Bats, those silent nocturnal fliers, gracefully looping and swooping to catch their nighttime prey. If, like me, your little ones are bat-fans, they may want to make their own with this a build a bat craft!
This simple activity is great for developing your child’s cutting and sticking skills, and an awesome chance to practice some pencil control and fine motor skills as well!
And this lovely cut and paste craft is brilliant for preschoolers to use because it’s so simple for them to put together (they may need a little help with the cutting though…).
There’s a color and a plain template – so your little ones can choose the colors and decorate their little bat as they wish.
If you’re a teacher, this simple craft could also make a lovely Halloween activity for the classroom!
If you fancy some more activities like this, you can check out the printable cut and paste crafts here.
What Skills Can Your Children Learn And Practice?
When making this bat craft, your children will have the chance to practice and develop some skills such as:
- Cutting Skills – if you feel they’re ready, you can let them have a go at cutting out the pieces all by themselves – they’ll need to be careful and have good scissor control if they want to cut out the pieces neatly
- Fine Motor Skills – when they’re sticking and picking up and moving the parts and placing them where they need to go
- Pencil Control – if you print off the black and white version they can practice their pencil control and develop hand strength through coloring.
This simple craft will also give them a chance to practice their concentration and perseverance skills as they may find it tricky to place the pieces exactly where they want them to go.
How To Prepare This Build a Bat Craft
First you’re going to want to download the bat templates by clicking on the download button at the bottom of the page – I’ve made a color and a black and white version.
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Other materials you’ll need:
- Safety scissors
- Card stock or Craft paper
- Some good glue
- Some coloring pencils or pens or other artsy materials
Once you’ve downloaded the templates, you’ll need to print them off onto paper or card.
Then, you can cut them out. Or if you’d like your children to get some cutting practice, you can let them have a go.
Then you can stick all the pieces together to make the bat.
It can be really nice to let you’re kids have a bit of free rein here and see if they can work it out – kind of like a puzzle.
If they’re struggling, the order I’d do it in is:
- Stick the ears to the head
- Stick the head to the body
- Stick the wings on the body
- Stick the feet on the body
(I expect you could have worked that out but I do like to be thorough…)
The finished one should look something like this:
If you want to, you could always laminate the pieces before putting them together and use them as a puzzle. That way, the different parts would be kept nice and they can use them again and again.
I’ve also created even more cute character and animals so you could always combine a few and use them together in a mix and match game as well (if you don’t want to miss them you can turn on notifications by clicking on the bell in the bottom right corner).
After that you’re all done!
Let your kids practice their cutting and sticking skills in a simple and fun way!
But Wait… There’s Also A Black And White Build A Bat Craft Template!
I’ve also made a black and white version which would be an awesome way for your little ones to practice their coloring skills and personalize their bat in their own way!
So why not crack out the pens, crayons, paints or collage (or all of them if you’re feeling adventurous) and let your kids get creative!
I’d love to see what they create!
