I decided to have a Halloween craft day for my son and nephews. They are (almost 1), 22 months and 2 years old. Although they are young, that wasn't going to stop me from finding crafts they could do! We made pumpkin sun catchers, bat & pumpkin paintings, played with a Halloween "Creepy Crawler" sensory bin and of course ate some dirt cups! I typically keep it pretty healthy for Hunter but you have to have special treats once in a while!
I did this as a whole "Halloween Craft Day" so it took a lot of prep but each individual activity wouldn't be too time consuming on its own.
Mess Free Painting
Our first activity was painting! JJ is our baby. I say "our baby" like we share him but I am lucky enough to be very close to my sister and my favorite people in the world (my nephews)! So anyway since he is still pretty little, we decided to do a mess free painting activity for him.
Print an outline of a pumpkin on card stock.
Cut it out and place it in a gallon size ziploc bag.
Squeeze a few paint colors on the picture, squeeze the air out and seal the bag.
Then they can push the paint around and fill in the picture.
When they're done, take it out and let it dry.
For the "older" boys, we let them paint a blank sheet with some fall colored paint. Once it dried we put bat stickers on to make it a Halloween themed picture. They love stickers and this is an easy activity to do for any occasion.
*I have linked to this before but this is the best painting smock for little ones! It fits babies under a year and has velcro on the back to keep it closed. As they get a little bigger, I just cut the wrist elastic and it still works great! - Crayola Smock
Pumpkin Sun Catchers
Our second craft was pumpkin sun catchers. This is a great craft for the little ones because they can really do it on their own. Here are the steps to prep this activity:
Cut up some orange and gold tissue paper into small squares (about 1-in).
Cut out the outline of a pumpkin on orange construction paper.
Place a piece of contact paper (sticky side up) on the table with the edges taped down so it doesn't move. (It needs to be bigger than the pumpkin cut out).
Place the pumpkin outline on the contact paper.
Let the children place the tissue paper squares on the contact paper to fill in the pumpkin.
Once they're done, put another piece of contact paper on top and cut out the pumpkin.
Our boys didn't have the patience to sit and cover the whole thing but they still came out really cute!
Bug and Skeleton Sensory Bin I have done rice sensory play with Hunter before but never dyed the rice. It was easy to do and made it so much more fun! For each color, you add 1 cup of rice, 1/2 tsp vinegar and food coloring to a ziploc bag. Shake vigorously. Let dry overnight on a baking sheet. That's it! I bought some plastic bugs and skeletons from the dollar store and hid them in the rice. Also from the dollar store, I picked up some scoopers, tongs and small bowls. I like to put my smaller sensory bin in a larger bin to reduce the mess and if it's warm enough I like to do it outside. This sensory bin was the biggest hit of the day!
It was a great day and I can't wait to do it again for the next holiday!
I hope you and your little ones can enjoy some of these Halloween activities!
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