Crafts to keep your little monsters amused during October half term

Autumn half-term can be a terrifying time for parents, but thanks to Halloween near the end of the week, children can unleash their creativity making ghosts, goblins, and all things spooooooky…

Bat Mobiles

Materials: Black paper, googly eyes, glitter, scissors, string, glue, and a stick or hoop.

Cut out bat shapes from the black paper. Decorate them with googly eyes or glitter if desired. Attach each bat to a length of string and secure the string to a stick, hoop, or hanger to create a mobile. Hang it in doorways or from the ceiling for a spooky effect.

Phantom Lanterns

Materials: Mason jars, white tissue paper, glue, battery-powered tea lights, and a black marker.

Cover the mason jars with white tissue paper using glue. Draw ghost faces on the jars with the black marker. Place a battery-powered tea light inside each jar to create a glowing ghost lantern.

Scary Spider

Materials: Black pom-poms, scissors, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, and glue.

Glue googly eyes onto a black pom-pom to create the spider’s body. Cut pipe cleaners into equal lengths and attach them as spider legs. Bend the legs to give your spiders a lifelike posture and get ready to scare your siblings.

Haunted Houses

Materials: Shoe boxes, paint, paintbrush, scissors, glue, small figurines, and tracing paper.

Paint the shoe box to resemble a haunted house. Add windows covered with tracing paper to let the light in and make a viewing hole on one end of your box. Now create your spooky scene using figurines and decorations of your choice.

Witchy Wands

Materials: Wooden sticks, paint, glitter, beads, string, and glue.

Paint the wooden sticks in spooky colours like black, purple, or green. Decorate them with glitter, beads, or string and be sure to hide your spell book.

Potion Bottles

Materials: Glass bottles or jars, food colour, water, glitter, markers and small plastic decorations like spiders or bats.

Fill the glass bottles with water and food colouring. Add glitter and small decorations to resemble spooky potion ingredients. Seal the bottles and accompany your display with a ‘Do Not Drink’ sign.

Mummy Pencil Pots

Materials: Empty tin cans, white gauze or fabric strips, glue, and googly eyes.

Ensure the top lid of a clean can is properly removed and there are no sharp edges. Wrap the tin can with white gauze or fabric strips, leaving space to glue on googly eyes for the mummy’s face. Use the holder for pencils, pens, or even Halloween treats (because they’re not mummy’s, they’re mine).