FUN, FUNctional…And Such A Fright!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. My urge to get crafty really kicks up a notch in the fall! I’m like a kid in a candy store with all the possibilities to create out there. As you know, with fall, comes back to school and many opportunities to volunteer for class parties. If you are in need of a Halloween classroom craft to do this season, then keep reading and find out how I put the FUN back in FUNctional!
Last year I volunteered to do a craft activity for my son’s third grade Halloween party. They were all 8 and 9 year olds, so they were at an age where they were too old for so many of the basic school crafts. I wanted to do something they would be proud of, have fun with, and hopefully even use after that actual day (there’s that “fun and functional” aspect). I thought of knit hats for a few reasons: they’re small, useful, easy to buy in bulk, and a blank canvas to create!
I started by brainstorming some fairly easy Halloween related face designs to create on the front of the hats.
I wanted to come up with a descent variety of options, but not too many that it’s overwhelming. Skeletons and skulls worked well – hence the classic ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ Jack Skellington face as an option. The famous ‘Scream’ face was a winner too. Then I thought of a Frankenstein face and just a good ole basic scary monster face.
With these designs in mind, I narrowed down my hat colors to white and green. I did an online search for places to order knit hats in bulk for a reasonable price. I found Tan’s Club to be the best deal. The quality and price were great, and also shipped quickly!
Then, I started thinking of material to buy for the face designs needed.
I went to a Joann’s Fabric store and I ended up buying black and white denim material. The ridges and thickness of this material actually helped the glue adhere to the knit hat fabric nicely and cleanly. Which brings me to my next item – fabric glue.
I tested out a variety of different fabric glues and this Aleene’s Tacky Glue honestly worked the absolute best. It kept things together very well and dried quickly (within 5 minutes), which when working with kids, the faster the better.
My son’s class had 24 students and we were given about 15 minutes to complete each craft that day. As for cutting the black and white denim fabric into the face designs needed…this could go two ways.
- Cut out the face pieces yourself beforehand and have them ready to go.
- Have the students do so that day (you’d need a few pairs of decent cloth cutting scissors for this), and this could cause frustration since time was limited.
In the interest of time, I pre-cut a bunch of face design pieces for the hats so that each student could just pick what they wanted from a pile, and have fun glueing and creating. I had the inspiration board (pictured above) up on display so each student could design a hat that spoke to them – quickly and successfully. I ended up bringing a few extra items as well that day. I had some black yarn on hand to use for some skeleton mouths; and some sharpies to color in any extra needs (like blood shot Frankenstein eyes!)
I’m grateful my schedule allows me to volunteer for these cute little classroom activities for my kids. I really do feel blessed that I have the opportunity to do this. I don’t take it for granted. I hope you are all enjoying the fall!