18 Educational Halloween Kids Crafts

Halloween is a time for jack-o’-lanterns, trick-or-treating, haunted houses, costumes, and more. There are so many great activities for you and your family to participate in this time of year, so we rounded up 18 of our favorite educational Halloween kids crafts, broken down by educational subject so there’s something for every interest.

[divider]Science Crafts for Kids[/divider]

Ever wonder what a drop of blood looks like? Me either, but kids do! Combine selected ingredients, and you will know what a drop of blood looks like under the microscope. Discuss the parts, and what each is responsible for: fighting germs, clotting, delivering food, etc.

Kids love mixing, pouring, and playing, and by adding the element of candy it turns something fun into a truly magical experience. Use any kind of candy you prefer. Water, food coloring, and glitter are also great additions. Use test tubes, pipettes, petri dishes, containers, tweezers, stir sticks, goggles, and just about anything else you can find for a simple potion mixing station. Some great ideas you may want to borrow are using suckers as a pestle for grinding and breaking up candies; or set out food coloring, and let them mix just the perfect shade (you may want to have jars of colored potion water ready to go for little kids just to make it easier for little fingers). Check out these Creepy Jars and Candy Labels that would be the perfect addition to your spooky concoctions. Instructions can be found via Housing a Forest.

Lots of messy fun alert! Create a brain with your kiddos using Jello and a mold. Then gather tools to slice and dice with. Review the parts of the brain and what they do. Find the instructions and more info at Left Brain Craft Brain.

This STEM activity will challenge your student, allow them to play with candy, AND leave them with a cool looking structure that they can be proud of. Follow directions from Lemon Lime Adventures and get building!

[divider]Art Crafts for Kids[/divider]

Learn about the skeletal system by crafting a skeleton. You can make an actual replica, or make a unique skeleton with your name (look at the picture sideways, you’ll see our crafter’s name, Jeffrey)! My Mix of 6 has the perfect set of directions to create this fun skeleton.

 Use glow-in-the-dark rubber bands, and stretch them over two adjacent craft sticks working around in a circle. Put them under a black light, and ask your student to match the color of the spider to the web and slip the spider rings on. Further directions can be found at Still Playing School.

Draw a simple spider web with a white crayon, and use a light wash of water colors and voila! Watch as the web “magically” appears.

[divider]Math Crafts for Kids[/divider]

 Number some seasonal shapes and ask your student to put the correct number of candy corn on the shape. This yummy math game is a great opportunity to practice counting and even fine motor skills as little fingers pick up the candy corns. Older students can practice more complex math (e.g., multiplication, division, etc.).

 Create a jack-o’-lantern with shapes. Keep track of which shapes you use by grabbing this free printable.

This craft is a great way to introduce children to graphing and patterns. Explain that graphs help us see the answers to questions. Take the time to make predictions before graphing, too. Which row will have the most? Which will have the least? Why? Make an easy graph with pictures and words to represent the mathematical manipulatives. Just by looking at them which has the most? Least? Count them to check.

To practice patterns, make some simple patterns on a piece of paper, and ask your child to keep it going. If they need help try labeling the pattern out loud. For example “Pumpkin, Bat, Pumpkin, Bat . . . what comes next?”

[divider]History Crafts for Kids[/divider]

These yarn mummy crafts are perfect for preschoolers because they work on scissor skills, bilateral coordination, and patience. It’s also a great activity to learn more about Ancient Egypt and mummies! Via Lalymom.

Paper has a long history, but making it is easy! Brew some dark coffee and grab some sheets of paper. You can crinkle the paper a bit before soaking it in the coffee, hit and scratch it with your car keys, fold it, etc. Anything you do to the paper will add character to your finished sheet.

For multiple children, have each child draw their idea for the pumpkin’s face. Create a ballot showing the different designs, and a ballot box. Hold an election and explain that everyone’s vote will count once in this decision, and the winning design will be used for the class/family pumpkin. This activity works well when learning about political elections (which are held the week after Halloween).

via Fun Times Guide

[divider]Literary Crafts for Kids[/divider]

Pumpkins are great canvases for painting, and they can be used for some fun literary games too!

Do you love to read? Instead of (or in addition to) carving pumpkins this year, try decorating pumpkins to look like your favorite literary characters. From Arthur the aardvark to Olivia the pig, these pumpkins are a great way to incorporate reading and learning into the holidays.

Spot the Letter: Ask your student to find a certain letter and point to it. “Can you find the letter at the beginning of mummy?”

Letter Sound I-Spy: Say “I spy a letter that makes the sound “ssssssss” like a snake! Can you find it?” Emphasize the sounds not the names of the letters.

Noisy Letter Buttons: Tell your student to find the letter F and push it to make its sound. When they push on the letter F, say “fffffffff.” Make sure they are making the sound, and not the letter name.

Upper and Lower Case: Point to capital D and ask your student to find the lower case partner (via The Imagination Tree).

[divider]Bonus: Fun Crafts for Kids[/divider]

We gave you some alternatives to pumpkin carving, but if you love the classic Halloween activity, we’d love to see you carve a K12 pumpkin with this template! Share your pictures with us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Have some fun by tossing candy corn (or any candy) into cauldrons. You can score the kids based on how many candy corns they get into a cauldron, or you can just let them toss and play with no score. It’s fun either way! Find the directions here.

Does your child love to build things? Encourage them to build a haunted house; the only supplies they need are Popsicle sticks, glue, paint, and imagination. Follow these directions from Happily Everly After and have spooky time!

What crafts are you doing for Halloween? Tell us in the comments!

 

Thanks to our Learning Liftoff team members, Jeffrey Kay and Letise Dennis, for creating and photographing all of the crafts in this post!