This is a super fun little Halloween-themed craft we did for our Homeshcool Preschool project a couple weeks ago. This would be a great project to do with your kiddos tomorrow before going trick-or-treating!
Or you can even skip the spooky theme and just devote a day to learn about bats any time of year! In fact, that's exactly what we did! My friend's daughter, Mila, had been interested in learning about bats a couple weeks back, so we made that our theme of the day. Robin and I took turns reading a few educational books out loud (they picked ones that were suitable for preschoolers at the library), making the information interactive when possible by asking leading questions and inviting them to use movement and sound to express what we were reading about.
They had fun looking at the pictures, learning what kinds of foods they eat, and realizing that they aren't scary at all, but are really quite cute! Even to this day, November loves talking about how bats sleep upside down during the day, fly at night, eat fruit and bugs, and live in caves or trees. I was amazed at how much information she retained simply from reading!
After the books, we made our toilet paper roll bats that we learned about here.
As you can tell, ours (pictured at the beginning of this post) are not quite as fancy, and we didn't stuff them with treats. They had a blast with them simply as they are! Now here's how we made them:
We really let them put their own artistic touches into this project by first coloring whatever they wanted all over the toilet paper roll. Next, we bent the middle of each side of the roll inward, taped to secure, on both ends. This creates the ears and feet. Next, we cut black wings out of construction paper, and taped them to the back of the bat's body. Finally, we stuck googly eyes to the front (although November's fell off when we brought it home.)
November loves bats now! It makes her really enjoy all the spooky Halloween decor she sees everywhere, and gets so excited when she spots a bat. Creating cute projects out of previously-considered 'scary' ideas and images can even make them less frightening.
Happy Halloween, everyone!
Originally posted at Tess and Tigerlily
Tessonja Odette