I would love to get some fresh ideas for Halloween art projects that my students could do. I am pretty burned out with the "same old, same old" and was hoping for some creative, fun ideas. I know that this is the place to come! What do you do in your classrooms?
Well, my school doesn't celebrate Halloween anymore. But I still do art projects for Harvest and to celebrate the changing of seasons. I also do mini units on spiders and bats, so I can still sneak that in.
We made indian corn on friday. All you do is give each child a cardstock cut out of a piece of corn. Then give them tissue paper in a variety of fall colors, I did yellow, red, orange, and brown. They wad it up into tiny pieces and then stick it to the card stock using a glue stick. When it is finished, they can cut a few strips from a brown paper bag, wad them up into a ball and then attach them to the top for the stalk.
We also make bats using black paper plates. Use one plate for the body and one more plate for the wings. Cut that plate into 2 making a jagged edge. Attach to the body using brads. Cut out a round head from black construction paper and attach with brads. Then have the kids cut out 2 white sharp teeth, 2 pointy earts and eyes using different colored construction paper or pom poms.
On Enchanted Learning, there is a printout of a skeleton made with pasta. My students have enjoyed this in the past. The downside of it is that it requires a variety of pasta shapes, so it would be advantageous to get some other teachers to go in with you on buying and sharing the pasta. Also, after you buy the variety, you can save it in sealed containers for other years, or add it to soups and casseroles (sp?) for your family. This could be tied in with science by reading a book about skeletons to your class while they do it, or with a study of vertebrate animals, or the milk food group as a source of calcium for strong bones. I love cross-curricular activities!
You can locate this by typing skeleton+pasta in Google.
Seeing the idea for the bat reminded me of a paperplate spider we use to make. Use the small white plates (the kind that isn't glossy works best) and the st. colors it black on both sides. Give them 8 --1/2" strips of black construction paper. St. folds them back and forth to make legs and glue on. Then give them some white paper to make eyes. Hang down from ceiling or doorway with a piece of yarn stuck through a hole in middle of spider. I have the kids attach end of yarn to a paperclip so it doesn't pull through the hole. Hope you can understand this project.
This is not going to be easy to describe, but I'll do my best. You need a piece of orange construction paper and a piece of black construction paper, both 11" x 17." Cut the black paper in half horizontally. Get rid of the other half-you won't need it. Hold the remaining black piece vertically and cut the two corners off on the right side, then flip it over so it's on the lefthand side of the orange paper (no overlapping). You then go toward the middle of the black paper and cut out an eye (any shape). Next, you cut on the side of the black paper opposite where you cut the corners off. You're going to cut half a nose and half a mouth below and to the right of the eye you cut out. Keep the pieces you cut out to use later. Now glue the black paper from which you cut the pieces to the orange paper so that the cut corners are on the outside. The inside will be for the facial features. Across from the mouth and nose cutouts, glue their corresponding symmetrical pieces that you cut out, so you have whole pieces adjacent to missing pieces. Now that you're thoroughly confused and wonder how I ever got my teaching license, good luck. This is also a great craft for teaching symmetry. It looks really cool when it's done.
Just as an aside, last year we had a big controversy in our school, as some staff members were trying to get rid of Halloween (and Valentine's Day) celebrations. Some of us put up a real fight, and Halloween and Valentine's Day were saved for the lower grades. I know how much I enjoyed these celebrations and how much they mean to the vast majority of our students, and I see no reason to eliminate them just to make a small number of people happy. (My husband and I are vegetarians, but that never stopped our son from making construction paper turkeys at Thanksgiving time.) Kids have already lost too many things in life that are just plain fun. I may be old, but I still enjoy a good celebration!
This idea is not really a "take home" craft, but fun for the kids. I usually buy 2-3 pumpkins of very different shapes and sizes. In our pumpkin center I put the pumpkins, washable markers, a damp sponge and a couple of crazy hats, glasses etc. The kids can decorate the pumpkin, then wipe it clean with the sponge for the next person. The pumpkins last the whole season because they are not cut.
Something I used to do with my second graders (and will try this yr with first....) Wasn't too "artsy-craftsy" but it was a cute activity that led to a lot of discussion. It actually has some kind of name that escapes me right now....but anyway, I would have the kids cut a pumpkin shape out of a piece of orange paper. Then, I would place a large "key" on the board....for instance...."If you LIKE Halloween ..use two black SQUARES for eyes" if you DON:T LIKE Halloween...use two black triangles for eyes..." If your favorite Halloween candy is CHOCOLATE give your pumpkin three teeth......" So by the time everyone is finished the kids can look at eachothers jack-o-lanterns and know a little something about their friends. I always hung them in the hallway along with the key for the other teachers and students to decipher=) hope this helps a but!
JennT, I think what you are describing is called a glyph. I did one with bookmarks last year and the kids enjoyed it. They become unique and personalized for each child. I could be wrong on the name, but I think that's what it is called.
On Friday, I am going to have my class make a Q-tip skeleton. I give the students a baggie of Q-tips, a small piece of white construction paper, and a 9x12 black piece of construction paper. I have the student's first cut-out their skeleton's head from the small piece of white construction paper given to them. They glue the head at the top of the black construction paper and then we start gluing down the q-tips. 2 q-tips for the spine, 2 for each arm and leg, 5 for the ribs, 5 q-tips cut in half for the fingers, and 5 q-tips cut in half for the toes. I think that is al the q-tips (I am trying to picture it without actually seeing it).
Last year, the kids did not like to use the liquid glue because many of the kids felt it was messy and got glue on their hands! (PLEASE!!!!!!!) I think this year's class with like it much better. They love all the art projects, whereas my class from last year complain ALL THE TIME about "it is too hard, I can't do that. There were times when I felt like why even bother.
Another art project I did yesterday and got the idea from Mailbox was making a jack-o-lantern with strips of orange paper. I gave each student 8 strips of orange paper (8 in. long and 1/2 in wide). They glued the strips down crossing them over one another until they had what looked like a orange asterisk on 9x12 black paper. After all strips were glued down, we glued on a green stem, 2 yellow triangles for eyes, another yellow triangle for a nose, and a yellow mouth, all of which they cut out from a 4.5 x 6 piece of yellow construction paper. These were really neat to hang in the hall.
I am not doing too much Halloween as I also have a student who is not allowed to participate so we are doing a Spider unit instead. I figured this would be a concern so I have decided to do Spiders this year and Bats next year and keep switching these two themes for a few years. Problem solved. I'll have a few activities and an Art craft for Halloween but the rest will be Spiders. My school is having a Halloween Fun Fair in the afternoon so we won't even have a party this year and that is fine with me.
One art project I have done in the past is Haunted House and Halloween Chalk pictures.
Using black or dark blue construction paper each student designs a scary Halloween picture using a list of things that we brainstorm prior for journal and stories anyways.
Ideas: black cats, witches, hanuted house, bats, cauldron, jack-o-lanterns, mummies, skeletons, monsters, vampires, grave stones, bones, coffins, spiders and webs... (I leave off ghosts on purpose.)
I use hairspray and spray their pics after school to prevent the chalk from smudging. The paper does curl a bit so it is a good idea to lay something on them after they dry or you can gently roll them backwards to flatten them a bit.
We make tissue ghosts and glue one on to each picture. I also picked up those shiny confetti type things at Wal-Mart last year near Halloween and there were spiders, cats, pumpkin, and Happy Halloween shapes. I gave each student 2-3 of these and they could glue them on to the picture as well.
To make the ghosts each child is given 2 tissues. Roll one up in a ball and drap the 2nd tissue over the ball. Tie string/yarn to make the head of the ghost. I have just used a thin sharpie to draw on eyes and a mouth. I have also in years past gave them googalies (eyes) thet were very small to use for their ghosts.
If I rememeber correctly we make the ghosts first and I save them in a box and then I hand them out to add to the picture after. They don't get "their" ghost back but that is just how it works out.
I Make these pumpkins but for theh stem you take two strips of green construction paper and place them in an L shape fold over one then the other and keep folding until you get an accordion shaped Square tall Stem.
Something like the paper plate spider, but start with a black strip that fits their head. They attach 8 more strips for legs, 4 on each side. Bend at the "knee" and "ankle" so they don't stick straight out. Add pompom or googly eyes, and wear it!
First we take 2 contruction papers one orange and one black, then on the orange each student draws a pumpkin face eyes, nose , mouth. the cut out so holes as eyes,nose,mouth. then paste tip of black papr on bottom in order for thm to move it and stick their face in it . AND TADA A mask!!!!
10-09-2005, 10:21 PM
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