Halloween is just around the corner, which means it’s a great time to get your spook on. Trying out some kids halloween crafts gives you a great excuse to pull out all those unused bits and bobs lying around the house to turn them into a little spooky fun.
My little miss 3 let out a small squeal of delight when she got home from pre-school to see we were making witchy puppets. We’ve been talking a lot about Halloween lately and she’s really enjoying telling family ghost stories around the dinner table (which really aren’t that scary because, “the ghosts and witches are all good witches right mummy?”).
So what better way to bring these stories to life than to create some spooky Halloween craft puppets. We even recorded a silly spooky puppet show that was watched over and over again!
These puppets are super easy to make and can be adapted for all different age groups. My little miss 3 was able to make these puppets with some help from me. But from about the age of 5 upwards they’ll be flying solo, creating all kinds of crazy ghoulish creatures.
Materials you will need
This is just a general list of materials
Different types of fabric about 30cm x 30cm
1 medium sized polystyrene ball
1 piece of dowel
Pipe cleaners
PVA glue
glue gun – optional
Egg carton and a small ball of play dough to stand the dowel in
Optional materials for decorating
Sticker gems
Buttons
Bells
Wool
String
Feathers
Googly eyes
What to do
Attach the polystyrene ball to the dowel by simply pushing it in. I used an egg carton to place the dowel in while we were making our puppets.
Next choose your fabric and place it over the polystyrene ball and wrap a pipe cleaner around to secure the fabric to the ball. This creates the head.
From here it is all about letting your kid’s imagination go wild. If you give them different materials to play with, they will love exploring different ways of creating their own ghoulish creations.
Here are some tips to scaffold this halloween craft
- For small children it can become frustrating sticking objects on that don’t stick easily with PVA glue. So when setting up the activity add mostly objects that have adhesive backs and that stick easily with glue like feather, paper and wool etc. That way your little ones will feel super confident because they can do most of it themselves.
- If you have a glue gun, the older kids love using them and it means they can glue almost anything to their puppets. It also lets your kids know you trust them and gives them opportunities to learn boundaries.
- Dress your puppets up by making little hats out of paper and capes out of fabric.
Our kids are learning and developing
Fine motor skills – Practising fine motor skills helps small children perform everyday skills like cutting, self care tasks and pencil skills. Small children practise their fine motor skills by using the small muscles in their hands to pick up, stick and glue small objects onto the puppets.
Problem solving skills – Children gain experience in thinking through problems, exploring solutions and making decisions on their own. Making puppets gives children the chance to work out how objects can be attached securely. Just stand back and let your kids work out how to attach more difficult items, and watch their confidence grow.
Check out more Halloween inspired craft and recipe ideas on our Halloween page.
