Halloween Ghost Craft for Toddlers – Easy Cotton Ball Ghost

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We are gearing up for Halloween at our house with this fun Halloween ghost craft.  We’ve already gotten out our Halloween pillowcase and are enjoying a little bit of fall weather leading up to the holiday. (Well, at least it is in the 90’s rather than 100’s here!)

I have been doing a lot of Halloween crafts with my toddler during our time at home.  For some reason, her preschool hasn’t been sending home any Halloween crafts, just fall ones.  I’m trying to fill in that gap with some at home.  Especially since I want to be able to display them as Halloween decor around our house.

This Halloween ghost craft is perfect for toddlers and preschoolers.  It’s easy to make and you only need to find supplies, which you should already have around the house.  I love our craft corner in our study because we have so many supplies to make kid’s crafts with just sitting there.

Ghost Craft Supplies

Speaking of supplies, here’s what you’ll want to gather for this craft:

  • Cotton balls
  • Construction paper for background
  • Ghost outline on white paper
  • 2 black pom poms or googly eyes
  • Glue (we use liquid Elmer’s)

We love playing with cotton balls because they’re a fun texture for our daughter with sensory issues. We paint with them, glue them, and even pull all the fuzz off of them. This cotton ball ghost activity is also great for practicing fine motor skills.

And glue. Don’t even get me started on how much my three year old loves liquid glue. She gets so much joy from squirting glue all over a paper. And then putting anything and everything she can find in it.

How To Make a Cotton Ball Ghost

This Halloween kid’s craft should keep your preschooler busy for at least 15 minutes or longer.

To make your cotton ball ghost, you’ll need a cut out of a ghost outline. I free handed a ghost image on a sheet of white paper using permanent maker, and it worked out great.  No need to make anything fancy.  You can also search for a ghost image on Google, print it out, and cut it out if you’re not of the crafty variety.

At this point, go ahead and glue the ghost outline to a thicker construction paper as a background.  I used black construction paper to give a little more contrast against the white ghost.

Next, you’ll want to either cover the ghost paper surface with glue or let your toddler squirt their own glue as they go. I let my daughter squirt her own glue as she went. She has so much fun, but it was also a huge mess.

Once you have glue on the ghost paper, start having your child put on the cotton balls. While I prefer orderly placement of the cotton balls, my daughter crafts to the beat of her own drum and puts the cotton balls every which way.

Once the ghost outline is filled with cotton balls, you can attach the eyes.  I used two small, black pom poms for our ghost, but you can also use googly eyes or black construction paper if you prefer.  Just raid your kid’s craft supplies for something good.

Once your ghost craft has dried, you’re ready to hang it up! We display all our recent and favorite crafts on our DIY art display, which my daughter absolutely loves!

Happy Halloween!