Toddler Group Tuesday - Halloween

This week is our last week before our half term break so we've been making Friendly Ghosts and Smiley Spiders for Halloween.

To make the Ghosts you will need:
- White card
- Various white collage bits
- Glue
- Pencil
- Scissors
- White yarn/string
- Tape
- Black card/fabric/paper/foam
- Red card/paper/foam/fabric

First you need to draw a ghost shape on your white card in pencil. I made several different shapes for our toddlers. Some are round with wiggly trailing tails, others resemble a pacman ghost. The thing about ghosts is, they really can be any shape you like!
Cut out your ghost shape. Tape a loop of yarn or string to the back of your ghost for hanging.

Glue white collage pieces all over your ghost.

We've used pieces of lace, cut up doilies, white tissue paper and cotton wool.

Cut two ovals from the black material and glue in place for eyes.
Cut a mouth from the red material and glue in place.

This is the 'surprised' mouth shape.

I cut several different shaped mouths for the children to choose from. One is a big wide open smile, one is a wailing mouth which is shaped a bit like a wiggly figure eight, and the third shape is a surprised mouth which is shaped like a fat comma.

All finished!

Alternatives: You could add bow ties, head bows or spiders. You could make it double sided by sandwiching your string between two cut-outs and decorating both sides. You could add a speech bubble 'BOO!' written/painted on a halloween coloured piece of card/paper. You could make a painted version - instead of cutting your ghost shape from white card, choose a suitable halloween colour (black, grey, orange, purple, green). Once your ghost is cut out, use white paint to handprint all over, then glue the facial features as before.

This is the Smaller Person's Spider (his second handprint was quite gloopy!).

To make the spider you will need:
- Halloween coloured paper/card
- Black paint
- Glue
- White card
- Black marker/felt tip pen
- Scissors
- Pink paper/card

This is simple, fun, (very) messy and quick.
First print a black handprint on your Halloween coloured paper/card with the fingers facing out towards the edge of the paper. Next print another black handprint, overlapping the palm with the palm of the first print, and with the fingers facing towards the opposite side of the paper. This is your spider body.

Cut circles from the white card. Draw a black pupil in the centre of the circles for eyes. (we only cut enough for 2 eyes per spider because of the number of children we have, but you could cut enough for the full set of eight!). Glue them in place.
Next cut a smiley mouth shape from the pink paper/card and glue in place.

All finished!

Alternatives: You could of course use googly eyes (maybe in different sizes) instead of cutting your own eyes. You could also add some white triangular fangs to the mouth. Perhaps your spider needs a little colour? Glue sequin 'spots' to the top of his body, add craft pom poms to the end of his legs for little shoes, maybe add a ribbon bow tie under his body or a feather/some fake fur to the top his head for a funky hair-do!

Don't forget the Tube Owl craft we made a few weeks ago is suitable for Halloween and I did make a couple of alternative suggestions at the end of that post to change the craft from Owls to Bats or Fire Imps! You can also see a couple of Halloween things that we've made in the past in this post here.

Enjoy the half term break for those that have it this next week. We'll be back with Toddler Group Tuesday on 6th November.