When the holidays come around, it’s time to celebrate!

In most homes, Halloween will be the first of all the fall and winter holidays and that makes it something special.

With young children at home, you’re looking for non-scary, cute, and lighthearted ways to celebrate the Halloween season and we’ve got that covered for you!

This toilet paper roll bat craft is a fun, easy, and simple Halloween craft for kids! On top of that, it’s also a fun way to recycle.

Learn how easy it is to make these cute little bats at home with your kids (or with your students in the classroom). Read or watch our step-by-step video to see how easy it is to make!

Toilet Paper Roll Craft For Halloween

Related: Handprint Bat Craft For Kids

Supplies

• Colored card stock or construction paper
• Toilet paper roll
• Scissors
• Glue
• Free printable bat template (enter your email in the form at the end of this post to have the link sent to you)

Directions

Download the free printable bat template and print it out. (See the template notes below to determine which template is best for your needs.) Cut out all the template pieces.

Cut the toilet paper roll in half with the scissors.

Use the glue stick on the back side of the black rectangle and attach it to the half toilet paper roll. This is the bat’s body.

Glue the fangs to the top of the red mouth, with the pointy ends facing downwards.

Glue the mouth to the bottom of the black toilet paper roll.

Use the template eyes or googly eyes and attach them to the top, center of the paper roll.

Secure the ears to the top, inside part of the toilet paper roll.

Use the glue stick to place glue in the center of the bat’s wings, then press the wings to the back of the bat’s body.

That’s it! Isn’t this one of the cutest recycled crafts you’ve seen for Halloween?!

Which Template Should I Use?

Included in the free printable template are 2 versions.

The first version is for use with 1-2 kids. This template has all of the pieces on one page. If you choose to use this page, you’ll print it out onto white card stock, then cut each of the pieces out and trace them onto the coordinating colored card stock.

You’ll have to trace and cut out twice, but you’ll be saving paper by not printing excess pieces onto the colored paper.

The second version is best suited for classrooms, libraries, or daycare facilities. This template has multiple pieces on each page and is separated by the colored paper that they are to be printed on.

When you use this template, the kids only need to cut once since there is no retracing needed.

How Can I Adapt This Craft For Younger Kids?

Since many of our readers have kids of varying ages who want to do an activity together as a family, we like to give suggestions on how to make a craft even easier for young kids such as toddlers or preschoolers.

For this toilet paper roll bat craft, we have a few suggestions.

First, we suggest having all the pieces pre-cut before you plan to do the craft. When everything is ready to go before the kids gather, they’ll be able to get right to work with placing and gluing.

Younger kids may also enjoy using 3D googly eyes instead of the template eyes. If you use ones with a sticker backing, it makes it even easier for kids to secure the toilet paper roll.

We also suggest going with a glue stick instead of using liquid white glue. This will help cut down on the mess of using too much glue and getting sticky hands everywhere!

Halloween Unit For Kids

Keep the fun activities going by creating a Halloween unit study around this bat craft. Below are some of our favorite ideas to get your creativity flowing!

First, we recommend starting off with books. Reading aloud or having your child practice reading to you is so great for their development!

Below are some of the top-rated Halloween books for kids. Add them to your home collection or borrow them from your local library.

Room On The Broom: This has to be one of our favorite Halloween books of all time! The story follows a witch and her cat as they happen upon some animals who help the witch. There’s danger, mystery, and friendship in this adorable children’s story.

5 Minute Spooky Stories: We love Disney’s 5-minute storybooks and this one is perfect for Halloween! See how all your favorite Disney characters celebrate this spooky holiday.

Ten Timid Ghosts: This is a fun countdown book about a witch who moves into a haunted house where 10 ghosts already live. The witch scares the ghosts out one by one until they devise a scheme to get her out of their house. This Halloween children’s book is good for kids who love rhyming stories!

Crafts For Halloween

Kids’ crafts are a fun way to help with fine motor skills, following directions, creativity, and more. They can also be a great way for parents and kids to spend time together, build relationships, and have some fun.

Crafting is a also great way for kids to use their imagination and express themselves. It can also help teach them about colors, shapes, and other basic concepts. For those reasons and more we recommend doing lots of crafts!

Try out some more Halloween crafts with these simple projects:

Mummy Pumpkin Craft – If you’re looking for a fun and easy no-carve pumpkin craft for kids, look no further than the mummy pumpkin! To make this cute and spooky decoration, all you need is some paper, glue, and scissors.

Bat Popsicle Stick Craft – You know what’s a little spooky? Bats. You know what’s not spooky? This popsicle stick craft. In fact, this little creature is so easy to make and cute, it might just make kids less scared of bats!

Candy Corn Halloween Craft – Candy corn is a classic Halloween treat and we’ve combined it with Frankenstein to make this easy paper craft that kids will love creating!

Monster Paper Bag Puppet Craft – Puppets are one of the best ways to explore creativity with your kids. And what’s more fun than making a puppet out of a paper bag? This puppet is sure to be a hit with your little monsters!

Kids’ Halloween Activities

Tired of the same old Halloween activities? These Halloween pattern block mats are perfect for building fine motor skills and counting. Plus they’re super fun! 

Get your kids in the Halloween spirit with these free Halloween coloring pages! They’re no-prep and great for a fun, family activity. 

Kids can work on letter recognition and counting skills with these Halloween do a dot printables. They’re easy to use too – just download and print!

More Halloween Fun

• This “Wicked Cute” t-shirt is retro, cute, and perfect for little girls!
• Grab this personalized Halloween tote for kids to cart all their candy around in.
• All kids will want one of these personalized Halloween cups!

Share With Us

Did you make this recycled paper roll bat craft with your kids? We’d love to see how they turned out!

Head over to our Facebook page and post your picture or join our private Facebook group and show us in there!

More Halloween Ideas For Kids

Free Printable Bat Template