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Whether you are a teacher who needs simple decor for your classroom, or a youth leader looking for activities for your upcoming festivities, Halloween crafts are a great way to get everyone involved and in the spooky spirit.
I remember when I was a kid, I had this amazing teacher who used to read to us after lunch. It was my favorite part of the day! Why not get your charges started on a simple craft, then while they are working read a few spooky stories. There are so many great books out there, ranging from young reader favorites like The Big Pumpkin and The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything to books for older readers like Spooky Stories for a Dark and Stormy Night.
And here are a few fun, low key crafts that can be done in the classroom or at home.
Paper Plate Pumpkin
Easy Peasy DIY
With Halloween around the corner, it’s pretty easy to find orange colored paper plates. If you can't locate any, you can always use standard paper plates and let your young artists paint or color their own plate. Depending on the skill level of your charges, you can pre-cut all the paper shapes, or leave it up to them to make their own pieces.
1. Make the face by cutting basic shapes. Make extra to allow for layering and creative faces
2. Create the stem out of brown or tan paper
3. Make green ovals and leaf shapes out of paper. Or, for a bit more texture, use tissue paper instead of cut out paper as I’ve done in my video.
Creative family pumpkin patch
Finally, take all the finished artwork and create a pumpkin patch! Make extra leaves and have the kids write what they want to be for halloween that year, then create swirling vines with green paper streamers, and attach the leaves with tape to complete the pumpkin patch.
What’s fun about this craft is it’s split personality - leave it a plain white bag and it’s a ghost, add colored tissue paper and it becomes a ghoul or vampire. To make the base form, open the bag, carefully cut or punch a tiny hole in the middle of the bag bottom. Tie one end of your 3 foot string around a popsicle stick (secure with tape if you like), feed the free end of the string through the hole and pull through until the stick is tight up against the inside of the bag bottom. Take the scrap paper, crumple it into a ball, and drop into the bag. Squeeze the sides of the bag to lock the crumpled ball into place, secure with a piece of 6 inch string. Trim any excess. This is the head...decorate it’s face with markers. To add the cloak, simply take your tissue paper (fold in half for a short cloak) and drape it over the top of the ghost. Cut a small hole for the string to slip through, then secure the cloak at the neck with one last piece of 6 inch string. Hang your ghoul wherever you like to cause a bit of fright.
Pasta Skeletons
Dinner never looked this spooky!
The multitude of sizes and shapes of pasta makes for the perfect building material for a skeleton. Macaronis becomes ribs, mini shells become elbows, tortellini a head, farfalle a pelvis, and penne becomes femurs. And this is just the starting point. Choose shapes and sizes that are the appropriate size for you age group. I find it easier to use larger pastas with younger children. Use black paper plates as a base and white school glue to attach the pieces. It’s also a great project for learning the bones in the body!
Great recycled craft idea!
Pipe cleaners and packing peanuts make natural friends. The pipe cleaners can be inserted easily into the packing peanuts to make a variety of creatures, not just skeletons - use markers to define the eyes and other creepy body parts.
Make a bunch and hang them everywhere
You can make the forms ahead of time to save time. What I love about this spider web is there is really no way to mess it up. Kids take yarn and wrap it around and between the stick form. To make the spider simply push the four pipe cleaners half way through the hole in a large bead and bend down on either side to make the 8 legs. The spider can be dangled from an additional piece of yarn, or placed somewhere on the actual web.
Wax Paper Ghost
Simply spooky
This is a very quick craft for ages 6 and up. I love it when the ghosties takes flight when hung in the slightest breeze. Take a sheet of wax paper about 18 inches long. rip off a 6 inch section and wad that into a ball. Place the ball in the center of the wax paper, and wrap up the sides like you would a piece of candy. Twist the covered ball twice. You now have a ghost. poseable arms can be made by twisting the side pieces. Tie a string around the neck to hang, and add a spooky face with a sharpie pen. You can make an entire ghostly army in minutes!
I hope some of these crafts will find their way into your spooktacular home. For me, there’s nothing like a little handmade ghost or ghoul to make my day frighteningly good!