Halloween Crafts/Activities
We’re always looking for easy and fun activities that will keep our kids busy and entertained. Also, we can brag about what great parents we are and how we “limited screen time” and did these amazing Pinterest worthy activities, right moms and dads?!
Since, it’s almost Halloween we found a few activities that are easy to set up, but that will keep them entertained and amazed. Win/win… it’s what we’re all about.
Halloween Sensory Bin (via Busy Toddler): I’m all about sensory bins. I always set them up for my 2 year old, and every single time, my 5 and 7 year old join and it keeps them all busy! I even find myself playing with it!
What you’ll need:
Black Plastic Spiders
Rice (I buy the huuuuge bags now bc you’ll be able to use it in every bin)
Orange Food Dye
White Vinegar
Storage Container
Directions:
Dye the rice first. Use orange for Halloween! Dump the white rice in a bag. Add 1 Tablespoon of vinegar for every 1 cup of rice. We used 5 cups of rice, so 5 tbsp of vinegar. Add in the desired amount of food coloring and shake it up. Pour the rice on a cookie sheet and let it dry for at least 3 hours.
Once it’s dry, pour it in a storage container. Add a bunch of black spiders (and any other Halloween items) for spooky, creepy crawly fun!
Benefits:
Use plastic tongs and an empty jar. Try to capture the spiders and put them in the jar. (Fine Motor)
For younger kids, they can use fingers (pincer grasp) to put into the bin.
Free play- keeps them entertained and gives you time to sip some coffee… while it’s hot! Use funnels, scoops and cups to keep the fun going.
2. Glow in the dark Ghost Halloween Sensory Bottle (via Rhythms of Play): A fun Halloween DIY toy. This can also be used as a luminary or lantern and a Halloween Decoration. This bottle is also a great calming toy for an anxious child. The glow in the dark loom bands can be ‘charged’ by placing them under a regular light, or out in the sun. To make the glow in the dark ghost loom bands brighter, use a black light, or put glow sticks in.
What you’ll need:
Water Bottle
Goo Gone
White glow in the dark loom bands
Water
Permanent Marker
Super Glue
White Glow stick (optional)
Blacklight flashlight (optional)
Directions:
Take your water bottle and peel off the sticker. You can use goo gone to remove sticky residue
Fill bottle half way up with water
Drop White glow in the dark loom bands into bottle. Use the entire bag.
Fill the bottle the rest of the way up with water.
Place the lid on the bottle
Use a permanent marker to draw a ghost face
If you want to add glow sticks in at some point, don’t glue. Otherwise, glue top on.
3. Spider Handprint Craft (Via The Best Ideas for Kids): It’s not Halloween without spiders! This is a fun activity, and also a cute decoration to hang.
What you’ll need:
Orange construction paper
Black construction paper
Black glitter flue (or make your own with regular glue and black glitter)
Googly eyes
Glue Stick
Directions:
Fold your black paper two times. Trace only 4 fingers (skip the thumb) and leave about 1/2 an inch from where the lowest cutting point will be. You don’t want to trace the whole hand since when you cut it out the body of the spider will be too big. Also, make sure you are tracing on the part of the folded paper where the two folded sections are (so they will each turn into a spider). Otherwise, you can trace your hand twice or just do one spider.
Cut out your handprint. You should now have two spiders.
Draw spider webs on the orange construction paper with pencil or black pen. Add two web lines coming down for where you want to attach your spider handprints to.
Carefully trace your web lines with the black glitter glue. Allow it to dry.
Now, glue your spider handprints and googly eyes!
4. Pumpkin Fizz Halloween Science Activity (Via Busy Toddler): My kids looooove experiments. Especially fizzy, colorful ones. We do a non holiday version of this with cups and typical colors, but this is so cute when it’s geared towards Halloween.
What you’ll need:
Mini plastic pumpkins
Baking Soda
Vinegar
Squeeze bottles
Black food coloring
Orange food coloring
Storage Container
Directions:
Put the mini pumpkins in the storage bins
Add 1/4 cup of baking soda in each
Put vinegar in the squeeze bottles and add orange food coloring to one, and black to the other
Squeeze the colored vinegar into the pumpkins and watch the magic happen.
The baking soda and vinegar chemical reaction AMAZES kids. Also, once the fizz has gone down, you can just dump out the vinegar from the pumpkins and have them do it again.
Benefits:
Learn cause and effect
Basic chemistry (brainiacs that they are)
Hand eye coordination
Grip Strength
5. Pumpkin tic-tac-toe (Via Toddler Approved): It doesn’t get much easier than this. It’s a classic game of tic tac toe with pumpkins. No magic, no mystery, just fun!
What you’ll need:
5 small orange pumpkins
4 small white pumpkins (or make it more fun and get all one color pumpkin and paint them 2 different colors)
Easel paper
scissors
markers
Green construction paper
markers
Directions:
Make a paper pumpkin board out of easel paper and cut it out. Add a stem and draw some lines to make a tic tac toe board.
Using white and orange pumpkins, take turns placing them in the squares. Whoever gets three in a row first, wins!
Benefits:
Turn taking skills
Predict and problem solve
HAPPY HALLOWEEN AND HAVE FUN!
