Halloween Crafts for Kids Using Garden Finds

There’s something very special about Halloween, especially when it happens to coincide with the half term holidays. What better opportunity could there be for kids to get creative with natural, garden-sourced materials? You’ll love these ideas for halloween crafts for kids using garden finds such as leaves, twigs, pinecones, rocks and, of course, pumpkins.

• Creative collages using garden finds such as leaves and twigs
• Halloween lanterns made with empty glass jars and colourful autumn foliage
• Spooky skeletons formed from twigs and sticks
• A ghostly mobile made from decorated leaves that dance in the breeze
• Monster rocks - scarily painted pebbles
• Trick or treating stations for wildlife
• Creepy creatures - make bats from pinecones and spiders from conkers
• Seasonal wreaths adorned with foliage and berries from the garden
• Pumpkin characters with no carving involved

These are just a few suggestions.  If you keep reading, you’ll discover even more ideas for children’s halloween activities for children.

Halloween Activities with Leaves and Twigs

By the end of October, many gardens will have a plethora of fallen leaves and twigs on the ground. Just perfect for busy hands to gather them up and make them into something special. Take a look at the sizes, shapes and colours of all those leaves and twigs. What do they remind you of? Will you use the materials just as they are? Or could you change them with paints, scissors or even stickers?

How about making ghostly leaves by adding a coat of white paint and gently drawing on a spooky face?

Or use materials from the garden to make a collage.

Cut out or draw the shapes of halloween pumpkins to decorate with fallen leaves. Alternatively, you could create a 3D pumpkin shape using an inflated balloon covered in paper mache. Once it’s dry, decorate with brightly coloured leaves.

A lovely halloween craft for kids is making seasonal candle holders. Gather a selection of fallen leaves and dried grasses and use PVA glue to attach them to the outside of empty jam jars. Once the glue has dried, fashion a handle by wrapping some wire around the neck of the jar and then pop an LED candle inside. These are a lovely addition to a halloween display either indoors or outdoors.

Stick Skeletons: A great halloween activity for developing hand-eye coordination as well as imagination. Twigs and sticks can be tied or wired together to make all kinds of weird and wonderful skeletons. Forget anatomical correctness - these skeletal creatures can have as many arms and legs as you like, they can be multi-headed, headless, asymmetrical, painted, plain - let imaginations run wild!

Sticks and twigs can also be fashioned into decorative besom brooms. Maybe you could also make a conker-cat to ride on it?
 

Rock, Pinecone and Conker Creations

Autumnal gardens are full of natural treasures that can be made into monsters, animals and colourful seasonal decorations.

Take the humble rock for example. Incredibly versatile and able to cope with heavy handling from inexperienced hands. If you don’t want to use the stones from your garden, why not invest in a bag full of pebbles from your garden centre. They’re relatively inexpensive, very easy to store and can be used for all-year round crafting activities.

Rock Monsters - go wild with paints, glues, stickers and collage materials to make scary monsters from simple pebbles. They could become pumpkins, witch faces to peep out from shrubs or trees, or ghouls with goggly eyes. Why not invest in some glow-in-the-dark paint to add extra spookiness?

Conkers are in abundance at this time of year so why not make the most of them? Combine them with pipe cleaners and goggly eyes to make spiders. Carefully drilling a hole through your conkers will allow them to be hung from a mobile or wired to a garden trellis. While we’re talking spiders - horticultural fleece from the garden centre can easily be repurposed as fake spider webs. After halloween you can put it away and use it next spring to protect seedlings from frost.

Pinecones are another wonderful natural material that lend themselves to kids halloween activities. Cut wings from black paper and attach them to your pinecone and hey-presto - a replica bat appears.
 

Pumpkin Carving and Decorating Ideas

Pumpkin carving is one of the most popular halloween activities, and it’s great fun to do with kids. Pick up your pumpkins from your local garden centre, put aside plenty of time, and get creative. If you are removing the insides of your pumpkin, remember to save some of the seeds for your children to plant next spring.

Does your pumpkin need to be carved? Not necessarily. They can be painted with faces and/or patterns, arranged in a display with other seasonal goodies from the garden or dressed in a characterful hat. Pumpkins can become a part of a spooky scarecrow or glammed up with glued-on flowers and grasses. The possibilities are endless.
 

Wildlife Friendly Halloween Ideas

Encouraging children to use garden based materials in their halloween activities opens up a wonderful opportunity to teach them about garden wildlife. Discussing seasonal changes and explaining how some creatures hibernate whilst others need a good supply of winter food really does help youngsters to engage with nature.

Wildlife-friendly halloween activities for kids include things like making edible decorations eg bird cakes with spooky faces. Or building log piles with leaves and cobwebs where mini beasts can overwinter.

A nature themed scavenger hunt is far more rewarding than spending the afternoon in front of a screen and could result in enough booty to fuel a couple of crafting sessions. Or, it could be a form of day time trick or treating. Edible rewards can be exchanged for every item they find from their lists.