Bewitching Bats Halloween Craft

I don’t know about you, but my kids come home from school on Halloween ready to trick or treat.  It doesn’t matter to them that it’s 4pm and bright and sunny outside, they’re in a Halloween mood (and normally on a sugar rush from their Halloween party at school) and ready to trick or treat.  And who can blame them?  After all, Halloween only comes once a year.  Holding them back is torture…for all of us.

So this year I decided to be prepared, not only do I have a spooky meal prepared for dinner to keep their attention, but I’m also armed with a Halloween themed craft to keep them busy while I get dinner ready and on the table.  It’s a relatively simple craft, but a cute one with enough cutting and pasting to keep them busy for at least a half hour.  Plus, you probably already have most of these (inexpensive!) supplies.  Best of all, this Bewitching Bats Halloween Craft feeds my kids’ need to celebrate Halloween, while keeping them at bay until it’s actually time to trick or treat – you know, when it starts to get dark.

You Will Need:
Black Paper Plates (7 in diameter) – you could also use white plates and paint them black in advance
Black poster board or construction paper
Googly eyes (large)
White paint pen
Tape
Glue stick
Scissors
Pen/Pencil
Bat Wing Template
Black marker (optional)

Step 1 – Trace the bat wing template onto your black paper or poster board using a pen or pencil.  Then flip the wing template over and trace it again.  Cut out the bat wings.

Optional: If you’re using poster board you may notice that when you cut your wing, a small amount of white may become exposed along the cut edge.  To remedy this, you can gently brush over the edge with a black marker…but it’s totally up to you whether you want to risk handing a black marker to your child in their potentially sugar-crazed state.  I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to skip this step.

Step 2 – Using tape, attach the bat wings on to the back of a paper plate, being careful to place the tracing lines from the pencil or pen towards the back of your bat so they don’t show.  You could use glue for this step, but since this is a somewhat fast turn around craft – in that you want to be able to hang it up on the same night you make it and don’t have time for glue to dry – I found tape worked better.

Step 3 – Using the glue stick, attach the googly eyes to the front of your bat and draw on a small mouth with the white paint pen.  If  you want to make vampire bats, don’t forget the fangs!

Using tape, hang your new bewitching friend in a prominent place so all your trick or treaters will see him!  Happy Halloween!