Full Moons, Spinning Ghosts and Creepy Spiders

I'm falling behind on my Halloween crafts, so I have to combine a few in one post. I'll try to keep it short! Back when we made scarecrow silhouettes, I had a hard time deciding if I wanted to make them with sunsets or full moons as the background. I finally realized that I should save the full moon for a Halloween craft. But this ended up being more of a fall craft. Anyway, I drew a big circle on white paper, making it the size of a coffee filter. Then I squirted white and yellow paint in the middle of it and the kids mixed it up and spread it around the circle.

 Then I placed a coffee filter right on top of it and the kids pressed down a bit.

(Sorry about the ghostly hands!) After only a minute or two, I peeled it off. This gave the moons a little texture, which didn't really show up on camera, but it was there! When they were dry I cut them out and glued them to a piece of black paper. The kids painted trees and hills and anything else they wanted onto their paper.

I had also used a stencil and cut out some bats, cats and owls for them to glue on.

The black paint made the moon curl up a bit, as well as the black paper itself.

I just used some double stick tape under the moon edges and then flattened the whole thing between two heavy filing containers.
Earlier in the week we made spinning ghosts to hang in our room. I drew a very simple ghost pattern onto white paper and gave it a long "tail." I cut out the ghost part because I knew that would be difficult for my kids to do themselves.

So all they had to do was cut out the rest of the tail and draw in a face on both sides.

Last week we made spider rings.

I got the idea from Fantastic Fun and Learning so go there for directions. We made the small ones and only used one pom pom. I hot glued the pom pom on, but the kids used tacky glue to add the wiggle eyes. They LOVED them!

We also went on a field trip last week and picked out a pumpkin for our classroom. The kids painted it black, green and purple and then we made it into a spider. We glued on 8 wiggle eyes and two fangs cut from a small paper plate. I used large pipe cleaners for the legs and stuck them right into the pumpkin.

I must have been on a spider kick because over the weekend my daughter and I made a garbage bag spider. She was a really good helper when it came to filling the bags with leaves! I used electrical tape to tape the two bags together, glue dots to attach the wiggle eyes (I decided to just do 4 since not all spiders have 8 eyes), made the fangs from a paper plate again, and used JUMBO pipe cleaners for the legs. I used electrical tape to attach the legs as well. It now sits in the bare spot where all my roses used to be, waiting to greet trick-or-treaters!

I don't know if he's weather-proof, but luckily it's been a dry week and the legs are holding up just fine. I did use a few tent stakes to keep some of the legs in place, but even those without a stake are still standing. Yay!

Paper Plate Ghosts

I saw this easy ghost craft on Kaboose and thought it would be perfect for a Friday. (I like to end the week with simple crafts!) We used little paper plates and didn't bother making arms. First the kids made a face on the plate using markers.

 Then they flipped it over and glued on white crepe paper streamers.

That's it!

I hung them from the lights of our classroom.

I'm excited to make more decorations for our room next week!

Felt Ghost Treat Holder

Several years ago (probably close to a decade), one of my sisters bought me a cute felt ghost that had a little pouch for treats.

The felt pieces were sewn together and the eyes, mouth and bow were glued on. The words were embroidered to the pouch. I immediately thought how easy that would be to make myself -- and without having to sew or embroider anything! I've made this for a few friends in the past, but I've also done it with my class a couple of times. And once I even used construction paper instead of felt and it still turned out cute. First I made a template by tracing the ghost.

(I put it on black felt so it would be easier for you to see.) Then I traced the whole ghost onto white felt and also traced the bottom part a second time to make the pouch.

The felt I used for this example was really thin. I'd recommend a thicker piece so you can't see through it. Anyway, I used craft glue around the pouch, except for the top, and glued it onto the ghost. I glued on wiggle eyes and a black felt mouth. (I chose to make my mouth open instead of a smile.) And I glued on orange ribbon for the bow. To hang it, I used a hole punch at the top and tied black ribbon on. But I think gluing it to the back of the head would work as well. I used puffy paint to write "BOO!" on the pouch. I didn't have any candy on hand, so I stuck a pencil in the pouch for this picture. Imagine a sucker or little Twix bar sticking out. Much cuter.

Then you can hang it on a doorknob or give it away to someone special!

I honestly think my version is cuter! What do you think?

One-Minute Ghosts

Here is a very simple project I did with the kids. I traced their foot (without a shoe) onto white paper.

They made a ghost face on the heel.

I used thin ribbon to make a bunch of bows.

And the kids glued the bow onto the ghosts.

That's it! Each one has its own personality.

When the glue dried, I hung them from the ceiling with our lanterns.