Easy Halloween crafts for kids

Pairs of egg box cups are painted black, given card wings and googly eyes, then taped along a length of string to hang across a window or doorway. One box of 12 cups makes six bats. Folding card to cut matching wings is a simple lesson in symmetry. An adult may need to cut the tough egg box card.

A clean jam jar is covered in orange tissue paper squares with watery PVA glue, then given a black paper face and a green stalk. With a battery tea light inside, the tissue glows and the face stays dark, which shows the difference between translucent and opaque materials. Use a battery tea light only, never a real candle.

This one takes about 20 minutes and makes very little mess. Small ghosts cut from a single thin layer of tissue paper lie on a dark tray. A balloon rubbed on a woolly jumper or dry hair builds up static electricity, which pulls the ghosts up so they seem to dance. An adult should blow up the balloon.

Bicarbonate of soda, washing-up liquid and green food colouring go into a bowl or toy cauldron on a baking tray. Pouring in white vinegar makes carbon dioxide gas, and the washing-up liquid traps it in bubbles, so green foam spills over the edge. It suits ages 4 to 10. Keep faces back when pouring. The potion is not for drinking.

A balloon dressed as a ghost, with tissue paper and a marker-pen face, is taped under a straw threaded onto string between two chairs. Take off the peg and the air rushing out pushes the ghost along the line. That is Newton's third law, the same idea that launches real rockets. Keep the string low so nobody walks into it.

Start this the day before, because the hand spends a night in the freezer. A non-latex glove is filled with green water and small plastic spiders, then frozen. Children free the spiders with pinches of salt and drips of warm tap water, and find out which melts the ice faster. Mess is high, so use a large tray with sides.

A leaf hunt comes first. Dry fallen leaves are sorted by shape, pressed under a heavy book, painted white on one side and given marker-pen faces. Tied to a twig with thread, they twirl by a window. Children aged 4 to 8 compare leaves and learn to name a few trees. Wash hands after collecting.

Scooping out a pumpkin becomes a science lesson. Everyone guesses how many seeds are inside, then the seeds are rinsed, tested to see which sink or float, and counted in tens in a muffin tin or egg box. Ten are saved for planting in spring and the rest are roasted. An adult cuts the lid and handles the hot oven.

Children invent a spooky symbol for each letter of the alphabet, then write a short spell in code with a white wax crayon on paper aged with a cold tea bag. Brushing watery paint over the scroll makes the symbols appear, because wax resists water. It teaches how a substitution cipher works. Allow about 40 minutes, and cover the table.

Apple slices go into four cups: one left alone, one buried in salt, one in bicarbonate of soda and one in a mix of both. After seven days, children compare colour, size and feel. The salts draw water out, so rot cannot take hold. It is a real fair test for ages 7 to 12. Nothing here is for eating.

A card spider with pipe cleaner legs has two short pieces of straw taped to its back in a V, with string threaded through. Hung from a door handle, it climbs when the two ends are pulled one at a time. The angled straws grip the string by friction. Keep long string away from young children's necks.

Two egg whites and caster sugar are whisked into stiff, glossy peaks, piped into ghost shapes and baked slowly for about an hour until dry and crisp. Children see a liquid turn into a foam and then a solid. An adult separates the eggs, uses the electric whisk and handles the oven, so this needs plenty of help. Contains egg.

For ages 7 to 12, this is an hour of patient work. A dough ghost and pumpkin sit in a shoebox stage, and a phone takes a photo after every tiny move. At least 40 photos played back quickly make the ghost seem to move, the trick used in animated films. An adult should choose and install the app.