Spooktacular Halloween Activities and Crafts

Halloween season is nearly upon us. Get ready for the coming festival with your children or charges with these Halloween themed ideas that are perfect for all ages.

What you can do to get involved with Halloween this year…

Dressing up

Children love to dress up and Halloween gives them the ideal opportunity to do so. With lots of costume ideas, it can be hard to choose just one. Discover a few ideas that are perfect for trick or treating or Halloween parties.

A few dress up ideas to get you thinking…

• Cat
• Spider
• Pumpkin
• Ghost
• Bat
• Witch
• Wizard
• Mummy

Pumpkins

When you think of Halloween, a pumpkin is probably one of the first things that comes to mind. It may sound daft, but a lot of fun can be had with a pumpkin! Why not have a go at these fun pumpkin activities…

• Decorating – Have a go at decorating a pumpkin by using a selection of paints and materials. Get creative and see who can come up with the funkiest design.
• Carving – If you decide to have a pumpkin outside your house to entice in trick or treaters, get your children/ charges involved and see who can create the best design. Have a go at carving different shapes and faces and see whose is the scariest.
• Cooking – If your children/ charges love to bake, have a go at making delicious pumpkin soup, a pumpkin pie or some yummy muffins. With so many recipes to choose from, there are lots of ways to use up those leftover pumpkins.

Halloween Crafts

Have fun with these creepy craft ideas…

Pumpkin Stamps

What you will need:

• An apple
• Paint – a selection of colours
• Paper or card to print on
• Decorations – a selection of materials or colouring tools to decorate with when the paint has dried.

Cut an apple in half and apply a decent amount of paint to one side

Press down onto a piece of paper

Remove the apple and you should be left with a pumpkin shape

Wait to dry and decorate.

Satsuma & Munchkin Pumpkins – An easy, inexpensive craft idea…

All you will need for this easy, fun craft is a couple of satsumas or munchkin pumpkins and some permanent markers or googly eyes depending on preference.

Have a go using different colour pens and creating different designs.

We had a go and this is how ours turned out:

Cardboard Bats

What you will need:

• Black cardboard paper
• Googly eyes
• Pipe cleaners
• Extra decorations – optional
• Sellotape
• Sticky dots

All you need to do to create this simple craft is grab some card, cut in into A5 size and wrap it. Make sure you secure with some sellotape.

All bats need wings, so once you have created the body, add a pair of wings and decorate as you please. Draw on some features and use pipe cleaners for the ears and feet!

We had a go and this is how ours turned out:

Paper Plate Spiders

What you will need:

• Paper plates
• Black paper or cardboard
• Pipe cleaners – have a go at using different colours for each spider
• Googly eyes
• String
• Glue

To create this creepy craft, simply cut away the outside of a paper plate. You can either choose to paint this black or cut out a piece of card to stick over the top.

Once you have you body, don’t forget about the legs. Spiders have 8 legs and pipe cleaners work perfectly. Secure them down with some sticky tape and add some creepy eyes.

You may decide to create a small hole at the top of your spider to attach some string. This is a fun way of bringing your spider to life!

We had a go and this is how ours turned out:

String Spiders Web

What you will need:

• Lollypop sticks – have a go at using different colours. Orange and black work well
• Black string – have a go at using different colours to create different effects.
• Sticky dots or sellotape

Every spider has a web! Have a go at creating your own one.

All you have to do is stick together 3 lolly pop sticks in a ‘wheel shape’ manner. Once you have secured these down, grab some string and start wrapping it around! Once you have finished wrapping, secure down with a sticky dot or some tape.

We had a go and this is how ours turned out:

Paper Plate Ghosts

You will need:

• Black cardboard
• Paper plates
• A white pen (alternative colours can also be used)
• String
• Glue

If you have extra paper plates lying around, why not create a ghost out of one. Simply grab some black card and cut out a ‘ghost like’ template and assemble to the plate.

Decorate by adding different materials or colour in using a selection of different colours. Lots of fun and creation to be had!

To bring your ghost to life, create a small hole at the top and thread through some sting.

We had a go and this is how ours turned out:

Whatever your plans are this Halloween, have fun and enjoy getting creative making a variety of different art and crafts!

Written by Emily Martin for Harmony at Home Limited. All Rights Reserved, 2017