Half term break is here and that means that parents, me included are on the lookout for activities to do with little ones! Today I created a mini ghost hunt, which I did with my little ones! I hope I inspire you to do your hunt at home. In the past I did an egg hunt with the kids, and since Halloween is here, I decided to change the theme for a more 'Halloweeny' one, and here is our very own Ghost hunt!
I used materials that I already had in my craft cabinet, so I haven't spent any money at all in this project.
If you are thinking about making a similar hunt, here are the materials I used in the little felt ghosts:
Felt (colours I used, blue, light and dark grey, cream)
Embroidery thread
Embroidery Needle
...and for the little signalling ghosts:
Card (different colours, for ghosts and arrows)
Duck-tape
Scissors
Black pen
colouring pencils
Wooden skewer
I first started to make my little felt ghosts with different colours:
These took some time to make, but if you google alternatives some paper suggestions come up. I decided to make them in felt because I hosted my ghost hunt outdoors, so felt seemed more appropriate given the more humid and cold weather. I also think that with young children having felt ghosts would mean then these would be reusable in the future, either as soft toys (and they were already playing with each one that I finished), or simply as decorations. If you are having an indoors ghost hunt making paper ghost are much quicker and easy to make. I made 9 felt ghosts altogether and this was the most laboured task of this process. I planed to make more (12 little felt ghosts) but as it was taking me so long to make this, I cut the number short. However, and given how fast the kids found them - it took this hunt around 10 minutes, I would advise for a larger number of ghosts (the initial 12). This is a balance between having a hunt to take some time, but not so much to bore the kids. Also, making the ghosts really difficult to find would not work, the kids would be discouraged, and not forgetting that this was for children of different ages, my little one is only 2! However, if I am considering that the kids were engaged in this whole process, it actually took us the whole morning doing this...
Then I made the signalling ghosts. These were very easy to make and my little ones helped me with the cutting and with the colouring.
These designs where inspired from the internet, and were really simple to make.
After cutting and colouring, it was time to attach to a skewer using duck-tape. Kids also helped me with these steps.
And here it is, the final look of the signalling ghosts, the only step missing are the little arrows that I also glued over the ghosts:
All ready to stick in the garden (oops, minus the arrows)!
My oldest stick the ghosts in the garden. He was really excited with all, and helping me make these. They were engaged in this little craft project, and I let them help as much as they could. The only thing that I actually did on my own was hiding the ghosts in the garden! Otherwise they would not be having a ghost hunt....
We also made a ghost counting card, were the kids would mark once they found the different ghosts in the garden.
Once the little guys found the different ghosts and capture them, they would tick their card!
The last one to find was the this little yellow ghost...!
Both kids really enjoyed the ghost hunt. They were asking to repeat the ghost hunt tomorrow again!
Happy hunting!
