Easy Kids Halloween Bat Craft Free Template

One of my favorite things to do with kids during Halloween season is simple crafts that they can make or mostly make themselves! This Halloween popsicle stick bat is the perfect craft for kids because it’s just a lot of simple steps that they can do on their own. The only part that really needs some adult supervision is actually gluing the popsicle sticks together but ideally you could do that before the party or event so they can just do the rest on their own! They’re perfect for a Halloween party because you could have kids paint them and then do another activity, like one of these Halloween games or a round of Halloween bingo, and then come back and finish up the other pieces! Plus, I’ve provided a free bat craft template for you to make creating these bats even easier! And when it comes to crafts with young children, easy is best! I know my boys at least loved making these and then had loads of fun flying them all around the house!

Why You’ll Love This Craft

Cute bat craft – okay you just have to look at the finished product to see how cute these are! Even if they don’t glue the pieces on in the right places, these bats will still be cute! And cute crafts are a great way to make everyone happy! Free template – I mentioned it before but I created a free printable bat template that you can use with these cute bats. If you really want to. Using a template makes things so much easier because you don’t have to freehand shapes or try to imagine what it’s supposed to look like! Good for all ages – while these easy bat crafts might seem like they’re better for young kids, they actually work well for older kids who want to learn how to use a hot glue gun, want to get creative with the bat’s features, and more. They really can be easy or more challenging!

Supplies

Supply Notes

Hot glue gun – you’ll need both a hot glue gun and glue sticks or you could use regular glue to glue the popsicle sticks together, but I’d do this the night before so they have ample time to dry before you paint. Glue – glue sticks work great for this project or regular glue as well, anything that’ll glue paper!Paint – I used black craft paint (acrylic paint) because it was just me doing this but if you’re doing this with young kids, stick to black paint that’s washable and kid-friendly! Paper – black, yellow, pink, and white construction paper, card stock, or regular colored paper works. I only one I recommend doing a little heavier duty is the black for the bat wings. The pink paper and white paper should be fine with whatever weight you want. Popsicle sticks – you’ll want to use wider popsicle sticks or crafts sticks like these ones that are at least .75 inches wide. The thinner ones work fine, but you’ll need to glue more together to get the right size of the bat.

How to make This Halloween Bat Craft

These adorable bat crafts are super easy to make but like I mentioned, it’s easier for kids to make them if the craft sticks are already glued together so they can just use their fine motor skills to paint, cut, and finish their bat! To make the base of the bat, hot glue four popsicle sticks together as the base. Then break a popsicle stick in half and glue one toward the top of the bat and one toward the bottom of the bat on top of the base. This is the perfect way to make sure those popsicles sticks actually all stay together when little hands are flying it around the room! Now the fun begins! Paint the popsicle sticks a nice dark black color. This is a great activity at the beginning of a Halloween party where you can take a break with another one of these Halloween activities to let them dry. They’ll need to dry completely before you move onto the next step of gluing pieces on. The other thing you can work on while the paint is drying is cutting out the pieces of the template. You can rough cut them out, no need to get super detailed since these pieces won’t be going on the bat. If you don’t want to print a copy for everyone to have a template, you could just print out a handful of these that people could use over and over again. Gauge it based on how your audience is at sharing and taking turns. This simple paper bat craft can take much longer if everyone is waiting for the same template… and longer doesn’t always mean better when you’re trying to do a preschool bat craft or even one with older kids. Once all of the pieces are cut out from the template, place them on the pieces of paper and either cut by hand or trace them and cut out the shapes you traced. Lastly, just glue those pieces right on top of the bat once the paint has dried. I like having an example craft done so that people can see what this easy Halloween craft is supposed to look like. It doesn’t have to look this, but at least they’ll have an idea of what it could look like if they followed the template and instructions.
Let the glue dry for a few minutes (these Halloween i-spy or Halloween coloring pages are great for buying some time) before you let kids play with their bats! They’ll have a great time flying them around the room and showing them to their friends if they’re anything like my boys!

Expert Tips

Cut out the pieces ahead of time if you’re doing this with really young kids. Let them focus on painting the bat and gluing the pieces on. You could even print out the template on colored paper so that you don’t have to cut/trace/cut from the white to colored. Make sure to let the glue dry both on the popsicle sticks and on the paper pieces. If kids start playing with these too early, the glue tends to move around a bit if you use traditional glue sticks or white glue. Get the free bat wing template at the bottom of this post. It’s completely free to download and includes the eyes, wings, mouth, and bat fangs! If you want to make your bats larger than this, you can just trace the templates onto the color paper and then just cut larger pieces around the template. Make a handful of these, glue them to a string, and use them as a fun bat garland for a Halloween decoration! If kids help, they’ll love seeing them hanging around the house!

More Fun Halloween Crafts

If you like this fun bat craft, make sure to check out these other crafts that are perfect for Halloween time!

Dracula paper bag craft – kids of all ages will love making these cute paper bag vampire crafts! Tombstone craft – cute Hocus Pocus themed tombstones that are made with what else – popsicle sticks! Older children will love making up their own words to put on the tombstones! Puffy ghost craft – this adorable ghost craft uses a free template, lots of cotton balls, and pom poms! Halloween backdrop ideas – while not a sit down craft type activity, these DIY Halloween backdrops are still great ideas for letting your kids use their artistic side! Pumpkin patch craft – the cutest pumpkin craft that incorporates the fruit of fall – apples!