Halloween Crafts for Toddlers: 11 Projects Where the Child Does One Thing

One Action per Project

Between one and three, the honest description of a Halloween craft is this: the adult makes it, and the child does one thing to it. Penn State Extension's Better Kid Care programme, whose guidance runs through this article, says of one-year-olds that "it's all about exploring the materials, not about a final piece of art!" The ghost or the pumpkin at the end is for the adult, the fridge door and the grandparents. The child is there for the cold paint on the foot and the tissue that crumples in a fist.

So every project here is written in two columns. The adult's column is long: cut, tape, spoon the paint, hold the sheet, lift the foot, wipe, dry, draw the eyes. The child's column is one line: press, pat, smear, scribble, crumple or stick. If the child does that one thing twice and wanders off, the project is finished. If the child only watches, that is also a finished project. Better Kid Care's advice for this age is direct: "Let children decide if and when they will participate; they may just want to watch."

Safety at One to Three: Size, Paint and No Flame

The limits here are tighter than for a four-year-old, for one reason: at this age things go in the mouth. Better Kid Care's page on one-year-olds states the rule for materials without hedging: "All materials that are used with ones need to be completely non-toxic and safe in case a child swallows some."

On size, the same programme gives a measurement rather than a warning: "Young children can choke on small objects and toy parts. All items used for children under three years of age and any children who put toys in their mouths should be at least 1¼ inch in diameter and between 1 inch and 2¼ inches in length. Oval balls and toys should be at least 1¾ inch in diameter." It also names the items that fail: things that "pose a safety risk and should not be accessible to children under three include, but are not limited to: button batteries, magnets, plastic bags, styrofoam objects, coins, balloons, latex gloves, and glitter."

Halloween adds one hazard a Christmas list does not have to think about: fire. The American Academy of Pediatrics, on its HealthyChildren.org Halloween page, suggests "using a battery-operated flameless candle, flashlight or glow stick instead of a candle to light your jack-o'-lantern," and advises parents to "allow small children to decorate (not carve) pumpkins." Nothing in this article is lit, carved or cut with a knife.

In practice, for this list:

• No glitter, sequins, beads, buttons, pompoms, googly eyes, plastic spider rings or loose string. None appear below, and nothing small is offered as a substitute. A ghost's eyes are drawn with a marker, never stuck on.
• Every piece the child touches is bigger than the child's palm, cut oversized on purpose. Anything that a crumple or a tear could reduce below the size above is held by the adult or not used.
• Paint is labelled non-toxic and washable, and goes on a plate a spoonful at a time. Better Kid Care recommends "smaller quantities of paint so children can manage fewer spills."
• Masking tape is an adult tool. It holds paper to the table and comes off before the child leaves the table.
• No candle, tea light or real flame near any project, lit or unlit. None of the eleven projects needs a light.
• The adult is at the table for the whole project, at arm's length, from the first spoon of paint to the last wipe. That is a practice we are stating, not a rule we are citing.

Hands and Feet: Pressing

The child's action in this group is to have a hand or a foot pressed onto paper. The adult paints the hand or foot with a sponge, holds the paper, presses, lifts and wipes.

1. Footprint ghost. Materials: black card, white washable paint on a flat plate, a sponge, a black marker, a wet cloth, a towel. Adult before: tape the card to the table or the floor, put a spoonful of white on the plate, lay the towel where the foot will land afterwards. Child: one foot pressed on the card, toes at the bottom. Adult after: lift the foot straight up, wipe it, and when the print is dry draw two eyes and a round mouth on the heel end. The toes become the wavy hem of the ghost. Time: five minutes, plus the wipe. Mess: contained if the towel is there first.

2. Palm-print pumpkin patch. Materials: a large sheet of pale paper, orange washable paint on a plate, a sponge, a green marker, a wet cloth. Adult before: tape the paper down and sponge orange onto the child's palm only, not the fingers. Child: the palm pressed onto the paper, again and again, anywhere. Adult after: wipe, dry flat, and draw a short stem and a curly line on top of each round print. Time: ten minutes. Mess: high on the hand, low on the room.

3. Footprint black cat. Materials: orange paper, black washable paint on a plate, a sponge, a black marker, a wet cloth, a towel. Adult before: tape the paper down, spoon of black on the plate, towel ready. Child: one foot pressed on the paper, heel at the top. Adult after: lift, wipe, and when the print is dry draw two pointed ears on the heel, whiskers either side, and a long curling tail from the toe end. Time: five minutes, plus the wipe. Mess: black paint on a foot is the messiest thing in this article, so do this print last and carry the child straight from the print to the towel.

Sponges: Patting

The child's action here is to pat a sponge into paint and then onto paper. Better Kid Care lists "sponges, cotton balls, wooden or foam blocks, bubble wrap, crumpled foil" among the textured objects one-year-olds can paint with. Both projects below use a kitchen sponge cut by the adult into fist-sized chunks, well above the size rule, and no cotton balls, because those are small and come apart.

4. Sponge-pat pumpkin. Materials: a large sheet of white paper, a black marker, orange washable paint on a plate, a fist-sized sponge chunk. Adult before: draw one big plain pumpkin outline with a short stem, as big as the sheet allows, and tape the sheet down. Child: pat the sponge in the orange, then on the paper, inside the line, outside the line, over the stem. Adult after: dry flat, colour the stem green if the child has left it, hang it on the wall. Time: ten minutes. Mess: medium, and the paper catches most of it.

5. Sponge-pat ghosts on black. Materials: black card, white washable paint on a plate, a fist-sized sponge chunk, a black marker. Adult before: tape the card down, spoon of white on the plate. Child: pat the sponge on the card wherever they like, as many times as they like. Adult after: dry, then draw two dots and a small mouth on each white blob big enough to take them. Time: ten minutes. Mess: low.

Fingers, Crayons and Chalk: Smearing and Scribbling

The child's action here is to smear paint with fingers, or to scribble with a thick crayon or a fat stick of chalk. The adult turns the result into a shape afterwards, by cutting or by drawing around it. Better Kid Care notes that "even very young children can dip their fingers in a paint mix and spread it on a table or tray," and recommends "fat, thick crayons, markers, chalk, and paint brushes that ones are able to grasp with their whole hand."

6. Finger-paint pumpkin. Materials: a large sheet of white paper, orange washable paint on a plate, a wet cloth, a green marker, a sheet of card. Adult before: tape the paper at every corner, spoon of orange on the plate. Child: fingers in the paint, then spread it over the paper with fingers or the whole hand until the sheet is streaky orange. Adult after: wipe the hands, dry the sheet, cut a big round pumpkin out of the most covered area, glue it to the card and draw a stem. Time: ten minutes plus drying. Mess: hands and forearms, and the paper takes the rest.

7. Scribble bat for the window. Materials: a large sheet of orange paper taped to the floor, two or three fat black crayons, masking tape. Adult before: tape the paper down at every corner. Child: scribble. Adult after: cut a big bat silhouette, body in the middle and a wing either side, out of the most scribbled area, and tape it to a window at the child's height. Time: as long as the scribbling lasts. Mess: none. Better Kid Care suggests "a large piece of paper taped to the wall or laid on the floor" for this age.

8. Chalk spider web on black card. Materials: black card, one fat stick of white pavement chalk, thicker than the size rule, a white crayon for the adult. Adult before: tape the card down and draw, faintly, four or five straight lines crossing at the middle, like the spokes of a wheel. Child: scribble over the card with the chalk, round and round, in a fist grip. Adult after: draw one plain round spider with eight legs in a corner, and shake the loose chalk dust into the bin away from the child. Time: five to ten minutes. Mess: chalk dust on hands, which wipes off. The chalk goes back to the adult when the scribbling stops, because it is the one material here that could be gnawed to a smaller piece.

Tissue and Big Pieces: Crumpling and Sticking

The child's action here is to crumple a square of tissue paper, or to press a big pre-cut piece onto a surface that is already sticky. Nothing in this group asks the child to use glue. The adult puts the glue or the sticky paper down first; the child only presses.

9. Sticky-paper pumpkin on the window. Materials: clear self-adhesive contact paper, masking tape, orange and black paper torn by the adult into pieces the size of a child's hand. Adult before: cut a big round pumpkin from the contact paper, peel the backing, tape it to a low window or wall sticky side out, taping every edge so no corner lifts. Child: press the orange pieces onto the sticky pumpkin, and the black ones if they want. Adult after: take it down when the child is done and either leave it on the window inside a taped frame or stick it to card. Time: fifteen minutes. Mess: none. Better Kid Care suggests exactly this setup, "a large sheet of sticky paper" that is "attached to the wall sticky side out."

10. Crumpled-tissue ghost. Materials: a ghost shape cut by the adult from the side of a cardboard box, white tissue paper cut into squares bigger than the child's palm, a glue stick, a black marker. Adult before: rub glue over a section of the ghost. Child: crumple a tissue square in a fist and press it onto the glued part. Adult: glue the next section, hand over the next square. Adult after: fill any gaps, dry, draw two eyes where the tissue is thinnest, and lean the ghost against a wall. The squares are cut large so a crumpled one is still bigger than the size rule; any that tears small goes in the bin. No string is attached and nothing hangs. Time: twenty minutes. Mess: low.

11. Three-piece bat. Materials: pale card, black paper, a glue stick, a white crayon. Adult before: cut one oval body and two wide wings from the black paper, each bigger than the child's hand, and put a stripe of glue on the card where each piece should land, or across the whole card if placement does not matter today. Child: press the three pieces down. Adult after: draw two eyes and two small ears with the white crayon. Time: ten minutes. Mess: none.

If Halloween Is New Where You Live

None of these projects depends on trick-or-treating, a costume or a street that decorates. A footprint ghost is a picture of a foot with a face on it, and it works as a nursery wall picture, a card for a grandparent or a window decoration for an afternoon with friends. The motifs used here, pumpkin, ghost, bat, spider web and black cat, need no explanation of a tradition to make sense to a two-year-old, and nothing in the list is meant to frighten anyone.

If the date is not marked in your house, the same projects work with the faces left off: the sponge-pat pumpkin is a harvest picture with or without a Halloween label, and the scribble bat is just a black shape on an orange window.

Setting Up, Stopping and Cleaning

The adult's list before any of the projects: an old shirt over the child, the paper taped down at every corner, the paint on a plate rather than in a pot, the wet cloth and the towel within reach, and the drying spot decided before the first print. Better Kid Care advises showing children "where materials are kept, how to clip paper to an easel or tape to a table, where to place it for drying, and proper clean-up steps." At one and two, the adult does those steps and the child watches them happen.

Stopping is part of the plan. A one-year-old may press one foot and be finished. That is the project completed, not abandoned. Better Kid Care is also frank that some children "are very reluctant to get messy," and that the adult's message, in words and face, should be "that it's okay to touch, smear, and generally get messy."

What to Keep

The footprint ghost will be kept for years. The scribble bat will come off the window in November and go in the recycling. Both deserve a photograph in daylight, flat on the table, with the small hand or foot beside the paper for scale, before anything is taped to glass. Our guide to photography for beginners starts with exactly that kind of plain, well-lit shot.

FAQ

What Halloween crafts can a one-year-old actually do?
One action per project: a foot or palm pressed on paper, a sponge patted, paint smeared with fingers, a crayon or chalk scribbled, a tissue square crumpled, a big piece pressed onto sticky paper. The adult does the cutting, taping, drawing and cleaning.

Is glitter safe for toddler Halloween crafts?
Better Kid Care lists glitter among items that "pose a safety risk and should not be accessible to children under three," alongside button batteries, magnets, plastic bags, styrofoam, coins, balloons and latex gloves. No project here uses it, or sequins, beads, pompoms, googly eyes or plastic spider rings.

Can a toddler paint a real pumpkin?
The American Academy of Pediatrics advises parents to "allow small children to decorate (not carve) pumpkins." None of the projects here uses a real pumpkin, because a whole pumpkin is heavy and rolls. If you do decorate one, the same rules apply: washable paint, a sponge, no small stuck-on parts and no candle inside.

What if my toddler just wants to watch?
Then they watch. Better Kid Care's advice for this age is to "let children decide if and when they will participate; they may just want to watch."

References

• Penn State Extension, Better Kid Care: Arts and creativity in one-year-olds. Exploring materials over a final piece, letting children decide whether to take part, textured painting objects, fat crayons and chalk, large paper on the floor, sticky paper on the wall, reluctance to get messy, and non-toxic materials in case they are swallowed.
• Penn State Extension, Better Kid Care: Arts and creativity in three- and four-year-olds. The choking-size measurements for children under three and the list of items to keep out of reach, including glitter.
• Penn State Extension, Better Kid Care: Painting with young children. Fingers in paint on a tray, smaller quantities of paint, and the setup and clean-up routine.
• American Academy of Pediatrics, HealthyChildren.org: Halloween Safety Tips. Small children decorate rather than carve pumpkins, and a battery-operated flameless candle, flashlight or glow stick instead of a candle.