Chipper Recycle Crafts: Halloween Bats and Ghosts

We are Chipper for Bats this week! They are the only flying mammals in the world and a symbol of all things spooky and Halloween! They help out  in unexpected ways, though: Bats spread seeds through the rainforest creating new growth; Bats saliva is being studied to see if it can help humans with various disease such as blindness and heart problems; Bat poop is also very good fertilization! Celebrate and decorate All Hallows Eve with these cute Bat Crafts!

Recycle Bat Craft from Toilet Paper Roll

Make a bat from recycled toilet paper rolls! They are fun to make and a great way to show your class how you can make trash into art.  Start your own collection to use for this activity and many, many more toilet roll crafts!

1. First, press down two sides of one end of your roll so it makes two points. Use tape (double sided works best) or glue to secure your bat ears down.

2. Now you can either use black and construction paper to cover your roll or just use markers and crayons to color your bat’s fur.

3. You can use googly eyes or just cut out some eyes with white paper and cut out a set of fans to glue or tape to create your bats face.

4. Use a black or brown pompom for the nose or whatever other recycle craft materials you have around! Hot glue is ideal but regular glue will work with some patience for drying and avoid burned fingers!

5. For the wings, try printing out some of Chipper’s Helping Hands or have the kids trace their hands. Cut out two hands and  then use markers or crayons to draw the thin bones in a bat’s wing that are similar to a human hand. Simply tape or glue them on and your bat has wings!

6.Optional: You can bend the bottom of your roll in the opposite way you did for the head and ears to make the bats pointy bottom half  and put it on a Popsicle stick to flap around or leave as-is so it can be set somewhere as a batty decoration!

Egg Carton Bats and Leaf Ghosts

Make some cute bats out of an egg carton and adorable ghosts from leaves! Both projects are easy and kid friendly. Hang them together for some spooky cute Halloween decor!

Bat materials: egg carton, scissors, googly eyes, glue, ribbon, black paint and paintbrush or use black markers!

First you must gather your egg cartons! One carton makes 4 bats so get as many as you want!

First, cut out 3 cups from an egg carton. Then, cut the bottoms of the 2 outside cups to resemble bat wings.

Now paint your bats with one coat of black paint or let your little ones go nuts with a black marker or crayons.

Glue on some googly eyes after the paint was dry or just draw them in (white paper with a black dot works fine!) Glued ribbon or string to the top of each bat to hang them around the house! Find a Halloween branch outside to hang them on to make a Halloween tree. Adding some fake cobwebs is a nice touch.

Ghost Materials: Artificial (maple shaped) leaves or find some real ones, white paint, paintbrush, black marker, glue and ribbon.

Fake leaves can be found a your local dollar or craft store or make an outing of it and find some real leaves to dry and paint! Painted the leaves white on both sides with 2 coats of paint to get them really white. Draw some ghostly eyes and mouths with a permanent marker so it looks like your ghosts are saying “Booo…oooo!”

Let’s Go Chipper and a little Batty this Halloween! Have you made any Halloween crafts with your kids? Please Share!