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8 Halloween crafts for preschoolers to do this spooky season

Halloween crafts for kids that won't scare your budget or preschoolers

The spooky fun of Halloween is almost here. Parents and kids alike can’t wait for the costumes, decorations, movies, and candy that comes with the season. The crafts for your little ghosts or goblins to make are also a major part of the holiday. The best part is that it doesn’t even matter how they turn out, creating them is what it’s all about.

Whether you are a teacher, parent, or fun aunt/uncle, you need to have some crafts up your sleeve for the little ones. We know having to come up with ideas for tiny humans might be difficult and could get costly, but we’re here to help. Let’s look at eight Halloween crafts for preschoolers that will keep those little hands busy with items you could get at your local dollar store, so you also stay on budget.

Two young kids doing a Halloween craft together.
Ground Picture / Shutterstock

Halloween crafts with candy

Spider suckers

What you’ll need

  • Suckers of your choice
  • Black pipe cleaner
  • Googly eyes
  • Glue
  • Scissors

A craft you can eat is always welcome. Cut the pipe cleaner to the length wanted for the legs. All your little one needs to do (besides not eating all the suckers before the craft is done) is wind the pipe cleaner around the sucker for the legs.

A few drops of glue to add the googly eyes where they want, and you have cute little spiders that won’t crawl around the house. Hand them out to the neighbors to bring smiles to everyone.

Ghoulish suckers

What you’ll need

  • Suckers of your choice
  • Small coffee filters
  • Black marker
  • Black string or pipe cleaner

Another fun way to present suckers is to turn them into ghosts. Place the coffee filter over the suckers and use the black pipe cleaner or string to tie it in place. Draw a face on it with the black marker. Super easy! These would be great to hand out as a treat in class or to make your trick-or-treating candy stand out.

A Halloween craft being worked on
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Halloween crafts that double as keepsakes

Ghostly feet

What you’ll need

  • Black paper
  • White paint
  • White crayon

This is a great way to capture the size of those little feet and turn it into art. Have your child dip their feet into white paint and then place the foot on the black paper. Once you’ve created a little path of feet, take the white crayon and outline the feet in a fun or silly pattern. Keep this one to see how tiny their feet used to be or give it to a grandparent for a keepsake.

Want to take this one up a notch? Use washable paint, take it outside, and decorate your sidewalk.

Bat hands

What you’ll need

  • Black constructions paper
  • Googly eyes
  • Glue
  • Scissors
  • Pencil
  • Glitter is optional

For this adorable craft, you’ll need those tiny hands. Use the pencil to trace the little hands on the black paper. Once the hand pattern is cut out, you’ll need to cut a black circle in proportion to the hands and some triangle ears.

Have your toddler glue the hand-shaped wings and triangle ears on the circle where they want and add googly eyes. If you don’t mind the mess, have the kiddos add purple and orange glitter at the end. Let your little one pick where they want their bats to hang out around the house.

A group of children doing a Halloween craft
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Halloween crafts that won’t make a huge mess

Candy corn creation

What you’ll need

  • White paper
  • Orange paper
  • Yellow paper
  • Glue
  • Scissors
  • Black pen

While candy corn might not be everyone’s favorite Halloween candy, it makes a great craft idea. Cut out a large candy corn shape and use a black marker or pen to draw lines marking the three different sections.

Your child will tear up the yellow, orange, and white papers into smaller pieces. Then have them glue those pieces into the sections you marked. If they want to switch up the color order, why not?

Cotton ball ghost

What you’ll need

  • Cotton balls
  • White paper
  • Black paper
  • Glue
  • Scissors

This one never fails to entertain kids, is easy to do, and super cheap to make. Cut out eye and mouth shapes from the black paper and a ghost shape from the white paper. Let the kiddo glue the cotton balls all over the white paper. They can leave them as is or stretch the cotton out for a different ghostly look. Once they like the layout of the cotton balls, they’ll glue the eyes and mouth on top.

Pumpkin plate

What you’ll need

  • Paper plates
  • Orange paint or marker
  • Black paper

Pumpkins that don’t need to be carved? Perfect! If your child tends to get messy with paint, lay down newspaper first. Let them paint or color the whole plate orange. Cut out eyes, a nose, and a mouth out of the black paper. Once the plate is dry, glue the face pieces on. Tape them up in the windows for the neighbors to see.

Covered pumpkins

What you’ll need

  • Smaller pumpkins of various size
  • Paper of various colors
  • Glue

Carving pumpkins is fun, but it’s even better to let kids decorate them on their own. Sure, you could give them paint, but at that age, it only turns into a gray mess.

Instead, get a bunch of small pumpkins so they can decorate more than one. Have the kids tear up the paper in any shape or pattern they want. Glue the paper all over the pumpkin.

You could also use Washi tape and let your kid decorate the whole pumpkin that way. Less mess than carving and you’ll still be able to display their work on the porch.

Any of these Halloween crafts for kids will make enjoyable memories for everyone and get your home decorated for the season. Fill up fall break with these activities and turn your home into a Halloween haven. Let your kid’s excitement for Halloween bubble over into their creativity with some simple supplies and endless enjoyment!

Dannielle Beardsley
Dannielle has written for various websites, online magazines, and blogs. She loves everything celebrity and her favorite…
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