Have your kids make this fun and easy bat decoration for Halloween!
As far as children are concerned, they can never do enough Halloween crafts. With these cute Spooky Spool Bats, kids get to paint, cut paper, and glue together an adorable Halloween decoration that parents will love.
Grade Level
For elementary children in grades 3 and up. Younger children will need one-on-one supervision.
Project Description / Objective
Children will paint a wooden spool black. They will cut bat wings and a bat head from construction paper. Finally, they will glue eyes onto the bat head, and they will glue the head and wings to the wooden spool to make a Spooky Spool Bat.
Materials Needed
- Black construction paper
- Small wiggle eyes, two for each bat
- Wooden spool
- Black paint
- Scissors
- White glue
Alternative Materials
Wooden spools can be replaced with cardboard toilet paper rolls. A larger bat head and wings will be needed.
Empty soda cans can be used in place of the wooden spools. This would by good for teaching about recycling and reusing products. Have the students place sand or a lump of clay into the empty soda cans to give them weight.
Stiff felt can be used instead of construction paper. This makes a longer lasting Halloween decoration and works best with older children, grades 5 and up.
Spooky Spool Bat Directions
1. Paint the wooden spool with black paint. Do this first so that the wooden spool is relatively dry when it comes time to gluing on the head and wings. For paint, you can use acrylic or tempera. Younger children can use a non-toxic black marker to color the spool.
2. Cut the head and two wings out of black construction paper. Scroll down to see a basic pattern for the head and wings. The easiest way to make these parts is by folding a sheet of black construction paper in half, drawing the head and wings with pencil and cutting them out.
- When cutting the head and wings, include the extra tabs for folding back and gluing onto the spool. For the head, include the tab and cut a V into it (see basic pattern scan below). This will allow you bend the bat’s head and fit it onto the spool.
3. Glue wiggle eyes onto the bat’s head.
4. As the eyes dry, fold back the tabs on the bat wings. Glue a wing on each side of the spool.
5. For the head, fold and overlap the tabs so that the face curves slightly. Glue the head tabs onto the top of the spool.
Fun for the Family
Spooky Spool Bats can also be made at home during a family craft night. If you’re using wooden spools, you and your kids and create an entire family of bats and hang them from the ceiling. All you need to do is take a length of cord and knot it at one end so that the knot is larger than the spool’s center opening. Take the unknotted end of the cord through the center of the spool. Hang the bats from the ceiling or make a mobile of them with twisted sticks you find outdoors.
