Before my children realised that Halloween meant getting to eat lots of sweets it was a slightly scary idea for them. As it is such a big thing in the UK now I wanted to make sure my children saw Halloween is something fun rather than scary so I created these not very scary craft ghost ideas for toddlers and preschoolers. We created 5 different types of ghosts to make which were all really simple to do. M decided she wanted to make the ghosts friendly so our ghosts are all happy and fun and suitable for young children.

Ideas For Halloween Ghost Crafts For Young Children

5 Ghosts For Toddlers and Preschoolers to Make This Halloween

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Making Footprint Ghosts For Toddlers

How to Make Ghosts From Footprints with Children

What you need to make the Footprint Ghosts

Black A4 Card (you might want A3 card if you plan to have lots of ghosts)
White paint
A paint brush
Stick on eyes

Maximum Mess Level 8/10 (make sure the paint is washable)
Help Required 0-6/10 (depends on the age of child and how much mess you want)

This is a great activity for all the family so you can have a little ghost family! I even got the baby involved. I recommend having baby wipes or a wet flannel to hand before you start.

How To Make The Footprint Ghosts

1) Put the black card on the floor
2) Paint the bottom of a foot white
3) Step on to the card
4) Take foot off and clean it
5) Give your ghost eyes (their head is the heel of your footprint)

Making Little Ghost Cakes

How To Make Little Ghost Cakes For Halloween

What You Need To Make Ghost Cakes

Any fairy cake recipe should work. We made lemon fairy cakes with 100g butter, 60g sugar, lemon rind from 1 lemon, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1 egg, 125g self-raising white flour, 1/4 teaspoon baking powder, 3 tablespoons milk.
Silicone cupcake cases (these mean you can get the cake out of the case easily)
Icing sugar
Water or lemon juice
Raisins

Maximum Mess Level 8/10
Help Required 8/10 (Children can help to mix the cakes and once the cakes are cooked and cooled you can let them do all the rest)

How To Make Ghost Cakes For Halloween

1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius (or as your recipe advises)
2) Mix cake ingredients together
3) Fill cupcake cases to about a cm from the top
4) Bake until you can stick a skewer in the cake and it comes out clean (about 20 mins)
5) Leave to cool
6) Mix icing sugar with water or lemon juice until it is thick, but will still pour. The thinner the icing the more transparent your ghost will be (and the less icing you'll need to use)
7) Take cupcakes out of case
8) Pour icing on to top of cupcake (sometimes they will look better if upside down). The icing should run down the sides slightly
9) Place 2 equal size raisins on the top for the ghost's eyes

If you prefer cake pops then check out this Halloween cake pop recipe.

Making Cuppa Ghoul Halloween Decorations

How To Make Ghosts Decorations Out of Cups

What You Need To Make Ghost Decorations

White plastic or styrofoam cups
Black paper
Scissors
Glue
A skewer
String or ribbon

Maximum Mess Level 3/10
Help Required 3/10

How To Make Cuppa Ghoul Ghost Decorations

1) Cut out 2 similar size circles for the eyes and a larger mouth from the black paper
2) Glue on to an upside down cup as a face
3) Use the skewer to carefully make a hole in the base of the cup
4) Push the ribbon/ string through the hole and tie a knot inside the cup
5) The ghosts can be hung from door frames to spook people as they walk through

How To Make Paper Ghosts

How To Make Paper Ghosts

What You Need To Make Paper Ghosts

White paper
Scissors
Tape

Maximum Mess Level 1/10
Help Required 6/10 (Requires children to be safe users of scissors)

How To Make Paper Ghosts

1) Fold a sheet of paper in half
2) Cut the top corner off in a curve to make the ghosts head
3) Cut triangles out of bottom of paper
4) Fold the sheet of paper longways and cut out a semi circle to make the eyes
5) Open it up and tape to the window or other dark surface

Making Glue Shadow Ghosts With Toddlers

Step by step instructions on making glue shadow ghosts with toddlers

What You Need To Make Glue Shadow Posts

White card (paper will work, but tends to wrinkle)
Pen
Scissors
PVA glue and brush
Black or dark blue water based paint
A sponge


Maximum Mess Level 9/10
Help Required 7/10

How To Make Fun Glue Shadow Ghosts With Children

1) Draw a ghostly outline on a small piece of card
2) Cut the middle out to give you a template
3) Using the template paint glue ghosts on to a piece of white card
4) Let the glue completely dry
5) Mix the white or dark blue paint with some water to thin it
6) Put the sponge into the thinned paint then dab or wipe the sponge on the paper
7) Watch the ghosts appear from behind the paint (if the paint is too thick the ghosts wont appear)

To see the products to make these check out my Amazon store (this is an affiliate store and I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you if you purchase products).