Isn’t it just about that time we all get excited about Halloween? Pumpkins and fall scented candles are everywhere, shops have exploded with Halloween decorations and fun costumes, Starbucks brought its fall menu back…
Well, I’m not sure where I was going with that, but it’s always fun to sit down with your kiddos and do a couple of holiday-themed crafts in order to get them into the festive spirit, stimulate their creativity and develop their motor skills.
Usually, kids do a lot of the crafts at their preschool or daycare. (If you’re by any chance looking for a reliable daycare center for your little one, make sure to check out HireRush.com and leave a daycare request there).
But these little projects will also help you create some amazing holiday memories with your kids and just spend a little bit of quality time together. Besides, you may use some of the crafts below to create adorable and cheap Halloween decorations for your house. Even your little toddlers may join the Halloween crafting fun. So, gather your supplies, prepare your crafting surface for major damage and get started!
Halloween crafts for toddlers and preschoolers
1. Toilet roll mummies
Find a couple of empty toilet paper rolls, toilet paper, white yarn and googly eyes. You’ll need some glue as well.
In order to make a mummy, apply some glue on the toilet paper roll and wrap it with several narrow toilet paper strips to make it look like a mummy. The more uneven and crumbly it looks the better.
Wrap a long string of white (creme) yarn around the mummy and give her a pair of adorable googly eyes. The mummy is done!
2. Palm spiders
A black sheet of paper, yellow paint, a paint brush, a paper plate and googly eyes are required.
Pour some black paint into the plate, paint your child’s hand with it (don’t paint the thumb though) and help your little one press his hand onto the paper sheet to create a hand print.
To make a spider, paint your child’s hand once again and create another hand print, but make sure that the palm overlaps the palm part of the previous print and the fingers create two opposite pairs of spider’s leg.
Let your spider dry a little bit before gluing a couple of googly eyes onto his body. Meanwhile, you may paint the rest of the paper sheet with white paint to create the spider’s web or make another cute spider.
3. Ear buds skeleton
You’ll need: a bunch of cotton wool ear buds, a black hard paper sheet, a piece of white paper, a black pen, glue and scissors.
Draw the skeleton’s face on a piece of white paper and cut it out. Glue it onto the black hard paper sheet. Chop 12-13 ear buds in half. Maybe, you’d like those pieces to be of different sizes to make the skeleton a little goofier.
Help your child to glue the earbuds onto the black paper like on that picture or use your own imagination to make your skeleton look even cooler.
4. Cotton ball ghost
You’ll need: white hard paper or paper sheet, a string, a bunch of cotton balls, a pencil, a pair of googly eyes, some glue.
Trace a ghost shape on hard paper and cut it out. Coat the ghost shape with glue and stick cotton balls onto it. Finally, glue the eyes onto the ghost, make a hole at the top of the template and tie a string/a ribbon to it to hang your ghost on the door handle or somewhere else. It’s spooky time!
5. Pumpkin people
Supplies: small pumpkins (two pumpkins per ‘pumpkin person’), v-shaped tree twigs (two twigs per ‘pumpkin person’), paint, sponge brushes.
Take a smaller pumpkin and paint his eyes. Paint two white circles first, let the paint dry and create black swirly eye pupils. Grab a bigger pumpkin and stick two v-shaped tree twigs in it. Those will be the hands. You may paint black stripes on the bigger pumpkin as well.
Once the paint is dry, stack the smaller pumpkin on top of the bigger one and you’re done!
If you’re a daycare teacher, feel free to use these ideas with your class. Happy spooky days to y’all!
As a teacher, I’m always on the lookout for creative ideas to keep my students engaged, and this article was such a lifesaver! We tried the “spooky ghost lanterns” and “monster bookmarks” in class, and the kids absolutely loved them. It was so much fun watching them get into the Halloween spirit while also improving their fine motor skills. The instructions were clear, and the crafts were easy to set up.
Thank you for the great ideas! I’m planning to use a couple more of these before the holiday.