Halloween Craft Ideas for Toddlers

Or you could even let them paint paper plates like pumpkins and maybe cut holes for eyes and attach string so they could be like masks. Hope this helps a little.

I used to teach preschool and one of my favorite (and easy) crafts was to paint a spider. Paint the palm and 4 fingers (no thumb) of the right hand black and place on a piece of paper sideways (fingers facing the right side of the paper). Do the same with the left hand, but overlap the palms and have the fingers face the left side of the page. (I hope that makes sense, it's easier to see a picture). Glue wiggly eyes, and you have a spider!

You could also pre-paint craft styrofoam balls black (use kids paint, spray paint eats the styrofoam). After they are dry, have the kids put in black pipe cleaners for the legs, and glue on wiggly eyes. You could also attatch a string to hang it.

Pre-cut pumpkin shapes from orange paper. Pre-cut black shapes for mouth, nose, eyes, etc. for the face of a jack-o-lantern. Have kids glue their silly face jack-o-lantern. Make different patterns for the face shapes. You could also add yarn for hair, or arms and legs if you want.

Also, the slimy goo is always a big hit! Mix corn starch and water (I don't remember the exact ratio, but you could also just eyeball it like I did, it should be slimy, but "solid"). Add food coloring if desired. It is both a solid, and a liquid. When it's on the table it oozes out flat, but you can pick it up, then it "melts" through your fingers. It washes out very easily!!! I've always been able to clean it up with water.

Paint the bottom of a child's foot white, then put on a black piece of paper. Paint 3 dots on the heel for the eyes and mouth (the heel is the top) to make a friendly ghost.

If you're doing a cars/trucks theme also, you can paint tire track. Put black paint on a flat paper plate, and have the child drive the car through the paint (slowly!). Then have them drive it on a piece of paper, and you have tire tracks! This was always a favorite in my classroom!

Of course, the tootsie pop covered with kleenex is always a good treat!

Keep in mind that not all families celebrate Halloween like others. You might want to consider who's coming, and maybe keep it the lighter, friendly side (no witches or anything too scary).

Baby wipes are a staple to keep by your side when painting, if you're not right next to a sink. They clean up kids hands very well! Just a few ideas, hope it helps!!

You might also try the foam stickers that come in kits. I know Michael's/JoAnne's have little kits in turkey themes and I'll be they have them for Halloween. The advantage of these is...no glue needed! Good luck!

They're already selling them - but if I were you I'd splurge on the fake mini pumpkins. That way, they're like the christmas decorations you can use for years and years that they make in preschool

S.

I have seen mini pumpkins at the Wal-Mart in Saginaw, so I am sure that they are probably in other stores. You might also think about getting a whole bunch of plain buckets and let them paint them for their trick-or-treat buckets.

My middle child's birthday is October 10th and last year we had a pumpkin Pinata at her party. I don't think there's a problem with having a halloween craft at the birthday.

Last year I went to Micheal's and bought flat wooden pumpkins and halloween puffy stickers. The kids painted the pumpkins and while we waited for them to dry they decorated cookies. After they were dry they got to put ton's of puffy sticker on them. They had a blast and it was easy enough for them to do without much help. You know at that age they love to everything themselves.

I have seen some of the stores with mini pumpkins for sale already. I also noticed either in Parents or Good Housekeeping that they had craft ideas to decorate the mini pumpkins. You could also make Halloween cards with the Halloween shapes and cut-outs that are used generally for scrapbooking. The kids could just use the stick paste to stick them to the construction paper and sign their names. You could already have some cards with some mildly scary lines too- "Have a Spooktacular Halloween" and the child could decorate with ghosts, pumpkins, bats, witch and headless horseman type shapes. You might look in these two magazines for some additional ideas. Good luck.

I just saw mini pumpkins at Walmart yesterday when I was there.

These are all great ideas - have fun!! I just bought a bag of mini pumpkins at Target for $5.

Hi S.,
I work at a daycare with toddlers. Some crafts we do for Halloween is to paint the bottom of their foot white and put it on a piece of paper upside down. Then use their thumbs to paint two black eyes. It's supposed to look like a ghost. It's really cute. Another craft we do is stuff a brown lunch sack with newspaper and paint it orange. Then you bunch the top of the bag like the stem of a pumpkin and wrap it with tape and paint it brown. Then you use a pipe cleaner and make it look like a curly cue by wrapping it around a pencil. Then tie that around the stem.