halloween garland uses just a few supplies, it’s easy for preschoolers to make, and it adds a festive touch to any spooky room.

I invited my five-year old to help me come up with a project that other children might enjoy making. My kids created all sorts of things with the pom-poms, buttons, popsicle sticks, fuzzy pipe cleaners, and paper that came with the kit, and then we finally settled on this simple garland that’s sure to brighten any home for Halloween.

It’s easy to prep, doesn’t require any hard-to-find materials, and your child will be encouraged to think creatively as she invents jack-o-lantern faces.

Let’s get started…

Supplies

Construction Paper: Orange, Black, Green
Crayons: Black and White
Glue stick
Scissors
Long piece of string

Prep

Pre-cut circles from the black and orange paper. Approximately 4″ across.
Pre-cut stems (rectangles) from the green paper. Approximately 3″ long and 3/4″ wide
Recycle your paper scraps

Invitation

Invite your child to decorate the circular shapes with Jack o’ Lantern faces. Be sure to color both sides if you plan to hang your garland in the middle of the room.

My daughter asked me to join her, and gave me very specific instructions about how the faces should look. I’m a good student and listened carefully.

When the faces are done, fold your stems in half and glue them to the piece of string.

Be sure to leave about a foot on either end so that you can tie it off to a hook or nail. We decided to tape ours to the rafters because we’re glamorous like that.

Creative Invitations

Creative Invitations like this are a great way to encourage independent thinking and problem solving. The idea is to set up a provocation with some basic materials, and then step back and see what your child comes up with. Our friends at The Art Pantry are hosting an Invitations to Create Challenge this month, and you can find out more about it here.

Halloween Inspiration

For more Halloween inspiration, follow our Halloween board on Pinterest. You might also like to see one of our most popular Halloween posts: 50 Simple Halloween Activities for Kids. You can also follow Elmer’s on Pinterest for lots of gluey inspiration.

Disclosure: Elmer’s sent us materials to create this project, but all opinions expressed in this post are our own.

Fingerprint Spiders for Halloween

By Rachelle 3 Comments

Are you thinking about Halloween and in search of a fun Halloween craft for kids? You’re in luck! Fingerprint spiders are not only easy to make, but the process offers children all sorts of creative interpretations.

Spider season has arrived, at least in the Halloween sense of the word, and while it may feel to early for some of us, kids can be wildly in tune with the changing of the seasons. Depending on when you read this, if this feels too premature, you can pin this today and keep it up your sleeve for a spooky day down the road.

For us, Halloween catalogues have been arriving for a few weeks now, and decorations are popping up in all the local stores. So when my older daughter started drawing jack-o-lanterns I knew that this project would be a hit.

First let’s talk about supplies…

What You’ll Need

Paper, cut into postcard-sized pieces
Black Ink Pad or a Sponge and Black Liquid Watercolors (Amazon link).
Thin Paintbrushes
Black felt-tip pen
Small bowl for the watercolor paint
Damp rag for cleaning fingers
Paper to cover your table (optional)
Googly eyes (optional)

Simple, right?

Step One

Make some fingerprints on your paper.

Have a damp rag handy in case your child is sensitive to having ink on his or her fingers. My kids are okay with this, and understood that that the ink won’t wash off completely until bath time.

Step Two

Draw on spider legs and faces. However you like. Add goggly eyes if you have any handy.

This is a great opportunity to talk about how many legs a spider has (8), and introduce other fun spider facts (unlike the one I shared at the beginning of this post). Try these:

Spider Facts

Spiders are not insects, but arachnids
Spiders have 8 legs. Insects have 6 legs.
Cobwebs are simply abandoned spider webs.
Spiders do not have antennae.
In the 1970’s spiders were sent into space to see if they could build a web with zero gravity. The conclusion? While scientists eventually concluded that the quality of the space webs were slightly different from gravity-based webs, webs were made in space!
The biggest spider in the world is the Goliath bird eater, a type of tarantula.

Be creative and open-minded.

Despite our conversation about how spiders have eight legs, my independent-minded five-year old gave all of hers eight legs…on both side of their bodies. She said that they look better that way. What do you think?

Step Three

Now that all the materials are out, experiment a little more and be open to new ideas.

We brought out a few more pens to test out the different thicknesses and textures. Then we poured some watercolors into a small bowl and made painted spiders.

From there, the painting and drawing experiments expanded to include abstract patterns and fully covered pieces of paper.

See you next time for more tinkering fun!

*For more weird spider facts, Michael Miller, animal keeper at the Smithsonian, compiled a list of 8 strange but true spider facts that will fascinate you.

More Fingerprint Spiders

One of my readers and friend, Vlada, sent me these fingerprint spiders made by her daughters. I LOVE the addition of red for the legs. And the goggly eyes! What a fun touch.

More Halloween Ideas

If you enjoyed this post, you have to check out 50 Simple Halloween Ideas for Kids.

Halloween Countdown Paper Chain

By Rachelle 15 Comments

Are your kids as bonkers about Halloween as mine are?

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, and my passion for it clearly seeped into my kids’ genes because my 4-year old has been filling her sketchbook with pictures of bats and spiders, and wants to know when, when, when we can put up our Halloween decorations.

The Halloween catalogues and impossible-to-miss store displays play a huge role in this premature enthusiasm, but I want to celebrate her interests while harnessing a bit of that energy.

Oh, and Halloween is still a whopping 41 days away.

So I thought we could make a Halloween countdown chain to help us visualize how many days until all that apple-bobbing goodness would be upon us.

How to Make a Paper Chain

Halloween-colored papers, cut into approximately 2″ strips
Stapler or Tape

N selected colors that reminded her of Halloween and we cut them into strips.

We wrapped the first piece into a circle, stapled it, and then proceded to interlock the rest of the pieces until we were done. N decided she had enough after around chain link #25. I think the visual cue helped because she hasn’t asked me how many days until Halloween once since we made this.

The garland was about fifteen feet long, so we draped it over a chandelier. My children jump at any chance to climb on furniture and was eager to cut her first link. Scott, my smarter-than-me husband, came home and suggested I take the chain off the hot light fixtures, and it’s since moved over to the window. I married a good one.

Just 41 more to go!

Have you given in to early Halloween requests?

Do you make paper countdown chains for other holidays or events?

Halloween Tradition: Little Fabric Ghosts

By Rachelle 12 Comments

This little fabric ghost tradition began last year, and N has been begging me to revive it for weeks. We haven’t had any white fabric in the house, I didn’t have the energy to make a fabric run, and then low-and-behold I found a quarter yard of fabric in a closet sweep a few days ago! Yay for “free” fabric. It’s more craft than art, but you’ll see in a minute how this can be open-ended and exploratory for curious, creative little minds.

We started with approximately 15″ squares of thin cotton fabric, a little thinner than muslin. But really, almost any thin white fabric will work. We filled the middle with about six cotton balls. Actually, it started out at “five,” but when N took over she increased the number by one or two, until the last ghost had about nine cotton balls in the head. This is good for counting, too!

I cut cotton string into lengths of 12″ – 30″ and then tied them around the “heads.” We then glued on googly eyes with white glue.

Now for the fun part! N wanted to draw a mouth on one of the ghosts so we found a Sharpie marker. Drawing the mouth turned into drawing hair, ears, and decorating the entire body. So fun!

She even drew inside the ghost. There are no limits, are there? We made four ghosts altogether, and she named this one the “dad.” The others (mom, baby, and sister) were plain white…what does this mean, I wonder?

We hung them in the tree to scare our neighbors for Halloween. Monofilament might have eliminated the noose quality of the string, but you work with what you’ve got! Boo!

I love hearing from you. Please share your Halloween tradition/s!

This post is shared with Sunday Showcase. Craft Schooling Sunday

Organic Shape Monsters for Halloween

By Rachelle 19 Comments

When I saw this idea over at We Heart Art, I loved it for its open-ended qualities and simplicity. Joanna did this project with Kindergarteners, but it was adaptable to my 3-year old and could easily scale up for older children. Plus, the monster theme played out so nicely with Halloween right around the corner. Grrrrr….

And, are you ready to hear how easy this is? All you need are about 20″ of yarn, paper, and some markers or crayons.

We talked about witches, ghosts, and jack-o’-lanterns all morning, so when I asked if N wanted to make a monster she was game. In general, she hasn’t drawn too many realistic drawings, so I was curious to see where this experiment would go. We each started out with a piece of yarn. I moved the yarn around my page to make an organic shape, connected the two ends to close it, and then traced an outline around the shape. N took note and did the same. So far, the process intrigued her.

We removed the yarn and I invited her to turn it into a monster. And this is what’s so cool about this project: There’s no expectation and the outcome is totally up to the child’s imagination. The red apostrophe shape she’s working on is a little baby monster. Awwww. At first glance I thought it was the mouth, which is a good reminder on why it’s best to never make assumptions and ask the child about their work without making interpretations!

Okay, now you can see the mouth. Ferocious!

She also added some arms, eye lashes, a forehead, a belly button, and fur. It’s kind of Jabba the Hutt, no? And despite it’s obvious scariness, I love it!

Have you ever heard that people learn as they teach? (In case you’re wondering, it can be credited to the Roman philosopher, Seneca — I had to look it up, and subsequently learned about it so I could share it with you!). Well, N’s friend came over the next day, and at one point in the afternoon the two of them sat down at the art table and she independently showed him how to make a monster! You can imagine my surprise and delight — I guess she really embraced the concept and thought it was worth sharing.

More Halloween Ideas

If you enjoyed this post, you have to check out 50 Simple Halloween Ideas for Kids.