With the gory decors that come with one of our favorite times of the year – Halloween, I decided to come up with a lighthearted, fun and “artsy” task for the kids I handle in my weekly ABA group session.

Basically, the idea of making Halloween crafts came from the kids. One time during our Arts Time program, the kids were talking about scary pumpkins and ghosts. They were exchanging ideas about how it would look like. So, I indulged them to use their imagination.

I took my ever reliable white board and white board marker and started drawing their version of a scary pumpkin. They were giggling, generously giving comments at my drawing and inputting some more of their ideas. That was when I decided to make a Halloween Art Project for the kids with two (2) of the crafts making use of popsicle sticks.

The popsicle stick was a no-brainer for me as it was one of the group’s favorite play materials. My initial goal was for them to manipulate a familiar object so they can work with ease.

I carefully browsed the net for some inspiration and I found an incredibly easy Halloween Popsicle Stick Crafts from Crafty Morning.

The kids worked on Popsicle Stick Frankenstein.

As you can see in the picture below, there are three (3) Frankensteins with varying facial expressions.

These are the Frankensteins that the kids from the group came up with.

Materials:

• 7 to 8 popsicle sticks
• Coloring materials (crayons or green and black paint)
• Googly eyes or jiggly eyes (optional)
• Black marker
• Cardboard (Other options: cereal box, thick construction paper, cover of old notebooks/books, used thick paper bags, etc. In my case, I used an index card. 😁😁😁 )
• Glue

What’s great about this art project is that it is very cheap and at the same time, kids can showcase their creativity. Each kid from the group had the opportunity to decide how their Frankenstein would look. They also chose to use crayon to color each popsicle stick instead of using paint. This task gave them an chance to manipulate and select what art materials to use which provided them a sense of freedom while still concentrating on the task at hand.

Kids under the spectrum love doing a variety of stuff. When we can help them channel their energy into doing something functional and creative, we can foster cognitive and social development. Art is one way for them to express their ideas, work on emotions and make decisions. It is also a good opportunity to help them build their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.