It’s time to paint the pumpkins and find the perfect trick-or-treat costumes for your little ones. But don’t limit your Halloween fun and celebrations to just one or two nights of candy. Instead, get creative with these easy Halloween crafts, perfect for preschoolers. You don’t have to be crafty to create these spooky-fun and simple memories in celebrating the festive Halloween season all month long.

Benefits of Arts and Crafts for Preschoolers

Studies show that hands-on creativity with crafts has learning benefits for preschoolers:

• Enhance their fine motor skills
• Boost their creativity and imagination
• Improve their cognitive development
• Promote their emotional expression
• Encourage social interaction
• Boost their self-esteem
• Enhance their academic skills

Explore easy craft activities that use basic household items you likely have on-hand. Check out these spooky and simple Halloween crafts below. Then hang their spooky, fun creations on the refrigerator, suspend them from ceiling tiles, showcase them on tabletops, or tape them to windows for festive crafts on display.

1. Paper Plate Pumpkins

Paint a paper plate orange and add a green stem using construction paper. Let your preschool-aged kids draw or glue on the face.

Supplies needed: paper plate, orange marker, crayon, or paint, construction paper in black, brown, and green, scissors, and glue.

Directions: Color or paint one side of the plate orange. Cut out the eyes, the nose, and the mouth from black construction paper. Glue the face pieces onto the plate. Cut the stem out of the brown construction paper. Glue the stem to the back of the plate at the top. Cut two thin strips from the green construction paper. Wrap strips around a pencil to give a curly effect. Glue the green strips onto the already attached stem.

2. Ghost Hand prints

Use white paint to make hand prints on black construction paper. Add your favorite googly eyes and a mouth with a black marker to turn them into ghosts.

Supplies needed: black card stock or black construction paper, white acrylic paint, paintbrush, and black marker.

Directions: Use the paintbrush to paint a medium layer of white paint on the child’s hand. Press their hand firmly down on the black card stock or construction paper. Repeat if they want more than one ghost. Allow the paint to completely dry. Use black markers to draw eyes and a mouth on each ghost.

3. Popsicle Stick Spider Webs

Glue popsicle sticks in a star shape, paint them black, and wrap them with yarn to create spider webs. Add a plastic spider for extra preschool-aged fun.

Supplies needed: popsicle sticks, glue or a hot glue gun (recommended), tempera paint in Halloween colors, yarn in black, white, and orange, scissors, and optional spider stickers or plastic spiders.

Directions: Glue popsicle sticks together in the center to make a spiderweb form. Paint sticks with tempera paint. Allow the paint to dry completely. Cut off a long piece of yarn, about 6 feet. Tie yarn to one popsicle stick toward the center. Wrap the yarn around each stick of the web form and keep the yarn tight. Once the yarn is fully wrapped in a web effect around the popsicle sticks, tie a knot. Cut off the excess yarn or keep it intact and use it to hang up with webs. Optional: attach spider stickers or plastic spiders.

4. Toilet Paper Roll Bats

Paint empty toilet paper rolls black, add wings made from construction paper, and attach googly eyes and fangs to create cute bats.

Supplies needed: toilet paper roll, black paint, paintbrush, black construction paper, glue or tape, two googly eyes

Directions: Fold the ends of the toilet paper roll inward on each end to form a curved effect. Paint the roll with any black paint. Draw and cut out bat wings from the black construction paper. Allow the paint to completely dry. Attach the wings to the back of the painted toilet paper roll. Glue two googly eyes to the front of the roll.

5. Cotton Ball Ghosts

Glue cotton balls onto construction paper to form ghost shapes. Add googly eyes and a spooky mouth with a black marker.

Supplies needed: cotton balls, white construction paper or card stock, glue, black marker, two googly eyes

Directions: Draw and cut out a ghost shape from the white paper. Glue the cotton balls onto the ghost. Glue on your friendly ghost’s googly eyes and draw a mouth with a black marker.

6. Pumpkin Playdough

Make homemade orange playdough and provide pumpkin-shaped cookie cutters. Preschool kids can create their own mini pumpkins.

Supplies needed: 1 cup flour, ½ cup salt, 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice seasoning, 2 tablespoons cream of tartar, 1 tablespoon of oil, 1 cup boiling water, orange food coloring, pumpkin-shaped cookie cutters

Directions: In a medium-sized bowl, have your little ones help to combine the flour, salt, cream of tartar, and pumpkin spice seasoning. In a separate bowl, combine oil and food coloring to the boiling water. Let them stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix until combined. Remove and place your dough onto a floured surface and knead until it’s no longer sticky. Roll out your dough and use the cookie cutters to create mini pumpkins.

7. Egg Carton Spiders

Cut egg cartons into individual cups, paint them black, and add pipe cleaner legs and googly eyes to make spiders.

Supplies needed: an egg carton, scissors, black paint, paintbrush, four pipe cleaners, a sharp pencil, googly eyes, glue

Directions: Cut one cup from the egg carton. Use a sharp pencil to gently poke two holes in each side of the cup. Paint the cup black and allow it to dry completely. Thread the four pipe cleaners through the holes to make eight legs. Bend your pipe cleaners so they look like legs and trim if necessary. Use the glue to attach the googly eyes, and voila!

8. Monster Bookmarks

Cut strips of colorful paper and let your preschool kids decorate them with googly eyes, stickers, and markers to create their own monster bookmarks as fun craft that supports reading and creativity.

Supplies needed: construction paper in your favorite various colors, white printer paper, googly eyes, scissors, glue stick, optional: stickers

Directions: Cute colored construction paper into a 2”x 6” strip. From the same piece of construction paper, cut out a 2”x 2” square. Cut a second identical square from white printer paper. Cut along the bottom of the white square in a zigzag pattern to form the teeth. Glue the white square on top of the colored square so that the teeth hang off the edge and are visible underneath. Flip the squares over. Glue the square with teeth to the top of the strip of paper, leaving 3/4 of the square un-glued to form the mouth. Add and glue another zigzag strip of white paper below the first one to create a second set of teeth. Decorate the bookmark with additional colored construction paper to add hair, ears, and horns. Use the glue to attach googly eyes.

9. Jack-o’-Lantern Masks

Cut out jack-o’-lantern shapes from orange construction paper, let kids decorate with markers and stickers, and attach a popsicle stick for a handle.

Supplies needed: orange construction paper, green construction paper, black marker, popsicle stick, scissors, glue

Directions: Draw and cut out a pumpkin shape from the orange construction paper. Draw and cut out a stem from the green construction paper. Glue the stem to the back of the pumpkin. Use the black marker to draw out the eyes and the mouth of the pumpkin. Cut out eyes and mouth for a mask effect. Glue the popsicle stick onto the back and bottom of the pumpkin to be used as a handle.

10. Paper Bag Puppets

Use brown paper bags, construction paper, and markers to create spooky characters like witches, vampires, and Frankenstein’s monster with your preschooler.

Supplies needed: brown paper lunch bags, acrylic paint in various colors, paint brushes, construction paper in various colors, white paper, glue stick, scissors, markers, googly eyes

Directions: Paint the bags with acrylic paint or attach construction paper to the outside with glue. Cut out shapes to embellish the bags and attach them with glue. Draw eyes with markers or glue on googly eyes. Draw and cut out teeth from the white paper and attach them with glue.

Preschoolers Have Fun and Learn at Inspiring Minds Preschool

Make spooky, fun memories this Halloween with your preschooler with these festive and easy-to-do crafts.

For more preschool fun, be sure to enroll your little one at Inspiring Minds Preschool. Our preschool program includes skills-building crafts like these and so much more.

Get your preschool application today or call (954) 933-2982 to learn more.